A Prayer for True Spirituality
Colossians 1:9-14
9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
I The Reason for Paul’s Prayer
Verse: 9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you…
Idea: Paul was encouraged by the Colossians authentic faith that they had received the complete and sufficient Gospel and that it was evidenced by their genuine love for others. He prays to encourage them and to outline for them an authentic spirituality that they might honor God in every way.
II The Substance of Paul’s Prayer
Verse: asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Idea: Paul’s prayer flies in the face of pagan philosophical culture as he takes their words and elevates them to a higher plane of meaning in Christ.
Note: filled (pleroo) – to be completely under the influence and controlled. Like a man under the influence of alcohol – he is not able to control himself because he is controlled by the intoxicating drink.
A Knowledge (epiginosko)
Idea: Deep, thorough, final, true knowledge that can only come from God through special revelation in accordance with God’s Word and under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. This is not just a mental knowledge, but a participatory knowledge controlled by God’s will (thelema) – that is the life that God intends for your life.
B Wisdom (sophia)
Idea: This is not wisdom derived from man’s human ingenuity, but wisdom that is only revealed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with God’s Word (1 Cor. 1:18-25). Thus, spiritual wisdom is the God-enabled ability to collect and organize principles and insights from Scripture and life (see Proverbs).
C Understanding (suneis)
Idea: The God-given ability to appropriate and apply wise principles and knowledge under the Spirit’s leading.
Trans: Paul prayed that they would receive absolute insight and knowledge so that they might know whom they have believed so that they might be persuaded and apprehended by God b/c they have been enabled to comprehend the depth of this revealed knowledge so that they might appropriate and apply its principles and precepts in their daily lives so that they would experience an extraordinary life.
III The Intended Result of Paul’s Prayer
Verse: 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might…
A A Worthy Walk
Note: walk (parapateo) the every day pitter-patter of life. Paul used a word understood by the Greeks – Plato sponsored a school known as the Parapateo where wanting philosophy students would go on walks of enlightenment but never acted upon their human insights and philosophies.
Worthy (axios) to balance out or balance the scales – you will practice what you preach.
Note: axis – that which pierces the center to bring balance and rotation.
Idea: Paul calls the Colossians to live an every day life that would bring honor and glory to God because it possessed a balance between what they professed and what they lived. A worthy walk always lives what it professes. Paul gave the same challenge to the Thessalonians (1 Th. 2:12), to the Philippians (Ph. 1:27), and to the Ephesians (Eph. 4:1).
Truth: God desires that each of us live an extraordinary life to His glory. The problem is that we cannot live such a life in our humanity – the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. This extraordinary life can only be experienced through surrender (Eph. 3:16-17), obedience (2 Pt. 1:3-11), and death (Gal. 2:20). He has given us everything we need, but we must die to ourselves and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. The problem is that in order to live an extraordinary life a person must give up the ordinary life.
B A Pleasing Life
Idea: The objective is to please God and not ourselves or anyone else – our single-minded ambition is to think and act only upon those things that satisfy the heart of God. This can only be done by setting my focus solely upon Him alone (Hb. 12:2) and not on the goals and desires of this world (Col. 3:1-2). But I must please Him in every way and in everything (Col. 3:17).
Truth: My focus and activity must be centered in tandem upon the same person and cause at all times.
Note: There is no activity outside of God’s Lordship – there is no upper class and lower class religion – I live in such a way that my life is under His authority and blessings seeking to please Him in all things.
Quote: True spirituality is not me getting more of God, but rather it is God getting more of me.
1 A Fruitful Ministry
Idea: A life that is spiritually reproductive bringing increasing blessings to others concerning the things of God. To produce such fruit an individual must (1) have an authentic union with Christ; (2) have received spiritual knowledge as revealed by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures; and (3) have a diligent and focused effort concerning the ministry of God’s Kingdom.
Verse: I am the vine and you are the branches; if any man abide in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; but apart from Me, you can do nothing. Jn. 15:5
Note: The key to bearing fruit is abiding in Christ. To abide is to completely immersed and under the control of God’s Spirit. This is a similar thought to pleroo – being filled under the influence and control of an outside source.
