Colassians 1:9-12
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his people in the kingdom of light.
How Many Licks Does it Take?
Our scripture today is a wonderful example of a Pauline letter. He starts out with his usual fanfare in verses 1-8 applauding the good Christians of Colosse for their steadfast love of God. Now, what Paul does after this, is brilliant. You see, Paul is what I would call a brilliant tactician. No matter if you were one of the “bad churches” he was writing to scold or one of the “good churches” he was writing to applaud and uphold… he starts out the same way. “I thank God for you all and I am so thankful for all the stories I hear about how much you love God.” He gives them a little rub of their ego… he gets you thinking boy… we really are awesome, and then he when he gets you thinking how awesome you are for the sake of God… he turns it… now this is what God wants you to do.
You just get done hearing how awesome you are for God, you just get done agreeing with him… “boy we really are awesome!” How can you refuse anything he asks of you if he asks it in the name of God? It should be no surprise that he starts out this letter to the Colassians in the same way.
Verse 3, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all his people.” I am sure that most of them were thinking… wow, Paul is thanking God for us… we must be awesome. Then again, I am sure that a few of them who knew Paul, who had read some of his other letters… knew what was coming next. “Oh man… he’s thanking God for us? What do you suppose he wants now. He probably wants more money.” Paul didn’t disappoint, he did want something.
Now, Colosse was really one of the “good churches.” But the church was being invaded by some pretty bad ideas… people who insisted that there was more to being a Christian than normal Christian practices. It was the typical Anti-Pauline arguments… like… you need to become a Jew before you can become a Christian… you can and should keep your old Pagan practices even when you become a Christian. And Paul is writing this letter to help get this “good church” back on track.
So after buttering them up in verses 1-8, he launches into his request. Let’s read those verses again, verse 9:
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his people in the kingdom of light.
You see what Paul doesn’t do here. He doesn’t even mention the heretics that are teaching bad theology. He doesn’t attack them, doesn’t refute them, doesn’t even make them an issue. What he does do… is encourages the church to wise up! Let’s start out by breaking this down just little bit.
1. We ask God to fill you with knowledge of his will (9c)
2. through the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives (9d)
3. That you may live a life worthy of the Lord and praise him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father (10)
- (repeat) [1] Be filled with God’s knowledge, [2] through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, [3] so that you may live a life worthy in the strength of the Lord
Now it is interesting to me that Paul brings up both knowledge and wisdom.
There is indeed a difference, and I think it is worth focusing on just a bit. Now, I have heard it said that knowledge is what we get when we study and learn, then… wisdom is what we get when we do something dumb… and learn!
A good example of this is two brothers. One brother came home from school very upset. The older brother, in a rare compassionate mood… noticed, and asked the younger brother what was wrong. “Oh, the other kids tricked me and spent the rest of the day making fun of me. I’m tired of all the other kids making fun of me for being dumb.” The older brother got a big grin on his face and said, “AHA, I have just the thing for you.” He runs of into the other room and comes back with a green – pill shaped thing. “What’s that?” “It’s a wisdom pill… guaranteed to make you wiser!” “Wow.” The younger brother quickly snatches the grey pill and scarfs it down. “Plplplpplplpplpl…. Ptooey! That’s not a pill, that was a lima bean.” “See,” said the older brother… “you are getting wiser already.”
A similar example, is a commercial I remember from a few years back. You all remember the Tootsie Pop commercials… with the cartoon of the little boy and Mr. Owl. There is this great mystery… “How many licks does it take? How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? Well the little boy goes to Mr. Owl since he is supposed to be the wisest of all the creatures, and in his wisdom… the owl conducts a little experiment. “Let’s find out,” he says as he grabs the sucker out of the little boy’s hands. One (Lick), Two (Lick), Three (Lick) [CRUNCH] Three!” And he hands the empty stick to dumbstruck boy. “How man licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know!”
Some things can only be learned by experience. Whether it is being tricked out of a sucker or being tricked into eating a wise pill… some things you just have to do to learn. It is one thing to tell a young boy, “Don’t be taken in by tricks.” It is another thing for that boy to be tricked a time or two before he learns his lesson. As much as we hate it… some things can only be learned by doing. Mothers and fathers, you can all probably back me on this… how many times have you seen a son or daughter doing something you KNEW was going to get them in trouble… warned them about it… even forbid them to do it… only for them to do it anyway, and then come back with… “OK, I guess you were right.” Some things can only be learned by experience. The big question I have, the big question Paul had for the church of Collosse, is “How many licks is it going to take?”
How many times are you gonna have to be tricked, how many times are you going to have to fall flat, how many times are you going to have to fail… before you learn. How many licks is it going to take?”
I watched a Christian movie a while back called “Facing the Giants,” and I think it did an excellent job of presenting this exact same dilemma. The head coach of a football team is fighting for every single inch in the game of his life. He’s trying to control an out of control football team, he tries to wrestle his finances when he barely has two pennies to rub together, he wrestles with trying to have children, tries to control… a bunch of things he doesn’t have control over. Early in the show the town is turning against him, his players are leaving, and even his assistant coaches have chalked the season up to a complete loss after only one game. And the coach hits a turning point after finding out he is this close to getting fired.
You know what he has forgotten all along? Paul does! Let’s have a little refresher lesson:
1. We ask God to fill you with knowledge of his will (9c)
2. through the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives (9d)
3. That you may live a life worthy of the Lord and praise him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father (10)
- (repeat) [1] Be filled with God’s knowledge, [2] through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, [3] so that you may live a life worthy in the strength of the Lord
Life is going to teach us a bunch of lessons that we wont want to learn. God is going to try to shape us, mold us, and teach us… and for the most part we don’t want anything to do with that. We want what we want, and we think we know what we want. We think we know… what we want out of life. We think we know… what is important in this life. We think we know… what is going to make us happy. And I would bet, that 9 times out of 10, it is not the same thing that God says we should want… not the same thing that God says is the most important… not the same thing that God knows is going to make us really happy… and the big question looms… “How many licks does it take?”
The football coach in “Facing the Giants” had enough licks. He made some serious changes in his life… and began putting God first in everything he did. And it changed him… it changed his family… it changed the football team… it changed the whole town. He began to live for God, and to praise God… win or loose… no matter what happened. And soon, he found… that when he started to want the same thing God wanted, that when he started to make the same things important that God said were important… then what God said was going to make us happy… made him happy, and it made all the difference in his life.
We try to live lives that cater to our own wants and desires… our priorities are often aligned much closer with what the world tells us than with what God tells us… and I’m not sure… how many of us would actually be able to say… we are happy. And the question looms… “How many licks does it take?” before you are able to wise up and follow the will of God?
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
