We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ continually [when] praying for you,
Paul writes to Christians he had never met, and he starts with thanks rather than teaching. Three questions follow: why thanks comes first, why he names God as he does, and what news about strangers could make him grateful.
One writer shows what praying for people first does to any correction that follows.
As so often in his letters, the Apostle opens by assuring the Colossians of his prayers for them. A word of warning or correction may be needed. It carries far more power when it comes from lips that have been regularly busy in prayer for us. We also accept it far more readily from them than from anyone else.
Ephesians begins with a long flood of blessing. Colossians, written at the same period, starts here instead — and commentators trace that difference to the state of the readers.
Others have rightly noticed that the Apostle leaves out anything like the magnificent opening of his letter to the Ephesians. There was a check on his spirit; he felt the danger that threatened the Colossians. How could he then at once break out into an unhindered strain of blessing? The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and deals with hearts and consciences. Still, if that high tone of worship could not fittingly find a place here, thanksgiving comes at once.
Another writer traces the same contrast to a difference in spiritual condition.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul first lets a whole stream of the riches of the grace of God flow out. Only then does he come to the faith of the saints and their spiritual condition. In the letter to the Colossians he deals with their condition at once. This suggests that they were in a lower moral condition than the Ephesians.
Paul does not simply say "God." He names Him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. One writer, commenting on Ephesians, explains why Scripture gives God two titles in relation to Christ.
There are two titles given to God in this letter. In one He is called the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ. That title views Christ as glorified Man, who has been down here, suffered, died, and was raised again. In the other He is called the FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ. This time Christ is seen not as the risen and glorified Man, but as the Son of God.
Older translations of this verse read "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," giving both titles at once.
The word "always" is not decoration. It is taken as a description of how Paul actually worked.
The gospel was first brought into Europe in connection with a group of praying women by the river at Philippi. Paul, the servant who received the vision calling him into Macedonia, was a great man of prayer. The intensity of his prayers for the believers who had not seen his face he could only describe as "conflict," or combat (Col. 2:1). "Praying always for you" shows his steady perseverance in this matter.
This habit runs through the whole letter, and Paul was not alone in it.
With the Colossians he is just as urgent about prayer. He writes, "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you." Again, "we have not ceased to pray for you." And again, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving... praying also for us." He also speaks of Epaphras, a man of the same mind as himself. Epaphras was "always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God."
Paul had never visited Colossae. A report was all he had, and it shaped both his thanks and his prayers.
Paul had never seen the Colossians, but had heard of them through Epaphras. He could thank God for what he had heard about them. But he could also agonise in prayer for them, asking that they might know more of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Then they would walk worthy of the Lord.
The report named two things: faith and love. One writer shows what each meant in practice.
They were marked by faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the saints. Not only had they been drawn in faith to the Lord Jesus as needy sinners, but they walked by faith as dependent saints. The reality of their faith in Christ was proved by their love to the saints. Their love was not the merely human kind, which might have tied them to certain people only. It was divine love, and it went out to "all saints" because they were saints.
One writer turns the verse straight on the reader.
Have you faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? May I give thanks to God for you because you have faith in Jesus? The moment Paul learned that these Colossians had faith in Jesus, he began to give God thanks for them.
- Heard — Paul had never seen these believers; a report from Epaphras was enough to move him.
- Thanked — he gave thanks first. Correction came later, and it lands with more weight from lips that pray.
- Prayed — thanks turned into steady, urgent prayer. The same praying marks the whole letter, and Epaphras shared it.
- Addressed — he thanks God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That title views Christ as the Son; the title GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ views Him as glorified Man.
- Proved — love proved the faith. It reached all the saints, not a chosen few.
having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye have towards all the saints,
Paul is writing to believers he had never met. All that reached him was a report of two things: they had faith in Christ Jesus and love for all God's people. Those two marks raise a question. What does a real work of God look like from the outside?
One writer explains why that report was enough:
Paul wrote so confidently because of what he had heard. A faithful servant of the Lord had been working among them, and he reported that they not only claimed to be Christians but showed the two central marks of Christianity, "faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints." He also told the apostle of their "love in the Spirit" (Col. 1:4, 8). It goes without saying: these movements of soul are never found in the natural man. Only a divine work can produce them.
The faith Paul heard about was not only the first step of a sinner coming to Christ. It marked the whole way they lived, and it proved itself in something visible:
Faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the saints marked them. Faith had drawn them to the Lord Jesus as needy sinners, and they went on walking by faith as dependent saints. Their love to the saints proved that their faith in Christ was real. Their love was not human love, which might have attached them only to certain people. It was divine love that went out to "all saints" because that is what they were.
