Paul’s Letter to the Colossians
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s will, and Brother Timothy, 2 to the holy and believing brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace to you, and peace, from God our Father.
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we pray for you, 4 hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you cherish to all God’s people 5 because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, about which you have already heard in the words of the truth of the gospel 6 which has arrived among you as it also is in all the world, bearing fruit and growing as it does among you too since the day that you heard and recognized God’s grace in truth 7 as you learned from our dear fellow-servant Epaphras, who is on your behalf a faithful agent of the Christ, 8 who also informed us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason we on our part, since the day when we heard of it, never cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with awareness of his will in all spiritual wisdom and insight 10* to walk worthily of the Lord to give him all pleasure, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in awareness of God, 11* energized with all power in accordance with the mightiness of his glory for all persistence and patience, 12 joyously thanking the Father who qualified you for your share in the lot of God’s people in the light; 13 who delivered you out of the jurisdiction of darkness and transferred you into the kingdom of the Son of his love, 14 in whom we have redemption, the pardon of sins,—
15 Who is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, 16* because in him everything was created in the heavens and on earth, the visible and the invisible, be it thrones or lordships or governments or dominions—everything has been created through him and to come to him, 17 and before everything he is, and in him everything holds together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church, he who is the beginning, the firstborn out of the dead, in order that he may take the first place in every respect, 19 because in him all the fullness was pleased to make its home 20* and through him to reconcile everything to him, making peace through the blood of his cross, through him whether it were the things on earth or the things in the heavens, 21 and you who had once been estranged and hostile-minded in your wicked deeds, 22 but whom he has now reconciled by his fleshly body through death to present you holy and unblemished and irreproachable before him 23* if so be that you keep to your faith, standing steady on solid foundations and not shifting from the hope of the gospel you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under the heavens; of which I Paul became an agent.
24 I rejoice now in my sufferings for you, and what stopped short of completeness in the Christ’s sufferings I am filling out in my flesh for his body, which is the church, 25 whose servitor I became in accordance with God’s charge given to me as errand to you, to present God’s word in its fullness, 26 the secret that had been hidden since the ages and the generations but has now been disclosed to his devout believers, 27 to whom God chose to make known what was the wealth of the glory of this secret design among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; 28 whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order that we may present every man complete in Christ, 29 to which same end I am toiling and struggling as befits his energy that is powerfully at work in me.
2* For I want you to know what a struggle I am having for you and the ones in Laodicea and as many as have not seen my face in person, 2* that their hearts may be encouraged, they being drawn together in love and instructed into the richest certitude of insight, to the recognition of God’s secret, Christ, 3 in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. 4 I say this in order that nobody may cheat you with plausible talk. 5* For even if I am physically away, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and witnessing your good order and the solidity of your faith in Christ.
6 So, in such fashion as you took over Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, 7* rooted and upbuilt in him and solidly settled in faith as you were taught, plentiful in thanksgiving. 8 Look to it that there be not somebody who carries you off by philosophy and empty deceit along the line of human tradition, of the world’s elements and not of Christ, 9 because in him all the fullness of deity is resident in bodily form, 10 and it is in him you have been brought to fullness, him who is the head of every government and dominion; 11* in whom, also, you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, in the stripping off of the body of flesh,—in the Christ’s circumcision, 12 being buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the activities of God who raised him from the dead; 13 and you, when you were dead with your offenses and the uncircumcisedness of your flesh, he brought to life together with him, condoning all our offenses, 14* canceling the bond over us in decrees, which was opposed to us, and has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15** Disarming the governments and the dominions, he made a public show of them, celebrating his triumph over them on it.
16 So let nobody pass judgment on you in matters of eating and drinking or in respect to festival or new moon or sabbath, 17 that are a shadow of what was to be—but the body belongs to the Christ; 18*** let nobody contrive a decision against you with willful humility and worship of the angels, entering into what he has seen, flimsily inflated by his flesh-mind, 19* and not keeping hold of the Head, out of whom all the body, supplied and conjoined through the joints and sinews, makes God’s growth.
20 If you died with Christ away from the world’s elements, why, as if alive in the world, do you go in for decrees, 21 “do not take nor taste nor touch,”— 22 altogether things that are bound to perish as they are consumed,—in conformity with the commands and teachings of men? 23** which do have a show of wisdom in self-contrived religiousness and humility and severity to the body, not in some sort of honor for repletion of the flesh.
3 So, if you were raised with the Christ, aim at the things above, where the Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. 2 Have in mind the things above, not the things on the earth; 3 for you did die, and your life is hidden in God with the Christ. 4* When the Christ, our life, comes to be seen, then so will you with him come to be seen in glory.
