Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Colossians
Excerpt
Book 51 Colossians
001:001 Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of
God—
and Timothy our
brother:
001:002 To the people of God and the believing brethren at
Colossae
who are in
Christ. May grace and peace be granted to you
from God our
Father.
001:003 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
constantly praying
for you as we do,
001:004 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and
of
the love which you
cherish towards all God’s people,
001:005 on account of the hope treasured up for you in
Heaven.
Of this hope you
have already heard in the Message of the truth
of the Good
News.
001:006 For it has reached you, and remains with you, just as it
has
also spread through
the whole world, yielding fruit there
and increasing, as
it has done among you from the day when
first you heard it
and came really to know the grace of God,
001:007 as you learned it from Epaphras our dearly-loved fellow
servant.
He is to you a
faithful minister of Christ in our stead,
001:008 and moreover he has informed us of your love, which is
inspired
by the
Spirit.
001:009 For this reason we also, from the day we first received
these tidings,
have never ceased
to pray for you and to entreat that you
may be filled with
a clear knowledge of His will accompanied
by thorough wisdom
and discernment in spiritual things;
001:010 so that your lives may be worthy of the Lord and
perfectly
pleasing to Him,
while you exhibit the results of right action
of every sort and
grow into a fuller knowledge of God.
001:011 Since His power is so glorious, may you be
strengthened
with strength of
every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully
enduring all things
with patience and long-suffering;
001:012 and give thanks to the Father who has made us fit to
receive
our share of the
inheritance of God’s people in Light.
001:013 It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of
darkness,
and has transferred
us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son,
001:014 in whom we have our redemption—the forgiveness
of our sins.
001:015 Christ is the visible representation of the invisible
God,
the Firstborn and
Lord of all creation.
001:016 For in Him was created the universe of things in
heaven
and on earth,
things seen and things unseen, thrones,
dominions,
princedoms, powers—all were created, and exist
through and for
Him.
001:017 And HE IS before all things and in and through Him the
universe
is a harmonious
whole.
001:018 Moreover He is the Head of His Body, the
Church.
He is the
Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, in order
that He Himself may
in all things occupy the foremost place.
001:019 For it was the Father’s gracious will that the whole
of the divine
perfections should
dwell in Him.
001:020 And God purposed through Him to reconcile the universe to
Himself,
making peace
through His blood, which was shed upon the
Cross—
to reconcile to
Himself through Him, I say, things on earth
and things in
Heaven.
001:021 And you, estranged as you once were and even hostile in
your minds,
amidst your evil
deeds,
001:022 He has now, in His human body, reconciled to God by His
death,
to bring you, holy
and faultless and irreproachable,
into His
presence;
001:023 if, indeed, you are still firmly holding to faith as your
foundation,
without ever
shifting from your hope that rests on the Good News
that you have
heard, which has been proclaimed in the whole
creation under
Heaven, and in which I Paul have been
appointed to
serve.
001:024 Now I can find joy amid my sufferings for you, and I fill
up
in my own person
whatever is lacking in Christ’s afflictions
on behalf of His
Body, the Church.
001:025 I have been appointed to serve the Church in the
position
of responsibility
entrusted to me by God for your benefit,
so that I may fully
deliver God’s Message—
001:026 the truth which has been kept secret from all ages and
generations,
but has now been
revealed to His people,
001:027 to whom it was His will to make known how vast a
wealth
of glory for the
Gentile world is implied in this truth—
the truth that
`Christ is in you, the hope of glory.’
001:028 Him we preach, admonishing every one and instructing every
one,
with all possible
wisdom, so that we may bring every one into
God’s
presence, made perfect through Christ.
001:029 To this end, like an earnest wrestler, I exert all
my
strength in
reliance upon the power of Him who is mightily
at work within
me.
002:001 For I would have you know in how severe a struggle I am
engaged
on behalf of you
and the brethren in Laodicea and of all
who have not known
me personally,
002:002 in order that their hearts may be cheered, they
themselves
being welded
together in love and enjoying all the advantages
of a reasonable
certainty, till at last they attain the full
knowledge of
God’s truth, which is Christ Himself.
