He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
Parallel translations
- WEB who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
- KJV Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
- BSB and who also informed us of your love in the Spirit.
- NKJV who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
- NASB and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.
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
Epaphras reported to Paul about the Colossians' love produced by the Holy Spirit. Christian love is a work of the Spirit, not mere natural affection.
Overview
This is the only explicit mention of the Spirit in Colossians, here as the source of the believers' 'love.' Their love is 'in the Spirit,' meaning it is generated and sustained by God's own work within them. The report of this love is what prompted Paul's thanksgiving and prayer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Rom 15:30Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,
- 2 Tim 1:7For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
- Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
- Rom 5:5and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Col 1:4having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,
- 1 Pet 1:22Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently:
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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 1:8 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.
Original language
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