2:1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, 1 and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met me face to face. 2
15:30 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, 4 through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join fervently with me in prayer to God on my behalf.
15:1 But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. 5
1:27 Only conduct yourselves 9 in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that – whether I come and see you or whether I remain absent – I should hear that 10 you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, by contending side by side for the faith of the gospel, 11
1 tn Or “I want you to know how hard I am working for you…”
2 tn Grk “as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.”
3 tn Or “Make every effort” (L&N 68.74; cf. NIV); “Do your best” (TEV); “Work hard” (NLT); Grk “Struggle.” The idea is to exert one’s maximum effort (cf. BDAG 17 s.v. ἀγωνίζομαι 2.b, “strain every nerve to enter”) because of the supreme importance of attaining entry into the kingdom of God.
4 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
5 tn Grk “and not please ourselves.” NT Greek negatives used in contrast like this are often not absolute, but relative: “not so much one as the other.”
6 tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”
7 tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.
8 tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”
9 tn Grk “live as citizens.” The verb πολιτεύεσθε (politeuesqe) connotes the life of a freeman in a free Roman colony.
10 tn Grk “the things concerning you, [namely,] that.” The ὅτι (Joti) clause is appositional to τὰ περὶ ὑμῶν (ta peri Jumwn) and therefore “the things concerning you” was not translated.
11 tn The phrase “the faith of the gospel” could mean one of three things: “the faith that is the gospel” (genitive of apposition), “the faith that originates from the gospel” (genitive of source), or “faith in the gospel” (objective genitive).
12 tn Grk “having,” most likely as an instrumental participle. Thus their present struggle is evidence that they have received the gift of suffering.
13 tn Grk “that you saw in me and now hear [to be] in me.”
14 tn Grk “until blood.”