Some of the greatest instruction we receive in life, we receive without anyone verbally giving us instruction. Rather, we observe them in the act. It is helpful for our children to hear instructions as to how husbands are to love their wives, for example, but it is equally (if not more) important for them to see it modeled, isn’t it? It’s helpful to have someone tell you what hard work looks like but is sometimes more instructive to labor alongside of someone who works hard. My dad instructed me in giving by talking about how we need to give to the Lord’s work, but more than that, I remember him sitting at the table on Saturday mornings to balance the checkbook and writing out his offering check each time. Being able to observe someone do something in which you want to grow provides us a powerful opportunity. And I think by looking at Colossians 1:1-14 this morning, we have one of those opportunities.
I say that because Paul begins this letter to the Colossians by revealing to them a bit of his practice in prayer. It’s somewhat of a look into Paul’s life and practices. We know that he writes this letter to them without ever having met them personally. He wasn’t the one who took the gospel to them when they first believed. Rather, it was one of Paul’s fellow laborers in the faith named Epaphras. So, apparently what happened is that Epaphras heard the gospel from Paul, believed, and then went home to Colossae and evangelized his neighbors there. However, soon there came some challenges to the teaching they had received from Epaphras, especially against the gospel itself. Therefore, Epaphras comes to Paul, updates him on all that had happened, and this leads to Paul writing this letter.
You can see in these opening verses that Paul seems to be providing the believers’ in Colossae a feeling of security that the gospel they have trusted in and believed is indeed true, and they do not need to depart from it or doubt it. Paul does this a couple of ways in these first eight verses. First, he makes known to them that Epaphras wasn’t some person bringing them a fake message. Paul knots as verses 7-8 that Epaphras is “our beloved fellow servant” and “a faithful minister of Christ” to them. They should not for one second think that Epaphras was trying to deceive them with false hope. But, second, Paul tells them that the gospel that brought such great hope and transformation in their own lives when they heard it, understood it, and believed is doing the same thing all over the world. After noting the hope laid up for them in heaven, Paul writes in verses 5-6, “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.” The Colossians don’t have to think that’s what is happening to them is unusual or that they’ve bought into false because the gospel is powerfully working the same way all over the world. Today, all over the world, as the gospel is heard, understood, and believed people hearts are being transformed the same way that our hearts were transformed when we believed, the Colossians hearts’ were transformed when they believed, and same way believers’ hearts at all places throughout history have been transformed as they’ve heard and believed.
So, Paul gives them assurance by affirming Epaphras and the working of the gospel all over the world, but Paul also does something else in these verses we’re looking at this morning. He tells them how he thanks God for them and how he prays for them. And it’s here that we get to look into Paul’s practice of praying as he tells them how and why he thanks God for them and what he prays for them. And what I want to show this morning is that by looking at what Paul does here we get to see how to love our brothers and sisters, how to pray for them, what it looks like to live in a way that honors God, and why the gospel is so utterly important for our lives.
So, first, looking at Paul’s declarations in these first few verses, I think we are reminded that . . .
Now, let me try to explain the logic of why I think these verses show this. First, recognize that Paul thanks God for certain things about the Colossians. We read in verses 3-5a, “We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”
Second, I think it’s safe to assume that we are thankful for things in people that we treasure. Think, for example, of someone you’re deeply thankful for, and ask yourself why. I doubt you think something like, “I am so thankful for this person because he has a lot of money or so thankful for that person because she has really nice teeth.” More likely you think, “I am so thankful for this brother because he serves God’s people so faithfully or for that sister because she is so humble.” And why do those things most likely come to our minds? It’s because we are thankful for things we treasure, and as the Holy Spirit continues to shape our hearts, we find ourselves treasuring more things that are truly most valuable.
For Paul, what was he thanking God for? What was he treasuring in the Colossians so that from the day he heard of them he has not stopped thanking God for them in his prayers. Well, what moved him to thank God for them was when he heard of their faith in Christ and of their love for all believers. That is, he thanks God for that which is the product of God’s grace in their lives.
He even notes that the reason they love is because of the gospel of grace transforming their hearts. He knows the reason they find the freedom to love others as they should is because they know their salvation is sure. I think that’s why he says in verses 4-5 that he has heard of the “love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” That is, the fact that they have found security in the gospel, knowing that all their ultimately want and need is theirs in Christ, laid up for them in heaven, they are now freed to love others in the body of Christ.
You see, when we do not find ourselves secure in the gospel, we are prone to envy, hurt, and tear down others. If I’m pursuing glory and fame and yet you do something that brings glory and fame to you, then I might respond by resenting you, perhaps finding your faults and gossiping about you, and simply envying you. And why? I would do it because you’ve got something that I want for myself, something I’m chasing after, and something that causes me personal frustration if I don’t have it.
