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Colossians 3

World English Bible · Public-domain text

Colossians 3

Letters associated with Paul

A letter presenting Christ’s significance and connecting it with worship and everyday conduct. Follow how the claims about Christ relate to the practices the writer supports or challenges.

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World English Bible · Verse numbers are navigation aids. Read the paragraph and chapter around a result.

1If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.

2Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.

3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

4When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.

5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

6For these things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.

7You also once walked in those, when you lived in them;

8but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.

9Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,

10and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,

11where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all.

12Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;

13bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.

14Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.

15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.

16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

17Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.

18Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

19Husbands, love your wives, and don’t be bitter against them.

20Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.

21Fathers, don’t provoke your children, so that they won’t be discouraged.

22Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.

23And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,

24knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

25But he who does wrong will receive again for the wrong that he has done, and there is no partiality.

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Respectful inquiry and nonviolence guide our reading. Text and editorial notes are different. Scripture is the public-domain World English Bible, supplied through a dated digital-text snapshot. Topic selections and comparison notes are original editorial aids, not part of the translation or an exhaustive concordance.

Source snapshot expanded October 20, 2026. All 27 New Testament books and 19 selected Old Testament chapters are included. Verse wording is preserved; paragraph formatting and translator footnotes are not reproduced. Read the publisher’s text and notes · Text provenance. New notes dated October 19, 2026.

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