Colossians 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
About AD 60 to 62, written while Paul was in prison, most likely in Rome
Location
Sent to Colossae, a declining market town in the Lycus river valley of inland Asia Minor, in what is now south-western Turkey, near Laodicea and Hierapolis
Audience
A mostly non-Jewish congregation Paul had never visited in person, founded by his associate Epaphras
Situation
Paul opens with thanks for the Colossians' faith, prays for them to grow in understanding, and then sets out a hymn-like passage describing Christ as the one through whom everything was made and in whom everything holds together. He closes the chapter describing his own suffering on behalf of congregations he has never met.
Key Background
Colossae had been a wealthy wool and dye town on the main road east but was overshadowed by its neighbours by Paul's day, and the region was known for mixing Jewish practice, local religion and interest in angelic powers. Ancient letters opened with a thanksgiving and a prayer for the reader, so Paul is using a familiar form and filling it with content. The passage about Christ in verses 15 to 20 has the balance and rhythm of a poem or an early song, and it borrows the language Jewish writers used for wisdom as God's agent in creation, which is why it reads differently from the prose around it.
From Paul, an of The Jesus by God's will, and from Timothy our brother --
To at the faithful brothers and sisters in The One: May and be yours from God our Father.
We always thank God, the Father of our Jesus The One, when we pray for you,
because we've heard about your in The One Jesus and the you have for all of God's people --
because of the stored up for you in heaven. You first heard about this through the true message of the
that has come to you. In the same way it's and growing all over the world, it has been doing the same among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's undeserved kindness for what it really is.
You learned it from our dear who faithfully serves The One on our behalf.
He also told us about the love the of has stirred up in you.
That's why, from the day we heard about you, we haven't stopped praying for you. We keep asking God to fill you with the of what he wants through every kind of and spiritual understanding,
so that you can live in a way that is of the Lord and that fully pleases him: producing fruit through every kind of good work and growing in the deep knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all according to his might, so that you can endure anything and remain patient with joy,
giving thanks to the Father, who has made you to share in the of God's people in the
He us from the of darkness and transferred us into the of the Son he loves,
in whom we have the from -- the of our
The Son is the of the invisible God, the over all creation.
Because through him everything was created -- things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether or or or Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before everything, and in him everything
He is the of the body, which is the He is the beginning, the from the so that he would have first place in absolutely everything.
Because God was pleased to have all his live in him,
and through him to the between himself and all things -- whether things on earth or things in heaven -- by through his shed on the
And you -- you who were once from in your minds because of the harmful things you did --
he has now restored the relationship with you through The One's through his death, to present you in his presence as people who to and with no you.
if you continue in your trust, and not shifting from the hope you heard in the good news that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a of this good news.
Now I find joy in my sufferings for your sake, and in my own body I am what is in The One's for the sake of his body, which is the gathered community.
I became its servant by the God gave me for your benefit -- to fully make known the message of God,
the that has been hidden for ages and generations, but has now been to
God chose to make known among the the of this mystery, which is this: The One in you -- the hope of
He is the one we warning and teaching with all wisdom, so that we can present in The One.
That's what I work so hard for, with all the he so in me.