Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Sha'ul, an apostle of Messiah Yeshua through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1
I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God's master plan. Together with my friend Timothy,
2 To the holy ones and faithful brothers in Messiah [who are] at Colossae: Grace to you and shalom from God, our Father, and the Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.
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I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colosse. May everything good from God our Father be yours!
3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, praying always for you,
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Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can't quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you!
4 having heard of your faith in Messiah Yeshua, and of the love which you have toward all the holy ones,
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We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians.
5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,
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The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.
6 which has come to you; even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and increasing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
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It's the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you've been hungry for more.
7 even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Messiah on our behalf,
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It's as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him.
8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
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He's the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.
9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don't cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
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Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works.
10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
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We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work.
11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, to all patience and perseverance with joy;
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We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul - not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy,
12 giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the holy ones in light;
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thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.
13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;
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God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much,
14 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins;
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the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.
15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
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We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created.
16 For by him were all things created, in the heavens and on the eretz, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and to him.
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For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels - everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
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He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.
18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
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And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;
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So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.
20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made shalom through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on the eretz, or things in the heavens.
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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, his blood that poured down from the Cross.
21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,
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You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got.
22 yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and blameless before him,
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But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence.
23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Sha'ul, was made a servant.
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You don't walk away from a gift like that! 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.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Messiah in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the assembly;
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I want you to know how glad I am that it's me sitting here in this jail and not you. There's a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world - the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church's part of that suffering.
25 of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you, to fulfill the word of God,
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When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God's way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.
26 the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his holy ones,
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This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it's out in the open.
27 to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Goyim, which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory;
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God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message.
28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Messiah Yeshua;
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We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less.
29 for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
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That's what I'm working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.