Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ¹  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ²  the word of God,

Colossians 4:8-9

4:8 I sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are doing ³  and that he may encourage your hearts. 4:9 I sent him ⁴  with Onesimus, the faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. ⁵  They will tell ⁶  you about everything here.

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¹ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

² tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

³ tn Grk “the things concerning us.”

⁴ tn The Greek sentence continues v. 9 with the phrase “with Onesimus,” but this is awkward in English, so the verb “I sent” was inserted and a new sentence started at the beginning of v. 9 in the translation.

⁵ tn Grk “is of you.”

⁶ tn Grk “will make known to you.” This has been simplified in the translation to “will tell.”