9 For this reason, 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 through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 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, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Dig Deeper
After being raised in a home with a very Christian worldview, I decided to do my own thing in college. I was decidedly not trying to follow God’s will in any way shape or form. I had made this decision and then set about resolutely to justify my decision. Part of my justification that I used to argue with people who continued to have some sort of an allegiance to God (which bothered me because it made me feel guilty), was that God was just a big, mean, power-hungry being who created fun and then punished us if we try to have any. This was my impression of God and I was quite determined to have every bit of fun that I could think of.
The reality is, I was not, by far, the only one who felt this way. I would venture a guess, that among non-Christians, this is one of the most popular viewpoints in the world today. Many people have an image of God as a grumpy old man with a long white beard sitting on His throne in heaven, making sure that no one in the physical realm enjoys anything. And if they do . . . ooh boy, are they going to get it. Paul will have nothing to do with that sort of distorted picture, though. God doesn’t want to stifle us or keep us from enjoying life; quite the opposite. He wants us to have lives that are fruitful and full in every way possible. The rub comes in that we often identify the good things of life with sinful and ultimately destructive behavior. God wants us to have life to the full, but in ways that are healthy and fruitful in His reality. This is the life that Paul wanted for the Colossians and that God still wants for us today, but it is a life that takes time to learn.
If there is one common theme in all of Paul’s letters it is that Paul desires that God’s people would learn to operate in the new reality of which they find themselves as those who have entered into the life of Christ and now find themselves already seated in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6). Even though Epaphras, Paul’s dear fellow servant planted the church in Colosse, planted the church, and Paul is currently in prison and cannot come to see or teach them, he still desires this level of maturity for them. In his current situation in an Ephesus prison, there are two ways that Paul can encourage this growth. He can write a letter, which he is doing. But he can also pray for them, which he continually did, asking God that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives.
Paul’s desire for them to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and the life of the age to come, indicate that he realizes that there are some areas of lack in their community which need filling. Paul wants them to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will which has at least three important functions in the life of the believer. First, it allows the believer to live as God wants them to. Second, it allows the believer to please the Lord in every way. Third, it allows the believer to be fruitful in every good work. In verse 6, Paul said that the gospel was bearing fruit and growing all over the world. Now he says the same thing for the lives of believers. What is true of the gospel around the world should also be taking place in the individual lives of believers. The faith that they heard in the message of the gospel always manifests itself in the changed and fruitful life of the believer as made evident in their good works (although that is not the only sign, as some people have changed lives but are clearly not in Christ).
Truly grasping the new Christian life that those in Christ have in them takes the work of the Holy Spirit and the experience of living that life out as believers are strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. Knowledge of the Christian life cannot come just through book learning or head knowledge. To have the Christian instinct truly take hold of one’s life, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit strengthening (a word which is written in the present participle tense indicating that it is a continuous activity of God rather than a one-time event) the believer.
All of this should lead to great thanksgiving on the part of the Christian, a state that is nearly synonymous throughout the New Testament with the Christian life. There are three main things that Paul mentions here for which the believer should give joyful thanks to the Father. In each of them, we should be sure to notice the allusion to the Exodus that Paul is making here. What God has done through the life of Jesus is the new Exodus, one in which rather than being freed from Egypt, people are freed from sin and death.
First, those in Christ can share in the inheritance of His people in the kingdom of light (the promised land was the inheritance during the original Exodus). God has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and our certain fate of death and separation from God and allowed us to come into the inheritance of God’s people. This is, of course, the life of the age to come both now in the present age and at its final consummation at the resurrection and new creation.
Second, those in Christ have been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought by God into the kingdom of the Son he loves (God’s people were freed Egypt and brought to the promised land during the original Exodus). Those who are not in Christ are stuck in sin with no hope of exiting that realm and entering into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is, in sense, the life of of genuine humanity, free from the marring of sin, that only Jesus realized. Through the life of Christ we have access to that life and God’s kingdom.
Third, those in Christ have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (an allusion to the original Passover event). It is only in Christ that sins are forgiven. Those who are hidden in Christ will be judged according to his life rather than our own. Once we realize, truly, that God has done all of this for His people in Christ, we should live live lives of constant and unquenchable gratitude.
Devotional Thought
Overflowing gratitude for God, His people, and the life that He has made available to us are sure signs of the growth and maturity of the gospel in the life of believers. How grateful to God are you for what He has made available to you? What are some ways that your gratitude should be made manifest in your life?
No comments:
Post a Comment