The Head of the Church, Colossians 1:13-20

Today we are continuing in our study of Colossians, and are picking it up in vs 13. Last week we looked at the previous section which was Paul’s prayer for the church.  Today we might title this section Christ the Head of the Church. As I was studying this book, I was really taken with this particular passage in chapter one vs 13-20, and it’s theme of Jesus, the head of the church. 

We should all understand by now that to become a member of Christ’s church we do not sign a paper, or submit to a vote by the congregation, or be baptized or any manner of various means by which people typically join a church, but if you are to be a member of Christ’s church you must be born into it.  Jesus said to Nicodemus that you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God, and He explained that means you are born of the Spirit. 

How you are born again is spelled out in Romans 10:9 and 10 which says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

The key to salvation then is believing, confessing Jesus as Lord.  And I would like to emphasize the gravity of that statement for a moment.  Jesus Christ is Lord is the confession of a Christian.  In Paul’s day, many Christians were arrested and charged with treason against the emperor.  They were given the option of preserving  their life by making the confession “Caesar is Lord.”  Caesar demanded to be worshiped as a god.  And of course, Christians were unable to make that confession and so many of them lost their life.

 

So to confess Jesus as Lord is to confess that He is God, that He is your Sovereign, and that He is to be worshipped. In chapter two, Paul says in vs9 “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”  So to Him belongs all power and all authority over your life. From Him is life and peace. If Jesus is Lord, ie Sovereign, Master, Lord of all, then all we have belongs to Him - our life, our possessions, our will, our destiny.  Christ is Lord of all. And we must submit to that.

Christ is Sovereign Lord.  A sovereign speaks of a kingdom.  Lord is a title given to a ruler. And so as Paul says in ch. 1 vs 13, through salvation God has made us members of Christ’s kingdom.  Vs 13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

What that verse teaches is that all the world belonged to another kingdom.  2 Timothy 2:25 tells us that we once were held captive by Satan’s kingdom, to do his will.  Paul speaking of those who are in opposition to God, saying “…if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,  and they may come to their senses [and escape] from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” So we were held captive by the domain of darkness, or the realm of darkness, the dominion of darkness.  All of which are other ways of saying the kingdom of darkness.  Satan is referred to in scripture as the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air.  And so Satan is the prince of this kingdom of darkness. 

We that have believed were once held captive in the dominion of Satan. But through salvation we have been delivered, rescued and made part of the kingdom of Christ.  And I say to you that the kingdom of Christ is no less than the church of Christ. They are one and the same.  They are synonymous.   Jesus said in John 18:36 "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”  The kingdom of Christ is the called out ones, from the Greek eklesia, translated the church of Christ, the assembly of believers, the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see this echoed in Eph. 1:19-23 “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might  which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly [places,] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Notice back in our text that Paul says we were transferred to the kingdom of His Son. The word that is translated as “transferred” had a special significance in the world at that time.  When one kingdom conquered another, the custom was to take the population of the defeated empire and transfer it completely to the conqueror’s kingdom.  I believe that is what Paul referred to in Ephesians 4:8 when he said that when Jesus rose from the dead, he took captivity captive.  We that were held captive to Satan’s realm have been transferred completely into God’s kingdom.  Everything we have and everything we are now belongs to Him.  

But this victory was not accomplished without the shedding of blood.  Paul says “In whom we have redemption.”  Redemption means the release of the captive by a legal ransom. And the price for our redemption was paid for with the blood of Jesus, securing not only our freedom, but also the forgiveness of our sins.  Christ’s death was the legal satisfaction for the debt of our sin which we could never pay.

Then starting in vs 15, we have one of the most comprehensive statements of Christ’s divinity and His Lordship that can be found in the New Testament. Many Bible scholars think that Colossians 1:15-20 came from a hymn of the early church that described what Christians believed about Jesus. And that seems to be a possibility, but it can’t be proven conclusively.  Nevertheless, it stands as a magnificent statement about the divinity and Lordship of Jesus Christ. 

Paul says in vs 15, that Christ “…is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”  We should all be aware that the Bible states that God is Spirit, and thus He is invisible to the human eye, and that no man has ever seen Him.  But Paul says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. 

I heard a story about a little boy who was sitting at the kitchen table drawing pictures one day as his mother was working nearby. And she said to him, “what are you drawing?”  The little boy replied, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”  The mother knew her theology though, so she said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”  The little boy replied, “Well, they will when I get through!” 

