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Colossians

Colossians answers every attempt to add something to Jesus by showing how complete he already is: the image of the invisible God, in whom all things hold together. Christ is enough, and a life hidden with him in God is secure.

Colossians 1

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Colossians 1:3
    We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
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  • Colossians 1:7
    even as you learnt from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf,
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  • Colossians 1:15
    He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
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  • Colossians 1:15-17
    He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
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  • Colossians 1:17
    He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
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  • Colossians 1:20
    and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
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Colossians 2

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Colossians 2:6-7
    As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
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  • Colossians 2:7
    rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
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  • Colossians 2:13-14
    You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
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  • Colossians 2:16
    Let no one therefore judge you in eating or drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
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  • Colossians 2:23
    These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body, but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
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Colossians 3

Colossians 3:12-14

Above All, Put On Love

“Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.”

 Colossians 3:15

Let The Peace Of Christ Rule In Your Hearts

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.”

 Colossians 3:23

Work At It With All Your Heart

“And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,”

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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  • Colossians 3:1
    If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
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  • Colossians 3:1-2
    If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
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  • Colossians 3:3
    For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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  • Colossians 3:9-10
    Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
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  • Colossians 3:12
    Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
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  • Colossians 3:12-14
    Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
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  • Colossians 3:13
    bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
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  • Colossians 3:14
    Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
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  • Colossians 3:15
    And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.
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  • Colossians 3:16
    Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
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  • Colossians 3:17
    Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
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  • Colossians 3:22
    Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
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  • Colossians 3:23
    And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
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  • Colossians 3:24
    knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
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  • Colossians 3:24-25
    knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will receive again for the wrong that he has done, and there is no partiality.
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Colossians 4

Passages discussed across 316Quotes

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More about Colossians

Paul wrote to a small church in Colossae that he had never actually visited, a town in what is now western Turkey, after hearing that some teachers there were quietly unsettling the believers. The trouble was not crude. It was the sort that sounds spiritual: keep these rules, mark these festivals, reach for these higher experiences, and then you will really have arrived. Paul's answer is not to argue point by point but to lift their eyes to Christ himself, the image of the invisible God, the one in whom all things hold together. Almost everything in the letter flows from that single, towering view of who Jesus is.

Once you see Christ that way, the add-ons start to look small. Why reach past him for something more when everything you were looking for is already in him? That is the heart of Colossians, and it is why the letter feels so freeing rather than scolding. Paul is not piling on extra duties. He is clearing away the clutter that other people had stacked on top of the gospel, so that a tired believer can rest again in what is already true. You are complete in Christ, hidden with him in God, and nothing anyone adds can make you more accepted than grace has already made you.

From there the letter turns, as Paul's letters tend to, towards ordinary life. He does not leave the high view of Christ floating in the air. He brings it down into homes and workplaces and the way we treat each other. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, he writes in chapter 3, the word he uses meaning something like an umpire settling what stays and what goes. And then, in 3:23, a line that has steadied countless people doing unglamorous work: whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as for the Lord and not for human masters. The same Christ who holds the galaxies cares how you do Monday.

If you are coming to Colossians feeling that faith has become a weight of requirements you can never quite satisfy, this is a good letter to sit with slowly. It keeps saying the same thing in fresh ways: Christ is enough, you are in him, you can stop striving to earn what he has already given. Read a few verses, then put the book down and let the size of Jesus do its quiet work on you. You do not have to add anything to him. You only have to hold on to the one who already holds you together.

Questions about Colossians

Who wrote Colossians and why?
By long tradition it is Paul, writing while a prisoner, to a church he had not founded himself in the town of Colossae. He had heard that teachers there were pressing the believers to add rules, special practices and a kind of secret higher knowledge to their faith. Rather than answer each idea separately, Paul writes to show them how complete Jesus already is, so that the additions lose their pull. It is a short, warm letter with one big aim: to keep Christ at the centre and let everything else find its proper place around him.
What does 'let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts' mean?
In Colossians 3:15 Paul uses a word that carries the sense of an umpire or referee. He is picturing the peace Jesus gives as something that settles disputes inside us and between us, calling what is right and ruling out what is not. It is less a feeling to chase than a presence to yield to. When you are unsure or pulled in two directions, you let that peace have the deciding vote. Paul ties it closely to gratitude and to living at peace with others, so it is meant to shape a community, not just a private mood.
What is the main message of Colossians?
That Jesus is enough, and that you are complete in him. Paul wrote to people being told they needed something extra to be truly spiritual, and his whole answer is the greatness of Christ: the image of the invisible God, in whom all things hold together, and in whom you already have everything you were reaching for. The practical chapters then show what a life resting in that truth looks like, from the peace of Christ ruling our hearts to doing ordinary work as if for the Lord. Strip the letter back and it says: do not add to Jesus, abide in him.

Topics in Colossians

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