Faith and love can sound like ordinary words. Do they say much?
This may seem a small thing to say. One might ask, Is this unique to the Colossians? Does not every believer trust in Christ and love those who are His? We may reply with another question: Does it characterise every Christian? Does it characterise us? It involves more than believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. It means He is the blessed, lasting object of our faith, and that the saints are the circle where our love is now at work.
Paul mentions faith before love, and then adds one testing word — "all":
Our love would bring in the thought of something on our part that would make us important. So although he is about to speak of love to the saints, he introduces the matter by "faith," because faith throws us not so much on our love to Him as on His love to us... This is a very important word in judging our love. We are all inclined to form a circle even among God's people. We have those we prefer, those who suit us best. Their thoughts, feelings and habits are more or less like our own, or at least are no great trial to us. But this is not love to the saints. There is more love of ourselves in it than love of them. The flesh likes whatever is agreeable to us, whatever causes us no pain.
Natural warmth cannot reach that far:
These two things, simple and elementary as they may appear, are extremely important. They show clearly and surely that a person has the divine nature — see 1 John 3:14; 1 John 5:1. An unconverted person may be quite attached to one believer here or there who happens to appeal to him. But he does not love "all the saints." That is beyond anyone except the one who is born of God.
Verse 8 calls this same love "love in the Spirit." That phrase explains how it reached Paul himself:
Here their love to the saints unfolds and grows. They did not know Paul personally, so they could only love him in the Spirit. I might know a fellow believer and be drawn to him by something attractive in the flesh. But love in the Spirit loves him because he belongs to Christ. Now love in the Spirit takes in "all saints," as we have it in verse 4.
The sentence does not stop at verse 4. The next verse gives a reason for their love:
It was "for" or "on account of" the hope that love to all the saints marked them. They would all be together with the Lord Jesus Christ and like Him, sharing the coming glory with Him. That hope was laid up for them in heaven, not on earth as Israel's hope is. That is why they loved all the saints.
- Heard. Paul had never seen these believers; a report of their faith and love was enough for him to thank God for them.
- Faith. Faith is named first: it rests us on His love to us, not on ours to Him — and it goes on as a daily walk of dependence.
- Love. Love is the proof faith gives of itself: divine love goes out to God's people because they are God's.
- All. The test is the word "all" — preferring a few who suit us is love of self, while loving saints as saints is beyond anyone not born of God.
- Hope. Behind that love stands the hope laid up in heaven; because their portion was there, their love reached everyone who shares it.
on account of the hope which [is] laid up for you in the heavens; of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the glad tidings,
Paul thanks God for the Colossians' faith and love. Then he names what stands behind both: a hope already stored up for them in heaven. What is kept there? And why does a future hope change the way people live and love now?
"Laid up" is the language of storage, and the place matters as much as the fact. One writer sets both against two pressures on this church: philosophy and strict religious rules.
Their hope was laid up. It was safe. It was "in the heavens," not on the earth — despite philosophy and rules about denying the body. They had to beware of all these, whatever they looked like and whatever they promised. He would remind them of their own true hope, calling them back to the heavens where Christ is. That is the true and only deliverance from all the working of the human mind in divine things, and from earthly religion.
What is stored there is not a list of benefits. It is a Person, and everything else is bound up in Him.
It is not merely that we shall be there. Nor is it just that we have put all our interests into the hand of Christ, and that He will take care of all our happiness and joy in heaven. Christ Himself in glory is our hope. God has treasured up all that is ours in Him in the heavens, and we are to enjoy it now as hope.
The opening words tie the hope back to the faith and love of verse 4. One writer reads that hope as the reason these Colossians loved as they did.
It was "for" or "because of" the hope that love to all the saints marked them out. They would all be together with the Lord Jesus Christ and like Him, sharing with Him the coming glory. That hope was laid up for them in heaven, not on earth as Israel's hope is. So they loved all the saints.
Paul says they had heard of this hope already. It came to them with the gospel that first converted them — which means the gospel itself carries more than pardon.
The gospel, the good news of grace, had good news of glory wrapped up in it too. Such was the range and scope of the gospel they had heard. It was God's good news not only of the forgiveness of sins through the blood of His Son, but of eternal blessedness with Him in heaven.
That has a direct consequence for anyone who preaches, and the balance cuts both ways.
We learn from this that those who preach the gospel should stress its present effect, which is deliverance from the power of sin. They should stress its final effect too — bringing the believer into glory. It would of course be just as much a mistake to preach the final effect without insisting on the present one.
Paul piles up three weighty terms instead of just saying "the gospel." Each one answers a pull the Colossians felt.
