Colossians 1:12

1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ¹  in the saints’ ²  inheritance in the light.

Colossians 2:7

2:7 rooted ³  and built up in him and firm ⁴  in your ⁵  faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Romans 1:8

Paul’s Desire to Visit Rome

1:8 First of all, ⁶  I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

Ephesians 5:20

5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for each other ⁷  in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Ephesians 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ⁸  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Ephesians 5:18

5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, which ⁹  is debauchery, ¹⁰  but be filled by the Spirit, ¹¹ 

Hebrews 13:15

13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name.

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 2:5

Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity

2:5 For he did not put the world to come, ¹²  about which we are speaking, ¹³  under the control of angels.

Hebrews 2:9

2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, ¹⁴  now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, ¹⁵  so that by God’s grace he would experience ¹⁶  death on behalf of everyone.

Hebrews 4:11

4:11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.

[1:12]  ¹ tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

[1:12]  ² tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”

[2:7]  ³ tn Or “having been rooted.”

[2:7]  ⁴ sn The three participles rooted, built up, and firm belong together and reflect three different metaphors. The first participle “rooted” (perfect tense) indicates a settled condition on the part of the Colossian believers and refers to horticulture. The second participle “built up” (present passive) comes from the world of architecture. The third participle “firm [established]” (present passive) comes from the law courts. With these three metaphors (as well as the following comment on thankfulness) Paul explains what he means when he commands them to continue to live their lives in Christ. The use of the passive probably reflects God’s activity among them. It was he who had rooted them, had been building them up, and had established them in the faith (cf. 1 Cor 3:5-15 for the use of mixed metaphors).

[2:7]  ⁵ tn The Greek text has the article τῇ (th), not the possessive pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn), but the article often functions as a possessive pronoun and was translated as such here (ExSyn 215).

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Grk “First.” Paul never mentions a second point, so J. B. Phillips translated “I must begin by telling you….”

[5:20]  ⁷ tn Grk “for all.” The form “all” can be either neuter or masculine.

[5:1]  ⁸ tn Or “become.”

[5:18]  ⁹ tn Grk “in which.”

[5:18]  ¹⁰ tn Or “dissipation.” See BDAG 148 s.v. ἀσωτία.

[5:18]  ¹¹ tn Many have taken ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) as indicating content, i.e., one is to be filled with the Spirit. ExSyn 375 states, “There are no other examples in biblical Greek in which ἐν + the dative after πληρόω indicates content. Further, the parallel with οἴνῳ as well as the common grammatical category of means suggest that the idea intended is that believers are to be filled by means of the [Holy] Spirit. If so there seems to be an unnamed agent. The meaning of this text can only be fully appreciated in light of the πληρόω language in Ephesians. Always the term is used in connection with a member of the Trinity. Three considerations seem to be key: (1) In Eph 3:19 the ‘hinge’ prayer introducing the last half of the letter makes a request that the believers ‘be filled with all the fullness of God’ (πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ). The explicit content of πληρόω is thus God’s fullness (probably a reference to his moral attributes). (2) In 4:10 Christ is said to be the agent of filling (with v. 11 adding the specifics of his giving spiritual gifts). (3) The author then brings his argument to a crescendo in 5:18: Believers are to be filled by Christ by means of the Spirit with the content of the fullness of God.”

[2:5]  ¹² sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.

[2:5]  ¹³ sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.

[2:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

[2:9]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

[2:9]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “would taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).