1: Paulos apostolos of Iesous
Christos by the will of God [1]
and Timotheos our brother 2:
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse Grace be
unto you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ [2] 3:
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always
for you 4: Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love
which you have to all the saints 5: For the hope which is laid up for
you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel 6:
Which is come to you as it is in all the world and brings forth fruit as it does
also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth 7:
As you also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow-servant who is for you a faithful
diakonos of Christ 8: Who also declared to us your love in the
Spirit 9: For this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease
to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of
his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding 10: That you might
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God 11: Strengthened with all might
according to his glorious power Eph 6:10 unto all patience and
longsuffering with joyfulness 12: Giving thanks unto the Father who has
made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light 13:
Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son 14: In whom we have redemption through his blood
even the forgiveness of sins 15: Who is the image of the invisible God [3]
the firstborn of every creature [4]16:
For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth
visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or
powers all things were created by him and for him [5] 17:
And he is before all things and by him all things consist 18: And he is
the head of the Body the Church which is the beginning the firstborn from the
dead [6]
that in all things he might have the preeminence 19: For it pleased the
Father that in him should all fullness dwell 20: And having made peace
through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by
him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven 21: And
you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet
now has he reconciled 22: In the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight 23: If you
continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel Hebrews 6:6 which you have heard and which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven of which I Paul became a diakonos deacon [7]
24: Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his Body’s sake which is
the Church 25: Whereof I am made a diakonos
according to the dispensation of God (ton
Theon) which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God 26: Even the mystery which has been hidden
from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints 27:
To whom God [8]
(Ho Theos) would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which
is CHRIST IN YOU the hope of glory 28:
Whom we preach warning every one and teaching every one in all wisdom that we
may present every one perfect in Christ Jesus 29: Whereunto I also labor
striving according to his working which works in me mightily
[1] Paul did not begin his ministry as part
of the inner circle of mainstream Christianity nor as a graduate from a
prestigious Seminary or Bible college. As a result, in many of his letters, he
not only asserted his apostleship but provided his own accreditation for his
calling and qualifications. He did this in a much stronger way than did Peter
and other writers of the New Testament. This was likely due to his previous
standing as enemy of the Church, which after his conversion, necessitated an
understandable need for Paul to prove himself. Paul was not so effected by the
opinions of others that he went out of his way to do this; and when God called
him and separated him to the work of the ministry, he did cooperate with Ananias, and then moved forward on his own and obeyed God.
[2] Jesus is God, the Everlasting Father.
See commentary at Philippians chapter one verse two, on translator supplements.
[3] Jesus is the image of the invisible God,
because he is God. All the fullness
of the Godhead resides in Jesus in physical form. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with The God and The God was the Word. Yeshua is YHWH. Jesus is
God.
[4] In addition to being a birth order,
firstborn, in biblical usage, is also a status Deut 21:16, Psalm 78:27,
Jeremiah 31:9 [Genesis 48:14]. Jesus is firstborn of all creation because
he is the source and savior of all creation. Jesus is the one to whom every
knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Jehovah to the glory of Father God Romans 14:11, Philippians
2:10-11, Isaiah 45:23. Jesus is God.
[5] YHWH Elohiym created everything by himself Isaiah 42:5 & 44:24.
That means he did not create Jesus and then use
him to to create every other thing
[as some altered texts attempt to make it appear]. Both the Old Covenant and
the Covenant that makes New, state that God created all things by himself and
Jesus created everything that was made and without him was not anything made.
Jesus is God
[6] This is a reference to the First
Resurrection, which will happen in stages, beginning with the Church 1
Corinthians 15:23, Revelation 20:5-6.
[7] The church office of “Deacon” as
practiced in many mainline churches is unscriptural and often a hindrance to
the gospel. In some cases, pastors must answer to church deacons. In most cases,
women are banned from the “office” altogether. The Seven, chosen in the Book of
Acts to care for widows, could have been diakonos,
but the scriptures do not specify that. The woman, Phoebe, was diakonos Romans 16:1. The fact
that the great apostle called himself diakonos,
is not commonly taught. That both Phoebe and Paul were diakonos, has been completely obscured by
English-translation-theology.
[8] This
commentary occasionally uses the Greek words “Ho Theos”
or “ton Theon” in place of the English
“God” or “of God.” The reason for this, is that in John 1:1, of the
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures [published by Watchtower Society], Jesus is called “a god.” Watchtower, explains the
reason for calling Jesus “a god,” is that in John 1:1, where it states that
Jesus (the Word) was God, the definite article of ho (“the”—as in the God)
is missing. Therefore the claim is made that the verse cannot be saying that
Jesus is Jehovah. Yet, when we compare
all of the references to Jehovah God in the New Testament, we find that the
definite article is not always present in verses that undeniably refer to the
Almighty. Colossians 2:25 is a perfect example of this. The “God” (Theon, without the definite article) referenced
twice in Colossians 2:25 is the same as “THE
GOD” (Ho Theos) referenced in
Colossians 2:27. This passage is a perfect illustration of the fact that the presence
or absence of the definite article “the” is irrelevant as to whether the word “God”
is referring to Jehovah or not. John 1:1
was written by John, who was a devout Jew, and the Jews worshiped only one God (Hear O Israel YHWH Elohiym is ONE YHWH).
A Jewish believer would never introduce a second, lesser, god into the mix. Thomas—a
Jew—worshiped Jesus, saying, “My Lord
and my GOD.” Who was Thomas’ God? His God was Jehovah. Jesus is Jehovah. Jesus is God.
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