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Colossians 1 vv 9 -14
The document discusses Paul's prayer for the Colossians, emphasizing his commitment to praying for their spiritual growth and knowledge of God's will. It highlights themes of living a life worthy of the Lord, being strengthened for endurance, and the rationale for their gratitude in light of redemption and forgiveness. Overall, it reflects on the importance of wisdom, knowledge, and a thankful heart in the Christian faith.
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Colossians 1 vv 9 -14
- 1. Welcome to Grace Butthe wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” James 3:17-18
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- 3. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a “3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you … 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.”
- 4. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a – The commitment
- 5. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a – The commitment – The reason for it
- 6. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a – The commitment – The reason for it – The nature of it … “since the day we heard … we have not stopped …”
- 7. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a – The commitment – The reason for it – The nature of it … • Instant
- 8. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a – The commitment – The reason for it – The nature of it … • Instant • Constant
- 9. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12
- 10. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 – That God will do this: Knowledge, v. 9b “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives”
- 11. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 – That God will do this: Knowledge, v. 9b – So you will do this: Life, v. 10 “10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God”
- 12. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 – That God will do this: Knowledge, v. 9b – So you will do this: Life, v. 10 – By this means: strengthened, v. 11 “11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience”
- 13. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 – That God will do this: Knowledge, v. 9b – So you will do this: Life, v. 10 – By this means: strengthened, v. 11 – In this way • What: thankful, v. 12a
- 14. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction •Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 – That God will do this: Knowledge, v. 9b – So you will do this: Life, v. 10 – By this means: strengthened, v. 11 – In this way • What: thankful, v. 12a • Why: qualified to inherit, v. 12b
- 15. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction • Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 • Rationale, vv. 13-14
- 16. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction • Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 • Rationale, vv. 13-14 – Rescued
- 17. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction • Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 • Rationale, vv. 13-14 – Rescued – Brought in
- 18. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction • Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 • Rationale, vv. 13-14 – Rescued – Brought in – On privileged basis – • redemption & • forgiveness of sins
- 19. Colossians 1:9-14 • Introduction • Paul’s prayer commitment, v. 9a • Paul prays, vv. 9b-12 • Rationale, vv. 13-14 • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- #3 I guess we’ve all got our ideas as to what we wish God’s people – what church – was like.As we saw last time, Paul is sitting in a prison cell as he writes, in chains for the Gospel with his team of apostolic companions at the heart of the evil empire in Rome itself.And he’s writing to a church that was started not by himself but by one of his converts at Ephesus who had taken the Good News about Jesus back home with him to Colossae … a place used to having good trade with every fresh philosophy travelling down the road past its doors, but a place that is finding itself in deep recession due to the rearrangement of the transport system in the Lycus valley.But that town has been visited by protognostic heretics with a ‘superior experience’ type of message which told them that what they’d got by turning from sin and trusting Jesus was a lower level of experience from what they could give them, along with a number of other doctrinal emphases about angels, about the bodily resurrection, about the person and work of Christ … and so on.Now Paul might well have wished that this vulnerable little church so far away in Colossae were different.In fact, of course, he DOES wish it different … but as we saw last time he started off by rehearsing the things to be thankful about that little bunch of believers in vv. 3-8.Verses 3-8 are about what he appreciates about them and thanks God for making them.Verses 9-14 are where we see what he aspires to for them to become and to be.So how would he change them?And how would he set about MAKING those changes?Let’s take that last question first … the way Paul himself does.How does he set about changing them?He makes (or rather has for some time made) a commitment to them in prayer.So here’s the shape of it …
- #5 Paul’s commitment to these believers over there in Colossae … not one of ‘his’ churches … is fundamentally to pray for them.“since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you”Now that shows a great deal of grace, it shows a great deal of commitment to GOD’s work and it demonstrates a really deep spiritual appreciation of what it means to see the evidence of the grace of God, LOVE it & rejoice!‘Since the day we heard about you …’ Paul says, he’s prayed for you.It’s not that he wanted to get up there straight away and put his own stamp on them, make sure they were singing off Paul’s hymn sheet or recognising his oversight and authority.That attitude is EVERYWHERE in 21st century Welsh Evangelicalism.No … his response to hearing of this genuine work of God was to resolvve to get behind it and support it and help it forwards in prayer.
