Matthew 16:24

16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, ¹  he must deny ²  himself, take up his cross, ³  and follow me.

Matthew 16:1

The Demand for a Sign

16:1 Now when the Pharisees ⁴  and Sadducees ⁵  came to test Jesus, ⁶  they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. ⁷ 

Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ⁸  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ⁹  the word of God,

Colossians 1:27

1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious ¹⁰  riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

¹ tn Grk “to come after me.”

² tn This translation better expresses the force of the Greek third person imperative than the traditional “let him deny,” which could be understood as merely permissive.

³ sn To bear the cross means to accept the rejection of the world for turning to Jesus and following him. Discipleship involves a death that is like a crucifixion; see Gal 6:14.

⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

⁵ sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.

⁶ tn The object of the participle πειράζοντες (peirazontes) is not given in the Greek text but has been supplied here for clarity.

⁷ sn What exactly this sign would have been, given what Jesus was already doing, is not clear. But here is where the fence-sitters reside, refusing to commit to him.

⁸ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”