Father's Heart Bible™ (FHB)

Colossians 3:13

Put up with one another, forgiving whatever complaints you have against each other. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:13 · Father's Heart Bible™

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What Colossians 3:13 means

Colossians 3:13 says, “Put up with one another, forgiving whatever complaints you have against each other. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Paul assumes there will be complaints. People who live and worship together will hurt and frustrate one another.

The verse is part of a change of clothes. Paul has just said believers “have stripped off the old self” and “put on the new self,” and now he names what to put on: “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” He calls them “our Father’s chosen, holy and dearly loved” before he asks anything of them. Forgiveness is not how they earn that place; it is how people who already have it live. Over everything goes love, “which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

The measure is the striking part: “as the Lord forgave you.” Forgiveness here is not a feeling we wait for, or a verdict that the wrong did not matter. It is passing on what we were given. Paul says the same in Ephesians: “forgiving one another, just as our Father forgave you through Christ” (Ephesians 4:32).

Written by Spirit Media Publishing · Edited by Kevin White · Published November 6, 2026

Colossians 3:13 in context

12 So, as our Father's chosen, holy and dearly loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

13 Put up with one another, forgiving whatever complaints you have against each other. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15 Let Christ's peace rule your hearts—you were called to it as one body. Be thankful.

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and correcting each other with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, with gratitude in your hearts to our Father.

17 Whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking our Father through him.

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Questions about Colossians 3:13

What does Colossians 3:13 say?

In Father's Heart Bible™, Colossians 3:13 reads: “Put up with one another, forgiving whatever complaints you have against each other. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

What does Colossians 3:13 mean?

Colossians 3:13 means that believers should patiently bear with one another and forgive each other’s complaints, and the standard is how the Lord has forgiven them. It is part of what Paul tells our Father’s dearly loved children to “put on,” with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

What does “put up with one another” mean in Colossians 3:13?

It means patiently carrying the faults and irritations of other people instead of keeping score. It comes right after patience in verse 12 and right before forgiveness in the same verse: bearing with someone is the everyday form of the same grace that forgiveness shows when a real wrong has been done.

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