Thankfulness for Spiritual Attainments

1 Paul, an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed) by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the ^[a]saints and faithful ^[b]believers in Christ [who are] at Colossae: Grace to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being] from God our Father.

³ We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we pray always for you, ⁴ for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus [how you lean on Him with absolute confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness], and of the [unselfish] ^[c]love which you have for all the saints (God’s people); ⁵ because of the [confident] hope [of experiencing that] which is reserved and waiting for you in heaven. You previously heard of this hope in the message of truth, the gospel [regarding salvation] ⁶ which has come to you. Indeed, just as in the whole world the gospel is constantly bearing fruit and spreading [by God’s power], just as it has been doing among you ever since the day you first heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth [becoming thoroughly and deeply acquainted with it]. ⁷ You learned it from [our representative] Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf ⁸ and he also has told us of your love [well-grounded and nurtured] in the [Holy] Spirit.

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking [specifically] that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [with insight into His purposes], and in understanding [of spiritual things], ¹⁰ so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord [displaying admirable character, moral courage, and personal integrity], to [fully] please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing in the knowledge of God [with deeper faith, clearer insight and fervent love for His precepts]; ¹¹ [we pray that you may be] strengthened and invigorated with all power, according to His glorious might, to attain every kind of endurance and patience with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (God’s people) in the Light.

The Incomparable Christ

¹³ For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption [because of His sacrifice, resulting in] the forgiveness of our sins [and the cancellation of sins’ penalty].

¹⁵ He is the exact living image [the essential manifestation] of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible], the firstborn [the preeminent one, the sovereign, and the originator] of all creation. ¹⁶ For ^[d]by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. ¹⁷ And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.]^{(A) 18} He is also the head [the life-source and leader] of the body, the ^[e]church; and He is the beginning, ^[f]the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will occupy the first place [He will stand supreme and be preeminent] in everything.^{(B) 19} For it pleased the Father for all the fullness [of deity—the sum total of His essence, all His perfection, powers, and attributes] to dwell [permanently] in Him (the Son), ²⁰ and through [the intervention of] the Son to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace [with believers] through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven.

²¹ And although you were at one time estranged and alienated and hostile-minded [toward Him], participating in evil things, ²² yet Christ has now reconciled you [to God] in His ^[g]physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach— ²³ [and He will do this] if you continue in the faith, well-grounded and steadfast, and not shifting away from the [confident] hope [that is a result] of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed ^[h]in all creation under heaven, and of which [gospel] I, Paul, was made a minister.

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf. And with my own body I ^[i]supplement whatever is lacking [on our part] of Christ’s afflictions, on behalf of His body, which is the church. ²⁵ In this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship which God entrusted to me for your sake, so that I might make the word of God fully known [among you]— ²⁶ that is, ^[j]the mystery which was hidden [from angels and mankind] for ages and generations, but has now been revealed to His saints (God’s people). ²⁷ God [in His eternal plan] chose to make known to them how great for the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in and among you, the hope and guarantee of [realizing the] glory. ²⁸ We proclaim Him, warning and instructing everyone in all wisdom [that is, with comprehensive insight into the word and purposes of God], so that we may present every person complete in Christ [mature, fully trained, and perfect in Him—the Anointed]. ²⁹ For this I labor [often to the point of exhaustion], striving with His power and energy, which so greatly works within me.

You Are Built Up in Christ

2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those [believers] at ^[k]Laodicea, and for all who [like yourselves] have never seen me face to face. ² [For my hope is] that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in [unselfish] ^[l]love, so that they may have all the riches that come from the full assurance of understanding [the joy of salvation], resulting in a true [and more intimate] knowledge of the ^[m]mystery of God, that is, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge [regarding the word and purposes of God]. ⁴ I say this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive [but thoroughly deceptive] arguments. ⁵ For even though I am absent [from you] in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, ^[n]delighted to see your good discipline [as you stand shoulder to shoulder and form a solid front] and to see the stability of your faith in Christ [your steadfast reliance on Him and your unwavering confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].

⁶ Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in [union with] Him [reflecting His character in the things you do and say—living lives that lead others away from sin], ⁷ having been deeply rooted [in Him] and now being continually built up in Him and [becoming increasingly more] established ^[o]in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing in it with gratitude.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception [pseudo-intellectual babble], according to the tradition [and musings] of mere men, following the ^[p]elementary principles of this world, rather than following [the truth—the teachings of] Christ. ⁹ For in Him all the fullness of Deity (the Godhead) dwells in bodily form [completely expressing the divine essence of God]. ¹⁰ And in Him you have been made complete [achieving spiritual stature through Christ], and He is the head over all rule and authority [of every angelic and earthly power]. ¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature], ¹² having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God, [as displayed] when He raised Christ from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled out the ^[q]certificate of debt consisting of ^[r]legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through ^[s]the cross.

¹⁶ Therefore let no one judge you in regard to food and drink or in regard to [the observance of] a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ Such things are only a shadow of what is to come and they have only symbolic value; but the substance [the reality of what is foreshadowed] belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Let no one defraud you of your prize [your freedom in Christ and your salvation] by insisting on mock humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about visions [he claims] he has seen [to justify his authority], puffed up [in conceit] by his unspiritual mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to the head [of the body, Jesus Christ], from whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth [that can come only] from God.

²⁰ If you have died with Christ to the ^[t]elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were still living in the world, do you submit to rules and regulations, such as, ²¹ “Do not handle [this], do not taste [that], do not [even] touch!”? ²² (these things all perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.^{(C) 23} These practices indeed have the appearance [that popularly passes as that] of wisdom in self-made religion and mock humility and severe treatment of the body (asceticism), but are of no value against sinful indulgence [because they do not honor God].