On the other hand, if I realize that what I really and truly want and need is mine in Christ, then I am free to really love you. I know that what I hope for is secure for me in heaven. We’re not battling each other for something. Rather, I can delight in you and you in me. We can enjoy one another’s successes and mourn with each other as we face sorrows without envy and hate because we don’t have to try to get from each other. What we need we have in Christ.
But that position of freedom to love only comes as we realize that what we desperately want and long for and need is ours in Christ. It only comes as we realize that through faith in Christ we have what we most deeply need. And Paul has heard that the gospel has transformed them by showing them that their hope is sure in heaven and freeing them to love, as they have faith in Christ. And that’s what he values in them, so he thanks God.
I think Paul is demonstrating for us what loving someone demands. That is, he is showing us by his own example that we demonstrate our genuine love for others when we treasure God’s grace in them. And notice how he completes this act of love. He tells them that he thanks God for them. He thanks God because he knows that the good in their life is due to the gracious and powerful working of the gospel, and he tells them because he wants them to know of his love for them and be encouraged and built up. That is a good picture of what loving one another looks like in a community of believers.
So, let us first, pray that we might imitate Paul is learning to look for the grace of God in others, treasure what God is doing in them, thank God for it, and then tell them that we thank God for them. After all, I think Paul is showing us here that this is one key way that we show our neighbors that we love them as ourselves.
And if Paul shows us what loving rightly looks like in these first few verses, he shows us what praying looks like in the following verses. In verses 9-10, Paul shows us that . . .
When we consider that Paul thanks God for valuable things in the lives of the Colossian believers, it should not be surprising that he asks God for things that are valuable as well. Now, let me say immediately that I am not saying that you should stop praying for other things such as safe travel, physical healing, or that you might remember what you studied as you sit to take a test. You cannot pray too much, and you cannot pray for too many things. Rather, I’m suggesting that Paul is reminding us here – by his example – not to exclude asking God for what is of greatest importance for us and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Look at what he prays for them in verses 9-10a. He writes, “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.”
Paul ultimately wants them to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. That is Paul’s goal for them. So, what he prays for is that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. What does Paul mean here?
Well, often when we think of the will of God, we think of things that God has not specifically revealed to us – things like what job to take, where to go to college, whom to marry, and the like. But most often in the Bible, the “will of God” refers to those things that God has revealed to us in the Bible. That is, to say, Paul is not praying that God might give the Colossians some special secret knowledge but would fill their minds and hearts with what he’s commanded them in his Word. There is simply some things involving God’s will that we do not need to pray about because they’ve already been revealed to us. As a believer, you don’t have to pray about whether or not you should date or marry an unbeliever. God has already revealed his will to us on that matter, hasn’t he? He’s told us that we must not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. The Bible is full of commands like that.
That’s what Paul’s praying for the Colossians to be filled with – knowledge of God’s will. For us, since we exist after the completion of the writing of the New Testament – this would be the equivalent of praying that each of us might know what the Bible says. This is why we must read the Bible and learn what it is that Christ has commanded us.
Yet, we also need the Spirit to give us wisdom and understanding. After all, we can know that the Bible tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, but sometimes knowing specifically how to demonstrate our love to our wives requires wisdom and understanding from the Spirit. When you have a miscarriage, it’s not as easy as knowing God’s will is that I love my wife. I need wisdom and understanding to know how to do that well. This is what Paul prays for the Colossians, and it’s how we should be praying for one another as well.
These are our greatest needs, aren’t they? We’re tempted merely to look at what needs feel urgent when we pray. Is the person sick? Pray for health. And, again, that’s fine. But that alone should not fill our prayers. Rather, we should perceive our greater needs – like being filled with the knowledge of God’s will and having spiritual wisdom and understanding. These are the things we should pray for as we intercede for one another.
And again, Paul prays this because he wants them to walk worthy, which leads us to our next point. Paul shows us what walking worthy looks like. He shows us that . . .
What I mean by this point is that there are particular things we do or ways we live when we’re walking in a manner that is honoring to the Lord. You see, Paul describes what he longs for right after he says, “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” by giving four phrases that describe what he means. They are: (a) bearing fruit in every good work (b) increasing in knowledge of God, (c) being strengthened to have patience and endurance with joy, and (d) giving thanks to the Father for his redemptive work. That’s what he writes in verses 10b-12.
So, let’s just look at those one at a time so that we might see clearly what our lives should look like as we’re living before God in a manner that is honoring and pleasing to him. Paul’s first descriptive phrase is “bearing fruit in every good work” (v. 10b).
Now, I hope if you’ve been with us for any amount of time, it’s become very clear to you that we believe that individuals are justified (or declared righteous) before God by faith alone. There are not enough works we could do to be justified because God demands perfect righteousness. So, we place our trust in Christ’s perfect life for us, death for our sins, and resurrection from the dead, and God credits his perfect righteousness to us. That is what it means to be justified by faith alone.
