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 15:20

15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

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, ³  so as to invalidate the promise.

Galatians 5:16

5:16 But I say, live ⁴  by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. ⁵ 

Ephesians 4:17

Live in Holiness

4:17 So I say this, and insist ⁶  in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility ⁷  of their thinking. ⁸ 

Colossians 2:4

2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments ⁹  that sound reasonable. ¹⁰ 

[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.

[3:17]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Grk “walk” (a common NT idiom for how one conducts one’s life or how one behaves).

[5:16]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.

[4:17]  ⁷ tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.

[4:17]  ⁸ tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”

[2:4]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.