It was not intellectual groping, but "the word" sent to them — God's revelation. It was not dabbling in legal forms, but "the truth," the truth of the gospel. The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The gospel came to them, and was still there with them, as unchanging as the One who is its sum and substance. Real truth, even when new, never sets aside the old. Instead it supplies the missing links, deepens the foundations and widens the scope.
In everyday speech "hope" means a wish that may not come true. Here it means the opposite. Paul urges it on them for a practical reason.
Hope in Scripture is not something uncertain. It is looking ahead to the future with no doubt at all involved… It was necessary to press this prospect on them, since they were travelling through a wilderness, exposed to present dangers and temptations. How vital it is for us all to keep the end in view!
One writer compares this letter with Ephesians, and the difference shapes daily life.
Heavenly things are our hope. Colossians does not begin with the counsels of God, as Ephesians does. Instead we get a long opening in which the apostle longs to settle the saints in this hope of heavenly things… My hope is laid up in heaven, but I am not sitting there.
- Hope stored. God has already stored the hope safely in heaven, not on earth — out of reach of philosophy and religious rule-keeping.
- Hope is a Person. God has treasured up everything for us in Christ in glory. Christ Himself is the hope, and we enjoy it now in anticipation.
- Hope fuels love. The Colossians loved all believers because of the hope. They were all heading for the same glory.
- Hope was preached. They heard it in the gospel itself. It announces forgiveness through the blood of God's Son, and eternal blessedness with Him. Preaching that drops either half is unbalanced.
- Hope keeps you walking. It is certainty, not guesswork. It steadies travellers still exposed to danger, whose hope is in heaven though they do not sit there yet.
which are come to you, as [they are] in all the world, [and] are bearing fruit and growing, even as also among you, from the day ye heard [them] and knew indeed the grace of God, in truth
The gospel had come to Colossae, and the same message was bearing fruit and growing across the world. Paul points to that fruit, and to the day they first heard, as the marks of grace known in truth.
The first thing Paul says about this gospel is where it goes.
A second mark of the gospel was that it was for everyone. It had reached them, and was among them, just as it was in the world. It was not merely Jewish news; it was for man. Offences abounded among the Jews; but sin is a far wider thing, and where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.
That scope was not a side detail. It answered a real pressure on these believers.
Then, as now, there were people who tried to draw believers back onto Jewish ground. So the Apostle reminds them that the gospel is for everyone. The grace of God cannot be limited to the Jew; it is for "all the world".
A small group in one town can feel cut off from anything bigger.
This same gospel had produced fruit in all the world as well as in them, so they were not isolated, whether they felt so or not. Fruit had been coming from the day they heard and knew the grace of God in truth (v.6). What a precious encouragement about the power of the truth they had learned!
Some fear that a message of free grace makes people careless.
Does grace make us careless or indifferent? It does not; it works in exactly the opposite direction; it produces fruit. Another rendering of this passage reads: "The Glad Tidings … are bearing fruit and growing, even as also among you." Both growth and fruit-bearing prove that life is there. Where people truly receive the Gospel, there is no standing still and no decay.
Set beside the law, the difference is sharp.
Grace is not like the law. The Ten Commandments are mostly negative. The law mostly deals with what is evil, and it condemns it. But the gospel reveals Christ as a power that gives life, strengthens, and produces fruit. Because it is a principle of life, it expands and grows as well as bearing fruit.
So who bears the fruit here — the message, or the people who receive it?
What is more, in that day the gospel itself was "bearing fruit and growing". Later we learn that the saints are to bear fruit and grow (Col. 1:10); here it is the gospel that bears fruit and grows. The saints themselves are the fruit of the gospel, and the character of Christ in the saints is the fruit that believers are to bear.
The phrase marks a starting point, not a finished event. What began at conversion kept producing.
It was gathering souls to God through Christ wherever it went, but besides, it was bringing forth fruit in those who were gathered. The clause that follows implies this: "since the day you heard it, and knew the grace of God in truth." Ever since that day it has been the power that bears fruit, just as at the start it was the seed of eternal life. And the grace of God, when known in truth, sets us before God in Christ; the fruits of that union we are to show here on earth.
Colossae had other teachings on offer.
The same gospel was going out into all the world, bearing fruit wherever people received it in faith. Could this be said of the various philosophical systems being introduced among the Colossians? Or could mysticism and law-keeping show such results? Only those who hear and believe the gospel know the grace of God in truth.
This knowledge is not all that Paul wants for them.
The Apostle sees two kinds of knowledge in the saints. One is the knowledge of "the grace of God in truth." The other is the knowledge of "His will in all wisdom and understanding" (verses 6 and 9). The saints at Colossae had reached the first; he longed for them to reach the second.
