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Colossians 1:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Colossians 1:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Introduction
Chapter 1
Address. 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 to the saints[a] and faithful brethren in Christ in Colossae. May God our Father grant you grace and peace.
A Community Pervaded by the Gospel.[b] 3 In all our prayers for you we always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Colossians 1:2 Saints: Christians are called saints because through Baptism they have been consecrated to God and are called to live accordingly.
- Colossians 1:3 The power of the Gospel to live and spread is extraordinary; it is God’s grace and action among human beings. In the vitality of a young Church, Paul recognizes this work of the Lord, and he prays that it will develop in all its richness. Thanksgiving and prayer succeed each other in this introduction and indicate the principal features of an authentic Christian life: to accept the truth of the Gospel; to grow in faith, love, and hope; and to know God more in order to be more faithful in the concrete.
Nonetheless, the initiative comes from the Lord. It is he who changes our life; it is he who frees us from the bondage of sin and leads us into a new world, the kingdom of Christ. Now he is extending to all the Gentiles the salvation formerly reserved for Israel—“the inheritance of the saints.” Such a text gives us the echo of what might have been the mystique of Baptism and the joy of the Christian in the early Church.
