Book of Common Prayer

Thanksgiving for the gospel’s work

1 Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus by God’s purpose, and Timothy my brother; ² to God’s holy people in Colossae, the Messiah’s faithful family; grace to you and peace, from God our father.

³ We always thank God, the father of our Lord, Messiah Jesus, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we’ve heard of your faith in Messiah Jesus and the love you have for all God’s holy people, ⁵ because of the hope which is kept safe for you in the heavenly places. You heard about this before in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶ which has arrived on your doorstep—just as, in fact, it’s producing fruit and growing in all the world, as it has been among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth. ⁷ That’s how you learnt it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave. He’s a loyal and faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf. ⁸ He it was who gave us the news about your love in the spirit.

Prayer for wisdom and gratitude

⁹ For this reason, from the day we heard it, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We’re asking God to fill you with the knowledge of what he wants in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. ¹⁰ This will mean that you’ll be able to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, and so give him real delight, as you bear fruit in every good work and grow up in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ I pray that you’ll be given all possible strength, according to the power of his glory, so that you’ll have complete patience and become truly steadfast and joyful.

¹² And I pray that you will learn to give thanks to the father, who has made you fit to share the inheritance of God’s holy ones in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. ¹⁴ He is the one in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

⁷ He saw several Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized by him.

“You brood of vipers!” he said to them. “Who warned you to escape from the coming wrath? ⁸ You’d better prove your repentance by bearing the right sort of fruit! ⁹ And you needn’t start thinking to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ Let me tell you, God is quite capable of raising up children for Abraham from these stones! ¹⁰ The axe is already taking aim at the root of the trees. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus’ baptism

¹¹ “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,” John continued. “But the one who is coming behind me is more powerful than me! I’m not even worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire! ¹² He’s got his shovel in his hand, ready to clear out his barn, and gather all his corn into the granary. But he’ll burn up the chaff with a fire that will never go out.”