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.

³⁰ “Well, then,” they said to him, “what sign are you going to do, so that we can see it and believe you? What work are you doing? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; it says in the Bible that ‘he gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

³² “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “It wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. It was my father who gave you the true bread from heaven. ³³ God’s bread, you see, is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors in the wilderness ate the manna, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that people can eat it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread, they will live forever. And the bread which I shall give is my flesh, given for the life of the world.”