Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Colossians 1:9

For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it,] do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

9 12. thanksgiving passes into prayer that they may will and walk with god

9. For this cause ] In view of the whole happy report from Coloss.

we also ] The “ also ” means that the news of the loving life at Coloss was met by the loving prayer of Paul and his friends.

since the day, &c.] The phrase used above of the Colossians, Col 1:6. This (as Lightfoot remarks) gives a point to the “ also.”

do not cease to pray ] So Eph 1:16; and see Act 20:31. An “affectionate hyperbole” (Ellicott); and such hyperboles are absolutely truthful, between hearts in perfect sympathy. On St Paul’s prayers, see above on Col 1:3.

to desire ] The word defines the more general idea conveyed by “ pray ” just above. “ Prayer ” (in the Greek, as with us) may include many directions of thought in worship; “ desire ” fixes the direction, that of petition. On the verbs used for praying, asking, and the like, in the Greek Scriptures, see Grimm’s Greek-Eng. Lex. to N.T. (ed. Thayer), under .

“ Desire,” as very often in the English Bible, here means “ make request ” (A.V.). See e.g. 2Ki 4:28; Psa 27:4; Mat 16:1; Act 7:46 ; 2Co 8:6; 1Jn 5:15. This meaning is still not uncommon.

filled ] A word and thought often occurring in similar connexions in St Paul. Cp. Rom 15:13-14; Rom 15:29; 2Co 7:4; Eph 3:19; Eph 5:18; Php 1:11; Php 2:2; Php 4:19, below, Col 2:10; 2Ti 1:4. Nothing short of the total of what God can and will give to the saints satisfies his inspired desire.

knowledge ] Epignsis; more than gnsis. See above on Col 1:6.

of his will ] Cp. Eph 5:17, and our note there. “ Thou sweet, beloved will of God,” [79] is meant by the Gospel to be the Christian’s always underlying and ruling thought and choice. And such an attitude of soul, if genuinely taken, will lead direct to an active enquiry “ what the will of the Lord is.” Mme. Guyon, on this verse ( La Sainte Bible) writes characteristically and truly: “All perfection consists in doing the will of God the works which seem greatest are nothing if they are not in the will of God. The more the soul does the will of God in all things, the more it knows God.”

[79] See the hymn beginning, Liebwerther, ssser Gottes-Wille, in Tersteegen’s Blumengrtlein; translated in Hymns of Consecration and Faith, No. 257.

spiritual ] As due to the gift and teaching of the Spirit. The adjective should be placed before “ wisdom ” (as R.V.), qualifying both it and “ understanding.”

understanding ] A narrower and more precise word than “ wisdom.” The man spiritually “wise” brings that characteristic habit of thought to bear on special questions, and spiritually “understands” them. Cp. for a partial parallel Eph 1:17. And for the Apostle’s desire that his converts should (under the Holy Spirit’s guidance) “think for themselves,” see 1Co 14:20; Eph 4:14.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Do not cease to pray for you – Col 1:3. The progress which they had already made, and the love which they had shown, constituted an encouragement for prayer, and a reason why higher blessings still should be sought. We always feel stimulated and encouraged to pray for those who are doing well.

That ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will – They had shown by their faith and love that they were disposed to do his will, and the apostle now prays that they might be fully acquainted with what he would have them do. He offered a similar prayer in behalf of the Ephesians; see the parallel place in Eph 1:17-19, and the notes at those verses.

In all wisdom – That you may be truly wise in all things; Eph 1:17.

And spiritual understanding – In understanding those things that pertain to the Spirit; that is, those things taught by the Holy Spirit, and those which he produces in the work of salvation; see the notes at 1Co 2:12-13; compare 1Jo 2:20; 1Jo 5:20.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Col 1:9-12

To pray for you and desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge.

The prayer

I. The fountain or root of all Christian character. That ye might be filled understanding.

1. The thing desired is the perfecting of the Colossians in religious knowledge.

(1) The idea of completeness up to the height of their capacity is given in filled; like some jar charged with sparkling water up to the brim.

(2) The advanced degree of the knowledge is given in a favourite word which signifies mature knowledge, deeper apprehension of Gods truth.

(3) The rich variety of that knowledge is set forth in the clauses which may read filled so that ye may abound in wisdom and understanding, or with the knowledge of His will, i.e., manifested in that will. That knowledge will blossom out into every kind of wisdom and understanding.

