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Colossians 4 Continued
New King James Version 10. Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him),
The Resultant Version 10. Aristarchus my fellow captive is greeting you; and Mark cousin to Barnabas (concerning whom you have received directions; if he comes unto you, give him welcome);
Having introduced them to the two messengers who were carrying them this epistle of Colossians, Paul now moves on to sending them greetings from his fellow workers. First he mentions Aristarchus, whose name means “The Best Ruler.” He was from Macedonia, and was one of Paul’s traveling companions during his third apostolic journey while he was ministering in Ephesus, as we learn in Acts 19:29. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 4
New King James Version 1. Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
The Resultant Version 1. Masters, be rendering that which is just and equitable to your slaves, being aware that you also have a Master in heaven.
Now God speaks to the masters, giving them instructions corresponding to His instructions to slaves. This again is similar to a passage in Ephesians 6:9.
The Resultant Version 9. And the masters, be doing the same toward them, refraining from threats, knowing that their Master, as well as yours, is in the heavens; and there is no respect of persons with Him.
The Lord here calls upon those masters who have slaves to treat them justly and equitably. Some masters of slaves seem to enjoy treating them unjustly and with capricious inequality, perhaps just because they can. Yet this is not the way for a Godly master to act. Rather, a human master who is a believer must remember that he, too, has a Master in heaven, and that Master is always just and equitable. If he mistreats his slaves, his heavenly Master will not overlook such sin just because he was the master. Therefore, he should treat them fairly, just as he hopes to be treated fairly by his Lord. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 3 Part 3
New King James Version 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
The Resultant Version 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with the grace which is in your hearts to God.
Now he calls on the Colossians to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly. The “word” here is the Greek word logos, which means the expression of a thing, as it does in John 1:1, where it speaks of Jesus Christ as the Logos or Expression of God. Here, it speaks not just of the living Word, Jesus Christ, but also of the written Word, the Bible, which teaches us of Him. If we are to live in true union with God, if we are to partake of the substance of Christ, then we must allow His Word to dwell in us by reading, studying, memorizing, and understanding it. That Word needs to dwell in us richly, and it will only dwell richly in us if we give much time and effort to this end. Many believers are quite content to let the word of Christ dwell moderately or poorly in them, as they know only snippets of the word, verses here and there, and not the full riches of God’s written truth. Therefore, we can hardly be surprised when they have difficulty expressing Christ in their walks and lifestyles. It requires a rich infusion of the word of Christ into a person’s life to produce the proper kind of worthy walk that God desires of His children. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 3 Part 2
New King James Version 8. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
The Resultant Version 8. But now you also put off all these: anger, fury, malice, slander, obscenity out of your mouth.
Though these believers might have walked in these things at one time, now they are to put them off. God lists for us these things that are to be put off. First is anger. This is a very interesting prohibition. It is found both here and in Ephesians 4. There, we read:
31. Let all bitterness and fury and anger and clamor and slanderous speech be taken away from you with all malice; 32. And become kind to one another, tenderly compassionate, dealing graciously with one another, even as God also in Christ deals graciously with you. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 3
New King James Version 1. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
The Resultant Version 1. If then you are raised together with the Christ, that which is above be seeking, where Christ is, sitting on the rights of God.
