<< Colossians 1 >>
The Mirror Translation | |
COLOSSIANS
Christ in You
1:1 My name is Paul, my colleague Timothy and I are together in this unique mission by the initiative of God, representing the ministry of Jesus Christ.
1:2 We greet you with the blessing of His favour and friendship, and honour you who are in Colossae as saints and brothers included in Christ. God is our Father and Jesus Christ our Master.
1:3 Every time we pray for you we thank God for you. Together with our Lord Jesus Christ we enjoy a common origin in the Father.
1:4 The reports of your belief in Christ Jesus and your love for every devote follower inspires us.
1:5 Heaven (the spiritual realm) is the limitless reservoir of your expectation. The announcement of the goodness of God is not far fetched or too good to be true. The word you heard is absolutely true!
1:6 This word resonates within you and its appeal is prevailing in the whole world. The harvest is evident everywhere and gaining ground; as also witnessed in your own experience from the moment you heard and understood the implication and the relevance of His favour.
1:7 Your experience is consistent with the teaching you received from our dear co-worker Epafras. He is just like a waiter in a restaurant, ready to serve you faithfully on behalf of Jesus Christ.
1:8 He told us how much you love us in the spirit;
1:9 and so we have become inseparably linked to you. Our constant desire for you is that you might be overwhelmed with the knowledge of His dream for your lives. We pray that the pattern of God’s wisdom and thoughts will fall into place for you.
1:10 Go on a walkabout tour to explore the extent of the land that is yours under His Lordship. Now you can conduct yourselves appropriately towards Him; pleasing Him in every harvest of good works that you bear. Meanwhile you continue to increase in your intimate acquaintance with God; this results in the most attractive and fulfilled life possible.
1:11 You are empowered in the dynamic of God's strength; His mind is made up about you! (doxa from dokeo, opinion) He enables you to be strong in endurance and steadfastness with joy.
1:12 We are grateful to the Father who equipped and qualified us to join in the allotted portion of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
1:13 He rescued us from the claim of darkness and ignorance and transferred us into the kingdom where the love of His son rules.
1:14 In Him we have redemption though His blood; our sins (that which caused us to fail to possess our allotted portion) were done away with.
1:15 In Him the invisible God is made visible again; in order that every one may recognise their true origin in Him, He is the firstborn of every creature. (In Him we clearly see the mirror reflection of our original image and likeness.)
1:16 Everything that is begins in Him; whether in the heavenly realm or upon the earth, visible or invisible; every order of justice and every level of authority, be it kingdoms or governments, principalities or jurisdictions; all things were created by Him and for Him.
1:17 He is the initiator of all things therefore everything finds its relevance and its true pattern only in Him.
1:18 The ecclesia (church) is the visible expression (body) of which Jesus is the head. He is the principle rank of authority who leads the triumphant procession of our new birth out of the region of the dead. His pre-eminent rank is beyond threat.
1:19 The full measure of everything God has in mind for man indwells Him.
1:20 He initiated the reconciliation of all things to Himself. Through the blood of the cross God restored the original harmony. His reign of peace now extends to every visible thing upon the earth as well as those invisible things which are in the heavenly realm.
1:21 Your indifferent mindset alienated you from God into a lifestyle of annoyances, hardships and labors. Yet He has now fully reconciled and restored you to your original design.
1:22 He accomplished this in dying our death in a human body; He fully represented us in order to fully present us in blameless innocence face to face with God again, with no sense of guilt, suspicion, regret or accusation; all charges against us are officially cancelled.
1:23 Remain under the influence of what your faith knows to be true about you; firmly consolidated in the foundation of your belief, so that nothing can distract you from the expectation of the Gospel. A hope that is consistent with what you have heard, just as I, Paul am in the ministry to proclaim this gospel in all of creation under heaven. (The dimension of the invisible spiritual realm.)
1:24 This is why no form of suffering can interfere with my joy. Every suffering on your behalf is just another opportunity to reinforce that which might still be lacking (in your understanding) of the affliction of Christ on behalf of His body which is the church.
1:25 God entrusted me with the revelation of this mystery as a responsible administrator of His household, so that in my ministry to you I will make the word known in its full consequence.
1:26 This mystery was concealed for ages and generations but is now fully realised in our restored innocence before Him.
1:27 (God knows the mineral wealth that He deposited in the earth on man's behalf) in the same way He now eagerly anticipates the unveiling of the riches of the ultimate treasure in all the nations; which is Christ in you! The revelation of His indwelling fulfills His dream for you.
1:28 This is the essence and focus of our message; we awaken every man’s mind instructing every individual, bringing them into full enlightenment in order that we may exhibit the whole of mankind as perfect (without shortcoming and fully efficient) in Christ.
1:29 To accomplish this, I am laboring beyond the point of exhaustion striving with intense resolve with all the energy that He mightily inspires within me.
NOTES
1:6 “This word has become your personal property and is also present and prevailing in the whole world. Its harvest is evident everywhere and gaining ground; as also witnessed in your own experience from the moment you heard and understood the implication and the relevance of His favour.”
See Rom1:8 “My greatest joy is to realise that your faith is announced throughout the entire world. The total cosmos is our audience!”
Paul always sees the larger audience when he addresses the individual.
1:9 “and so we have become inseparably linked to you. Our constant desire for you is that you might be overwhelmed with the knowledge of His dream for your lives. We pray that the pattern of God’s wisdom and thoughts will fall into place for you.”
Spiritual understanding, from sunieimi, a joining together as of two streams, a fusion of thought.
1:18 “leading the resurrection parade” the Message
1:19 “So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.” Msg
1:20 “Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe-people and things, animals and atoms-get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death.” Msg
“He initiated the reconciliation of all things to Himself. Through the blood of the cross God restored the original harmony. His reign of peace now extends to every visible thing upon the earth as well as those invisible things which are in the heavenly realm.”
The heavens, Greek, ouranos, a place of elevation, from oros, a mountain (as lifting itself above the plain) from airo, to lift, to raise, to elevate, to sail away (to lift the anchor)
1:21 “You yourselves are a case study of what he does.” The Message.
“Your indifferent mindset alienated you from God into a lifestyle of annoyances, hardships and labours. Yet He has now fully reconciled and restored you to your original design.”
To reconcile: apokatallasso, fully restored to the original value.
Thayer Definition: to change, exchange, as coins for others of equivalent value.
1:22 “He accomplished this in dying our death in a human body; He fully represented us in order to fully present us in blameless innocence face to face with God again, with no sense of guilt, suspicion, regret or accusation; all charges against us are officially cancelled.”
The fact that He was manifest in a body of flesh and blood legally qualified Him to represent us in death. On that basis he now presents you holy and blameless before God with all charges against you cancelled.
1:23 “You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted.
There is no other Message-just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.” Msg
1:24 “This is why no form of suffering can interfere with my joy. Every suffering on your behalf is just another opportunity to reinforce that which might still be lacking (in your understanding) of the affliction of Christ on behalf of His body which is the church.”
The inconvenience that Paul might be suffering on behalf of the believers is not to add to the sufferings of Christ - as though the sufferings of Christ on our behalf was insufficient but it is to further emphasize and confirm the principle of unselfish love that constrains N.T. ministry.
