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Paulus, an envoy of Anointed Jesus on account of what God wants, and Timotheos the brother.
To those holy and trusting brothers in the Anointed One who are in Kolossae.
1:2 Hello to you, and peace from God our Father.
We always give thanks about you when we pray to God, Father of our Lord, Anointed Jesus, since we have heard of your trust in Anointed Jesus and of the love that you have for all the holy ones on account of the hope that is being laid up for you in the heavens (which you heard about before in the statement of the truth of the good message). The good message is present among you, just as also it is in all the creation. It is bearing fruit and is growing, just as it was among you from the day when you heard and recognized God's generosity in truth--just as you you learned from Epafras our beloved fellow slave, who is on our behalf a trustworthy servant of the Anointed One. This one also pointed out your spiritual love to us.
9 On account of this also, from the day when we heard, we do not cease to pray and ask on your behalf, so that you might be filled with the recognition of what he wants in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. He wants for you to walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord, to please him in all things, in every good deed bearing fruit and growing in the recognition of God, being strengthened with all strength according to the might of his glory to the point of full endurance and longsuffering, and at the same time giving thanks with joy to that Father who equipped us for the inheritance of the holy ones in the light, who rescued us from the authority of the darkness and changed our standing into the kingdom of the son of his love.
14 In this son we have the washing away, the forgiveness of sins:
21 And you were at one time foreigners and enemies in the mind with your evil deeds. But now you have been reconciled with the body of his flesh through the death, to present you as holy and blameless and irreproachable in his presence if indeed you continue on in trust to be grounded and made steadfast and if you are not moved away from the hope of the good message that you heard, which was heralded in every created place under heaven, and of which I Paulus became a servant.
24 I am now rejoicing in those sufferings on your behalf, and I am filling up what afflictions the Anointed One lacked in my own flesh on behalf of his body, which is the assembly. I became a servant of the assembly according to the stewardship of God which was given to me for you--to fill up God's message, the secret that was hidden away from the ages and from the generations but which is now made apparent to his holy ones. God wanted to make known to them what is the richness [of the glory] of this secret among the nations. The Anointed One is in you, the hope of the glory, whom we are announcing, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we might present everyone as complete in the Anointed One. I am also laboring for this and agonizing according to the working of the one who is working in me with power.
2:1 For I want you to know the great agony that I have on your behalf and on behalf of those in Laodikeia, and as many as have not physically seen my face, so that their hearts might be comforted and might be knit together in love and into all the richness of the full assurance of understanding, and into a recognition of God's secret: the Anointed One. In this are hidden away all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I am telling you this so that no one would rationalize to you with persuasive speech. For if I am also absent physically, nevertheless I am with you spiritually, rejoicing and seeing your order and the solidity of your trust in the Anointed One.
Therefore, as you received Jesus the Anointed Lord, walk in him. Be rooted and constructed in him and be established in trust, just as you were taught, and be abundant in thanksgiving. See to it that no one be preying on you through speculation and empty deceit, which is according to human tradition and according to the elements of creation and not according to the Anointed One. Because all of the fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in him, and in him you are filled.
10 He is the head of every government and authority. In him also you were circumcised, with a circumcision that was not done by hand in the putting off of the body made of flesh, in the Anointed One's circumcision: You were buried together with him in baptism, in which also you were raised up with him through the trust in the working of God who raised him up from among dead people. And when you were dead in your wanderings and in the foreskinned nature of your flesh, he made us alive together with him. He freely forgave us of all of our wanderings and blotted out what was handwritten against us in the rules. He has also removed this from our midst, having nailed it to the cross. He also stripped away the governments and authorities and made them public spectacles with his freedom of speech, triumphing over them with it.
16 Therefore, no one should judge you in food and in drink or with respect to a feast or new moons or sabbaths. These things are shadows of what is about to come, but the body is the Anointed One's. Don't let anyone arbitrate for you. Whoever wants to is wanting this in low self-esteem and in worship of the messengers, intruding in matters he has seen, being puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind. And he does not cling to the head, from which all of the body grows God's growth as it is supplied and held together through the joints and ligaments.
