I’ve got a question for you: Have you made your wish list yet? It’s that wonderful time of year, when retailers are bombarding us with ads and messages that are more than happy to point out what we’re missing in our sad little lives and just how happy we can be if we get that new gadget or toy. It’s always kind of amusing to me to think about how toys have changed and progressed through the years. Some of you grew up in the days of Barbie, Mr. Potato Head, Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs. Others of you might have played with the Spirograph, G.I. Joe, Lite-Brite and Hot Wheels race cars. My generation grew up with video games – first it was the Atari, then the Nintendo and Game Boy systems. But there was also Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pokémon and Beanie Babies. In the new millennium, the Wii, Xbox and PlayStation video-game systems took over the market. But Dora the Explorer, Harry Potter and Elmo-Doing-Anything-Depending-on-the-Year made nondigital splashes.
But it’s kind of sad the lengths some people will go to in order to get that perfect gift. It seems as though every year a parent brawl at Toys “R” Us makes headlines. Remember the reports of parents trampling each other or offering $1,000 bribes to get a Cabbage Patch Kid? The Tickle Me Elmo rage created mob scenes reminiscent of Depression-era bank runs. Can you begin to imagine a world where parents showed equal passion to secure emotional well-being and spiritual development for their kids? I suppose that’s too much to ask for.
Instead of merely developing our Christmas wish-lists, what about focusing on a Christ-wish list? In our passage today, Paul gives us a couple of ideas that we could ask for from the giver of all good things, who is God Himself. He also talks about the greatest gift ever given. As we enter this season that our society marks with commercialism and greed, we would do well to focus on the gifts that God desires to give us.
The Gift of Knowledge (vv. 9-10)
Every believer needs to have “the knowledge of His will.” There is always more to learn about God and His will for our lives. No Christian would ever dare to say that he had “arrived” and needed to learn nothing more. The will of God is an important part of a successful Christian life. God wants us to know His will. God is not a distant dictator who issues orders and never explains. Because we are His friends, we can know what He is doing and why He is doing it. As we study His Word and pray, we discover new and exciting truths about God’s will for His people.
The word filled is a key word in Colossians. In the language of the New Testament, to be filled means to be “controlled by.” When we are filled with anger, we are controlled by anger. To be “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) means to be “controlled by the Spirit.” Paul’s prayer, then, is that we might be controlled by the full knowledge of God’s will.
But how does this take place? How can believers grow in the full knowledge of God’s will? Paul tells us: “through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives”. We understand the will of God through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit teaches us as we submit to Him. As we pray and sincerely seek God’s truth, He gives us through the Spirit the wisdom and insight that we need.
The general will of God for all His children is given clearly in the Bible. The specific will of God for any given situation must always agree with what He has already revealed in His Word. The better we know God’s general will, the easier it will be to determine His specific guidance in daily life. Paul does not encourage us to seek visions or wait for voices. He prayed that we might get deeper into God’s Word and thus have greater wisdom and insight concerning God’s will. He wants us to have “all wisdom”—not that we would know everything, but that we would have all the wisdom necessary for making decisions and living to please God.
The Gift of Strength (v. 11a)
God offers an ongoing gift that accompanies us in living out our lives here and now: his power making us strong. God will strengthen us in places of our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9) and in our inner lives (Ephesians 3:16). God wants us engaged with and dependent on him when anxiety, depression, stress, doubt, frustration, cynicism and bitterness conflict with who he wants us to be. God’s invisible power brings us interior strength. We believe it’s available to us by faith so we might experience it in tangible reality.
The Gift of Patience (v. 11b)
“May you be prepared to endure everything with patience” (v. 11). Control freaks will recoil at this idea, but the reality is that we have no idea what’s coming next in life. Sadly, lottery winning has ridiculous odds, and surprise parties happen only once or twice. That means the unexpected is almost always bad news.
Cancer in a loved one. Being laid off from work. Getting sideswiped and injured in a car accident. Being betrayed by a trusted friend. We never plan for these times, so we’re rarely prepared for them. The only thing we can bring to the table at that point is the character we’ve developed beforehand. That’s why Paul prays that we’d be prepared to endure everything with patience and with virtue that can weather the unexpected. It’s a God-granted gift we partner in cultivating, and it carries us through the unforeseen. To walk life’s trials in a way that honors God is like navigating a balance beam. Both sides have easy drop-offs. Complaining. Hopelessness. Anger. Self-absorption. But staying upright and making it requires the balance of godly patience.
The word patience means “endurance when circumstances are difficult.” It is the opposite of despondency. Patience is an important characteristic of the maturing Christian life. If we do not learn to be patient, we are not likely to learn anything else. As believers, we are able to rejoice even in our trials, because we know that “tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance proven character; and proven character, hope” (Rom. 5:3–4, NASB).
We must never think that patience is complacency. Patience is endurance in action. It is not the Christian sitting in a rocking chair, waiting for God to do something. It is the soldier on the battlefield, keeping on when the going is tough. It is the runner on the race track, refusing to stop because he wants to win the race (Heb. 12:1).
The Gift of Joyful Gratitude (vv. 12-14)
Joy and gratitude, like patience, are more developed attitudes than momentary emotions. Emotions come from our brains, but these attitudes have been forged from our souls. Paul wants to call out a godly attitude in us that can combat the difficulties of the spiritual life. So he prays that our joyful gratitude toward God would expand. So what do we have to be thankful for?
We can be thankful for our inheritance—being qualified ‘to share in the inheritance’. God has provided an inheritance through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the birthright of the Children of God. To ‘share in the inheritance’ means that believers have the eternal riches of salvation. In Christ believers are granted to live with God, who is light, forever.