- Came. The gospel reached Colossae as a message already going out to the whole world — for man, not for one nation.
- Bore fruit. Grace does not make people careless. Fruit and growth prove that the message truly took hold.
- Fruit twice over. In verse 6 the gospel bears the fruit, and the believers are that fruit. By verse 10 they bear fruit themselves.
- Since that day. The same message that gave life keeps producing life — a starting date, not a closing one.
- More to know. They knew the grace of God in truth. Paul prayed they would go on to know His will as well.
even as ye learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-bondman, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you,
Paul never preached at Colosse, yet he thanks God for the faith growing there. Verse 7 names the man who brought the message: Epaphras, whom Paul calls a fellow servant and a faithful minister of Christ.
Paul writes to a church he did not start.
In common with the letter to the Romans, this letter was addressed to saints in a place where Paul had not worked (2:1). The apostle did not found the church at Colosse. It seems God chose Epaphras to bring them the gospel — one of them, a servant of Christ (4:12), Paul's beloved fellow servant, and their faithful minister of Christ (1:7).
Epaphras carried the message to Colosse, and then carried news of Colosse to Rome.
It would appear from verse 7 that Epaphras had been the servant of Christ who brought the light to them. They had learned the Glad Tidings of the grace of God and of the hope of glory from his lips. Then verse 8 shows that he had travelled to Rome. There he told Paul what God had done among the Colossians, and how deep and sincere their Christian love was.
The title Paul gives Epaphras is a servant word, and it covers other workers too.
Paul was a deacon (minister) both of the gospel and of the Church, Christ's body (Col. 1:23 and 25). Tychicus was a faithful minister, or deacon, of Christ (4:7). And Epaphras was another. Both "minister" in Colossians 1:7 and "servant" translate the Greek word diakonos, "deacon."
The manuscripts differ over one word in this verse.
Several manuscripts read "a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf," and the editors Lachmann, Tregelles, and Alford follow them. This is perhaps the more correct reading. By it Paul is vouching for Epaphras' work at Colosse.
Rival teachers at Colosse were pushing speculation and Jewish ritual. They gained ground at a faithful worker's expense.
So the Apostle takes the opportunity, as he often did, to strengthen the hands of one who was Christ's minister and faithful on their behalf. He calls him here, with affection, "Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondman." The speculative views and the Jewish ritual forms no doubt had their promoters. Such men would seek to win favour at a faithful labourer's expense. We can easily see why Colosse needed this word commending Epaphras.
Paul had evidence for this, not just affection.
It seems Epaphras brought them this knowledge. Paul speaks of him as his fellow servant, and as a faithful minister of Christ for them. The work showed what the workman was. Through him, the apostle himself saw their love in the Spirit.
Epaphras founded the church. So why is Paul the one writing them a letter of instruction?
God used Epaphras (Col. 1:7) as His servant for the blessing of the Colossians. Thinking of that, we might be tempted to ask, "Was Paul interfering with somebody else's work when he sent this letter to them?"
The answer takes ownership out of it.
It would help us all to remember this. In Christianity, God works the service, and it is not the private property of a servant. The gospel reaches souls to give them a living link with the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. He uses one or another, but His object is to form this link with Himself.
The end of the letter shows how he served them once he was far away.
Earlier in the letter we learnt that Epaphras had laboured among the Colossian saints as a faithful minister of Christ. Now we learn that he is no longer with them. Yet he still laboured hard in prayer for them, and for the saints in the neighbouring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis... A wholesome and encouraging reminder that prayer is a powerful weapon in meeting the opposition of the enemy.
That kind of work never draws a crowd.
His labours, so far as the inspired writer has recorded them, do not seem to have been very showy or attractive. They were not designed to catch the human eye or win human praise. But they were most precious labours — peerless, priceless labours! They were labours done in private, labours behind the closed door, labours in the sanctuary. Without them everything else must prove barren and worthless.
- Learned. Epaphras, not Paul, brought the gospel to Colosse. Paul still thanked God for a church he had never visited.
- Servant. "Minister" translates the ordinary Greek word for a servant. Paul and Tychicus carry the same title. It describes work, not rank.
- Faithful. The work showed what the workman was. Paul said so out loud, where rival teachers were trying to pull a faithful labourer down.
- Not owned. Service is never a servant's private property. The Lord uses one worker or another to link souls to Himself. So Paul could write to converts he had not made.
- Sustained. Later the same man is labouring in prayer for those believers from far away. Hidden work, and without it everything else proves worthless.
who has also manifested to us your love in [the] Spirit.
Paul is thanking God for a church he had never visited, and everything he knows about it came second-hand. Verse 8 names the man who brought the report. It also names the one thing he reported: their love in the Spirit.