20 If with the Anointed One you died from the elements of creation, why are you subjecting yourselves to rules, as though you were living in creation? "You should not touch. You should not taste. You should not handle." These things are all lead to decay in the using, being precepts and teachings of human beings. Indeed, these things are holding to a message of wisdom, in self-made religious practice and low self esteem by neglecting the body--not with any honor, but for a filling up of the flesh.
3:1 Therefore, since you were raised up with the Anointed One, seek the things that are above, where the Anointed One is sitting at God's right hand. Have your attitude focused on the things above, not on the things which are on the earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden in God together with the Anointed One. When the Anointed One appears, the one who is your life, then also you will appear together with him in glory.
5 Therefore, put to death those members which are on the earth: sexual sin, uncleanliness, strong emotion, strong bad desire, and greed (which is idolatry). For on account of these things God's anger is coming. You too once walked in these things when you lived among them, but now put all of these out of your mouth too: anger, rage, badness, evil speaking, shameful speech. Do not lie to one another, since your former person and his practices have been stripped away, and since you have been clothed with the new one, who is being renewed to the point of recognition, as an image of the one who created him. In him there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and foreskinned, barbarian, Skuthian, slave, free person. But all things are the Anointed One, who is also in all things.
12 Therefore, beloved holy ones, be clothed as God's chosen people, with deep feelings of compassion, gentleness, a humble attitude, meekness, longsuffering. Bear with one another, and forgive one another if someone has something to complain about. Just as also the Lord forgave you, you also do likewise.
Now on top of all of these things is love, which is a bond of completeness. And let the peace of the Anointed One arbitrate in your hearts. You were also called for this in the body. Also become thankful. The message of the Anointed One should dwell in you richly. You should be teaching and admonishing yourselves in all wisdom and performing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for God with generosity in your hearts. And all that you ever do, in word or in deed, do it all in the name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to Father God on account of him.
18 You wives submit yourselves to your husbands, as it is appropriate in the Lord.
You husbands love your wives and do not become bitter toward them.
You children listen to your parents regarding everything. For in the Lord this is well
pleasing.
You fathers do not stir up your children, so that they would not lose desire.
You slaves listen to your lords according to the flesh, not with eye-service as
people-pleasers, but with simplicity of the heart as people who fear God. Work whatever you do
from the soul, as if it were for the Lord, not people, knowing that from the Lord you will obtain
the payment of the inheritance. You are slaves to the Anointed Lord. For the one who does
wrong will be repaid for what wrong he did, and there is no personal bias.
4:1 You lords promote what is just and equal for your slaves, knowing that you too have a
lord in heaven.
4:2 Attend to prayer. Stay alert in it with thankfulness, at the same time praying also for us, so that God would open a door to us for the message, so that we might speak the secret of the Anointed One, on account of which also I was bound. Pray that I may make the secret apparent, as it is necessary for me to speak.
5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, making the season profitable for yourselves. Your message should always be with generosity, seasoned with salt, knowing how it is necessary for you to respond to everyone.
7 All of my matters Tuchikos will make known to you--that beloved brother and trustworthy servant and slave together with me in the Lord. I sent him to you for this reason: that he could know the matters concerning you and would give comforting advice to your hearts together with Onesimus the trustworthy and beloved brother, who comes from among you. They will make known to you all matters going on here.
Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, greets you; also, Markus the nephew of Bar-Nabas (You received instructions about him to receive him if he should come to you.), and Yeshua who is called Just. These people who are of the circumcision, these alone are my coworkers for God's kingdom. They have become a comfort to me.
Epafras, a slave of the Anointed One who is from among you, greets you. He is always agonizing on your behalf in his prayers, so that you would be established as complete and full in all of what God wants. For I testify for him that he has a lot of anguish on your behalf, and for those in Laodikeia, and for those in Hierapolis.
Lukas the beloved doctor greets you; also Daemas.
Greet those brothers in Laodikeia, and Numpha and the assembly at her house. And when this letter is read among you, make it so that it may also be read in the assembly in Laodikeia and that you would also read the one from Laodikeia.
And say to Archippus, "See to it that you fulfill the service which you received in the Lord."
This greeting of Paulus is with my hand. Remember my chains. Favor be with you.
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