Lord, move us for forward in fighting sin and evil with faithfulness!
Colossians
1 New
International Version
Paul, an
apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To God’s
holy people in Colossae,
the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God
our Father.
Thanksgiving
and Prayer
We
always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for
you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the
gospel that has come to you. In the same way,
the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it
has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s
grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear
fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
For this
reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.
We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all
the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life
worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good
work, growing in the knowledge of God, being
strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may
have great endurance and patience, and giving
joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance
of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For
he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of the Son he loves, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The
Supremacy of the Son of God
The Son
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were
created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him
and for him. He is before all things, and in
him all things hold together. And he is the
head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among
the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood,
shed on the cross.
Once
you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil
behavior. But
now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present
you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do
not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you
heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which
I, Paul, have become a servant.
Paul’s
Labor for the Church
Now I
rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still
lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is
the church. I
have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the
word of God in its fullness— the mystery that
has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the
Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make
known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory.
He is
the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that
we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously
contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Colossians
2 New
International Version
I want
you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me
personally. My
goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they
may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know
the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by
fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent
from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how
disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
Spiritual
Fullness in Christ
So then,
just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him,
strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with
thankfulness.
See to
it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which
depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world
rather than on Christ.
For in
Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been
brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not
performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when
you were circumcised by Christ, having been
buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your
faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
When
you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made
you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of
our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken
it away, nailing it to the cross. And having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing
over them by the cross.
Freedom
From Human Rules
Therefore
do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a
religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the
things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the
worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail
about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their
unspiritual mind. They have lost connection
with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its
ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Since
you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as
though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste!
Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do
with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human
commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed
have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false
humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in
restraining sensual indulgence.
We Claim
these things with the Power in the Name of Jesus; Christ the Messiah. Amen.
Footnotes:
- Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Purchased Product License 01/09/2015
Notes:
- We literally interpret the Bible (Please, do the same by reading verses in context of whole chapters and with cross-references (to other whole chapters). We believe God’s instruction to us to not change anything in God’s Perfect Word.
- We may paraphrase, summarize concepts presented, God’s Perfect Word; but we will always offer direct quotations when requested.
- In general our words are base in God’s Perfect Word as our beliefs; please respect them. We will respect your beliefs as supported by God’s Perfect Word. We reserve the right to remove comments that lack respect or are not supportable in God’s Perfect Word as opinions!
- We believe writings, messages, pictures... are authored by God as the only copy-righter; we will honor governmental copyright laws as per God’s Instructions. However, we stand in the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States of America of freedom of religion without constraint as intended by our founding fore fathers. To Us Gods Perfect Laws trump any nations or countries laws; we will fight for this right unto death!
No comments:
Post a Comment