The verse points back to the man named in verse 7. He is the link between the church at Colossae and Paul.
It would appear from verse 7 that Epaphras had been the servant of Christ who brought the light to them. They had learned the good news of the grace of God and of the hope of glory from his lips. Then verse 8 shows that he had travelled to Rome. There he made known to Paul what God had worked among the Colossians, and the depth and sincerity of their Christian love. We can see how highly Paul esteemed him. He speaks of him as a faithful servant of Christ. At the end of the letter we learn how truly devoted he was to the spiritual welfare of the Colossians.
What Epaphras reported was also a report on his own work.
The work showed what the workman was. Through him they showed their love in the Spirit to the apostle himself.
Paul had never met these people. Yet he wrote to them with full confidence, and the report from Epaphras is why.
It is remarkable too that Paul had not seen them... He wrote in this way because of a report. A faithful servant of the Lord had been working among them, and Paul heard from him that they did not just profess to be Christians. They also showed the two central marks of Christianity: "faith in Christ Jesus, and love for all the saints." He also declared to the apostle their "love in the Spirit." It hardly needs adding that these activities of soul are never found in the natural man. Only a divine work can produce them. On one hand, there may be much natural kindness and generous, self-denying service to others, without any knowledge of Christ. On the other hand, there may be a boastful faith that can remove mountains, without any sense of the love of God in Christ. But when the apostle heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and of their love for fellow believers, the Spirit led him to assure them, without hesitation, of their present standing and blessings, and of the certainty that they would be with Christ in glory.
The phrase tells you about the love, not about the Spirit's presence here.
It does not present the Spirit of God as a person down here, though of course He is a person. It presents Him as giving the love its character. The love was not natural affection; it was love in the Spirit.
Ordinary affection needs something attractive to attach to. This love works on another basis, so it reaches further.
Here their love to the saints unfolds and grows. They did not know Paul in the flesh, so it could only be in the Spirit that they loved him. I might know a brother and be drawn to him by something attractive in the flesh. But love in the Spirit loves him because he belongs to Christ. Now love in the Spirit takes in "all the saints," as we have it in verse 4.
The Spirit is named nowhere else in this letter. That silence has a reason.
This is the only mention of the Holy Spirit in Colossians. The letter gives no doctrine about Him at all, unlike Romans, Galatians and Ephesians. Here instead the Holy Spirit is drawing attention to the Person of Christ as enough food for the wilderness. So He says nothing of Himself.
The subject of the letter shows why love takes this form here:
In Colossians the main subject is the glory of Christ, as Head, and the unfolding of His glories as the head of His body. We are all members of that body. So "love in the Spirit" is a mark of the life that each member has.
- Carrier. Epaphras brought the gospel to Colossae and carried the news back to Paul. "The work showed what the workman was."
- Source. This love is not natural warmth. Such faith and love are "never found in the natural man." Only "a divine work" can produce them.
- Character. "In the Spirit" tells you what kind of love this is. The Spirit gives the love its character; He is not the subject here.
- Reach. It loves a person because he belongs to Christ. So it reaches saints it has never seen, and takes in "all the saints."
- Focus. The Spirit is named only once in Colossians. Here He draws attention to Christ and says nothing of Himself.
For this reason *we* also, from the day we heard [of your faith and love], do not cease praying and asking for you, to the end that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
The verse turns from thanksgiving to prayer. One request heads the list of what Paul asks for these believers: the full knowledge of God's will, held in wisdom and spiritual understanding.
Why move from thanks to prayer? One writer draws the line between what is already settled and the road still ahead:
The Apostle has thanked God for the hope stored up for believers in heaven. The certainty of the end of the journey is not something to pray about; it is something to praise God for. But we are still in the world, though not of it, and there is a path to walk on our way to heaven. Because of its difficulties and dangers, this path draws out the Apostle's prayer.
The word behind "knowledge" here is not the ordinary one. It is stronger, and Paul is not asking for a little of it:
God's will is to govern everything for us, so the knowledge of His will must come first. The word used for knowledge here is a very strong one, really meaning full knowledge, and they were to be filled with that full knowledge. God's will was to take up all their thoughts and fill their whole horizon. This is a very high standard, but God's standard and goal are never anything but very high.
Commentators differ here. Some read it as God's direction for daily life, and tie it to the spiritual state of the soul:
In many passages the will of God refers to God's eternal purposes... In other passages it refers to God's will for His people in their daily path... That is the case here, where the will of God clearly refers to our practical walk. Discerning God's will for our path calls for knowing God's mind as revealed in the Word. But it also depends on the spiritual state of the soul, implied in the words "wisdom and spiritual understanding."
