Read Colossians 1-3:4. Think carefully about the prayer in 1:9-11.
Consider the following diagram, taken from The Teacher’s Commentary.
The Colossian prayer provides important background for our understanding of Paul’s pathway to spiritual fullness. In Colossians 1:9-11 Paul asks God to:-
Fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And 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.
The first element, a “knowledge of God’s will,” is literally a knowledge of “what God has willed.” That is, the apostle has not looked to personal experiences of leading, but to revelation. God has made Himself and His will known to us in the Word. Personal experience of God begins with this revelation of Himself through the Prophets and Apostles.
But we are to hold this knowledge with “all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Each of the terms here focuses our attention not on
intellectual knowledge or information. Each speaks of practical knowledge: of ability to apply what is known to daily life, and see its implications for our choices and actions. As we apply what God has willed to our everyday lives, wisely letting God’s Word guide our choices, we will live lives that are truly worthy of the Lord.
In this process God Himself will be actively at work within and through us, producing the Holy Spirit’s fruit in our personalities even as we are active in every good work.
Finally, we will be “growing in the knowledge of God.” This culminating thought is not of growth in knowledge about God, but growth in knowing Him personally. We will experience God in our lives, and find personal spiritual fulfilment, only in this way.
It is against this background that Paul in Colossians 3 now shows us how to grow in a spiritual—and holy—life here on earth. Paul also focused on the hiddenness of spiritual life. Experiencing fullness may not be the exciting, obvious, or supernatural thing we dream of! Paul pointed out, “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (vs 3–4). The glory will be seen when Christ appears. Don’t look for it until then!
Godliness in human flesh lives a Jesus-kind of life. And this is exactly what the apostle wanted us to realize. Holiness is not being “different.” Holiness is not being “strange.” It is being the same kind of loving person Jesus was. True holiness is hidden in daily life, expressed in the ordinary, and revealed in our living relationships with other people. With this background, we can understand how jolting the teaching of Colossians 3 and 4 really was. Holy living, the fullness of living our relationship in Christ, is to be sought in the context of our ordinary lives in this world.
Prayer:-
ÿ Pray that those who teach us this Lord’s day will indeed live out the Words they preach. Ask God to teach our teachers before they teach us.
ÿ Pray that each of our youth grow strong and mighty in the Lord. Pray that they all have a faith founded on the truth of Jesus and His work at Calvary. Ask God to grow fruit in their lives.
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