Colossians 1:9-14
October 03, 2012
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Colossians Bible Study
Colossians 1:9-14 [HCSB]
9For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. 11May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. 14We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.
So far while studying this letter from Paul to the Colossian church we have learned about the author, which is Paul based on 1:1 and 4:18…
We also learned that the approx date was around 60-61AD because it is known as the “Prison Epistles” by Paul…believed to be written during his Roman imprisonment just prior to his death.
So what we can gather from this letter is that Paul is in prison and he has sent this letter to the church where he was NOT the founding member of the church in Colossae, but it is believed that Epaphras founded the church after he was converted under Paul in Ephesus…
So Paul is sending a letter to a church where they have never met him personally, but know of him by reputation. He knows they respect his authority as a leader within the church and so he uses this opportunity to teach them with this letter.
Then in v3-8 we learned of Paul’s concern, encouragement and love for the church in Colossae. He lifted them up in his greeting and that leads us to the passage we are going to study tonight as Paul continues in this line of thinking, but does so with a prayer…[show v9 here]
9For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you.
Here we find Paul establishing a basis for ALL of his teaching and that is the subject of prayer and how important Paul believed prayer was in the life of the believer!
Paul shared that they had heard the reports of this church and at that point they had began to pray for them and had not stopped… they were a fellowship of believers that Paul interceded to the throne of God… and he did so on a regular basis!
This was Paul’s custom… prayer for the churches and this was an encouragement to the believers in Colossae as well.
Can you imagine if our church rec’d a letter from Billy Graham that said… hey guys I have heard about what you are doing in New Orleans and I want you to know that I am praying for you regularly…
How excited would it be to hear a message like that from a Christian leader that we loved and respected? It would be a TREMENDOUS encouragement!
So this was Paul’s way of encouraging the believers in Colossae because he knew that he would have to also deal with some difficult teaching in the letter as well… so he starts it off with a great deal of encouragement!
But just what sort of prayer was it? Paul not only tells them that he is praying for them BUT Paul tells them in detail just what he is praying for… just what he hopes God to accomplish in their fellowship!
I believe I would call this directed encouragement! Look what he says over the next few verses beginning with the last part of v9:[show highlighted v9 here]
We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
Here Paul is praying that they KNOW God’s will… I believe this is a 2 pronged approach by Paul. First he wants each believer to KNOW the will of God for their lives, but also Paul wants the fellowship as a whole to know and understand God’s will for the fellowship!
Praying that God would FILL them with the knowledge of His will… how can that happen! Well Paul had already addressed this on several occasions with many other churches. The most famous was his letter to the Roman churches some 5 yrs earlier.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome and told them to submit their bodies as living sacrifices and for them to NOT allow the world to shape or mold them, but instead allow God to fundamentally transform them… if they would do these things, then they would KNOW the will of God!
Likewise here Paul wants these people to know the will of God for their lives… he wants this fellowship to know the will of God for its direction and focus!
But for one to know the will of God ONE must focused upon God and not allowing the world to influence or dominate their thoughts or shape their desires!
Paul wanted God’s will to be made known to this body of believers, but Paul did not stop there! Paul not only prays that this body of believers would know God’s will but that they would be filled with wisdom and spiritual understanding.
This means that they would NOT be seeking human wisdom but the wisdom of God… and that their understanding about God would altar and change their outlook on life and doing God’s will!
Many times we are faced with KNOWING God’s will but not understanding it or not having the wisdom to put it into practice.
Paul prays here that not only will they KNOW God’s will but that God would open their minds to understanding God’s plan and the wisdom to seeing God’s will accomplished!
Looking at v10 we find Paul continuing with this line of prayer:[show v10 here]
10so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.
This is a great verse… v10 is actually my life verse. It covers all areas of our Christian conduct… Paul is praying that not only will they accept Christ but that their lives will reflect Him in their actions.
To walk worthy of the Lord… [show highlighted v10 here]this does not mean that they would do things to become worthy of God’s favor. This was Paul’s challenge to these believers to life a life that God would be pleased with…
To walk worthy of the Lord… means that one seeks only to live as God sees fit, one seeks to shun the lure of the world and embrace the grip of Christ on their lives!
To walk worth of the Lord… means that they were going to FULLY PLEASE the Lord in how they lived. Obeying God’s word and seeking to be salt and light in a generation of darkness and sinfulness…
Paul prays that God would provide blessing and successes in the ministry of these people… that if they were faithful in walking worthy of God that they would bear GOOD fruit… that their GOOD works would produce GOOD fruit!
The desire of any pastor is always to see fruit produced in the lives of those he pastors and this was Paul’s desire for these people.
Although Paul was NOT their actual pastor, he felt spiritually responsible for them, and so it was his desire to see GOOD FRUIT produced from their lives!
But Paul continues here by praying that this group of believers would grow in the knowledge of God…[show highlighted v10 here] what does that mean?
Well what it means is that the closer they get to God the more they know about Him and the more they know about God the more they can grow closer to Him and BE what he wants them to be.