We can be thankful for our deliverance—being ‘rescued … from the dominion of darkness’. Before we became believers, we were under the powerful rule of the devil; but now this power is broken by the Savior himself (2:15). Christ has rescued us and we are safe and protected from the enemy.
We can also be thankful for our new life—being ‘brought … into the kingdom of the Son He loves’. We are to praise the Father because we have been rescued from the dominion of darkness and from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of Christ. We can be thankful that we have passed from death to life; from alienation to acceptance; from despair to hope; from danger to safety; from uncertainty to peace.
We can be thankful for our forgiveness—receiving ‘the forgiveness of sins’. We have received this through the precious blood of Christ.
If asked, is there a single Christian who couldn’t be more joyful? More grateful toward God? Experience the depth of these attitudes from our souls? So let’s join Paul in praying for these qualities. Let’s learn to live out of our hearts. Let’s strive far more toward a joyful and grateful soul than we do toward bringing joy to our loved ones with that perfect gift. These are things that we can ask God to give us. But even as we do, we cannot lose sight of the wonderful gifts that He has already given us.
The Gift of the Son (vv. 15-18)
Here’s something we should long for: a surprise gift. That rare gift you receive that you didn’t know to ask for but was exactly what you wanted. Christ possesses the first place in everything. He is priority one. Jesus Christ is ‘the image of the invisible God’ not only because he is man made in the image of God, but also because he has the same nature as God, being co-eternal with him. The Father is invisible to us, yet God manifests himself by his Son (John 14:9). Christ pre-existed with the Father before the world was created as ‘the first-born over all creation’ (v. 15), being the Father’s heir. This phrase does not refer to the creating of Jesus Christ before the rest of creation, as the Arians and the Unitarians teach, but to his eternal divine existence.
Verse 16 tells us that ‘For in him all things were created.’ This shows that all things owe their origin to Jesus Christ. He is the divine agent in Creation and made all that we see and all that we do not see. He created matter and spirit. This reinforces His deity and declares His glorious power. The words ‘in him’ show that God the Father works through the Son. Everything came into being out of nothing by his power.
Verse 17 tells us ‘He is before all things and in him all things hold together’. Jesus was not part of Creation but he was before it. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Rev. 22:13). He did not pre-exist in human form but became man when He came to earth. Everything is held together and sustained by him. Through him the world is prevented from falling apart.
Verse 18 tells us Christ is head over the church, ‘the head of the body’, and he exercises authority and rule over it by his Word and his Spirit. Paul reminds us that there is nothing lacking in Christ because the fullness of deity, power and grace are his (2:9). He is able to save all who come to God by him, and it is out of his fullness that believers receive constant grace.
Paul says all of this, and I’ve spent time pointing out its implications for a reason. These words point to an omnipotent God who alone is worthy of our worship. Borrowing a liberating idea from Os Guinness’ The Call, we only ever live life before “an audience of One.” That means we owe no allegiance to other forces or public opinions — the boss, the neighbors, the hot trends, the magazine images of beauty, the people we feel the pressure to impress, those must-have gifts. We don’t answer to them. They don’t define us. They can’t change our souls. We answer only to Christ the firstborn. Our lives are a play acted before an audience of One. And then we realize that the Giver of all these gifts has given himself so that we might receive
The Gift of Reconciliation (vv. 20-23a)
Before the Fall, God and man had unbroken fellowship, but when Adam sinned he turned away from God. The reconciliation made by Jesus Christ at Calvary removes the hostility and restores harmony between God and sinners. Jesus Christ has undone sin’s curse and cancelled sin’s condemnation through the atonement achieved at the cross. The Fall affected all of creation, but Christ’s death restored the universe to its proper relationship with God. Making ‘peace through the blood of his cross’ is God’s way of reconciliation. When Christ died on the cross of Calvary he reconciled ‘all things to himself’ (v. 20).
This was made possible through the atoning blood of Christ: ‘having made peace through his blood, shed on the cross’ (v. 20). This is frequently emphasized in the New Testament because our forgiveness has a cost; it is not free. Jesus paid for our salvation with His own blood. Why was it necessary to atone with the ‘blood of his cross’? Reconciliation is achieved by atoning sacrifice: ‘when I see the blood, I will pass over you’ (Exod. 12:13). New Testament teaching is in harmony with Old Testament teaching on sacrifices and offerings. It is the deity of Christ that gives power to the blood sacrificed for sinners at Calvary.
When Paul talks of being reconciled to God he is preaching the gospel. Reconciliation speaks of a resolution of problems and a restoration of friendship between those who are out of fellowship. Paul describes our condition before we knew God, firstly calling us ‘aliens’—strangers and outsiders who are out of fellowship with God. Secondly, he calls us ‘enemies’; this speaks of hostile opposition toward God. Thirdly, he talks of ‘evil behavior’. The gospel proclaims that we are sinners by nature as well as by deeds.
Reconciliation comes through Christ’s death. It was the Father who sent him to Calvary, and there he was judged, sentenced, and punished on account of our sin to establish peace between God and believing sinners. This resulted in us being presented as ‘holy, without blemish and free from accusation’. It is what God thinks of his Son’s atoning sacrifice that really matters. Our true worth and dignity are found only in Christ.
Reconciliation. This complex word carries the idea of restoring things completely. After an original state of harmony has been corrupted, reconciliation brings it back. Verse 19 tells us that God was pleased to do this. And “all things” means no person or situation is outside of the hope of change. Nothing is too beyond repair for God.
With all that Paul wishes for Christians and everything else we find in this text to encourage our own prayers, perhaps this should be at the top of our wish list: Coming into this season, we can know, experience and extend the reconciliation of Jesus Christ. My friends, there is absolutely nothing better that we can ask for.
