9 For 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,
Paul now turns his attention to another thing that they have been praying for the Colossians and that is that the church of Colossae would have the knowledge of God’s Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is a prayer we should be praying for each other and the leaders of this church and myself should be praying for the church. When Paul and his disciples prayed for the people of Colossae to be filled with the knowledge of God’s Will, they are asking that the church of Colossae be totally and completely connected to God. In addition, they are asking that the church be filled with all wisdom and understanding from God Himself through the Holy Spirit. They are praying that the church people have a wisdom, but they don’t stop there because they are also asking that this wisdom consist of spiritual understanding. Not just human wisdom but a spiritual understanding of God’s mysteries found in Scripture.
We need to understand that we do not receive this ourselves from our own knowledge, but from the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit! In all we do we need to pray for this teaching and guidance seeking God’s Will in everything we do leaning on the Holy Spirit for direction! How many of us do that here today? I know I fail at this because I get so full of myself that I think I know what to do — but in reality when I get in that mindset I begin to play God or at least take God out of the picture. That is why I feel this needs to be the prayer of the church today — to ask that God will fill us with the knowledge of His Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding — being connected as one with Him and seeking godly or spiritual wisdom and understanding over and above our own.
10 so 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.
Paul asks for this spiritual understanding and wisdom so that we may walk worthy in the Lord; please God, bear fruit and grow in the knowledge of God.
There is a lot to unpack in this verse so let’s take them one by one. When we come to have the spiritual understanding and wisdom as we walk in the Will of God we will walk worthy of the Lord. Why is this so? Because we are seeking God in all that we do — we are living for Him and not ourselves. Our attention is not on us or the glory we can receive but on our Lord and Savior and what glory and honor He will receive by the life we live for Him.
When our life is center on our faith in Jesus Christ and our life revolves around Him being the center of our life then this will please our Heavenly Father because we are living our lives for Him. And when we live our life in this manner we will bear fruit for Him and people will see Jesus living in and through us. They will see such traits as: 22 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22 — 23). Notice how these all flow together starting with our love for others. Love brings joy, which brings peace, which brings us patience, which then leads to kindness, then goodness, then faith, then gentleness and finally self-control. There is a progression to these traits or fruits of the Spirit. We must start with love, understanding love is not always agreeing with how one lives, but loving them because they are a child of God. We tend to think of one does not love another person if they disagree with their lifestyle or their sinful nature. This isn’t true we must love them but pray for a revelation in their life to show them their sin. Jesus did not condemn the prostitute, but did tell her to go and sin no more!
11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy
Paul and his disciples are praying for a lot of different things concerning the church of Colossae. In verse 11 they pray the church may be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. Now notice this isn’t just any power but God’s glorious might. Paul has asked in prayer for them to have full and complete wisdom and spiritual understanding and now he tells why they need this godly wisdom and knowledge to be strengthened by God’s power and glorious might and that is to help them and us here today with all endurance, patience and joy. Which leads us to give total and complete thanks to the Father for it is by His doing that has enabled us to share in the eternal life found in Jesus — not us ourselves! We cannot achieve this lasting power without endurance and patience which leads to joy — the joy of obtaining eternal life. We are seeing it now how the church is not enduring or keeping patient when it comes to our Lord and Savior! Many churches are caving into the whims of society and the pressure to conform to what the world says we should believe and not believe. I am so concerned for our young people — they are going to be attacked so hard for their faith and if their faith is not solidly rooted in the purity of God’s Holy Word they will be swayed to follow whatever the world wants to teach them. And sadly this isn’t just happening to the youth of the world, but all other age groups. I have watched pastors and people profess to be Christians who totally reject the Word of God in they preaching and teaching of the Word and how they should live it out. Brothers and sisters we should be on our knees daily asking God to intervene and help us to stay true to His Holy and Sacred Word!
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
Paul continues in verse 12 to finish the thought of verse 11. He gives the rightful thanks to the Father who has enabled us to share with the fellow believers an inheritance (eternal life) in the light. We know or should know that we cannot receive eternal life on our own accord or by the things we do or say. We need a Redeemer and that Redeemer is Jesus Christ! He died on the Cross of Calvary to bear our sins upon His body and God raised Him from the dead to give those who asks Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savor the inheritance of eternal life! We can achieve this only by the grace of God and the love of Christ! Only through Christ can we obtain our salvation and eternal life!
13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.
I love the visualization of this verse. I can see darkness versus light — good versus evil. Because of what Jesus did we are rescued from the domain that was planned for Satan and his evil angels [Hell] (darkness) and transferred to the kingdom of light to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ! I love the word “rescued.” Rescued’s meaning in the NT is always “to save” with God as the subject and people as the object. In other words God is the one saving us — not we saving ourselves.
I feel so helpless when it comes to my salvation until I realize the meaning of John 3:16. For God so loved the world (you and me are included in that) that He gave (of his own choosing) His Son, that whosoever (anyone who) believes in Him will not perish (they will not die and be sentenced to Hell) but have everlasting and eternal life (a life spent in the presence of the Almighty). What a wonderful and amazing thought that verse is! God did not have to do this but chose to do so, so that we could have an eternal relationship with Him in His presence — that is too wonderful for me to comprehend!
14 We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.
Verse 14 solidifies verse 13 when it says we have redemption and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross we have forgiveness of sins and we are rescued (saved) from the domain of darkness (hell) and we are transferred to be given the gift of eternal life by the love and mercy of God the Father and Jesus His one and only Son who bore our sins on the cross of Calvary!
What an amazing thought to wrap us today’s message! Because of Jesus we have the hope of eternal life!
So are we praying these verses daily for each other, for the church, for our loved ones, for the world and those who don’t know Jesus Christ? Paul and his followers did — we need to do the same!
Scripture used is HCSB - The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Ge 9:8–10). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
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