Others read it as what God has purposed for those who belong to Christ:
God has willed certain things for those who are redeemed by the blood of His Son. They are made holy in Him, put into the place of sons, accepted in the Beloved, heirs of God, sealed and indwelt by His Spirit. This is the knowledge Christians should be filled with. This the Colossians lacked.
Paul names two things that go with this knowledge, and they do different work:
I think "wisdom and spiritual understanding" means perceiving what is good and wise in God's sight, apart from it being His express command. For example, my father may tell me to do something, and I may do it without knowing why; but here it is my Father who at the same time shows me why it matters. So "wisdom" sees the beauty and rightness of any given thing, and "spiritual understanding" makes the right application. One grasps the cause; the other deals with the effect.
The understanding Paul asks for is spiritual. That rules out one way of getting it:
Our knowledge is to be in spiritual understanding — understanding gained by the Spirit of God, not by a merely intellectual process. A person can gather Bible information in much the same way as historical or geographical information. He may then be able to analyse and explain the Scriptures, and still be a complete stranger to how they touch real life and to their power.
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Being filled with one will pushes another will out. But God does not do this by overriding us:
God does not treat the believer like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding, but as an intelligent and loving person whom He brings into fellowship with Himself. A man is not a delivered man if his own will rules him. That is the very opposite of being filled with the knowledge of God's will, and that is why the Apostle prays that they may be filled.
Another writer sets Paul's prayer beside the prayers of Epaphras for the same believers, and finds something greater still:
It is a great thing to have a full knowledge of the will of God; that is what the Apostle desired for the Colossians in Colossians 1:9. It is a greater thing to stand perfect and complete in that will. Standing in it means that we are subject to it and marked by it. Clearly the desires and prayers of Epaphras for the believers at Colosse and the surrounding area ran exactly parallel with the prayers of Paul for them.
- Filled, not informed. The word means full knowledge. Paul asks that God's will take up all their thoughts and fill their whole horizon.
- Filled, so displaced. God's will crowds out our own. He does this by bringing us into fellowship, not by treating us as animals with no understanding.
- Filled, then applied. Wisdom sees why a thing is good in God's sight; spiritual understanding puts it in the right place.
- Filled by the Spirit. Anyone can gather Bible facts like history or geography and still be a stranger to their power.
- Filled, then standing. Knowing God's will is great. Standing complete in it — subject to it, marked by it — is greater. Epaphras's prayers ran right alongside Paul's.
[so as] to walk worthily of the Lord unto all well-pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing by the true knowledge of God;
In the previous verse Paul prays that the Colossians will be filled with the knowledge of God's will. This verse shows what that knowledge is for: a walk, a work, and a growth that match the Lord Himself.
Verse 9 and verse 10 belong together. Knowing God's will and living it out were never meant to come apart.
In verses 9 and 10, our walk is tied to our spiritual state, and God does not mean the two to come apart. To have only the knowledge of God's will, without walking worthy, would in fact do me harm. Nothing would then exercise me about actually being a spiritual saint.
Notice what Paul does not pray for. His concern is not that they achieve great things, but that their daily life match their Lord.
Notice why this passage asks for the fullness of wisdom and spiritual understanding. It is not so that we might do great things for the Lord. It is not so that we might teach and preach the truth about the Lord. It is so that, above every other consideration, we might walk worthy of the Lord. Our spiritual condition and our practical walk in everyday life matter far more than all our service and activity.
That standard is sharper than the vague ideals we settle for. It also ends a great deal of argument.
Notice the standard for the walk: it is to "walk worthy of the Lord." How seldom we find anyone insisting on such a standard. We hear much about a "consistent walk," but such a loose, vague walk is not found in Scripture. It is "worthy of the Lord," who loved us and gave Himself for us. This is a different thought, and it silences a thousand questions about going here or there, doing this or that. The whole point is, Is it "worthy of the Lord?"
The title Paul chooses carries weight. In Ephesians the measure is a walk worthy of our calling. Here the appeal is to the Lord's authority.
He could not say in this letter "worthy of your calling," as in writing to the Ephesians. He does not even say worthy of Christ, but "of the Lord." That is, he brings in His authority. A Christian can make no more serious mistake than to suppose that presenting the Lord as Lord is the higher thing for the believer. It is completely true in its place. But it speaks to our sense of responsibility more than to the loving fellowship of the children of God.
The words "fully pleasing to him" turn the verse into a question you can carry into an ordinary day.
We often say and do much that we would never say or do if we stopped to ask ourselves two questions: "Is this worthy of the Lord?" and "Is this pleasing to the Lord?" So we do well to set out day by day with the prayer that we may "walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing."
