To all these qualities add love represents the Greek prepositional phrase which has no verb, literally, “and on them love.” The preposition epi may simply be (1) local “on” or “over” (following the figure of “clothing” in verse 12), (2) “in addition to” (Moule, Twentieth Century New Testament Goodspeed Jerusalem Bible New American Bible New International Version), (3) or a degree of comparison, “more than all these,” “above all these” (as Revised Standard Version seems to mean, also Phillips Moffatt Translator’s New Testament New English Bible Barclay Traduction œcuménique de la Bible Bible en français courant). The Tagalog CL translates, “Above all else, love one another, for this is the bond of perfect unity.” As noted in the Tagalog CL translation, love must be treated as a verb, not as a noun referring to something which may be “added.” It may be, therefore, necessary in a number of instances to render to all these qualities add love as “in addition to doing all that, you must also love one another” or “even more important than doing all that, you should love one another.”

Love is the normal NT word for God’s or Christ’s love for mankind, and is taken to be the supreme Christian virtue (Rom 13.8-10, 1 Cor 12.31–13.13). It is here called “the bond of perfection, or completeness.” The word “bond” (sundesmos) appears in 2.19 as a “ligament” in the body. The genitive “of perfection” can be understood as indicating result or purpose (so Lohse, compare Turner Moulton III, 212, “the bond producing perfection”). But it seems more natural (even though nowhere else in the NT is this said of love) that (1) it is love which binds all the Christian virtues together in perfect unity, or harmony, which gives order and coherence to Christian character and conduct; or (2) it is love which binds all Christians together in perfect harmony in the body of Christ, the Church (Peake, Beare; Bible en français courant Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

As already suggested, it may be impossible to use a noun for love which is spoken of as “doing something,” that is to say, “binding all things together.” It is, however, possible in many instances to say “by your loving one another, everything is brought together as one in a perfect way,” or on the basis of the second possible interpretation of this passage, “by loving one another, you bind yourselves together as though you are one and this is just as it should be.” By saying “this is just as it should be,” one can express the concept of “perfection.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .