1:25a
I became its servant: The pronoun its refers back to “church” in 1:24. In 1:23 Paul had said that he had become a servant of the gospel. Here he said that he had become a servant of the church. Paul had become someone who worked to help the community of those who believed in Jesus.
1:25b–c
by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you: In the Greek text, the phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates to you is in the middle of the verse. Therefore, scholars do not agree about how it is connected to the rest of the verse. There are two main ways to understand this phrase:
(1) It is connected to what precedes it, that is, God gave Paul a commission for the Colossians, that is, for their benefit, in order to help them.
(Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, King James Version, New Century Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible)
(2) It is connected to what follows, that is, God gave Paul a commission to present the word of God to the Colossians.
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, New Living Translation (2004))
It is recommended that you follow the first option (1) since most commentaries support it and it is the clearest way to understand the Greek structure.
the commission God gave: To give a commission to someone means to appoint him to do a job, to entrust him with a duty, and make him responsible to do it. The job/commission God entrusted to Paul was to serve the church in Colossae.
to fully proclaim to you the word of God: One of the ways that God wanted Paul to serve the church was to fully proclaim…the word of God. Paul’s job was to “fully proclaim God’s message,” or “to tell people about God’s message.”
the word of God: This refers to the message from God, the gospel. In this context it does not mean only the written word of God, the Scriptures.
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