The application to Jesus is this.  The life and work and nature of Jesus Christ created an exact image of the invisible attributes of God. What Paul meant was that Jesus was the perfect likeness and manifestation of the nature of God.  He is the great and final theophany.  The word translated image is eikon, from which the word icon is derived.  So that we might say that we see Jesus as the mirror image, or reflection of God. He is the exact representation of the nature of God.

We find that same description by the author of Hebrews in chapter 1 vs 3; “[The Son] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of the [Father’s] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  We cannot see God, but we can see Jesus, who is the exact image of God.  Remember when Philip said to Jesus “show us the Father.” And Jesus said, “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” “The Father and I are One.” 

Then notice that Paul says Christ is the first born of all creation. Some cults have wrongly used this verse to support their belief that Jesus was created.  Some even go so far as to say He is just a higher order of the angels, a brother of Lucifer.  That erroneous view seems to be similar to the error of the Colossians to whom Paul had written this letter, in an attempt to correct a false theology that was creeping into the church doctrine.

But first born has, in the sense as Paul is using it, as the heir, the owner, the possessor of Creation.  Dr. Carl Henry, regarded as one of the greatest theologians of the mid 20th century said, “it should be translated as the Primeval Creator of all created things.” So Jesus is the one who possesses, as heir or owner, all things that are created.

Therefore, when Paul says, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" He's not saying that the Lord Jesus was the first created.  But in regards to his divine person, he is the eternal Son to whom belongs all things. In the OT, we see in the lives of the patriarchs this principle of the firstborn son who inherited everything of the father’s estate.  So firstborn signifies ownership, being the heir of all things, not a created entity.

This word, prototokos, which is used here for firstborn, is a term that has special significance. It is used in the translation of the passage in Psalm 89:27: "I also shall make him [My] firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.”  Furthermore,  in the Greek language, there was another word that meant first created, which is protoktisis. That word is never used of the Lord Jesus. They never say that he was first created, though the word was available to them. But in Scripture as a whole, when it says that He is the first born of the whole creation, it means that He is the heir of all creation.

Then in vs 16 he says Jesus is the Creator. “For by Him all things were created, [both] in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.”  Jesus is the creator of all things. Perhaps Paul lays stress on this doctrine, possibly for the sake of the Colossians error, in order to emphasize that Jesus was not created, nor equal to anything in creation, but that He is the Creator of all things.

Notice Paul uses three prepositional phrases.  "All things were created through Him." "All things were created by Him." "All things were created for Him.”  All things were created through Him refers to the design of creation. Jesus was the architect of creation.  All things were created by Him refers to the fact that He is the builder of creation. And all things were created for Him means that everything was made for His glory.

One may illustrate it by the construction of a building.  The architect designs and draws the plans of the building. Then the builder  constructs the building according to the plans. And then when the building was finished, the building is used by the owner for their own purposes.

In the case of the creation, to apply that analogy, the Lord Jesus Christ is responsible for this universe as the designer, the architect. Further, he was the builder, all things have been made by Him. John 1:3 says “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” And furthermore this whole creation, not only physically what we see about us, the earth and the heavens that we see, but the whole universe, visible and invisible is designed and built to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and for His purposes.

Then perhaps again as an effort to correct the bad theology pervading the Colossian church, Paul elaborates that even the invisible angels, described as thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities are created by Him.  Paul uses similar language to describe the dominion of darkness in Eph. 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”  So that we might agree with the people of Jesus’s day, who said that even the demons are subject to Him.  Jesus created them and thus He has authority over them.

Now he goes on to say, not simply that he's the architect and the builder and the one for whom the creation has been constructed, but He is superior to all things and He sustains all things.  Notice the 17th verse, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Before all things speaks not only of chronology, but also of superiority.   He is over all, before all, superior to all.  There is no one before Him. Chronologically speaking, He is before all, because He was from the beginning with God.  John 1 says , “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, The same was in the beginning with God.”  So Jesus is before all things and superior to all things and furthermore He sustains all things.

Paul says, “In Him all things hold together.”  He is the glue that holds the universe together.  Do you know that science tells us that Earth is traveling through space around the sun about 67,000 mph?  Then in addition to that it is spinning at 1,040 mph.  How does the world hold together with all these forces moving upon it?  The answer is that the power of Jesus Christ holds all things together.  Now that may be difficult for you to believe.  But I say to you that for me it is harder to believe that scientists say we are hurtling through space at 67,000 mlles per hour while spinning over a thousand miles per hour and yet the hair on my head is hardly moving. I’m not sure which takes more faith, to believe in science or to believe that Jesus holds all things together.  I choose to believe the scriptures. 