5 So give over to deadness the organism that rests on the earth, unchastity, uncleanness, passions, evil desire, and greed, which is an idolatry— 6 things on account of which God’s anger comes; 7* with which you too occupied yourselves once upon a time, when you were alive in these. 8 But now, you too, discard everything,—anger, passionateness, viciousness, abusiveness, offensive language out of your mouths, 9 do not lie to each other,—stripping off the old man with his doings 10 and putting on the new man who is being reconstituted into intelligence after the likeness of his Creator, 11 where there is no such thing as Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, alien, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is everything and in everybody.
12 So, as holy and dearly loved chosen ones of God’s, put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, 13 bearing with each other and mutually making allowances; if one has found a fault in somebody, in the same way as the Lord showed grace to you, do you the like. 14 And over all these love, which is the connecting link of perfection. 15 And let Christ’s peace have the deciding voice in your hearts, that same peace into which you were called in one body; and be thankful-hearted. 16** Keep the Christ’s word abiding in you richly, teaching and admonishing each other in all wisdom, singing in your hearts to God in thankfulness with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs; 17 and as to anything whatever that you do in word or in act, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
18 Wives, be in such subordination to your husbands as is the proper thing in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be cross to them. 20 Children, obey your parents in every respect, for this is a winsome way in the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not nettle your children, so that they may not be disheartened. 22* Servants, obey in every respect those who are your masters in the way of flesh, not in eye-services as man-pleasers do but in single-heartedness, fearing the Lord; 23* whatever you are doing, work at it with a will, as doing it for the Lord and not for men, 24* knowing that you will be paid up for it by the Lord in your inheritance; you are in the service of the Lord Christ. 25* For he who does a wrong will have the wrong he did coming to him, and there is no favoritism.
4* Masters, let your servants have justice and equal rights, knowing that you too have a master in heaven.
2* Keep praying, be on the alert in it, with thanksgiving; 3 praying, along with the rest, for us too, that God will open us a door for the word, for speaking the secret of Christ, that same for which I am in prison, 4 so that I may open it up as I have to speak. 5* Behave wisely toward outsiders, making the best you can of the crisis; 6 let your talk be always in grace, seasoned with salt to know how you need to answer each one.
7 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful errand-runner and fellow-servant in the Lord, will acquaint you with everything that relates to me; 8 I am sending him to you for this express purpose, to let you know about me and to let him cheer your hearts, 9 with dear and faithful brother Onesimus, who is one of you. They will give you the news about everything here.
10 My fellow-prisoner Aristarchus sends greetings, and Barnabas’s cousin Mark, about whom you received injunctions,—if he comes to you, receive him,— 11* and Jesus, known as Justus, these who represent the circumcised community; these are the only ones who are cooperators for the Reign of God, and they were a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, sends greetings, a servant of Christ Jesus who is always wrestling for you in his prayers that you may be made to stand complete and convinced in everything that is God’s will; 13* for I can testify that he is deeply concerned for you and those at Laodicea and those at Hierapolis. 14 Dear Doctor Luke and Demas send greetings. 15** Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nymphas and the meeting at their house. 16 And when the letter is read to you, get it read in the Laodiceans’ meeting too, and get to read the one from Laodicea. 17 And tell Archippus “Look out for the office you were given in the Lord, to make good in it.”
18 My greeting, Paul’s, with my own hand. Remember my fetters. Grace be with you.
MARGINAL NOTES TO COLOSSIANS
1:10 Lit. to all pleasing
1:11 Or and patience with joy, thanking
1:16 Lit. through him and to him
1:20 Or reconcile everything to himself
1:23 Lit. keep to your faith, foundationed and steadfast and
2:1 Lit. my face in flesh
2:2 Lit. drawn together in love and into all wealth of convincedness of insight But the Greek word for drawn together has also the meaning instructed, being the word used in 1 Corinthians 2:16
2:5 Lit. away in flesh
2:7 Var. plentiful in it in thanksgiving
2:11 Or the Christ’s circumcising
2:14 Or taken it out of the way
2:15 Or Throwing off the governments and
2:15 Or over them in him
2:18 Lit. willing in (or for) humility
2:18 (entering into what he has seen) Conj. walking off on a tightrope (or on empty air)
2:18 Lit. the mind of his flesh
2:19 (sinews) Lit. ligaments
2:23 Unc., susp.
2:23 Lit. which are having a talk of wisdom It is possible to understand are as connected also with not in etc.
3:4 Var. your life
3:7 Lit. in which you too walked once upon
3:16 The verse may also be understood with different punctuation
3:16 (thankfulness) Or grace
3:22 Var. eye-service
3:23 Lit. work from soul, as for the Lord and
3:24 Lit. that from the Lord you will receive the paying-up of the inheritance
3:25 Lit. will get back the wrong he did
4:1 Lit. and equality
4:2 Lit. keeping awake in it
4:5 Lit. buying off the crisis
4:11 Lit. those who are out of the circumcision
4:13 Lit. for I testify for him that he has much labor (or pain) for you
4:15 Or Nympha
4:15 Var. her house Var. his house