002:003 In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored
up,
hidden from
view.
002:004 I say this to prevent your being misled by any
one’s
plausible sophistry.
002:005 For although, as you say, I am absent from you in
body,
yet in spirit I am
present with you and am delighted to witness
your good
discipline and the solid front presented by your
faith in
Christ.
002:006 As therefore you have received the Christ, even Jesus our
Lord,
live and act in
vital union with Him;
002:007 having the roots of your being firmly planted in
Him,
and continually
building yourselves up in Him, and always being
increasingly
confirmed in the faith as you were taught it,
and abounding in it
with thanksgiving.
002:008 Take care lest there be some one who leads you
away
as prisoners by
means of his philosophy and idle fancies,
following human
traditions and the world’s crude notions
instead of
following Christ.
002:009 For it is in Christ that the fulness of God’s nature
dwells embodied,
and in Him you are
made complete,
002:010 and He is the Lord of all princes and rulers.
002:011 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision
not
performed by hand,
when you threw off your sinful nature
in true Christian
circumcision;
002:012 having been buried with Him in your baptism, in which
you
were also raised
with Him through faith produced within you
by God who raised
Him from among the dead.
002:013 And to you—dead as you once were in your
transgressions
and in the
uncircumcision of your natural state—He has
nevertheless given
Life with Himself, having forgiven us
all our
transgressions.
002:014 The bond, with its requirements, which was in force against
us
and was hostile to
us, He cancelled, and cleared it out of the way,
nailing it to His
Cross.
002:015 And the hostile princes and rulers He shook off from
Himself,
and boldly
displayed them as His conquests, when by the Cross He
triumphed over
them.
002:016 Therefore suffer no one to sit in judgement on you as
to
eating or drinking
or with regard to a festival, a new moon
or a
sabbath.
002:017 These were a shadow of things that were soon to
come,
but the substance
belongs to Christ.
002:018 Let no one defraud you of your prize, priding himself
on
his humility and on
his worship of the angels, and taking
his stand on the
visions he has seen, and idly puffed up
with his
unspiritual thoughts.
002:019 Such a one does not keep his hold upon Christ, the
Head,
from whom the Body,
in all its parts nourished and strengthened
by its points of
contact and its connections, grows with
a divine
growth.
002:020 If you have died with Christ and have escaped from the
world’s
rudimentary
notions, why, as though your life still belonged
to the world, do
you submit to such precepts as
002:021 “Do not handle this;” “Do not taste
that;” “Do not touch
that other
thing”—
002:022 referring to things which are all intended to be used up
and perish—
in obedience to
mere human injunctions and teachings?
002:023 These rules have indeed an appearance of wisdom
where
self-imposed
worship exists, and an affectation of humility
and an ascetic
severity. But not one of them is of any value
in combating the
indulgence of our lower natures.
003:001 If however you have risen with Christ, seek the things
that
are above, where
Christ is, enthroned at God’s right hand.
003:002 Give your minds to the things that are above, not to the
things
that are on the
earth.
003:003 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in
God.
003:004 When Christ appears—He is our true
Life—then you also will
appear with Him in
glory.
003:005 Therefore put to death your earthward
inclinations—
fornication,
impurity, sensual passion, unholy desire,
and all greed, for
that is a form of idolatry.
003:006 It is on account of these very sins that God’s anger
is coming,
003:007 and you also were once addicted to them, while you were
living
under their
power.
003:008 But now you must rid yourselves of every kind of
sin—
angry and
passionate outbreaks, ill-will, evil speaking,
foul-mouthed
abuse—so that these may never soil your lips.
003:009 Do not speak falsehoods to one another, for you have
stripped
off the old self
with its doings,
003:010 and have clothed yourselves with the new self which is
being
remoulded into full
knowledge so as to become like Him
who created
it.
003:011 In that new creation there is neither Greek nor
Jew,
circumcision nor
uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor
free man, but
Christ is everything and is in all of us.