However, the gospel that produced faith in our hearts to believe in the crucified and resurrected Christ also produces the fruit of good works in our lives. This is what we refer to when we say, “So and so professes to have faith in Christ but he doesn’t really bear fruit.” What we mean is, there aren’t good works giving evidence of that faith – and there should be.
Now, I’ll also add that our good works will often look different. Some will excel in good works in one area and some in another. So, our good works will not all look alike, nor will we all excel to the same degree. But, if we’re living lives that are honoring and pleasing to God, there will be good works in our lives.
Second, Paul adds to the phrase “bearing fruit in every good work” with the phrase, “and increasing in the knowledge of God” (v. 10c). Christians are to grow, aren’t they? Again, just as we didn’t create the imagery of “bearing fruit” but took it from the Scripture, so we didn’t create the notion of growing in the Lord, but it comes from texts like these. Christians should not remain the same. We should be growing. We grow in knowing God’s will. We grow in understanding who God is and what his ways are like. And we grow in living these things out.
Just the other day, I listened to a conversation between two ladies here at the church where one said, “I just feel like I have so much to learn,” and the other said, “I was right where you were when I first started coming here.” Now, the second lady didn’t mean that she now had no more to learn. We keep increasing in knowledge of God, his will, and his ways as long as we live. But what she meant was, “In the time I’ve been with these brothers and sisters, I’ve grown in my knowledge of God.” That should be happening.
And I’ll add one other thing here. We should devote ourselves to making sure those around us are growing in knowledge of God too. That’s the thought with our Sunday school classes, for example. My hope is that over time, we come to think, I know these things we’re talking about really well. In fact, maybe you’ll think, “I don’t know that I need to be a part of this class I know this so well.” Great. Then take someone who is less knowledgeable of the Lord, his will, and his ways, and go with them to the class, teach them outside of class to make sure they’re learning God’s Word as well as you know it. We increase in our knowledge of God and labor to make sure others increase in the knowledge of God as well.
Third, Paul adds, “being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (v. 11).
Now, this one is a bit odd, isn’t it? The first two involve us doing something. We do good works or grow in the knowledge of God. This one is passive. We are being strengthened? Then, we’re being strengthened by the very glorious might of God to do what? To have endurance and patience with joy? What is this all about?
Well, if we think about it, because much of our lives involve hardship, struggles, and suffering, one of the greatest challenges we face is having patience and enduring our circumstances with joy. Again, Paul thinks it so far beyond our own strength that he declares that we need the very power of God to be able to have patience and endurance with joy. Are you trying to endure and bear the suffering of losing someone you love? This requires the power of God, doesn’t it? Are you trying to be patient with joy as you are single and long to be married? This requires God’s very might and power. Paul, and more importantly God knows this, and he supplies it. In fact, one mark of walking in an honoring way before the Lord is having strength to endure and have patience with joy when those around us think it impossible. The truth is, it is impossible without the very might of God strengthening us. This is something we can pray for each other about, isn’t it?
Finally, Paul adds in verse 12, “Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Christians should be a thankful people. We know that we deserved hell apart from God’s grace, and yet God has saved us. In fact, Paul tells us exactly what God has done for us in verses 13-14, writing, “He has delivered 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.”
There was a time when we didn’t abound in good works, weren’t growing in knowledge of God, and weren’t being strengthened to have endurance and patience with joy because we were held captive in the power of darkness. Yet God redeemed us out of that situation, transferred us from the power of darkness into the power of his kingdom, and has forgiven our sins. And, because this has happened in our lives, we should be characterized as a people who are thankful and giving thanks to God for what he has done in our lives.
What does a life look like that is honoring and pleasing to the Lord? We will bear fruit of good works, grow in knowledge of God, be strengthened for endurance and patience with joy, and give thanks to God, who has saved us and has an inheritance for us in eternity.
Finally, these verses remind us that . . .
We’ve noted this along the way, but I want to make it explicit. First, we don’t try to live like this so that God will justify us or finally accept us as his children. We’re right before God by faith in the gospel alone. Nor do we say to ourselves, “Okay, I’ll make it my aim to do all of these things. I need to find the will power to start living like Paul describes here.” No. The answer is to meditate on the truth of the gospel daily. Every day remind yourself of what God has done for us in Christ. Remind yourself that by faith in the crucified and risen Lord you are not condemned but forgiven of your sins. Remind yourself that there’s nothing you have done or can do to make yourself right with God. Christ has already done it for you. And let that gospel truth transform your hearts and move you to obedience. After all, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing all over the world and has throughout history, even as it does and will do with us. Let us therefore meditate on the gospel and give thanks to God for redeeming and forgiving us as we come to the table. Amen.