Colossians - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 1219

COLOSSI ANS.

Father of our Lord jesus Christ, praying always for you, having hez>.rd of your faith in Christ jesus, and the love which you have to all the saints: because of the hope laid up in the heavens, of which you previously heard in the plea for the truth of the gospel, which is presented to you, and also to the whole world, and is fruitful and growing; as also it is among you, from the day you heard and truly recognised the Divine gift; which you learnt from our dear fellow·servant Epaphras, who is our faithful minister of Christ, and who has told us of your spiritual love. @32 Qzlizfrzri Stunning in Qbrizi. g And consequently we, from the day we heard of it, have never ceased praying for you, and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, with all spiritual wisdom

ro and understanding; and conducting yourselves worthy of the Lord in all nobility, successful in every good work, and improved by the knowledge

rx of God; beingstrongwithallstrength, by His rectifying power, to endure

rz every hardship and trial, gladly giving thanks to the Father, Who brought us 16 into the partnership of the inheritance of the holy in the light; Who has deli- vered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us unto the Kingdom of His beloved Son—in whom we have the redemption, the release from sins-—·—who is the likeness of the un- seen God, the Producer of all crea» tion; because by him was created everything in the heavens and upon the earth——·the seen and the un- seen ; whether thrones, sovereignties, governments, or authorities—the whole were created through Him and for Him; and He Himself preceded all, and the whole was established by Him. And He is the Head ofthe body, the church; He is the Beginning, the Bringer-forth from the dead, so that He mayllimself be the first over all. Because He decreed that all perfec- tion should dwell in Him; and through Him He will collect all again to l~limself-—~having made peace by the blood of His cross, through Him whether upon the earth or in the heavens. You, however, were once alienated

and estranged, through your mind being addicted to the practice of vice; but now He has reconciled again, through the death of His corporeal body, to place you in the presence of Himself holy, blameless, and irre- proachable: if you remain fixed and firm to the faith, and change not from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which has been preached to all creation under the heavens, of which I, Paul, became a minister. 18 20 2 I 22 Wl}: @iirine §_glI at tbz Qpustlz 35mm. Now I rejoice for your sakes in

sufferings, and I would fill up in my body the extreme of Christ's afliiction, for the sake of His body——the church; of which I became a minister by ap- pointment given to me for you from God, to accomplish the Divine inten- tion, the secret hidden from the ages, and from the nations, but now made manifest to His saints by whom God has decided to publish amongst the heathen what is the wealth of that mystery of the rectification which Christ is to you-—the hope of the rectification-—which we proclaim; warning every man, and teaching every person in aperfect philosophy, so that we may present each one perfect in Christ; to which object I vigorously strive with His mighty energy working in me. I 2 l 9 26 28