So Jesus is the Lord of creation, but he's also Lord of the new creation. Notice the 18th verse. After having said that he's the Lord of the first creation, Paul says, "He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”

Notice Paul says He is the head of the body, the church.  In 1Cor. 12:27 Paul says to the church, “Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.”  That’s an amazing thing to consider, that we are called the body of Christ. Not just body as in an assembly, but body as a physical part of Christ. That’s hard to fully comprehend.  And yet it is more than an analogy, it’s a reality. The church is a new creation. The Spirit of Christ lives in us, so that we are His body on earth.  We are His hands, His feet, and we do His works, His deeds.  We speak His words. We accomplish His will. 

And Paul says, Christ is the head of the body. That indicates how inseparable the church is  from Christ even as our head is essential to the life of our bodies.  He's the head of the body. The head and the body are not the same. The church  is called the body of Christ. It's not called the body of Christians. And the reason for that is very simple because the church is His.  The head expresses ownership. Authority is suggested by head. Control is suggested by head. He's the head of the body. He's the head of the church. And consequently he controls the church. He owns the church. He has authority over the church. And also the head refers to Jesus’ role as source of the life of the church,  similar to how we refer to the head of a river as the source.

So to put it another way the head refers to Christ’s relationship to the church. We are related to the head who is in heaven. And if we are to live a life that is acceptable to the Lord God, we must be submissive to the head, to the Lord Jesus in a personal sense. And as a body of believers who are under shepherds, it's most important for them and for us to be under Him and to look to him for control and guidance and authority in the things that we do.

He's the head of the body, the church for this reason, that he is the beginning and he's the first born from the dead.  He's the firstborn from the dead, because he's the first and only one  to break the power of death. He triumphed over death in His resurrection, and He has the keys of death and Hades as a result.  He is head of the church, supreme and sovereign over it. Government is not in control nor does it have authority over the church. Only Christ has authority.  We acknowledge Christ alone as our head.  Not Peter, not the Pope, not any president or potentate.  But Christ alone is the head of the church. Jesus said, “I will build MY church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Vs 18 says, “So that He might have first place, or preeminence in everything.”  First place, not second place or third place.  Jesus is preeminent in our worship.  Paul summarizes the doctrine of Christ by saying that Christ is to have first place in everything.  Jesus is fully God. Paul speaks in vs19 of the fullness of deity dwelling in Christ by saying, “For it was the [Father's] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.”  The noted theologian Lightfoot says, The word fullness was “a recognized technical term in theology, denoting the totality of the Divine powers and attributes.” So Jesus is fully God.  And because He is God He is to have first place in our worship.  He is to have first place in the church. He is to have first place in our life.

Paul says, “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself.”  One day, the scriptures tell us, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord.  Those who do so today, by faith, receive salvation and forgiveness of sins.  They receive a citizenship in the kingdom of heaven and are transferred into His church.  But one day at the consummation of the age, Jesus will return to earth, and every eye shall see Him, and every knee will bow, and the kingdoms of this world will submit to the kingdom of Christ.  Phil. 2:9-11 says “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

When Paul says Christ made peace through the blood of the cross, that speaks to us of the real, physical death of Jesus Christ in our place, on our behalf, before God by which we are redeemed and receive forgiveness of sin. Faith in HIs  literal death in our place, and the literal judgment He bore on our behalf, is what saves us.  But those who do not believe  will not be saved, but nevertheless, all will one day bow, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

I want to conclude today by proclaiming to you that there is a standing invitation from the Head of the Church to come and be a part of His body, to confess Jesus as Lord.  At the end of Revelation, after all the warnings and pictures of those who rebelled against the sovereignty of Christ has been foretold, Christ gives an invitation to anyone who hears to come to Him and be saved, to become a part of His body.  He says in Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride (that is the church) say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”  That invitation still stands.  Redemption has been made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the payment for your sins.  Come to Him today and find reconciliation with God and be transferred into HIs kingdom, His church.