2 A Maturing Relationship
Idea: A true child is always growing and experiencing personal enlargement in their knowledge and understanding of God. This growth is from Christ in you working through you – He must increase, I must decrease (Jn. 3). This is progressive growth requiring time, God’s Word, and the unction of the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, a maturing Christian possesses a love for God’s Word, a willing and obedient desire to fulfill it, a marked enlarging of their faith in God, and a greater love for people.
3 A Strengthening Faith
Idea: dunamoumenoi – an explosive reoccurring power that propels a believer to a stronger more fervent faith – a faith that will stand firm in the midst of great tribulation and temptation. The idea is like the spark plugs and pistons continually firing inside of an engine to propel the vehicle forward.
IV The Hope of Paul’s Prayer
Verse: might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father,
A Endurance
Word: Hupomone – to bear up under any circumstance – the ability to see things through under even the greatest distress. One who will not become frustrated with his circumstances and who is committed until the very end without seeking to retaliate or get revenge.
Idea: Endurance refers to being patient with circumstances. No matter how trying or difficult a situation may become, because of a believer’s fruitful ministry, increasing faith, and strengthening, dynamic faith he can exude an extraordinary perseverance in all circumstances.
B Patience
Word: makrothumia – to be patient or longsuffering towards people.
Idea: Patience refers to being longsuffering with people. As if dealing with circumstances beyond our control are not frustrating enough, but God says that a true spirituality has an enduring and compassionate patience with people.
C Thankfulness
Idea: The attitude and activity of appreciation.
Summary: It was Paul’s constant prayer for the Colossians that they would be completely filled and controlled by the revealed truth of the knowledge of God’s will. Paul understood that only when a believer is controlled by that knowledge can a believer walk in a manner that is worthy and honoring of the Lord. Such a life requires a fruitful and maturing life that manifests itself in a steadfast, patient, and grateful attitude.
IV The Basis for Paul’s Prayer
Verse: who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
A Jesus Qualified Us
Word: hikanoo – to make fit; to make sufficient or to authorize; to pays ones entry fee.
Idea: We are not qualified on our own efforts, but are qualified only through the finished work of Christ on the Cross. This is an instantaneous act that occurred at the point of our salvation when we invited Christ into our lives by faith whereby we have been made participants and partakers of all his blessings and promises reserved for His own inheritance. We have the promise of Heaven, forgiveness, redemption, and of the comforting presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
B Jesus Delivered Us
Word: ruomai – to instantaneously draw to oneself or to rescue – to retrieve with fervor.
Idea: Those who have received God’s gift of grace by faith have been liberated from the dominion of ignorance, sin, and darkness (from Satan’s rule and jurisdiction).
C Jesus Transferred Us
Word: methistemi – to remove or change – used in secular literature of the removing of a person from one country to settle them as colonist and citizen in another country.
Idea: We were lifted out of the citizenship of this earthly sinful world and relocated with full citizenship into God’s spiritual Kingdom. Thus, though we live in this world, we are no longer held in it grip. We are strangers passing through to a living hope. We are citizens of God’s Kingdom (present and future – under His perfect rule) with the responsibility to live as King’s kids in this current fallen order.
D Jesus Redeemed Us
Word: apolutrosis - to deliver or release by payment of a ransom or to free a slave from bondage (to emancipate).
Idea: Jesus has given us complete freedom from the penalty, power, and pain of sin (Gal. 5:1,13) by dying on the cross to pay for our sin. He paid the ransom in full (Mt. 20:28). An because of this payment, we have forgiveness from sin.
Verse: For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Hb. 9:15
Word: aphesin – to pardon or to give remission from penalty; to send away.
Idea: Because of Christ’s finished work on the Cross we have been redeemed. God has sent our sin away so that they will never be found again. As far as the east is from the west… (Ps103:12). Jesus became our scapegoat (Lev. 16:10) taking our sin away and bringing to us redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sin.
