Outline
- Introduction (1:1-14)
- The Supremacy of Christ (1:15-23)
- Paul's Labor for the Church (1:24;2:7)
- Freedom from Human Regulations through Life with Christ (2:8-23)
- Rules for Holy Living (3:1;4:6)
- Final Greetings and Benediction (4:7-18)
Colossians 1 NLT
1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by
the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother
Timothy.
2 We 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.
3 We always pray for you, and we give
thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For we have heard of your faith in
Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,
5 which 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.
6 This 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.
7 You 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.
8 He has told us about the love for
others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
9 So 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.
10 Then 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.
11 We 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,
12 always thanking the Father. He has
enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in
the light.
13 For he has rescued us from the
kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
14 who purchased our freedom and forgave
our sins.
15 Christ is the visible image of the
invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all
creation,
16 for 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.
17 He existed before anything else, and
he holds all creation together.
18 Christ 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.
19 For God in all his fullness was
pleased to live in Christ,
20 and 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.
21 This includes you who were once far
away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts
and actions.
22 Yet 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.
23 But 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.
24 I 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.
25 God has given me the responsibility
of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.
26 This message was kept secret for centuries
and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.
27 For 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.
28 So 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.
29 That’s why I work
and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.
Colossians 2 NLT
1 I want you to know how much I have
agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers
who have never met me personally.
2 I want them to be encouraged and knit
together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that
they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.
3 In him lie hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I am telling you this so no one will
deceive you with well-crafted arguments.
5 For though I am far away from you, my
heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that
your faith in Christ is strong.
6 And now, just as you accepted Christ
Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.
7 Let your roots grow down into him,
and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the
truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
8 Don’t let anyone capture you with
empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and
from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
9 For in Christ lives all the fullness
of God in a human body.
10 So you also are complete through your
union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11 When you came to Christ, you were
“circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual
circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
12 For you were buried with Christ when
you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted
the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
13 You were dead because of your sins
and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive
with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
14 He canceled the record of the charges
against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
15 In this way, he disarmed the
spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over
them on the cross.
16 So don’t let anyone condemn you for
what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon
ceremonies or Sabbaths.
17 For these rules are only shadows of
the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
18 Don’t let anyone condemn you by
insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had
visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud,
19 and they are not connected to Christ,
the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and
ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.
20You have died with Christ, and he has set
you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on
following the rules of the world, such as,
21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t
touch!”?
22 Such rules are mere human teachings
about things that deteriorate as we use them.
23These rules may seem wise
because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily
discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
