Colossians 1
1
1-2I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colosse. May everything good from God our Father be yours!
Working in His Orchard
3-5a Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.
5b-8 The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more. It’s as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He’s the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.
9-12Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.
13-14God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.
Christ Holds It All Together
15-18a We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18b-20 He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
21-23You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.
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24-25I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.
26-29This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Colossians 1
1
Greeting
1Paul, #Eph. 1:1an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2To the saints #1 Cor. 4:17and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:
#Gal. 1:3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Their Faith in Christ
3#1 Cor. 1:4; Eph. 1:16; Phil. 1:3We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4#Eph. 1:15since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of #(Heb. 6:10)your love for all the saints; 5because of the hope #(1 Pet. 1:4)which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6which has come to you, #Matt. 24:14as it has also in all the world, and #John 15:16is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew #Eph. 3:2the grace of God in truth; 7as you also learned from #Col. 4:12; Philem. 23Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is #1 Cor. 4:1, 2; 2 Cor. 11:23a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8who also declared to us your #Rom. 15:30love in the Spirit.
Preeminence of Christ
9#Eph. 1:15–17For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask #1 Cor. 1:5that you may be filled with #(Rom. 12:2); Eph. 5:17the knowledge of His will #Eph. 1:8in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10#Eph. 4:1; Phil. 1:27; 1 Thess. 2:12that you may walk worthy of the Lord, #1 Thess. 4:1fully pleasing Him, #Heb. 13:21being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the #2 Pet. 3:18knowledge of God; 11#(Eph. 3:16; 6:10)strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, #Eph. 4:2for all patience and longsuffering #(Acts 5:41); 2 Cor. 8:2; (Heb. 10:34)with joy; 12#(Eph. 5:20)giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of #Eph. 1:11the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has delivered us from #Eph. 6:12the power of darkness #2 Pet. 1:11and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14#Eph. 1:7in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15He is #2 Cor. 4:4; Heb. 1:3the image of the invisible God, #Ps. 89:27; Rev. 3:14the firstborn over all creation. 16For #John 1:3; Heb. 1:2, 3by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or #(Eph. 1:20, 21; Col. 2:15)dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created #John 1:3; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; Heb. 2:10through Him and for Him. 17#(John 17:5)And He is before all things, and in Him #Heb. 1:3all things consist. 18And #1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 1:22He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, #Rev. 1:5the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Reconciled in Christ
19For it pleased the Father that #John 1:16in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20and #Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:14by Him to reconcile #2 Cor. 5:18all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, #Eph. 1:10having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21And you, #(Eph. 2:1)who once were alienated and enemies in your mind #Titus 1:15by wicked works, yet now He has #2 Cor. 5:18, 19reconciled 22#2 Cor. 5:18; (Eph. 2:14–16)in the body of His flesh through death, #(Eph. 5:27); Col. 1:28to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23if indeed you continue #Eph. 3:17; Col. 2:7in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are #(John 15:6); 1 Cor. 15:58not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, #Mark 16:15; Acts 2:5; Rom. 10:18; Col. 1:6which was preached to every creature under heaven, #Acts 1:17; Eph. 3:7; Col. 1:25of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Sacrificial Service for Christ
24#2 Cor. 7:4I now rejoice in my sufferings #Eph. 3:1, 13for you, and fill up in my flesh #(Rom. 8:17; 2 Cor. 1:5; 12:15); Phil. 2:17what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for #Eph. 1:23the sake of His body, which is the church, 25of which I became a minister according to #Gal. 2:7the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26#(1 Cor. 2:7)the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, #(2 Tim. 1:10)but now has been revealed to His saints. 27#2 Cor. 2:14To them God willed to make known what are #Rom. 9:23the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is #(Rom. 8:10, 11)Christ in you, #1 Tim. 1:1the hope of glory. 28Him we preach, #Acts 20:20warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, #Eph. 5:27that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me #Eph. 3:7mightily.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.