Truth: Jesus paid for us in full rescuing us from the rule of evil and removing us from sale by adopting us as children and giving us a new citizenship which qualifies us to share in all of the blessings of the Son including the forgiveness of sin, the promise of abundant and eternal life, and the privilege of representing Him until the day of redemption. His death on our behalf paid in full the price to redeem us. On that basis alone, God forgave our sins, granted us an inheritance, delivered is from the power of darkness, and made us citizens of His eternal kingdom.
Exegesis
9Since the day we heard the wonderful news that you had obviously received an authentic faith based solely on the complete and sufficient Gospel of Jesus Christ marked by a genuine love for others, we have not stopped interceding on your behalf asking God to fill you to the point that you are completely under the influence and controlled by the thorough and final knowledge of God’s perfect will. This sufficient knowledge, that moves you to participate in the call of God for your life, allows you to have a divinely inspired capacity to comprehend and apprehend spiritual insights and principles as well as the ability to understand how to apply this God-revealed wisdom in your every day life. 10And we pray this prayer for you that you might truly possess a genuine spirituality that is substantiated by a lifestyle that is perfectly balanced by what it professes and by how it is lived – a life that is truly depictive and honoring of the Lord. Furthermore, we pray this prayer of encouragement that your life might be pleasing to God and to God alone (bringing great satisfaction to God) in every detail whether at home, at work, or at play because you know deep down in your heart of hearts that His life and His priorities are the only objectives worthy of your life affections and desires. You will not be able to hide this reality if this prayer is answered because you will have been seized by a love that is so pure and so gracious that you will be compelled to reproduce an exact lifestyle that will shower truth and blessings upon others in every single activity that you participate in because of the overflowing presence of Christ in you working through you. Likewise, you will mature and increase in your relationship and understanding of God and His perfect will for you. 11Furthermore, you will discover that you have an explosive internal motivation that will continually and relentlessly spur you along to become a stronger more determined and dynamic servant of God in accordance with and under the supernatural and glorious might of God’s own presence. And these qualities are being infused in you so that you may have great endurance in all types of situations and under both triumphant and trying circumstances that are intended by God to stretch you and by the devil to destroy you. They are also being instilled in you so that you might have a steadfast patience in dealing with people so that no matter how far a person pushes you, you will only exude the tender heart of God’s compassionate love for them. 12Another reason these qualities have been invested in you is so that you will never lose sight of the source of your joy. No matter what you might encounter in life, because God is continually revealing Himself and His plan for you to you, you will have a grateful and appreciative attitude towards God because of what He has done for everyone of us in sending His one and only Son to earth to die on the Cross to pay for our sins bringing us into an eternal relationship with Him when we were only deserving of sin, death, and eternal separation. He has qualified each of us by paying our entry fee through His death. He made it possible for all of us, who have received His precious gift, to fit into His eternal Kingdom where we can share in and experience all of the manifold blessings of God that have been specifically reserved for those individuals who have been called out as holy unto God, separated from sin unto righteousness and into a right relationship with Christ in a Kingdom of purity, holiness, and light – a Kingdom not made by human hands or through human ingenuity but is spiritual and is in perfect union with the heart of God. 13All of this comes as a result of a divinely authored plan where through the person and work of Christ stepping from Heaven into humanity Jesus became a second Adam by bearing the sin of all mankind on the Cross. Thus, when we have received His grace by a transaction of faith, God instantaneously snatches us out of the world order and rule of Satan that features sin, ignorance, death, and decay and He literally rescues us from a destruction that was prepared for the devil and his legions by transferring us into a Heavenly realm where we come under a new jurisdiction becoming citizens of the new covenant of His grace where by we are delivered and released by the payment of the ransom of His blood. Consequently, this grace act brings to every one who has believed true freedom from the power and pain of sin along with a complete pardon from the penalty of sin as Jesus becomes our scapegoat by bearing up under the load of our sin and by taking them away into the wilderness of forgetfulness bringing to us redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sin. Thus, as far as the east is from the west God remembers our sin no more and we are made more than conquerors through Christ who loves us.
