Alive with Christ (Colossians 2:6–23)
1 UDB Before you trusted Christ, you were powerless to obey God. You were as helpless as a person who is dead. BSB BSB: And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 UDB You were like most people in the world today, and you, too, did what Satan wants. Satan is the ruler of the evil spirits who have great power over the world, and he is the evil spirit who is at work in the lives of people who disobey God. BSB BSB: in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
3 UDB We were at one time among those who disobeyed God; we did the evil things that we desired, things that would bring pleasure to our bodies and our minds. So God was very angry with us, just as with the others. BSB BSB: All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
4 UDB But God acts very mercifully, and he loves us very much. BSB BSB: But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 UDB We were like dead people, powerless to do what is good, and we had broken God's laws. But then he made us live again by joining us to Christ. The reason God saved you is because God loves you with a love you did not deserve. BSB BSB: made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
6 UDB He raised us up from among those who are like dead people, and he gave us seats of honor to rule with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. BSB BSB: And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 UDB He did this to show in future times how kind he has been to us, for we are joined to Christ Jesus. BSB BSB: in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
9 UDB a gift that no one can earn, so no one can boast and say that he has saved himself. BSB BSB: not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 UDB So God has created us as new people joined to Christ Jesus, so we can do good things—things that God planned long ago for us to do. BSB BSB: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
One in Christ (Philippians 2:1–4)
11 UDB Do not forget that you Gentile believers were previously called Gentiles because you were not born as Jews. The Jews insulted you by calling you "uncircumcised pagans." They call themselves "the circumcision"; by this they mean that they, not you, are God's people, although circumcision is something that only humans do, not God. BSB BSB: Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)—
12 UDB At that time, you did not have any part of Christ and you were not part of his people Israel. You did not know God's promises and law. You did not have confidence in the future that God promised you, and as you lived your lives, you did not know God. BSB BSB: remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
15 UDB He made it no longer necessary for us to obey all the Jewish laws and commandments. He made Jews and Gentiles into one people instead of two because he made peace between us. BSB BSB: by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace
16 UDB Jesus caused us both to become friends with God in one new group of believers. By dying on the cross, Jesus made it possible for us to stop hating each other. BSB BSB: and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.
17 UDB Jesus came and proclaimed the good news that brings peace with God; he proclaimed it both to you Gentiles, who did not know about God, and to us who did know about God. BSB BSB: He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
18 UDB Through Jesus we both can speak with the Father because God's Spirit lives in all believers. BSB BSB: For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Christ Our Cornerstone (Isaiah 28:14–22; 1 Corinthians 3:10–15; 1 Peter 2:1–8)
19 UDB Therefore now you are no longer strangers and foreigners to God's people, but instead you are fellow members with those whom God has set apart for himself, and you belong to God's family for whom God is the Father. BSB BSB: Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
20 UDB You are like stones that God has made to be part of his building, and the building is built on what the apostles and prophets taught. The most important stone of the building, the cornerstone, is Christ Jesus himself. BSB BSB: built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
21 UDB Jesus is increasing his family of believers and fitting them together like a temple of stones is built and fit together, increasing as the Lord joins new believers to himself. BSB BSB: In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 UDB Jesus is building you into one family in which God lives by means of his Spirit. BSB BSB: And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.