Paul asks for fruit in good works. Anyone can do a kind act. Something more is meant here.
Fruit in the believer is always the expression of the character of Christ. The man of the world can do many good works, but he cannot bear fruit to God in his good works. The believer alone can express something of Christ in his good works. So in the good works that help people, there will be fruit for God.
Others draw a related line between the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians and the fruitfulness named here, and put them in order.
We may distinguish between the "fruit of the Spirit," spoken of in Galatians 5:22-23, and "being fruitful," according to our tenth verse. There it is fruit produced in the way of Christian character. Here it is fruitfulness in good works. The former lays the foundation for the latter, but both are necessary.
The last clause names the source of growth, and it is not information. Older translations read "increase by the knowledge of God," and the writers below use that wording.
Scripture tells us that "knowledge puffs up" (1 Corinthians 8:1) — that is, the mere collecting of the terms of truth. But it also says that we "increase by the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:10). That is not knowledge about God, but personal heart-knowledge of Him, and it comes largely from what the soul has lived through with God.
This is why the verse has no ceiling.
Though we may have the knowledge of His will, we are still to go on increasing in the knowledge of God, or "by the full knowledge of God." We not only grow in it but by it. The more we know God by experience, the more our spiritual stature increases.
- Filled — verse 9 asks for the knowledge of God's will, and verse 10 puts it into the feet. Knowledge kept apart from the walk does the believer harm.
- Walk — the measure is not a vague "consistent walk" but the Lord Himself. That one question settles a thousand smaller ones.
- Please — the title "Lord" brings in His authority and speaks to our responsibility. So each day carries one test: is this worthy of Him, and pleasing to Him?
- Fruit — anyone can do good works. Only a believer can carry the character of Christ inside them, so the act that helps a person also bears fruit for God.
- Grow — growth comes by knowing God personally, not by collecting terms. We grow by that knowledge as well as in it, so there is no finish line on earth.
strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory unto all endurance and longsuffering with joy;
Paul's prayer for the Colossians rises to its highest note here: all power, measured by God's own glory. The surprise comes in what that power is for.
The walk Paul prays for needs a power we do not have in ourselves. One writer points to where that power comes from: Christ at the right hand of God.
The more exalted a Person, the greater His power. Who then can estimate the might of the glory of Christ, who is at the right hand of power? ... This mighty power is at our disposal. It is not here to make us great preachers or teachers, or prominent leaders among the people of God. It is here to enable us to take the path of pleasing the Lord, and also to endure in that path with longsuffering and joyfulness. We look at His perfect pathway as our pattern. We look to Him in the glory for power to walk in that pattern.
Read the first half of the verse and you expect great deeds. The second half turns elsewhere.
We see here the character of the letter — the full knowledge of a glorious Christ. And so we are strengthened with all power. To what purpose? For some heroic deed? No; but that we may endure. It is unto all endurance and longsuffering. This is true power. When Paul speaks of proofs of power, he always puts endurance and longsuffering first. It is no easy matter to endure everything with joy; for this we need the might of His glory.
Another writer met the same surprise while reading the verse for himself.
It was a bit of a shock. In those days I had never thought much about endurance, or about patience either, as our ordinary English Bible puts it. But God's thoughts are not our thoughts. God knows the true worth of endurance, and just the power it takes. This is even more true when "longsuffering", or "suffering-for-a-long-time", goes with it. And all of it is done not in a spirit of self-pity, but "with joy."
The verse names patience, long-suffering, and joy. One writer sets out what each of the three faces.
These terms describe what we are, rather than what we do. Patience has more to do with circumstances. Long-suffering has to do with our brothers and sisters, and joyfulness with God.
The Greek word behind "endurance" is stronger than it sounds, and it has one perfect example.
Hupomone comes from hupomeno, which means "to sustain." It is once translated "enduring" and once "patient continuance." That is the full thought of the word: a "patient endurance" that does not give way under trial and suffering. ... It is never applied to God Himself, since there could be no such testing or pressure in His case. But the Lord Jesus, in the place He has taken as Man, is our perfect example of it.
Patience sounds like a small ask until you test it against your own will.
Is that not a wonderful thing to say? And what is the fruit of it? It sounds a poor thing — "patience!" But try it and see. Is there a working of will in you that does not like to be crossed? That is not patience! ... The moment my will breaks and bows to God's will, and I bear with patience everything I meet, joy is unhindered.
This power meets a scene where everything is against us. One writer shows what the last words of the verse rule out.
