We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
3. We give thanks to God. He praises the faith and love of the Colossians, that it may encourage them the more to alacrity and constancy of perseverance. Farther, by shewing that he has a persuasion of this kind respecting them, he procures their friendly regards, that they may be the more favourably inclined and teachable for receiving his doctrine.
Thanksgiving belongs in every prayer, paired with rejoicing over the same matter. Paul gives thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for their faith in Christ, their love toward the saints, and their hope laid up in heaven, the three principal graces that mark a Christian life.
AI summary
Commenting on Colossians 1:3-8
We give thanks to God,.... Meaning himself and Timothy. This is the beginning of the epistle, which is introduced with a thanksgiving to God; to whom praise and thankfulness are always due as a Creator and preserver, as the author of all good things, as the Father of mercies, temporal and spiritual, and as the covenant God and Father of his people through Christ: wherefore...