The same is true for us today… if we are going to walk worthy of our Savior, we must seek out a life that is FULLY pleasing to God, a life that seeks HIS desire and not our own… a life that focuses on knowing God more and more… and with that knowledge our hearts submit to his will!
So Paul’s desire is that the believers in Colossae live lives worthy of the name of Christ, and that all they do will be fruitful in the kingdom and that they will ALWAYS seek to grow in the Lord, but Paul continues in v11…[show v11 here]
11May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy
Doing what Paul asks of them in v10 would be impossible on their own strength and Paul knows and understands this, so his prayer continues and asks God to empower these believers with a supernatural power to carry them forward in their walk with Him.
Paul prays for these believers to be strengthened with power… [show highlighted v11 here] the Greek word used here is dunamis which is where we get our English word for dynamite. This is a force of explosive authority, but Paul did not want them to only have POWER…
But he also prays for God to strengthen these believers according to God’s ‘glorious might’…[show other highlighted v11 here] the Greek term he uses here is kratos which infers COMPLETE power over… such as God has complete dominion over His creation.
Paul is asking God to grant that same power/might to these believers so that they are able to live that worthy life… and produce the good fruit that will grow the Kingdom.
Another reason that they would need this power/ might is what Paul addresses next as he says: for all endurance and patience, with joy…[show other highlighted v11 here] you are going to need God’s power and God’s might to endure what this world will throw your way… to be patient and not emotional… to be joyful and not bitter…
Paul prays for these believers to be strengthened so that they can BE the believers God desires them to be…
Then Paul turns a bit in his prayer to ensure that these believers were going to acknowledge God’s provision of what Paul was praying for… Paul wrote:[show v12 here]
12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
‘giving thanks to the Father’
[show highlighted v12 here]For Paul this was not an instruction he gave that would be considered a one-time thing!
Paul taught all throughout his letters to ALL the churches he ministered to that prayer was not so much about a one time event, but it was more of an attitude of the heart…
We know Paul taught that in ALL things in prayer and supplication we should approach the throne of God and also Paul says that as believers we are called to pray without ceasing…
This was the type of prayer Paul was implying here in this verse, and not some one-time effort on the part of these believers!
‘…giving thanks to the Father…’
[show highlighted v12 here]Paul’s implication here are that we give thanks to the Father because He is the ONLY good in this universe and all good things come from Him…and so we must thank Him for His goodness.
We must be about the giving of thanks because of what God has done in the person of Jesus Christ!
The sacrifice and provision of grace provided by Jesus can open up the door of salvation for believers so that they may become heirs to an eternal throne and provision… we can never forget that!
The ‘provision’ Paul is speaking about is briefly mentioned here in this verse when Paul writes about sharing the inheritance of the Saints in the light…
As believers we share a heritage and inheritance with all believers and it is what Christ has promised… Jesus is the light of the world and as such we are lights TO the world thru Him!
We have the inheritance of sharing God’s love for world as Jesus did, but also that we shall observe God’s inheritance in our salvation and ultimate destination in heaven with God!
However, this ‘provision’ Paul alludes to was one he describes in more detail in v13-14 where he writes:
[show v13-14 here]
13He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. 14We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.
The ‘provision’ is deliverance from sin… from the darkness of sin… we are brought out of that darkness into the Light of Christ!
We have been transferred according to Paul… from our life of death and hopelessness TO a life of eternal life and communion with our Creator! All of this is possible only THRU Jesus Christ…
Jesus brings redemption from sin with what He did on the Cross of Calvary… we are ‘redeemed’ thru Him and our sins are forgiven IN Him! THIS is the provision Paul is praying about in his prayer…
He is praying for this group of believers to be filled with God’s wisdom and understanding…
He is praying that they will begin to live their lives in such a way that it is considered to be WORTHY of the Lord they serve…
He is praying that their lives would be FULLY pleasing to God…
He is praying that their lives will be lives producing GOOD fruit within the kingdom…
Paul prays that God empower them with His power and might to live as they are called to live…
Paul prays that God would bring about endurance and patience within this group of believers (we will talk further about that in a minute)…
Paul prays that God would infuse their hearts w/His joy…
Paul also prays that these believers would approach everything in an attitude of prayer and thankfulness…
In his prayer Paul reminds these believers of the provision that Christ made for us… that Christ is the reason for our salvation… He is our rescue!
God, thru His Son whom He loves… brings complete redemption to those who trust in Him. We are REDEEMED before a holy God and stand justified and blameless of our sin… heirs to the eternal throne of heaven!
Paul began this letter with a word of encouragement but he continues that encouragement in the form of a great prayer for this fellowship… He seeks God’s intervention into their lives to strengthen them and help them be the believers they are called to be…
Today this letter carries the same weight as it did over 2000yrs ago… Today this letter is JUST as relevant to our own fellowship as it was to the Colossian believers over 2000yrs ago…
Today… we can know that this prayer applies to us as well. We are encouraged by God’s word to serve as God has called us to serve and thru God’s word we can see what provision He has made for us to serve Him…
Let us glory in the fact that PROVISION has been made thru Jesus and that God’s wisdom, strength, and might is available to EVERY believer today, as it was when Paul was praying this prayer for the Colossian believers over 2000yrs ago…
