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I will proclaim the decree of the Lord,
    he said to me, “You are my son;
    today I have begotten you.(A)
Ask it of me,
    and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
    and, as your possession, the ends of the earth.
With an iron rod you will shepherd them,
    like a potter’s vessel you will shatter them.”(B)
10 And now, kings, give heed;
    take warning, judges on earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear;
    exult with trembling,
Accept correction
    lest he become angry and you perish along the way
    when his anger suddenly blazes up.(C)
Blessed are all who take refuge in him!

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29 [a]For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 8:29 Image: while man and woman were originally created in God’s image (Gn 1:26–27), it is through baptism into Christ, the image of God (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15), that we are renewed according to the image of the Creator (Col 3:10).

II. The Preeminence of Christ

His Person and Work

15 [a]He is the image[b] of the invisible God,
    the firstborn of all creation.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:15–20 As the poetic arrangement indicates, these lines are probably an early Christian hymn, known to the Colossians and taken up into the letter from liturgical use (cf. Phil 2:6–11; 1 Tm 3:16). They present Christ as the mediator of creation (Col 1:15–18a) and of redemption (Col 1:18b–20). There is a parallelism between firstborn of all creation (Col 1:15) and firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18). While many of the phrases were at home in Greek philosophical use and even in gnosticism, the basic ideas also reflect Old Testament themes about Wisdom found in Prv 8:22–31; Wis 7:22–8:1; and Sir 1:4. See also notes on what is possibly a hymn in Jn 1:1–18.
  2. 1:15 Image: cf. Gn 1:27. Whereas the man and the woman were originally created in the image and likeness of God (see also Gn 1:26), Christ as image (2 Cor 4:4) of the invisible God (Jn 1:18) now shares this new nature in baptism with those redeemed (cf. Col 3:10–11).

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us[a] from our sins by his blood,(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:5 Freed us: the majority of Greek manuscripts and several early versions read “washed us”; but “freed us” is supported by the best manuscripts and fits well with Old Testament imagery, e.g., Is 40:2.