In verse 20 of chapter 2, Paul told us something that is true if we died together with Christ. Here, he tells us something that is true if we are raised together with Him. As I said in chapter 2, we both died with Christ and were raised with Him if we have believed in Him. When we believe the message God gives of His Son, then we are identified with Him. That message is that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, the One chosen and marked out by God to be the Savior of the world; and that Jesus is the Son of God, God in human form. John 20:31. The message also tells us of His work on our behalf: that He died for our sins on the cross in harmony with the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose from the dead the third day, as the Scriptures tell us. I Corinthians 15:3-4. If we believe these things, then God identifies us with Christ. When He died, we died, and the penalty for our sins is once and forever paid. When He rose, we rose, and we will someday live together with Him. When He was exalted, we were exalted, and someday we will enjoy an exalted position with Him. These truths are based on the fact that we believed, and when we believed we were identified with Him, both in His death and in His resurrection. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 2 Part 3
New King James Version 16. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
The Resultant Version 16. Let no one therefore be judging you in food or in drink, or in regard to some particular festival, or the new moon, or the Sabbaths—
Since Christ has erased the decrees against us, and since He has triumphed over the rulers of this world, both religious and civil (for the two were mostly combined in the Colossians’ day,) the one who is in Christ therefore should not allow any human being to judge him in regard to religious rules and regulations. But we need to realize that “judge” does not mean to have an opinion. Anyone who likes can have an opinion about the way I eat, or the way I drink, or the holidays I keep or do not keep, or the new moons I do not celebrate, or what I do on the Sabbath. I cannot possibly stop anyone from having an opinion. They can even speak their opinions if they wish. And what can I do if I do not like their opinions? Beat them up? Call the police? I obviously have to let people have opinions. But having an opinion is not what “judging” is all about. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 2 Part 2
New King James Version 9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
The Resultant Version 9. Seeing that in Him the entire fullness of the Deity is dwelling in essence.
The idea of the word “fullness” here states the same thing we saw back in Colossians 1:19. The word for “fullness” is pleroma, a word often used of the full complement of a ship, including its officers and crew. It comes from the verb pleroo (pronounced plair-AH-oh,) which means “to fill full” or “to complete.” The full complement, the entire panoply, the completeness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus Christ. Christ embodies the fullness of the Deity. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 2
New King James Version 1. For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
The Resultant Version 1. I desire you to understand the deep anxiety I am having on behalf of you, and on behalf of them at Laodicea, and on behalf of as many as have never seen my face in the flesh.
For the first time since the right message about Jesus Christ had truly begun to be proclaimed, there were now believers in Him coming into being who had none of the advantages that the believers of the Acts period had had. They had nothing but the simple word of God to guide them. They had no God-commissioned apostles among them. They had no God-inspired prophets, or God-given teachers. Epaphras had probably been responsible for carrying the now-written gospel in the form of the book of John to Colossae, and he had reported back to Paul regarding its results. Yet Epaphras had not been commissioned by God for his work among them, and he was not able to perform miracles among them, nor give them God-inspired advice. This left Paul deeply anxious about these people. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 1 Part 7
New King James Version 23. if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
The Resultant Version 23. If you persist in the faith grounded and settled, and are not removed from the expectation of the gospel which you have heard, which is being proclaimed in every creation which is under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a dispenser.
This metamorphosis is predicated on them persisting in the faith grounded and settled. If instead they are removed from the expectation set forth to them in the gospel which they had heard, then no such metamorphosis is likely to take place. As strange as it might seem for us to curtail God’s work, we can do this in our lives if we do not continue in the belief we started out in and remain firm in the expectation the Word of God holds out to us. Read the rest of this entry »
Colossians 1 Part 6
New King James Version 20. and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
The Resultant Version 20. And through Him, who metamorphosed all these creations to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether they be those creations on the earth or those creations among the heavens.
Now through Jesus Christ the Father works to reconcile all these creations to Himself. This word “reconcile” is a very important one that we need to carefully study if we wish to understand what God is telling us through this passage.
The word for “reconcile” is the Greek apokatallasso. The base word here is allasso, which means to change, or to make other than what it was. The word kata is then added to the word as a prefix. This prefix means “down,” but “down” in the sense of going down the aisle. When one goes down the aisle, one does not go randomly, for then one might crash into the seats on either side. To go down the aisle, one must go down the lines formed by the aisle. Therefore, the idea of “down” in kata is down along certain lines. If we put these two things together, we get katallasso, which would mean “to change down along certain lines.” When used with the word “to,” the idea is of configuring something to some standard. Now we have a third component to this word, which is the prefix apo. This means “from.” Therefore, the idea here is of a thing being changed from what it was down along certainly lines in order to conform it to something else. Read the rest of this entry »
Precepts 