Verse Lens · Context pointer
Colossians 3:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Bearing with and forgiving one another as the Lord forgave gives relational action to the virtues and prepares love as their bond.
Read It With
- Colossians 3:12-17
Read Colossians 3:12-17 as a complete movement. God's chosen, holy, beloved people must embody compassion, kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, and above all love, letting Christ's peace and word govern one body through mutual teaching, song, whole-life allegiance, and thanksgiving. At 3:13, focus on this verse's contribution: Bearing with and forgiving one another as the Lord forgave gives relational action to the virtues and prepares love as their bond.
Why It Needs Context
Bearing with and forgiving one another as the Lord forgave gives relational action to the virtues and prepares love as their bond. Its meaning depends on the complete Colossians 3:12-17 movement and should not be expanded into an independent claim.
Read Colossians 3:12–17 together
Why these verses belong together: Virtues, forgiveness, love, peace, word, mutual teaching, song, Jesus's name, and thanksgiving form one positive clothing movement.
Verse 12. 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Verse 13. 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Verse 14. 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
Verse 15. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Verse 16. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Verse 17. 17 And what soever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Colossians 3:12-17 — Put On Love, Peace, the Word of Christ, and GratitudeSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: The exact pinned KJV wording, paragraph data, and supplied-word markup for Colossians 3:12-17.
Exact location: eBible/CrossWire eng-kjv2006 USFM, source files dated 2026-08-19, Colossians 3:12-17; archive and normalized-corpus SHA-256 values are recorded in the shared library policy.
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: The critically edited Greek wording, connective structure, lexical forms, and variation markers.
Exact location: Official Faithlife SBLGNT repository, data/sblgnt/text/Col.txt, Colossians 3:12-17.
Open the Colossians Greek text file ↗