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22 yet Christ has now reconciled you [to God] in His [a]physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 [and He will do this] if you continue in the faith, well-grounded and steadfast, and not shifting away from the [confident] hope [that is a result] of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed [b]in all creation under heaven, and of which [gospel] I, Paul, was made a minister.

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf. And with my own body I [c]supplement whatever is lacking [on our part] of Christ’s afflictions, on behalf of His body, which is the church.

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Footnotes

  1. Colossians 1:22 Lit body of flesh.
  2. Colossians 1:23 Paul may be referring to the fact that the created world displays proof of the existence of an omnipotent, benevolent God (cf Rom 1:20), without whom there would be no possibility of salvation. Such a God is the foundation of the “good news.”
  3. Colossians 1:24 I.e. since the church is Christ’s body, figuratively speaking, whatever the church suffers can be considered additional sufferings by Christ Himself, and all such suffering was ordained and destined by God; what is left to suffer in God’s plan is what is “lacking of Christ’s afflictions.” Paul, as a member of the church, was destined to suffer through persecution etc., thereby taking his share of the church body’s divinely-ordained suffering.

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