Colossians 1:13-27

The Voice

¹³You have rescued us from dark powers and brought us safely into the kingdom of Your Son, whom You love ¹⁴and in whom we are redeemed and forgiven of our sins [through His blood].^[a]

¹⁵He is the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation, the eternal. ¹⁶It was by Him that everything was created: the heavens, the earth, all things within and upon them, all things seen and unseen, thrones and dominions, spiritual powers and authorities. Every detail was crafted through His design, by His own hands, and for His purposes. ¹⁷He has always been! It is His hand that holds everything together. ¹⁸He is the head of this body, the church. He is the beginning, the first of those to be reborn from the dead, so that in every aspect, at every view, in everything—He is first. ¹⁹God was pleased that all His fullness should forever dwell in the Son ²⁰who, as predetermined by God, bled peace into the world by His death on the cross as God’s means of reconciling to Himself the whole creation—all things in heaven and all things on earth.

As Paul gives thanks to God—a normal thing to do in a letter—he remembers a hymn he heard in the churches. The Colossian hymn (verses 15–20), as we call it, is all about Jesus. It celebrates His reign, first as the Creator and Sustainer of the cosmos and second as the head of the church and the One who reconciles every broken thing to God by what He accomplished on the cross. In this hymn, the story of redemption is a witness to God’s love. Paul wants the Colossians to understand who they are; but to do that, they must first know to whom they belong.

²¹You were once at odds with God, wicked in your ways and evil in your minds; ²²but now He has reconciled you in His body—in His flesh through His death—so that He can present you to God holy, blameless, and totally free of imperfection ²³as long as you stay planted in the faith. So don’t venture away from what you have heard and taken to heart: the living hope of the good news that has been announced to all creation under heaven and has captured me, Paul, as its servant.

²⁴Now I rejoice in what I’ve suffered on your behalf, but even more suffering is ahead for me as I take on and complete what remains of the Anointed’s suffering for the sake of His body, the church. ²⁵I am a servant appointed by God to preach the Word of God until it is known to you and all over—what I am talking about is nothing less than ²⁶the mystery of the ages! What was hidden for ages, generations and generations, is now being revealed to His holy ones. ²⁷He decided to make known to them His blessing to the nations; the glorious riches of this mystery is the indwelling of the Anointed in you! The very hope of glory.