This contextual rephrasing of Colossians is a work in progress and will be updated as I continue. As I make updates (revisions), I will save them so that they can be accessed under the revisions tab.

Paul, sent by Jesus Christ, moved by the very desires of God — along with Timothy, I write to you who have been made his possession, you who are his brothers through faith. Our heart’s desire for you is grace and peace from God our father. We find ourselves giving thanks to God, the father of Jesus Christ our Lord, and we have been continually speaking to him about you ever since we heard of the reality of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that is in you for all those who are in Christ. This faith in you has been made true because of the unseen joy secured for you in the unseen realm of God. The good news of Christ that has come to you is the word of truth, the word that made this invisible reality known to you. Know this: The good news has been continuously bearing fruit in you as it also does throughout the world. And it grows; for it has been doing this from the very day you heard it, that day when the truth of the grace of God was known within you.

Do you know what it is that Timothy and I constantly speak to the Father of concerning you? That he would fill you with insight as to what he is really doing in you, for it is only seen through the mind of the Spirit. It is this miraculous understanding that teaches you what it is to live in this world as one who stands worthy before God himself. His pleasure in doing this touches everything that you are and everything that you do. He works in you to produce his fruit as you grow in the knowledge of him. The power that operates within you corresponds exactly with his own amazing power, and it is enabling you to stand fast and to endure all with an underriding sense of joy as you give thanks to the father who has made us worthy to share in the inheritance of all who are in his Light.

Don’t you know that he rescued us out of the domain of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves? For it is in Christ that we have been purchased. In him, no sins can be held against us. Who is he? He is the exact reflection of the invisible God, the firstborn, that is, the sire and heir of all creation. And how does he hold this position? Because it was by him that all things were created — things in the heavens and things on the Earth — the stuff you can see and the stuff you cannot see. It makes no difference as to the position these things have been achieved, for kings and their kingdoms, rulers or authorities; all things have been created not only by him, but also for him! This not only places him as the progenitor of everything, but it also explains how every thing is being held together by him. This is not all! He also occupies the position of being head of the body, which is the called out new creation. For Christ is the beginning of this new thing, for he is the firstborn from the dead, which makes him the one and only big brother.

Everything has unfolded for the purpose of putting him in first place in absolutely everything, for it is God’s own good pleasure for him to be the substance and meaning of everything, and also for him to be the reconciliation, the one who restores the harmony of all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. And through him, the father has brought everything back into harmony with himself, things on earth as well as things in heaven. And even though you had once lived as strangers to him who is the very substance of life — you, who operated from a hostile mind that revealed itself through evil deeds — in spite of that, he has now removed everything pertaining to your former separation, and he has brought you into perfect harmony in his own fleshly body through death. He did this so that he could present you before his father as a new creation, one that belongs to him. Through his death, he separated you from your former bondage, and having done so, he left no possible cause by which you might be blamed — for he has established your deliverance so securely that you can no longer be called into account for any reason whatsoever.

And this is the good news that you have heard from me, this is the message of Christ that I, Paul, have been called to preach, this is what God has declared through his son to the whole creation under heaven. However, you need to realize that your continuance in this most secure faith — according to the message as proclaimed by me, that is — depends upon one thing. And that is whether the message I have told you is actually true.

Do you know what I have had to endure to bring this message of God’s unwavering grace to you? Do you know that I have taken the abuse that would have come upon you had you not given in so easily? Don’t mistake my intent, for I do rejoice to have suffered in your place, because this is what God has enabled me to do. The high privilege of declaring God’s mystery, which is the word that has been hidden from past ages and generations, has fallen upon me! And this mystery has now been made known to those who belong to him, for he desired to reveal the riches of the glory of this previously hidden treasure of his wisdom among the outsiders. And that mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he is the one we declare, reminding all men and teaching all men in all wisdom, in order to present all men complete in Christ. And this is why I push myself to the extreme, for it is the very power of his life that keeps me going.