- #6 “9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you …”So … why?What’s the actual reason?Well, it’s a clear reference to what’s already gone before.Paul has told us already …Here you go (v. 3):“we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you.”He’s heard about their faith, the way that God has stepped in to give those guys faith and gloriously save them.It is GOD’s work … and that’s what motivates Paul.Not that it is HIS work, not that it is our tribe’s work … God has been powerfully at work up there in Colossae and for that reason, because of the gracious, powerful, genuine work of God in them, which he recognises, rejoices in and longs to see go forward and bear fruitBecause of THAT … Paul commits himself to them to support God’s work in them in prayer.And it’s part of the worldwide work of God too …We need to embrace that worldwide vision – a grasp on what God is doing the world over and a passionate desire to be pat of it if only by prayer … even when (as for Paul as he writes) our own circumstances are very much less than favourable.
- #7 So will you now look at the nature of this commitment to prayer?
- #8 Paul didn’t hesitate.He didn’t need to reason himself into it.He just heard about God at work in Biblically, universally consistent ways over at Colossae, thought ‘that’s marvellous’ and committed himself to praying for those people.God was at work.Paul LOVED God’s saving work.He started off with this commitment to prayer.It was his FIRST response, it was instant.
- #9 And not only was it instant, it was CONSTANT.Now look, I don’t know what you spend your time thinking about.I don’t know what you find yourself talking about to yourself when you’re going about every aspect of your daily life.But, really, talking to yourself like that really can be a waste of time, can’t it?All that focussing on yourself?Isn’t there somebody else you could MUCH more usefully be talking to, about the usual stuff and an awful lot else besides that?Paul is CONSTANTLY in prayer, for one bit of what God’s doing, one part of His Gospel work in the world or another!Of course, we can’t say Paul never talked to himself.But this is what we CAN say … he IS always praying!Do you know what it is to carry God’s people around on your heart with you day after day after day?Paul says to these Colossians: “since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will …”(It’s time we got to grips with what Paul prays for them!)
- #10 This looks like a big long unconnected list of things Paul prays for these Colossians under pressure, but there are basically just two things Paul prays God will give them: knowledge of Him and His strength, and then one thing that this will give them the ability to respond with: to live a life worthy of His calling.So then, the content of Paul’s prayer is that God might fill the Colossians with a perception of His will, which consists in knowing what is spiritually important.This would result in conduct that is pleasing to the Lord … that is, a harvest of good deeds and growth in understanding (v. 10) along with the God given power to act in this manner exercising patience an long suffering in doing so, all the while giving thanks to the Father forAn eternal inheritanceDeliverance from the power of darkness &The forgiveness of sins (vv. 12-14)So Paul’s actual prayer is for the discernment of God’s will in the most practical sense, and the God-given power to live a life that reflects it
- #11 Teaching is so important for the Christian’s life.But notice why it is so important … Christian, Biblical teaching is not about knowing the theories so you can impress and be part of the in-crowd.It’s actually all about getting to know the will of God … what God wills should be and should be done.Later in the book we’ll see that all their faithful teachers of Biblical truth are up against those at Colossae who pretend to higher knowledge, the knowledge of mysteries and supposedly ‘deep things’.Such dangers exist in various forms and guises to this day … these superiority mystery teachings have been springing traps of distraction on keen Christian people for millenia.Paul says he prays for knowledge, but not higher esoteric knowledge … the knowledge of God’s will.The heretical γνωσις of the gnostics was speculative guess work and unrooted theory.The knowledge for which Paul prays is comprehensive and demands life should be lived consistent with its discovered (or rather revealed) truth.Paul’s role is to call people from amongst all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith, so the knowledge needs to be the knowledge of God’s will … and in the last analysis that’s the only knowledge that ultimately matters!You need to know your Bible, study your Bible and hear sound Bible teaching.NOT so that you should become knowledgeable, but that you should become something else … as we’ll see in a minute.Knowledge.Through wisdom.Through understanding.The knowledge, wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.The perception of God’s will – the knowledge of which Pau writes – consisted in ‘wisdom and understanding of every sort’Both wisdom and understanding are described as ‘spiritual’ … with that word in the emphatic position in the sentence.Not esoteric, not theoretical, not supremacist … spiritual.And all the while that dative suggests that this wisdom and understanding are spiritual in the sense that it is the Spirit Himself Who IMPARTS them.
- #12 Christian teaching is intimately linked to imparting wisdom and understanding and those are both linked to relating the knowledge of the truth to life. As everywhere in Biblical theology, it is the awesome Lord Himself Whose character calls forth in His followers a life that is worthy of Him.Such a life seeks to please the awesome One in every way …How do you please God?There are four participial clauses here that clarify and spell it outThe first two are …Bearing fruit & growing … very horticultural metaphors!(John 15’s vine, Eph 4’s growing up into Him Who is the Head)And doing all this not by human effort but by this means … (here comes the third participial phrase …
- #13 ‘strengthened with all power according to his glorious might’