Read & explore together
Thanksgiving and Prayer
In this prayer, thanks and requests belong together. The writers thank God for what they have heard about the Colossians, then ask for continued growth that matches the good news they have received.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
This passage is a prayer of thanksgiving and request. It speaks about faith, love, hope, the good news, prayer, growth, strength, inheritance, rescue, kingdom, redemption and forgiveness. It also mentions Epaphras as the one from whom they learned and the one who reported their love in the Spirit.
Colossians 1:3–14Main takeaway
This prayer teaches that believers thank God for faith, love and hope, and ask him for knowledge, fruitful living, strength and thankful confidence in his rescue through the Son.
Explore the prayer
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Thanks for faith, love and hopeThe prayer begins with thanks to God the Father and regular prayer for the believers. The reason for thanks is what has been heard about them: faith in Christ Jesus and love toward all the saints.
Explanation
The prayer begins with thanks to God the Father and regular prayer for the believers. The reason for thanks is what has been heard about them: faith in Christ Jesus and love toward all the saints. These are linked to hope laid up in the heavens, which they heard about in the true good news.
02The good news is growingThe good news is described as having come to them and also as bearing fruit and growing in all the world.
Explanation
The good news is described as having come to them and also as bearing fruit and growing in all the world. The same growth is said to be happening in them since the day they heard and knew the grace of God in truth. Epaphras taught them and reported their love in the Spirit.
03Prayer for knowledge and a worthy walkBecause of this report, the writers keep praying that they may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Explanation
Because of this report, the writers keep praying that they may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in spiritual wisdom and understanding. This knowledge is aimed at action: walking worthily of the Lord, pleasing him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
04Strength and thankful rescueThe prayer continues with a request for strength from God’s glorious might, leading to endurance, perseverance and joy.
Explanation
The prayer continues with a request for strength from God’s glorious might, leading to endurance, perseverance and joy. It then returns to thanksgiving to the Father, who makes his people fit for the inheritance of the saints in light, rescues them from darkness and brings them into the Kingdom of the Son. In him there is redemption and forgiveness of sins.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What three qualities does this prayer thank God for in the Colossians?
Look for the words connected together in the opening thanksgiving: faith in Christ Jesus, love toward all the saints and hope laid up in the heavens.
02According to the prayer, what should being filled with the knowledge of God’s will lead to?
Notice that the request in one verse is followed by practical results in the next verse, including walking worthily, pleasing the Lord and bearing fruit.
03How does the end of the prayer describe what the Father has done for believers?
List the verbs and key nouns in these verses: made fit, delivered, translated, redemption and forgiveness.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Colossians 1:3–14
3We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have toward all the saints,
5because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News
6which has come to you, even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth,
7even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf,
8who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
9For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,
11strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy,
12giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,
13who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
14in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.