Kolose 1:18

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn ¹  from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. ² 

Kolose 1:24

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

Kolose 2:14

2:14 He has destroyed ³  what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness ⁴  expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Kolose 3:17

3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

[1:18]  ¹ tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.

[1:18]  ² tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”

[2:14]  ³ tn The participle ἐξαλείψας (exaleiyas) is a temporal adverbial participle of contemporaneous time related to the previous verb συνεζωοποίησεν (sunezwopoihsen), but has been translated as a finite verb because of the complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences. For the meaning “destroy” see BDAG 344-45 s.v. ἐξαλείφω 2.

[2:14]  ⁴ tn On the translation of χειρόγραφον (ceirografon), see BDAG 1083 s.v. which refers to it as “a certificate of indebtedness.”