003:012 Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own people holy
and
dearly loved, with
tender-heartedness, kindness, lowliness
of mind, meekness,
long-suffering;
003:013 bearing with one another and readily forgiving each
other,
if any one has a
grievance against another. Just as the Lord
has forgiven you,
you also must forgive.
003:014 And over all these put on love, which is the perfect bond
of union;
003:015 and let the peace which Christ gives settle all
questionings
in your hearts, to
which peace indeed you were called
as belonging to His
one Body; and be thankful.
003:016 Let the teaching concerning Christ remain as a rich
treasure
in your
hearts. In all wisdom teach and admonish one
another
with psalms, hymns,
and spiritual songs, and sing with grace
in your hearts to
God.
003:017 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in
the name
of the Lord Jesus,
and let it be through Him that you give
thanks to God the
Father.
003:018 Married women, be submissive to your husbands, as is
fitting
in the
Lord.
003:019 Married men, be affectionate to your wives, and do
not
treat them
harshly.
003:020 Children be obedient to your parents in
everything;
for that is right
for Christians.
003:021 Fathers, do not fret and harass your children, or you may
make
them sullen and
morose.
003:022 Slaves, be obedient in everything to your earthly
masters;
not in acts of eye
service, as aiming only to please men,
but with simplicity
of purpose, because you fear the Lord.
003:023 Whatever you are doing, let your hearts be in your
work,
as a thing done for
the Lord and not for men.
003:024 For you know that it is from the Lord you will
receive
the inheritance as
your reward. Christ is the Master whose
bondservants you
are.
003:025 The man who perpetrates a wrong will find the wrong repaid
to him;
and with God there
are no merely earthly distinctions.
004:001 Masters, deal justly and equitably with your
slaves,
knowing that you
too have a Master in Heaven.
004:002 Be earnest and unwearied in prayer, being on the alert in
it
and in your giving
of thanks.
004:003 And pray at the same time for us also, that God may open
for us
a door for
preaching, for us to tell the truth concerning
Christ for the sake
of which I am even a prisoner.
004:004 Then I shall proclaim it fully, as it is my duty to
do.
004:005 Behave wisely in relation to the outside world,
buying up your
opportunities.
004:006 Let your language be always seasoned with the salt of
grace,
so that you may
know how to give every man a fitting answer.
004:007 Tychicus, our much-loved brother, a trusty assistant and
fellow
servant with us in
the Lord’s work, will give you every
information about
me.
004:008 And for this very purpose I send him to you that you may
know
how we are faring;
and that he may cheer your hearts.
004:009 And with him I send our dear and trusty brother Onesimus,
who is
one of
yourselves. They will inform you of everything
here.
004:010 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner sends greeting to you, and
so does
Barnabas’s
cousin Mark. You have received instructions as to
him;
if he comes to you,
give him a welcome.
004:011 Jesus, called Justus, also sends greeting. These
three are
Hebrew
converts. They alone among such have worked loyally
with me for the
Kingdom of God—they are men who have been
a comfort to
me.
004:012 Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, a bondservant of Jesus
Christ,
sends greetings to
you, always wrestling on your behalf
in his prayers,
that you may stand firm—Christians of ripe
character and of
clear conviction as to everything which
is God’s
will.
004:013 For I can bear witness to the deep interest he takes in
you
and in the brethren
at Laodicea and in those at Hierapolis.
004:014 Luke, the dearly-loved physician, salutes you, and so does
Demas.
004:015 Christian greetings to the brethren at Laodicea,
especially
to Nymphas, and to
the Church that meets at their house.
004:016 And when this Letter has been read among you, let it be
read
also in the Church
of the Laodiceans, and you in turn must
read the one I am
sending to Laodicea.
004:017 And tell Archippus to discharge carefully the duties
devolving
upon him as a
servant of the Lord.
004:018 I Paul add with my own hand this final
greeting.
Be mindful of me in
my imprisonment. Grace be with you.
