1 Corinthians 1:12

1:12 Now I mean this, that ¹  each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.”

1 Corinthians 7:29

7:29 And I say this, brothers and sisters: ²  The time is short. So then those who have wives should be as those who have none,

1 Corinthians 7:2

7:2 But because of immoralities, each man should have relations with ³  his own wife and each woman with ⁴  her own husband.

Colossians 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ⁵  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ⁶  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Galatians 3:17

3:17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, ⁷  so as to invalidate the promise.

Galatians 5:16

5:16 But I say, live ⁸  by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. ⁹ 

Ephesians 4:17

Live in Holiness

4:17 So I say this, and insist ¹⁰  in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility ¹¹  of their thinking. ¹² 

Colossians 2:4

2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments ¹³  that sound reasonable. ¹⁴ 

[1:12]  ¹ tn Or “And I say this because.”

[7:29]  ² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.

[7:2]  ³ tn Grk “each man should have his own wife.” “Have” in this context means “have marital relations with” (see the following verse). The verb ἐχέτω (ecetw, “have”) occurs twice in the Greek text, but has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons. This verb occurs 8 times in the LXX (Exod 2:1; Deut 28:30; 2 Chr 11:21; 1 Esd 9:12, 18; Tob 3:8; Isa 13:16; 54:1) with the meaning “have sexual relations with,” and 9 times elsewhere in the NT with the same meaning (Matt 20:23; 22:28; Mark 6:18; 12:33; Luke 20:28; John 4:18 [twice]; 1 Cor 5:1; 7:29).

[7:2]  ⁴ tn Grk “should have.” For explanation of the translation, see the note on “have relations with” earlier in this verse.

[1:6]  ⁵ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ⁶ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[3:17]  ⁷ tc Most mss (D F G I 0176 0278 Ï it sy) read “ratified by God in Christ” whereas the omission of “in Christ” is the reading in Ì⁴⁶ א A B C P Ψ 6 33 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 pc co. The shorter reading is strongly supported by the ms evidence, and it is probable that a copyist inserted the words as an interpretive gloss. However, this form of the “in Christ” expression is somewhat atypical in the corpus Paulinum (εἰς Χριστόν [ei" Criston] rather than ἐν Χριστῷ [en Cristw]), a fact which tempers one’s certainty about the shorter reading. Nevertheless, the expression is used more in Galatians than in any other of Paul’s letters (Gal 2:16; 3:24, 27), and may have been suggested by such texts to early copyists.

[5:16]  ⁸ tn Grk “walk” (a common NT idiom for how one conducts one’s life or how one behaves).

[5:16]  ⁹ tn On the term “flesh” (once in this verse and twice in v. 17) see the note on the same word in Gal 5:13.

[4:17]  ¹⁰ tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.

[4:17]  ¹¹ tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.

[4:17]  ¹² tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”

[2:4]  ¹³ tn BDAG 812 s.v. πιθανολογία states, “persuasive speech, art of persuasion (so Pla., Theaet. 162e) in an unfavorable sense in its only occurrence in our lit. ἐν πιθανολογίᾳ by specious arguments Col 2:4 (cp. PLips 40 III, 7 διὰ πιθανολογίας).”

[2:4]  ¹⁴ sn Paul’s point is that even though the arguments seem to make sense (sound reasonable), they are in the end false. Paul is not here arguing against the study of philosophy or serious thinking per se, but is arguing against the uncritical adoption of a philosophy that is at odds with a proper view of Christ and the ethics of the Christian life.