To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Parallel translations
- WEB to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
- KJV To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
- NKJV To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- NASB to whom God willed to make known what the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- NLT For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The mystery is 'Christ in you, the hope of glory,' made known even among the Gentiles. Christ indwelling believers is the ground of their hope.
Overview
God chose to reveal the riches of this mystery 'among the Gentiles,' showing the gospel reaches all nations. The heart of the mystery is 'Christ in you, the hope of glory'—the indwelling Christ who guarantees future glory. This stunning truth elevates Christ as everything the Colossians need, against teachers offering supposed secret knowledge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 37
- John 14:20On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.
- Rom 8:10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- Eph 3:16–17I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,
- 1 Jn 4:4You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
- Gal 2:20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
- 1 Cor 3:16Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
- Rev 3:20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
- John 14:17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
- Eph 1:17–18that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him.
- Gal 4:19My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,
- 2 Cor 4:6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Tim 1:1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
- John 14:23Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
- Col 2:3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
- John 17:26And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”
- 2 Cor 6:16What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
- John 15:2–5He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.
- Col 3:11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.
- Eph 2:22And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.
- John 17:22–23I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one—
- 1 Pet 1:3–4Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- John 6:56Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.
- Rom 9:23What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—
- Eph 1:7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
- Phil 4:19And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
- Ps 16:9–11Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell securely.
- Rom 5:2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
- Rom 8:18–19I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.
- Col 1:5the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel
- Luke 17:21Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
- 2 Cor 4:17For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
- Gal 1:15–16But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
- Eph 3:8–10Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Matt 13:11He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
- 2 Cor 2:14But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.
- 1 Cor 2:12–14We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
- Rom 11:33O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
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Christ at the center
The image of the invisible God, firstborn over creation, in whom all things hold together and all the fullness of God dwells bodily — supreme over every power.
How Colossians 1:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
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