The prayer for the church, Colossians 1:3-12

I think it’s important to ask why we go to church, the reason for the church, and whether or not church is essential.  A few years ago, doing the pandemic, it seemed at the time that government had deemed the church was inessential.  But attending church is not an addendum to our faith, it is not entertainment, it is not merely a social gathering.  Church is not a building, or an organization, but a people, called out from the world unto Christ. I don’t think you can actually join a church, like you join a health club, but you must be born again into the true church of Christ.  I believe that scripture teaches that the church is Christ’s body on earth, in other words, the church is the physical manifestation of Christ on earth, and as such the physical assembly of this body is absolutely essential.

Now I don’t want you to just take my word for it.  Ephesians 5:23 says,  “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself [being] the Savior of the body.”   And then another one, found in this book we are now studying, Col. 1:18 “He (that is Christ) is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” That shows that the church and the body of Christ are synonymous, and furthermore, it says that Christ will have first place in everything. You might make the correlation then to say that the church, Christ’s body is to be the number one priority in our lives.  I wish I could say was true in our experience.  But I’m afraid that for most 21st century Christians, the church is not their number one priority. However, if you have confessed  that Jesus is Lord  it should mean that He is to have preeminence in all things.

Well, Paul begins this epistle, after a short introduction, with a prayer for the church at Colossians. And by extension, it is a prayer for all churches, and even a prayer for our church. And I suggest to you that his prayer for the church, should become a model for the prayer of the church.  We might better learn to pray by studying Paul’s prayer, so that we might pray more effectively.  Jesus said, “MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER.”

The scriptures make much of prayer.  Jesus made much of prayer. The One who would seem to need to pray the least, prayed the most.  Jesus spent an entire night in prayer on a lonely mountain top many times. His last night before HIs crucifixion He spent praying for the disciples in the Upper Room, and then praying in the Garden of Gethsemane with the disciples before He was arrested.  And you will remember that Jesus implored the disciples to pray with Him, to keep watch for just an hour, and yet they fell asleep.

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus desired His disciples to pray with Him?  At this point they weren’t exactly spiritual giants. And yet Jesus wanted them to pray.  But Jesus wanted them to pray not only for Him, but also for their own sake.  Notice He said to them in Matt. 26:41 "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” I can assure you that a life that is prayerful, is a holy life. A prayerful life is one in which temptation rarely overtakes you.  A prayerful life produces a life that is focused on the Lord.  A prayerful life produces a victorious life.

In scripture we are encouraged to pray for the church, for one another, and for ourselves.  In Ephesians Paul indicates that prayer is an essential weapon of the church. After listing the spiritual armor needed for spiritual warfare, he says in Eph. 6:18-20, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,  and [pray] on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in [proclaiming] it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  Prayer is direct communication with God.  And we are to pray at all times, for all the saints, that is those in the church, and for those who minister to us in preaching the word of God.

There are many such encouragements to pray found in scripture, but another one that I want to mention is found in Philippians 4:6 which we looked at a couple of weeks ago:  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus..” Over my lifetime I have probably quoted this verse literally thousands of times in prayer to God.  A great strategy of prayer is to speak back the promises of scripture to God.

Philippians 4:6 has a lot of important points that can be made concerning prayer and the peace of God which is given in response to our prayer.   But what I would like to draw your attention to is two components of prayer which are laid out in that verse.  And the two components of prayer Paul gives there are supplication, which also can be translated as petition, and thanksgiving. 

Now I point that out because that is the same method that Paul employs here in his prayer for the church.  He begins his prayer with thanksgiving, praising God for certain things that are true concerning the Colossians.  Then he moves on to petitions on behalf of the Colossian church, and then he sums it all up with another burst of thanksgiving at the end of his prayer.

Notice first of all that Paul mentions that he prays always for the church at Colassae. Vs 3 “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,”  Perseverance is essential to effective prayer.  In the verse from Ephesians 6 that I read  a moment ago the apostle exhorts us that “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit.”  I think how we pray is secondary to how often we pray.  The frequency of prayer is important.  Persevering in prayer is important.  Staying in an attitude of prayer.  Prayer should be strategic.  Daniel prayed three times a day, everyday.  And look at the life he lived and how God blessed him, even to the point of this political exile being made an advisor to kings. 

Jesus taught a parable in Luke 18:1 which He said was  “to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  In that parable He equated prayer with a woman who came constantly before the king, so that he was afraid that she would wear him out if he did not grant her request. And in 1Thess. 5:17 we are told to “pray without ceasing.” So, it’s important that we pray frequently, always, which Paul says he does for the church.

