{"id":6782,"date":"2020-08-17T03:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=6782"},"modified":"2020-08-16T19:14:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T00:14:07","slug":"colossians-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=6782","title":{"rendered":"Colossians 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

1\u00a0<\/strong>Paul,\u00a0an apostle of Christ Jesus\u00a0by the will of God, and Timothy\u00a0our brother,<\/p>\n\n

2\u00a0<\/sup>To the\u00a0saints and faithful brothers[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0in Christ at Colossae:<\/p>\n\n

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.<\/p>\n\n

Thanksgiving and Prayer<\/h3>\n\n

3\u00a0<\/sup>We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>since we heard of\u00a0your faith in Christ Jesus and of\u00a0the love that you have for all the saints,\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>because of\u00a0the hope\u00a0laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in\u00a0the word of the truth, the gospel,\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup>which has come to you, as indeed\u00a0in the whole world it is\u00a0bearing fruit and increasing\u2014as it also does among you, since the day you\u00a0heard it and understood\u00a0the grace of God in truth,\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup>just as you learned it from\u00a0Epaphras our beloved\u00a0fellow servant.[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0He is\u00a0a faithful minister of Christ on your[c<\/a>]<\/sup>behalf\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup>and has made known to us your\u00a0love in the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n

Genuine\u00a0faith\u00a0in Jesus will always have a true\u00a0love\u00a0for God\u2019s people as a companion.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

9\u00a0<\/sup>And so,\u00a0from the day we heard,\u00a0we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that\u00a0you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all\u00a0spiritual wisdom and understanding,\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup>so as\u00a0to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,\u00a0fully pleasing to him:\u00a0bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for\u00a0all endurance and patience\u00a0with joy;\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>giving thanks[d<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0to the Father, who has qualified you[e<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0to share in\u00a0the inheritance of the saints in light.\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup>He\u00a0has delivered us from\u00a0the domain of darkness and transferred us to\u00a0the kingdom of\u00a0his beloved Son,\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n

IF you are saved and have fully submitted your life to Christ you have been freed from this darkness. Jesus has done all the work so we can be with Him for eternity. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The Preeminence of Christ<\/h3>\n\n

15\u00a0<\/sup>He is the image of\u00a0the invisible God,\u00a0the firstborn of all creation.\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup>For by[f<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0him all things were created,\u00a0in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether\u00a0thrones or\u00a0dominions or rulers or authorities\u2014all things were created\u00a0through him and for him.\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0he is before all things, and in him all things\u00a0hold together.\u00a018\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0he is the head of the body, the church. He is\u00a0the beginning,\u00a0the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.\u00a019\u00a0<\/sup>For\u00a0in him all the\u00a0fullness of God was pleased to dwell,\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup>and\u00a0through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven,\u00a0making peace\u00a0by the blood of his cross.<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n

aul started out thanking the Father for His plan of redemption (Colossians 1:12<\/a>). He couldn\u2019t do that without also thinking of the Son, who is the great Redeemer. These verses just show us what we believe in as christians and Paul is thanking God for what he is doing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

21\u00a0<\/sup>And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind,\u00a0doing evil deeds,22\u00a0<\/sup>he has now reconciled\u00a0in his body of flesh by his death,\u00a0in order to present you holy and blameless and\u00a0above reproach before him,\u00a023\u00a0<\/sup>if indeed you continue in the faith,\u00a0stable and steadfast, not shifting from\u00a0the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed\u00a0in all creation[g<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0under heaven,\u00a0and of which I, Paul, became a minister.<\/p>\n\n

Paul’s Ministry to the Church<\/h3>\n\n

24\u00a0<\/sup>Now\u00a0I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh\u00a0I am filling up\u00a0what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions\u00a0for the sake of his body, that is, the church,\u00a025\u00a0<\/sup>of which I became a minister according to\u00a0the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,26\u00a0<\/sup>the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.\u00a027\u00a0<\/sup>To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are\u00a0the riches of the glory of\u00a0this mystery, which is Christ in you,\u00a0the hope of glory.\u00a028\u00a0<\/sup>Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that\u00a0we may present everyone\u00a0mature in Christ.\u00a029\u00a0<\/sup>For this\u00a0I toil,\u00a0struggling\u00a0with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Paul never preaches himself. He wants to life up Jesus name not Paul. He wants people to understand how important it is to have a relationship with Jesus. <\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6782"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6809,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6782\/revisions\/6809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}