Colossians1
New Living Translation
1This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.
2We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace.
3We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,
5which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
6This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
7You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.
8He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
9So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.
10Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
11We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,
12always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.
13For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
14who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
17He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
18Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.
19For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
20and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
22Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
23But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
24I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.
25God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.
26This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.
27For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.
28So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.
29That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Colossians 1.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The apostle Paul salutes the Colossians, and blesses God for their faith, love, and hope. (1–8). Prays for their fruitfulness in spiritual knowledge. (9–14). Gives a glorious view of Christ. (15–23). And sets out his own character, as the apostle of the Gentiles. (24–29).
vv1-8
All true Christians are brethren one to another. Faithfulness runs through every character and relation of the Christian life. Faith, hope, and love, are the three principal graces in the Christian life, and proper matter for prayer and thanksgiving. The more we fix our hopes on the reward in the other world, the more free shall we be in doing good with our earthly treasure. It was treasured up for them, no enemy could deprive them of it. The gospel is the word of truth, and we may safely venture our souls upon it. And all who hear the word of the gospel, ought to bring forth the fruit of the gospel, obey it, and have their principles and lives formed according to it. Worldly love arises, either from views of interest or from likeness in manners; carnal love, from the appetite for pleasure. To these, something corrupt, selfish, and base always cleaves. But Christian love arises from the Holy Spirit, and is full of holiness. (Col 1:9-14)
vv9-14
The apostle was constant in prayer, that the believers might be filled with the knowledge of God's will, in all wisdom. Good words will not do without good works. He who undertakes to give strength to his people, is a God of power, and of glorious power. The blessed Spirit is the author of this. In praying for spiritual strength, we are not straitened, or confined in the promises, and should not be so in our hopes and desires. The grace of God in the hearts of believers is the power of God; and there is glory in this power. The special use of this strength was for sufferings. There is work to be done, even when we are suffering. Amidst all their trials they gave thanks to the Father of our Lord Jesus, whose special grace fitted them to partake of the inheritance provided for the saints. To bring about this change, those were made willing subjects of Christ, who were slaves of Satan. All who are designed for heaven hereafter, are prepared for heaven now. Those who have the inheritance of sons, have the education of sons, and the disposition of sons. By faith in Christ they enjoyed this redemption, as the purchase of his atoning blood, whereby forgiveness of sins, and all other spiritual blessings were bestowed. Surely then we shall deem it a favour to be delivered from Satan's kingdom and brought into that of Christ, knowing that all trials will soon end, and that every believer will be found among those who come out of great tribulation.
vv15-23
Christ in his human nature, is the visible discovery of the invisible God, and he that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. Let us adore these mysteries in humble faith, and behold the glory of the Lord in Christ Jesus. He was born or begotten before all the creation, before any creature was made; which is the Scripture way of representing eternity, and by which the eternity of God is represented to us. All things being created by Him, were created for him; being made by his power, they were made according to his pleasure, and for his praise and glory. He not only created them all at first, but it is by the word of his power that they are upheld. Christ as Mediator is the Head of the body, the church; all grace and strength are from him; and the church is his body. All fulness dwells in him; a fulness of merit and righteousness, of strength and grace for us. God showed his justice in requiring full satisfaction. This mode of redeeming mankind by the death of Christ was most suitable. Here is presented to our view the method of being reconciled. And that, notwithstanding the hatred of sin on God's part, it pleased God to reconcile fallen man to himself. If convinced that we were enemies in our minds by wicked works, and that we are now reconciled to God by the sacrifice and death of Christ in our nature, we shall not attempt to explain away, nor yet think fully to comprehend these mysteries; but we shall see the glory of this plan of redemption, and rejoice in the hope set before us. If this be so, that God's love is so great to us, what shall we do now for God? Be frequent in prayer, and abound in holy duties; and live no more to yourselves, but to Christ. Christ died for us. But wherefore? That we should still live in sin? No; but that we should die to sin, and live henceforth not to ourselves, but to Him.
Key Words
Παῦλος (Paûlos): (little; but remotely from a derivative of G3973 (παύω), meaning the same); Paulus, the name of a Roman and of an apostle
ἀπόστολος (apóstolos): a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ ("apostle") (with miraculous powers)
Χριστός (Christós): anointed, i.e. the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus
Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs): Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites
διά (diá): through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)
θέλημα (thélēma): a determination (properly, the thing), i.e. (actively) choice (specially, purpose, decree; abstractly, volition) or (passively) inclination
θεός (theós): figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very
καί (kaí): and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in connection (or composition) with other particles or small words
Τιμόθεος (Timótheos): dear to God; Timotheus, a Christian
ἀδελφός (adelphós): a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))
Cross References
Colossians 1Verbal parallel: 'In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.'
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
Christ is the express image (charakter) and shining forth of the invisible God's glory.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
All things were made by Him, confirming His pre-existent agency in the creation of all things.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Parallel structure on reconciliation of former enemies in one body through the cross.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Parallels deliverance from the power of darkness to the inheritance of saints in light.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Christ as the 'firstborn' (prototokos) among many brethren, relating to His supremacy.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
Expands on the 'fulness' dwelling in Christ, defining it as the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
Identical purpose of redemption: to present believers holy and unblameable before Him.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Exposition of the hidden mystery of the Gospel now revealed to the Gentiles.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Identifies Epaphras as Paul's 'fellow prisoner' and faithful representative of the Colossian church.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Christ appointed as the supreme Head over all things to His body, the church.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Of His fullness we have all received, matching the Father's pleasure that fullness dwell in Him.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The foundational doctrine of reconciliation of all things to God through Jesus Christ.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Classic formulation of reconciliation while we were yet enemies of God.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
The corporate goal of Christ presenting the Church to Himself without spot or wrinkle.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Doxology celebrating the mystery kept secret since the world began but now manifest.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Identical twin Epistle thanksgiving for their faith in Christ and love to all saints.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Explicitly names Christ as 'the image of God' (eikon tou theou).
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Underpins Christ's pre-existence before all creation, analogous to Wisdom's origin in Proverbs.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Christ designated as the 'first begotten' and 'firstborn from the dead' (prototokos).
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Applies the general peace-making reconciliation of verse 20 specifically to the Colossians.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Exposes the nature of the carnal mind as active enmity against God.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Paul being made a minister according to the gift of grace and working of power.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Paul's exhortation to share in the afflictions of Christ according to God's power.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Parallels 'the hope' of the calling and 'the riches of the glory of his inheritance.'
Supported by Matthew Poole
The eschatological witness of the Gospel going forth into 'all the world.'
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Verbal echo of 'the hope of the gospel' previously laid up in heaven.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Rejoicing in sharing the sufferings of Christ, anticipating future glory.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin
The abundance of Christ's sufferings in us, which worketh consolation for the body.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Demonstrates Paul's actual 'striving' (agon) and great conflict for the Colossians.
Supported by JFB