Colossians 1:9–12

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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?"

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

"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.

Even someone who is not a Christian can at times show long-suffering. But who except the Christian can combine long-suffering with joyfulness?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.