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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Colossians 1: MSG
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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
1Sha'ul a Shliach of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua through the ratzon Hashem#1:1 Co 1:9 and Timotiyos the Ach b'Moshiach;
2To the Kedoshim in Colossae, the Achim b'Moshiach, the Achim HaNe'emanim. Chen v'Chesed Hashem to you and shalom from Elohim Avinu.
3Hodinu l'Hashem (we give thanks to Hashem) Elohim HaAv of Adoneinu Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua, davening always concerning you,
4Having heard of your emunah in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua and the ahavah which you have for all the Kedoshim,
5On account of the tikvah (hope) being laid up for you in Shomayim, the tikvah which you heard of before in the Dvar HaEmes, the Besuras HaGeulah
6That has come to you, as also in all the Olam Hazeh it is bearing p'ri and growing, so also in you, from the day you heard it and began to have saving da'as of the Chen v'Chesed Hashem in actuality.
7This you learned from Epaphras,#1:7 Co 4:12 our chaver and fellow eved, who is ne'eman (faithful), who is a trusted keli kodesh (minister) of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach for you.
8Epaphras also revealed to us your ahavah in the Ruach Hakodesh.
9Therefore, we also, from the day that we heard, do not cease davening for you and offering tefillos that you be filled with da'as of the ratzon Hashem#1:9 Co 1:1 in all chochmah and binah in the Ruach Hakodesh.
10And this is the purpose: that you walk in hitnahagut (conduct) worthy of Adoneinu in every way pleasing to him in every mitzvoh bearing p'ri in the da'as of Hashem,
11With all ko'ach being empowered according to the gevurah (power) of his kavod for all savlanut (patience) and orech ruach (longsuffering) with lev same'ach (glad heart),
12Giving todot to Elohim HaAv. Elohim HaAv is the One who has qualified you for the share of the allotted nachalah#1:12 Ps 16:5-6 (inheritance) of the Kedoshim in Ohr (Light);
13Elohim HaAv is the One who rescued nafsheinu (our souls) from the memshalet (dominion) of Choshech and transferred us into the Malchut of the Zun fun der Oybershter of His ahavah,
14In whom we have the pedut (redemption, Geulah release on payment of ransom) through the [kapporah] dahm of Moshiach the selicha (forgiveness) of chatoteinu (our sins).
15Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach is the demut#1:15 Gn 1:26-27; Pp 2:6 of the invisible G-d, the Bechor,#1:15 Ps 89:27 the Yoresh (Heir) of kol hanivrah (all creation),
16Because in Him were created all things in Shomayim and on Ha'Aretz, the visible and the nistar (hidden), whether thrones or dominions, whether rulers or authorities, all things through Him and for Him have been created.#1:16 Ps 33:6
17And Moshiach is before all things, and all things in Moshiach have been held together;#1:17 Prov 8:23-27; 30:4
18And Moshiach is the Rosh#1:18 Prov 8:22; 30:4 of the Geviyah (Body),#1:18 Gn 47:18; Ps 16:9-10; Isa 53:11; Job 19:25-27 and the Geviyah#1:18 Dt 21:23 (nevilah) is Moshiachʼs Brit Chadasha Kehillah; Moshiach is its Reshit, the Bechor from the Mesim, that Moshiach might be in everything pre-eminent,#1:18 Ps 89:27
19Because Hashem was pleased that all His fullness have its mishkan (tabernacle) in Moshiach,
20And through Moshiach to bring ritztzuy (reconciliation, cessation of enmity, hostility between a wrathful holy G-d and sinful Bnei Adam) between all things and Himself, having made shalom through the dahm of the kapporah of HaEtz HaMoshiach,#1:20 Dt 21:23; Isa 52:15; Lv 16:15-16 whether the things on HaAretz or the things in HaShomayim.
21And you, once having been alienated and oyvim (enemies) in the mind by ma'asim hara'im (evil deeds),
22Yet now Moshiach reconciled in the Guf (body)#1:22 Co 1:18 of his basar#1:22 Ps 16:9-10 through Moshiachʼs histalkus#1:22 Dan 9:26; Isa 53:8-9 to present you, Kedoshim holy and without mum#1:22 Lv 22:20 (defect) and without reproach before Him,
23Provided you remain in the#1:23 correct Orthodox Jewish Emunah,#1:23 Faith, the Emunah of the true Dat HaYehudit having been founded in it and securely established and not moving away from the tikvah (hope) of the Besuras HaGeulah which you heard, the Besuras HaGeulah which has been proclaimed in kol hanivrah (all creation) under Shomayim, the Besuras HaGeulah of which I, Rav Sha'ul, became a keli kodesh (minister).
24Now with lev same'ach (glad heart) and chedvah (rejoicing) I rejoice in my suffering tzoros on behalf of you. And I am mashlim (supply what is deficient) the things lacking of the Chevlei Moshiach in my basar on behalf of the basar of Moshiach#1:24 Co 1:18 which is the Brit Chadasha Kehillah,
25Of which I became a keli kodesh#1:25 Co 1:23 according to the pekudat Hashem (stewardship of G-d, His shlichus commission) which was given to me for you, to carry to shleimut (wholeness, completion) the Dvar Hashem,
26The raz (mystery) having been hidden from olamim and from dor v'dor, but now made manifest to the Kedoshim of Moshiach,
27To whom Hashem wanted to make hisgalus of what is the spiritual osher of the kavod of this raz among the non-Jews: Moshiach in you, the tikvah of kavod.
28It is Moshiach who is the subject of our hattafah (preaching), warning every man and teaching every man in all chochmah, that we may present every man Bnei Chayil mature in Moshiach.
29For this also I toil, striving according to the hitlahavut (inspiration, enthusiasm) of Him working in me with gevurah.
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
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