Colossians 1:22-23

For Reading and Meditation:     1 John 4:17-21;5:1-12

Although the love of God is clearly laid out in the Old Testament, why did humankind have to wait so long to have the message spelled out in such clear terms as John uses: God is love? People could not see this sufficiently clearly until they had looked into the face of Jesus. In the life of Jesus is the...

For Reading and Meditation:     Colossians 1:15-27

We spend one more day meditating on the text: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Today we ask ourselves: What did Jesus mean by the phrase, "for they will inherit the earth"? It means, so I believe, that when we develop the attitude of meekness, the whole universe is behind us. If, for...

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...

Thus says the Lord, who created you … “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.” § Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. § My delight was with the sons of men. § The Lord takes...

You, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. § That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the...

The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve. § Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.He made us accepted in the...

There is none righteous, no, not one… There is none who does good, no, not one. § There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. § How can he be pure who is born of a woman?Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me… Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.The Lord… has put away...

Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?[He] made peace through the blood of His cross. And, you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and abore reproach in His sight. § In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much...

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them … For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. § [He] made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless. § And you … He has made alive … , having wiped out the handwriting of...