2. The principles which these words involve.

(1) That the foundation of Christian character and conduct is laid in the knowledge of the will of God. What concerns us to know is not abstract truth, or revelation or speculative thought, but Gods will. No revelation has accomplished its purpose when a man has simply understood it. The light is knowledge which is meant to shape practice. Had this been remembered two opposite errors would have been avoided.

(a) The error threatening the Colossians, that Christianity was merely a system of truth to be believed. An unpractical heterodoxy was their danger, an unpractical orthodoxy is ours. The one important question is, does our Christianity work?

(b) The converse error to that of unpractical knowledge, that of unintelligent practice, is quite as bad. A numerous class profess to attach no importance to Christian doctrine, but put all the stress on Christian morals. What God hath joined together let no man put asunder. Knowledge is sound when it moulds conduct; action is good when based on knowledge.

(2) Progress in knowledge is the law of the Christian life. There should be continual advancement in the apprehension of Gods will from the first glimpse which saves to this mature knowledge. The progress does not consist in leaving behind old truths, but in the profounder conception of what is contained in them. The same constellations which burn in our midnight sky looked down on Chaldean astronomers, but how much more is known about them at Greenwich than was dreamed at Babylon.

II. The river or stems of christian conduct.

1. Worthily of the Lord. There are other forms of the same expression (Eph 4:1.; Rom 16:2; Php 1:27; 1Th 2:12), in all of which there is the idea of a standard to which the practical life is to be conformed.

(1) The Christian should walk in a manner corresponding to what Christ has done for him. We say that we are not our own, but bought with a price. Then how do we repay that costly purchase. Nothing short of complete self-surrender can characterize the walk that corresponds with our obligations to Christ. Repugnant duties then become tokens of love, pleasant as every sacrifice made at its bidding ever is.

(2) The Christian should act in a manner corresponding to Christs character and conduct. Nothing less than the effort to tread in His footsteps is a walk worthy of the Lord. All unlikeness to His pattern is a dishonour to Him and to ourselves.

2. Unto all pleasing, which sets forth the great aim as being to please Christ in everything, and satisfy Him by our conduct. We are not to mind other peoples approbation. We can do without that. What does it matter who praise, if He frowns? or who blame if He smiles. Nothing will so spur us to diligence, and make all life solemn and grand as the thought that we labour that we may be well pleasing to Him. Nothing will so string the muscles for the fight, and free us from entanglements as the ambition to please Him who hath called us to be soldiers. Men have willingly flung away their lives for a couple of lines of praise in a dispatch. Let us try to live and die so as to get honourable mention from our Captain.

III. The fourfold streams or branches into which this general conception of Christian character parts itself.

1. Bearing fruit in every good work.

(1) Here the man in whom the word (verse 6) is planted is regarded as the producer of fruit. The worthy walk will be first manifested in the production of a rich variety of forms of goodness. The only true fruit is goodness; all else is leaves. Much of our work and its results is no more fruit than galls on oak leaves.

(2) The Christian life is to be fruitful in every good work. We should seek to fill the whole circuit of the year with various holiness, and to make widely different forms of goodness our own. Let us aim at this all round multiform virtue, and not be like a scene for a stage, all gay and bright on one side, and dirty canvas and stretchers hung with cobwebs on the other.

2. Increasing in the knowledge of God. The figure of the tree is probably continued here. If it fruits, its girth will increase, its branches spread, its top mount, and next year its shadow will cover a larger circle. Fruitfulness in good works leads to increased knowledge, and all true knowledge tends to influence action. Obedience gives insight. If any man will do His will, he shall know, etc. Moral truth becomes dim to a bad man. Religious truth grows bright to a good one.

3. Strengthened joyfulness. Knowing and doing are not the whole of life; there are sorrow and suffering too.

(1) Here again we have Pauls favourite all. Every kind of strength that God can give and man receive is to be sought after. And that Divine power is to flow into us, having this for its measure and limit–the might of His glory. His glory is the lustrous light of his self-revelation; and the far-flashing energy revealed in that is the immeasurable measure of the strength that may be ours.

(2) And what exalted mission is destined for this? Nothing that the world thinks great–

(a) patience, including the idea of perseverance in the right course and uncomplaining bearing of evil as sent by God;

(b) longsuffering, the temper under suffering considered as a wrong and injury done by man.

(c) with joy–flowers beneath the snow, songs in the night.

