Colossians 1:12-23 Esv

For Reading and Meditation:     Colossians 1:1-20

Does salvation come up from mankind through striving, helped by the Divine, or does it come down to us from above, through the act of God and our receptivity of that act? Is it an attainment or an obtainment? The answers separate Christianity from all other religions. Non-Christian religions teach that salvation is...

The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. § God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. § [He is] far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but...

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you. § We love Him because He first loved us. § You … He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. § God demonstrates...

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find … O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! § If Christ is in you, the...

He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. § He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. § By this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him … Beloved, if our heart...

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. § No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. § He who has seen Me has seen the Father. § The brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. § God was manifested in the flesh.In whom...