The Living Bible (377 page)

Colossians

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Colossians
1

From:
Paul, chosen by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger, and from Brother Timothy.

    
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To:
The faithful Christian brothers—God’s people—in the city of Colosse.

    
May God our Father shower you with blessings and fill you with his great peace.

    
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 Whenever we pray for you, we always begin by giving thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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 for we have heard how much you trust the Lord, and how much you love his people.
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 And you are looking forward to the joys of heaven, and have been ever since the Gospel first was preached to you.
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 The same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world and changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard it and understood about God’s great kindness to sinners.

    
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 Epaphras, our much-loved fellow worker, was the one who brought you this Good News. He is Jesus Christ’s faithful slave, here to help us in your place.
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 And he is the one who has told us about the great love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

    
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 So ever since we first heard about you we have kept on praying and asking God to help you understand what he wants you to do; asking him to make you wise about spiritual things;
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 and asking that the way you live will always please the Lord and honor him, so that you will always be doing good, kind things for others, while all the time you are learning to know God better and better.

    
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 We are praying, too, that you will be filled with his mighty, glorious strength so that you can keep going no matter what happens—always full of the joy of the Lord,
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 and always thankful to the Father who has made us fit to share all the wonderful things that belong to those who live in the Kingdom of light.
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 For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
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 who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.

    
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 Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all,
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and, in fact,
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 Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory.
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 He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together.
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 He is the Head of the body made up of his people—that is, his Church—which he began; and he is the Leader of all those who arise from the dead,
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so that he is first in everything;
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 for God wanted all of himself to be in his Son.

    
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 It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him—all things in heaven and on earth—for Christ’s death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood.
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 This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends.
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 He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even chide you for;
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 the only condition is that you fully believe the Truth, standing in it steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, convinced of the Good News that Jesus died for you, and never shifting from trusting him to save you. This is the wonderful news that came to each of you and is now spreading all over the world. And I, Paul, have the joy of telling it to others.

    
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 But part of my work is to suffer for you; and I am glad, for I am helping to finish up the remainder of Christ’s sufferings for his body, the Church.

    
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 God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you Gentiles.
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 He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret:
Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.

    
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 So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them.
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 This is my work, and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work within me.

Colossians
2

I wish you could know how much I have struggled in prayer for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for my many other friends who have never known me personally.
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 This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding.
For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself.
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 In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

    
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 I am saying this because I am afraid that someone may fool you with smooth talk.
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 For though I am far away from you my heart is with you, happy because you are getting along so well, happy because of your strong faith in Christ.
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 And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with him.
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 Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done.

    
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 Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said.
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 For in Christ there is all of God in a human body;
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so you have everything when you have Christ,
and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power.

    
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 When you came to Christ, he set you free from your evil desires, not by a bodily operation of circumcision but by a spiritual operation, the baptism of your souls.
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 For in baptism you see how your old, evil nature died with him and was buried with him; and then you came up out of death with him into a new life because you trusted the Word of the mighty God who raised Christ from the dead.

    
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 You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins,
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 and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross.
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 In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away.

    
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 So don’t let anyone criticize you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating Jewish holidays and feasts or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 
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 For these were only temporary rules that ended when Christ came. They were only shadows of the real thing—of Christ himself.
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 Don’t let anyone declare you lost when you refuse to worship angels, as they say you must. They have seen a vision, they say, and know you should. These proud men (though they claim to be so humble) have a very clever imagination.
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 But they are not connected to Christ, the Head to which all of us who are his body are joined; for we are joined together by his strong sinews, and we grow only as we get our nourishment and strength from God.

    
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 Since you died, as it were, with Christ and this has set you free from following the world’s ideas of how to be saved—by doing good and obeying various rules
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—why do you keep right on following them anyway, still bound by such rules as
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 not eating, tasting, or even touching certain foods?
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 Such rules are mere human teachings, for food was made to be eaten and used up.
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 These rules may seem good, for rules of this kind require strong devotion and are humiliating and hard on the body, but they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person’s evil thoughts and desires. They only make him proud.

Colossians
3

Since you became alive again, so to speak, when Christ arose from the dead, now set your sights on the rich treasures and joys of heaven where he sits beside God in the place of honor and power.
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 Let heaven fill your thoughts; don’t spend your time worrying about things down here.
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 You should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does. Your real life is in heaven with Christ and God.
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 And when Christ who is our real life comes back again, you will shine with him and share in all his glories.

    
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 Away then with sinful, earthly things; deaden the evil desires lurking within you; have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires; don’t worship the good things of life, for that is idolatry.
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 God’s terrible anger is upon those who do such things.
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 You used to do them when your life was still part of this world;
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 but now is the time to cast off and throw away all these rotten garments of anger, hatred, cursing, and dirty language.

    
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 Don’t tell lies to each other; it was your old life with all its wickedness that did that sort of thing; now it is dead and gone.
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 You are living a brand new kind of life that is continually learning more and more of what is right, and trying constantly to be more and more like Christ who created this new life within you.
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 In this new life one’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant; such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters, and he is equally available to all.

    
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 Since you have been chosen by God who has given you this new kind of life, and because of his deep love and concern for you, you should practice tenderhearted mercy and kindness to others. Don’t worry about making a good impression on them, but be ready to suffer quietly and patiently.
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 Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

    
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 Most of all, let love guide your life, for then the whole church will stay together in perfect harmony.
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 Let the peace of heart that comes from Christ be always present in your hearts and lives, for this is your responsibility and privilege as members of his body. And always be thankful.

    
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 Remember what Christ taught, and let his words enrich your lives and make you wise; teach them to each other and sing them out in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to the Lord with thankful hearts.
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 And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, and come with him into the presence of God the Father to give him your thanks.

    
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 You wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, for that is what the Lord has planned for you.
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 And you husbands must be loving and kind to your wives and not bitter against them nor harsh.

    
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 You children must always obey your fathers and mothers, for that pleases the Lord.
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 Fathers, don’t scold your children so much that they become discouraged and quit trying.

    
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 You slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not only trying to please them when they are watching you but all the time; obey them willingly because of your love for the Lord and because you want to please him.
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 Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters,
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 remembering that it is the Lord Christ who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all he owns. He is the one you are really working for.
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 And if you don’t do your best for him, he will pay you in a way that you won’t like—for he has no special favorites who can get away with shirking.