The Secret of the Good News
This same Good News
that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit
everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you
first heard and understood the truth about God’s
wonderful grace. .
We ask God
to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and
understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the
Lord and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you
will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power
so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you
be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his
people, who live in the light. For He has rescued us from the kingdom of
darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our
freedom and forgave our sins.
Christ Is Supreme
Christ is
the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was
created and is supreme over all creation, for through Him God created
everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and
the things we cannot see; such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in
the unseen spiritual world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else and He
holds all creation together.
Christ is
also the Head of the Church, which is His body. He is
the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So He is first in
everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and
through him God reconciled everything to himself.
He made
peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the
cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now He
has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.
As a result, He has brought you into His own presence and you are holy and
blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault.
But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly
in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good
News. The Good News has been preached
all over the world. This message was kept secret for centuries and
generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted
them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you, too. And
this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing
his infinite glory.
So we tell others about Christ, advising everyone and
teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them
to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.