Secondly, notice that Paul begins with thanksgiving to God for the faith that was found among the Colossian church.  Vs4 “since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;”  Thanksgiving, as I pointed out earlier, is an important ingredient of our prayers.  Paul told Timothy in 1Tim. 2:1-2 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties [and] prayers, petitions [and] thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

But notice Paul gives thanks to God for their faith.  Faith is an individual decision.  But it is also a gift from God.  Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God.”  So we pray that God would grant to a person the gift of faith.  That their eyes might be opened so that they will believe the truth.  I think salvation can be correlated to giving sight to a blind person.  God has to open a person’s heart to believe in order for them to receive Christ by faith.  And so faith is something we can thank God for, in the case of the church, but it’s also something we should ask God for, because the scriptures say that the just shall live by faith. 

Notice also that faith is not simply believing in the existence of God, nor even believing in the existence of Jesus.  But it is faith in the work of Christ.  Paul says he is “praying always for you,

since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.”  Paul says their faith came as the result of hearing the word of truth, the gospel.  

He says in Rom 10:17 “So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  The word of Christ is the truth of the gospel.  And the truth of the gospel is that God sent His Son Jesus the Messiah to earth to die for our sins.  Recognizing you are a sinner, that you are in need of a Savior, that you are in need of forgiveness, and repenting of your sin, believing that Jesus died in your place to pay the penalty of your sin, and that He rose from the dead and ascended to His Father in heaven- that is the gospel.  Faith in Christ’s gospel is saving faith. The Bible says that even the devils believe in God, but they are not saved.  Saving faith is believing much more than simply that God exists, but believing what God has said.

So Paul is thankful for the gift of their salvation.  Then Paul adds to that thankfulness for the fruit of the gospel as it is being sown throughout the world.  He says at the end of vs 5, “the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.”

Jesus gave a parable about the sower who went out to sow and some seed fell on good ground, some fell on stoney ground, some fell beside the road and so forth. I’m sure you all are familiar with the parable. But the point I want to emphasize is when Jesus explained the parable He made it clear that the seed the sower was spreading was the word of God. And the seed which fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and believes it and who brings forth fruit. 

That’s why Paul continues in his thanksgiving for Epaphras, who had ministered the word to the Colossians and had brought back the good news to Paul of the bearing of fruit that was occurring in the church there. It would seem that Paul had never been to Colossae, but Epaphras was likely the pastor of the church, and his faithfulness to proclaim the word resulted in the fruit that was evident in the lives of the Colossians. We sow the seed which is the word of God, but it is God that gives the increase.

And in vs 8 Paul tells us what  the fruit of the church is,  saying, “and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.”  In Galatians 5:22 Paul identifies the primary fruit of the Spirit is love. And in 1Cor. 13:13 he says concerning spiritual gifts; “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” It’s interesting to note that in this prayer, Paul is thankful for their faith, in vs 4, their hope in vs 5, and their love in vs 6.  Love is the fruit of their salvation. Love for God and love for one another. Love is not just some sort of sentimental feeling, but speaking the truth in love.  Love is being concerned about another person’s well being.  And the greatest benefit that anyone could receive is to be saved, to be delivered from darkness and transferred to the church of Christ.  Telling someone that they are a sinner, that there is forgiveness by faith in Christ’s gospel, and telling them the truth even if it might hurt your relationship is really acting in love. Love is not concealing the truth because you’re afraid of offending them.  Love is speaking the truth to a lost and dying world.

So Paul begins his prayer for the Colossians with thanksgiving.  Not simply because it is some formula, a way to somehow butter God up with praise so then you can ask Him for what you really want.  But because thankfulness shapes your perspective.  Thanksgiving for what God has done gives us confidence that God cares, and that God can and will help us, because He has so graciously helped us in the past. Thanksgiving releases an intercession which is formed out of blessing and not out of crisis.  I can promise you that there will be times of crisis in your Christian life, but our prayer life should not be predicated on a response to crisis, but out of a response to blessing.  And when we realize our blessings, we should be inspired to offer up even more prayers and petitions to God from whom all blessings come.