"Strengthened with all power," for a scene where everything is against us. ... And we are "strengthened … to all long-suffering." This long-suffering bears every evil work without a complaint. It can also do every good work through Christ who gives it strength. ... But "with joyfulness" crowns the verse. This is not the heart submitting with sorrow at its core. People call that resignation, a word unknown in Scripture. But the heart's joy springing up to Him in glory.
Anyone can imitate the first half of that pair. Only God's work produces the second.
Even someone who is not a Christian can at times show long-suffering. But who except the Christian can combine long-suffering with joyfulness?
- Source — the strength comes from Christ in glory. Its measure is the might of that glory, not the size of our need.
- Spent — this power is not given for heroic deeds or prominence, but so that we may endure. Paul puts endurance and long-suffering first among the proofs of power.
- Split — patience meets circumstances, long-suffering meets people, joyfulness answers to God. These words describe what we are, not what we do.
- Struggle — patience sounds cheap until something crosses your own will. When the will bows to God's will, joy runs unhindered.
- Signature — an unbeliever can manage long-suffering. Long-suffering with joy, and not resignation, is the mark of glory's power in us.
giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light,
Paul's prayer for the Colossians turns into praise. He thanks the Father for something the believer already has. So what makes anyone fit for God's presence? And is that fitness something we build, or something we receive? (Older translations read "made us meet to be partakers" where the ESV has "qualified you to share".)
Verses 12–14 shift from what Paul asks God for to what God has already done:
Here the Apostle is no longer giving thanks for qualities found in the Colossian saints, as in verses 4 and 5. He now thanks the Father for the blessings that belong to every believer alike. These blessings are not a matter for prayer but a theme for praise… The position and relationships are the result of Christ's work, so they must be as perfect as that work. We may grow in our grasp of them, but in the blessings themselves there can be no growth.
Everything in the verse hangs on a completed action. Commentators press the grammar hard:
Made "fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light." Not, to be made, nor, in process of being made, but, MADE. We who have believed are fit for heavenly glory. We are fit for that portion in the light of God's presence, the portion all the saints of this present age will share together. We may be barely able to grasp what this inheritance means. Yet how full is the assurance that the Father has made us fit for it! The fitness is ours already though the inheritance is future.
Being qualified means more than a legal right of entry:
Through redemption He has given us title to the inheritance. He has also fitted us for it, by giving us a new life that fully suits the holy character of the inheritance. That inheritance lies in pure light, and light shows everything as it really is. The believer is completely at home there. An unbeliever could not bear it, since light would expose his guilt.
Paul did not write only "the inheritance of the saints." The two extra words are deliberate:
Sharing the portion of the saints in light is a most wonderful favour. Yet the Apostle says it freely of these Colossians, whom he was about to rebuke very solemnly in the next chapter… He puts it "in light" on purpose, to show how complete the effect of God's work in Christ is. He does not say only "the inheritance", because that word by itself would not carry the thought of unsparing holiness, as light does. And this portion is not on earth, or even merely in the heavens, but in the light where God Himself dwells… Law always puts God at a distance. So here the Father is brought forward.
Because the fitness is finished, spiritual progress belongs to a different category altogether:
It is not that there is no progress; there ought to be… But you never find progress mixed up with being made fit. Progress belongs to experience and God's government. Being made fit belongs to Christ's work and to our being with Him… There is no progress in the value of Christ's blood-shedding. There is no progress in the life I have received; that is not its nature, though the way it shows itself ought to grow. There must be daily progress in our walk. But our fitness is the work of God… The poor thief on the cross goes straight to paradise, made in one moment a fit companion for Jesus throughout eternity.
There is also a fitness that is conditional. The two must not be mixed:
The first — being made fit for the inheritance — is absolute and unconditional. The second — fitness for the kingdom — is strictly conditional. To look back from the plough shows unfitness. The first is the fruit of God's pure and boundless grace, and we thank the Father for this immense blessing. The second lies wholly in the line of responsibility — holding the plough of service — and depends on faithfulness on our part.
Commentators differ on how far the phrase reaches. Hole limits it to the saints of this present age; another reading is wider:
Made fit "to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" — absolutely, and now. The "saints in light" take in all the saints, not only those who make up the church. The inheritance here is close in thought to 1 Peter 1:4, and different from Ephesians 1.
- Father — Law always puts God at a distance, so here the Father is brought forward. Thanks go to Him as Father.
- Made — Not being made, not going to be made: made. The fitness is already ours, though the inheritance is still ahead.
- Light — "In light" shows how complete God's work in Christ is. The portion is in the light where God Himself dwells.
- Fit — Redemption gives the title, and a new life gives the suitability; the thief on the cross received both in one moment.
- Then serve — Fitness for the inheritance is unconditional. Fitness for the kingdom's service depends on faithfulness. Never confuse the two.