Trinity 24
Col
1:9-14
11/11/18
The apostle Paul’s letter to Colossae – a city in Asia Minor,
modern day Turkey – is interesting, because he is writing to a church he did not
found and which he has not visited. Instead the pastor Epaphras had proclaimed
the Gospel there, and Paul had heard the reports about the congregation that had
been founded.
Like almost all of his letters, just before our text Paul had
begun with a statement of thanksgiving about the Christians in Colossae. He wrote, “We
always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
since we 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.”
By faith the Colossians were in Christ, and
that faith was active in love toward all the fellow Christians. The hope they
had secure in the risen and ascended Lord prompted them to act in ways that
shared this love.
Then Paul added, “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.” In the preaching and teaching of Epaphras,
the Colossians had heard the Gospel - they had heard about the salvation God
had given in Jesus Christ. Paul gave
thanks that this Gospel was bearing fruit and growing among the Colossians and
indeed in the whole world.
These facts provide the reason for what
Paul indicates in our text he is now doing.
Our translation is rather lame when it says, “and so.” Literally, Paul’s Greek says “because of
this.” Because they have heard the
Gospel and believe in Jesus; because they have love for the saints; because the
Gospel is bearing fruit and growing among the Colossians, Paul is praying for
these things.
The apostle says in our text, “Because of
this, 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.” What Paul wants for the Colossians
is the same thing he would want for us.
It is the same thing for which we should be praying. And so our text provides important guidance
for us as Christians.
Paul says that he is praying the Colossians
“be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding.” Knowledge of God’s will
characterized by spiritual wisdom and understanding includes knowledge about
how we are to live in the situations we encounter. But it is by no means
limited to this. In fact, the ability to
live in this way is a product of another aspect of God’s will – his will to
save in Christ.
God’s will was to accomplish what Paul says
at the end of our text: “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.” Paul’s letter
to the Galatians has many parallels with that to the Colossians, and there Paul
says that Jesus Christ, “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the
present evil age, according to the will
of our God and Father.”
Because of the entrance of sin in the Fall,
we are all conceived and born as people are in the domain or authority of
darkness. We are trapped in sin and
unable to free ourselves. We are slaves of Satan. Now of course you need, as Paul calls it,
“spiritual wisdom” to recognize this fact.
Satan’s rule looks like “freedom” to the world. It is the attitude that we are free to use
our body, our money, our relationships and everything else in any way we
choose. That sounds really good, and Satan wants it that way. Because when you
do it you are his slave. He is your
lord.
But God’s will was to free us from this
darkness. He acted in the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ to transfer us from the domain of Satan to the
kingdom of his Son – to the reign of Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus is our Lord, and we stand forgiven
before God. As Paul goes on to say in
this chapter, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil
deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to
present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”
Paul has a purpose in mind when he prays
that the Colossians be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. He says that
this is “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.” For Paul, the Gospel is a very practical
thing. It produces a way of life. It makes things happen. And in our text, the
apostle mentions four things that define this way of life.
First he says that it means “bearing fruit
in every good work.” Now before we think
that in talking about doing the apostle has somehow lost sight of the Gospel,
we need to observe that he has just used the exact same verb to say that the
Gospel is bearing fruit. These good
works are the fruit produced by the Gospel. Why will I forgive another person?
Because God in Christ forgave me? Why
will I put the needs of my husband or wife, father or mother, brother or sister
ahead of my own? Because Jesus put my needs before himself when he died on the
cross. Jesus sacrificial and saving love in service to me, prompts me to
sacrifice for others and to serve them.
Second, Paul says that it means “increasing
in the knowledge of God.” Here too this
increase in knowledge is not separate from the Gospel. We see this in the fact
that Paul has just used the exact same verb to say that the Gospel is increasing
or growing in the world. The knowledge
of the Gospel makes us want to know more about God. Think about what it is like when you are in
love with someone. You want to continue
to learn more and more about him or her.
In the same way, God’s love for us has drawn us through the Gospel to
love him.
This should lead us to want to learn more
and more about God. What do his actions
for his people in the past tell us about who he is and how acts for us? What are his intentions for our future? How does he continue to share his love and
forgiveness with us? These and many
other things can only be learned from his Word – from the Scriptures. So are we
reading our Bible at home? Are we coming
to Bible class? If the answer to either
of those questions is “no,” then it is not the Gospel that is running the show
in this part of our life. It’s sin –
it’s the sinful old Adam who always wants to resist God and those things pleasing
to him.
Third,
Paul says that it means “being strengthened with all power, according to his
glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.” Now I have to be honest with you. It is this line that really caught my eye as
I was looking at the texts assigned for this Sunday. Paul says that through the
Gospel the glorious might of God strengthens us with power to endure and be patient.
Now when you think about the power of God’s
glorious might directed towards you, what comes to mind? I think for most of us it is probably the
idea of God taking away our problems and giving us those things that we think
we need. And when those things don’t happen we usually think that God’s power
has not helped us in any way.
Yet within Paul’s writings and the
Scriptures as a whole there is another way that the effect of God’s power is
described, and that is the endurance and
patience of the Christian. It is
easy for us to think about the presence of hardship as the absence of God’s
help. But Paul says here that God’s help
– his power – is present in the midst of
hardship as he helps us to endure and be patient.
These are occasions that God uses. He uses them to crucify the old Adam in us as
he turns us away from ourselves and towards him. He uses them as opportunities for Christians
to serve, help and support one another.
God’s word teaches us that times of endurance and patience are not the
absence of God’s work, but instead occasions when his power is at work in our
lives.
They are God at work because not only is
there endurance and patience, but Paul also says that it occurs “with
joy.” Obviously this is not joy in the
fact that hardships are present. But
instead because of Jesus Christ we have the certainty of God’s continuing
love. We have the assurance that there
is only one way that all of this can
end – eternal life with Christ and resurrection on the Last Day. God’s Spirit gives us joy in these facts even
as we endure and are patient.
And finally Paul says that it means “giving
thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the
saints in light.” Our lives as
Christians are lives of thanksgiving.
They are because in Christ God has delivered us from the domain of
darkness. He has given us a share in the
inheritance that belongs to the saints in light. This is not something that we could do for
ourselves. Only God could do it for us.
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins. For this we
give thanks, now and always.
So
with Paul let us pray we that may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in
all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the
Lord fully pleasing to him. For in this way, because of the Gospel, we will be
bearing fruit in every good work; we will be increasing in the knowledge of
God; we will be strengthened with all power for endurance and patience with joy;
and we will be giving thanks to the Father, who through Christ has
qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
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