“For this reason” then, Paul says in vs 9, he offers up specific petitions on behalf of the Colossians. Because of his thankfulness for God’s blessings of faith, hope and love in the life of the Colossians, he is spurred to ask God to specifically fill them “with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” 

Paul prays specifically, so let’s look specifically at what he is petitioning God for.  First, that God would fill the church with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding is what is called discernment. I believe discernment is a spiritual gift that is far too often undervalued in the church.  Spiritual discernment is the gift to be able to rightly divide the word of truth, to be able to discern false teaching, and determine false spirits. Lord knows there is a great need for that today.  And in Colossae, they also had a need to discern the false teaching that was gaining a foothold in their church doctrine.  I’m not going to go all into it today, but there was some sort of teaching which promised a deeper level of Christianity, which actually wasn’t the true gospel at all.  Some level of teaching which promised a deeper experience which was not based on sound doctrine.

But Paul knows that true knowledge of the will of God comes from wisdom and the discernment which is given by the Holy Spirit, and that does not lead to some “deeper spiritual experience” that the false teachers were teaching, but it results in something very practical (as he says in vs 10) “in a walk worthy of the Lord, being pleasing to Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”  True knowledge then produces a holy walk.  Christian doctrine is not just head knowledge, but it’s to be applied in day to day life.  It results in a different walk, a different life.

Paul describes this walk as being pleasing to the Lord. If you love the Lord, you will seek to please Him, to serve Him, to be found pleasing to Him. Furthermore, a true walk results in being fruitful in good works.  Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Our walk is to do the works of Christ, to love one another, to serve the kingdom of God by sowing the seed of the gospel. 

And finally this walk of faith involves growing in the knowledge of God. How do we do that?  We study His word.  We come to the true knowledge of God through HIs word. That is the only way we can truly know God is through His word.  His word is the only barometer of truth that we have.  Even if you had an experience in which you believed God directly spoke to you, you would still have to judge the truth of it by God’s word. To do anything less is to leave yourself open to being deceived.  

To know Christ is to love Him. We grow in our love for the Lord through reading His word, by meditating on Him. And as we know more of Him, we love Him more, and if we love Him more, we will keep His commandments, ie, do the things that are pleasing to Him.

Paul continues his prayer, petitioning God that specifically they would be “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.” Notice Paul prays that they would be strengthened by the power of God in order to be steadfast.  What does steadfast mean?  It means faithful, loyal, without wavering.  It carries the idea of standing fast in the storms and trials of life.  

In Ephesians 4:14-15 Paul speaks of steadfastness, saying, “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;  but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all [aspects] into Him who is the head, [even] Christ.”  The Colossians were in danger of being tossed about by a new wind of doctrine, and as such were in danger of spiritual shipwreck.  Paul’s prayer was that God would strengthen them so that they would be found to be stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. (1 Cor. 15:58)

And that they would be strengthened to attain patience. Patience means endurance, perseverance, longsuffering.  Steadfastness and patience are basically synonyms, but with perhaps a different emphasis.  Patience has more a sense of endurance.  James speaks of trials producing endurance.  James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

It’s interesting that Paul links joy with patience as well here in vs 11.  But also notice that though the idea of trials is indicated in his prayer, Paul doesn’t ask God to take them out of the trial, but to give them endurance and steadfastness as they go through the trial.  Because as James indicates, the trial is God’s means of refining us, of strengthening us, and giving us confidence in God.  So many times our prayers in crisis mode is “Lord deliver me.  Get me out of this!” But Paul prays “Lord, be with them as they go through trials, and give them steadfastness and endurance so that they come out of it perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Finally, Paul concludes His prayer for the church with a final round of thanksgiving.  Vs 12, “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”  I believe that Paul here is giving thanks for the suffering that they were called to endure.  The inheritance that God qualified them to share in is not just the glory of heaven, but the sufferings on earth.  This is the biggest challenge yet to our prayer life.  To joyously give thanks to God for our sufferings. 

But I would remind you of the attitude of Peter and John who when they were arrested and scourged and thrown in prison, went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the Lord’s sake.  Why would you have that perspective?  

Well, the answer may be found in Romans 8:16-18 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

We can rejoice because we have been counted worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ. Even our trials can be the source of blessing.  And as Paul makes it clear in Romans, if we suffer with Him here, we shall be glorified with Him there.  And the glory that we shall enjoy there, cannot be compared to the suffering that we share in here.  2 Cor. 4:17-18 says “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The key to enduring with patience the trials that are set before us is to pray at all times, pray without ceasing, giving thanks in all things with all prayer and supplication.  Phl 4:6-7  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Let us pray like our lives depended upon it. For it most certainly does.