To The Word – Day 64

₁From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy —

₂To God's people in Colossae, who are our faithful brothers and sisters in union with Christ:

May God our Father give you grace and peace.

₃We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. ₄For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people. ₅When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. ₆The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is. ₇You learnt of God's grace from Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who is Christ's faithful worker on our behalf. ₈He has told us of the love that the Spirit has given you.

₉For this reason we have always prayed for you, ever since we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. ₁₀Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God. _11-12May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to have your share of what God has reserved for his people in the kingdom of light. ₁₃He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son, ₁₄by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven.

₁₅Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the firstborn Son, superior to all created things. ₁₆For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. ₁₇Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place. ₁₈He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life. He is the firstborn Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things. ₁₉For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God. ₂₀Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son's blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.

₂₁At one time you were far away from God and were his enemies because of the evil things you did and thought. ₂₂But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence. ₂₃You must, of course, continue faithful on a firm and sure foundation, and must not allow yourselves to be shaken from the hope you gained when you heard the gospel. It is of this gospel that I, Paul, became a servant — this gospel which has been preached to everybody in the world.

₂₄And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church. ₂₅And I have been made a servant of the church by God, who gave me this task to perform for your good. It is the task of fully proclaiming his message, ₂₆which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all the human race but has now revealed to his people. ₂₇God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. ₂₈So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God's presence as a mature individual in union with Christ. ₂₉To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me.

₁Let me tell you how hard I have worked for you and for the people in Laodicea and for all others who do not know me personally. ₂I do this in order that they may be filled with courage and may be drawn together in love, and so have the full wealth of assurance which true understanding brings. In this way they will know God's secret, which is Christ himself. ₃He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.

₄I tell you, then, do not let anyone deceive you with false arguments, no matter how good they seem to be. ₅For even though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I am glad as I see the resolute firmness with which you stand together in your faith in Christ.

₆Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him. ₇Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving.

₈See to it, then, that no one enslaves you by means of the worthless deceit of human wisdom, which comes from the teachings handed down by human beings and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ. ₉For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in his humanity, ₁₀and you have been given full life in union with him. He is supreme over every spiritual ruler and authority.

₁₁In union with Christ you were circumcised, not with the circumcision that is made by human beings, but with the circumcision made by Christ, which consists of being freed from the power of this sinful self. ₁₂For when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and in baptism you were also raised with Christ through your faith in the active power of God, who raised him from death. ₁₃You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins; ₁₄he cancelled the unfavourable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. ₁₅And on that cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession.

₁₆So let no one make rules about what you eat or drink or about holy days or the New Moon Festival or the Sabbath. ₁₇All such things are only a shadow of things in the future; the reality is Christ. ₁₈Do not allow yourselves to be condemned by anyone who claims to be superior because of special visions and who insists on false humility and the worship of angels. For no reason at all, such people are all puffed up by their human way of thinking ₁₉and have stopped holding on to Christ, who is the head of the body. Under Christ's control the whole body is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God wants it to grow.

₂₀You have died with Christ and are set free from the ruling spirits of the universe. Why, then, do you live as though you belonged to this world? Why do you obey such rules as ₂₁“Don't handle this,” “Don't taste that,” “Don't touch the other”? ₂₂All these refer to things which become useless once they are used; they are only human rules and teachings. ₂₃Of course such rules appear to be based on wisdom in their forced worship of angels, and false humility, and severe treatment of the body; but they have no real value in controlling physical passions.

₁You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right-hand side of God. ₂Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. ₃For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ₄Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory!

₅You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry). ₆Because of such things God's anger will come upon those who do not obey him. ₇At one time you yourselves used to live according to such desires, when your life was dominated by them.

₈But now you must get rid of all these things: anger, passion, and hateful feelings. No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips. ₉Do not lie to one another, for you have taken off the old self with its habits ₁₀and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. ₁₁As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all.

₁₂You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ₁₃Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. ₁₄And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity. ₁₅The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in the one body. And be thankful. ₁₆Christ's message in all its richness must live in your hearts. Teach and instruct each other with all wisdom. Sing psalms, hymns, and sacred songs; sing to God with thanksgiving in your hearts. ₁₇Everything you do or say, then, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks through him to God the Father.

₁₈Wives, submit to your husbands, for that is what you should do as Christians.

₁₉Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

₂₀Children, it is your Christian duty to obey your parents always, for that is what pleases God.

₂₁Parents, do not irritate your children, or they will become discouraged.

₂₂Slaves, obey your human masters in all things, not only when they are watching you because you want to gain their approval; but do it with a sincere heart because of your reverence for the Lord. ₂₃Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for human beings. ₂₄Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people. For Christ is the real Master you serve. ₂₅And wrongdoers will be repaid for the wrong things they do, because God judges everyone by the same standard.

₁Masters, be fair and just in the way you treat your slaves. Remember that you too have a Master in heaven.

₂Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God. ₃At the same time pray also for us, so that God will give us a good opportunity to preach his message about the secret of Christ. For that is why I am now in prison. ₄Pray, then, that I may speak, as I should, in such a way as to make it clear.

₅Be wise in the way you act towards those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have. ₆Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone.

₇Our dear brother Tychicus, who is a faithful worker and fellow-servant in the Lord's work, will give you all the news about me. ₈That is why I am sending him to you, in order to cheer you up by telling you how all of us are getting on. ₉With him goes Onesimus, that dear and faithful brother, who belongs to your group. They will tell you everything that is happening here.

₁₀Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have already received instructions to welcome Mark if he comes your way.) ₁₁Joshua, also called Justus, sends greetings too. These three are the only Jewish believers who work with me for the Kingdom of God, and they have been a great help to me.

₁₂Greetings from Epaphras, another member of your group and a servant of Christ Jesus. He always prays fervently for you, asking God to make you stand firm, as mature and fully convinced Christians, in complete obedience to God's will. ₁₃I can personally testify to his hard work for you and for the people in Laodicea and Hierapolis. ₁₄Luke, our dear doctor, and Demas send you their greetings.

₁₅Give our best wishes to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house. ₁₆After you read this letter, make sure that it is read also in the church at Laodicea. At the same time, you are to read the letter that the brothers and sisters in Laodicea will send you. ₁₇And say to Archippus, “Be sure to finish the task you were given in the Lord's service.”

₁₈With my own hand I write this: Greetings from Paul. Do not forget my chains!

May God's grace be with you.