Chapter
1
Paula, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our sister,
to the saints and faithful sisters in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Mother, and the Domina Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God the Mother of our Domina Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,
because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,
which has come to you; even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,
who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don't cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of her will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
that you may walk worthily of the Domina, to please her in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all power, according to the might of her glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy;
giving thanks to the Mother, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;
who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Daughter of her love;
in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins;
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For by her all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through her, and for her.
She is before all things, and in her all things are held together.
She is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things she might have the preeminence.
For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in her;
and through her to reconcile all things to herself, by her, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of her cross.
You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,
yet now she has reconciled in the body of her flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and blameless before her,
if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paula, was made a servant.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for her body's sake, which is the assembly;
of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you, to fulfill the word of God,
the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to her saints,
to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
whom we proclaim, admonishing every woman and teaching every woman in all wisdom, that we may present every woman perfect in Christ Jesus;
for which I also labor, striving according to her working, which works in me mightily.