4. Giving thanks unto the Father. This is the summit of all, and is to be diffused through all. Thankfulness should mingle with all our thoughts and feelings, like the fragrance of some perfume penetrating the scentless air. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

A comprehensive apostolic prayer

It was–

I. Expressive of deep spiritual interest.

1. Suggested by the report of active Christian virtues. For this cause. They had believed in Christ, loved the brethren, hoped for the future, borne fruit. All this excites Pauls grateful heart to pray for higher blessings for them. We best show our love for others by prayer. That is always needed since Christian vows are imperfect and may decay or be abused.

2. Constant and fervent. Do not cease. Paul had undoubted faith in the efficacy of prayer.

II. For amplest knowledge.

1. The main subject of this knowledge. Man thirsts for knowledge, but the highest is the knowledge of God; not simply of His nature, but His will.

2. The measure in which the knowledge may be possessed. The word indicates a living, complete knowledge of the Divine will. There is no limit to our increase in Divine knowledge but our own capacity, diligence, and faith.

3. The practical form in which the knowledge should he exercised. In all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The word spiritual applies to both wisdom and understanding. The false teachers offered a wisdom which had only a show of it; an empty counterfeit calling itself philosophy. The wisdom and understanding the gospel imparts are the work of the Holy Spirit. No amount of mental or moral culture can supply it. This was the power lacked by the Galatians, and to save the Colossians from their fate Paul prays that they may discern between the true and the false, the carnal and the spiritual.

III. For the loftiest Christian career. Observe–

1. The high standard of Christian conduct. For this purpose we are filled with the knowledge of His will. The end of knowledge is practice.

2. The rule by which that standard is maintained. We are not to please ourselves or others as an ultimate object. If our conduct does please parents, friends, country as well as God, it is well; but though all others are displeased we must please Him. This is the simplest as well as the grandest rule of life, and will settle many perplexing questions of human duty.

3. The productiveness of Christian consistency. It is not enough to bear one kind of fruit; there must be fertility in every good work. The Christian is in sympathy with and will promote every enterprise that aims at the physical, social, or moral welfare of man.

4. Progress in Divine knowledge. We can recall no stage in which additional knowledge is unnecessary. Activity in goodness sharpens the knowing faculty and adds to the stores of wisdom, and increased knowledge stimulates the worker (Joh 7:17; Mat 25:29).

IV. For supernatural strength.

1. The appropriateness and fulness of the blessing desired. Man is morally weak by sin. Christ introduced another force which counteracts sin and will overthrow it. All who believe in Him have this force and it is necessary to realize the blessings for which Paul prays. Our enemies are numerous and our infirmities are many. We need, therefore, every kind of strength to endure onslaught or solicitation.

2. Its supernatural source, might of His glory. Moral power is not native to the Christian. Power is an attribute of Gods glory, and is manifested in the splendid works of creation.

3. Its great practical purpose. Patience is the temper which does not easily succumb under trial: long-suffering, or long-mindedness, is the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong. Patience respects the weight of the affliction: long-suffering its duration. The former is exercised in our relation to God, the latter in our relation to man. The true strength of the believer consists, not so much in what he can do, as in what he can endure (Isa 30:15). The characteristic of both patience and long-suffering is Joyfulness. To suffer with joyfulness is the great distinction and triumph of the Christian spirit: The endurance of the stoic was often the effect of pride or insensibility.

Learn:

1. How sublime are the topics of genuine prayer.

2. Deep experimental acquaintance with the things of God is essential to a lofty and useful career.

3. Knowledge, wisdom, spiritual fertility and strength are the gifts of God. (G. Barlow.)

A worthy walk

I. Its sources. The whole ground of this prayer is found in who hath made us meet, who delivered us out of the power of darkness.

1. The gift of Divine sonship.

2. An increase in the knowledge of Gods will. We must know what Gods will is before we can walk worthily, etc. His will is revealed in His Word.

3. The impartation of wisdom and spiritual understanding.

4. The bestowment of Divine strength. Sonship does not stand alone.

II. Its fruits.

1. Good works.

2. Patient endurance of tribulations as well as perseverance through and in spite of them.

3. Long-suffering towards personal foes and the enemies of the truth.

III. Its end. A worthy walk begins in sonship, proceeds to sanctification, and ends in glory. (Family Churchman.)

Pauls desire for the Colossians

The Colossians were distinguished for love, and for that cause the apostle shows his interest in them and gratitude for it by praying for them. Noble example! He goes on to say that he desired certain things for them–lit., asked, lifted up his desires.

I. The matter of the apostles desire.

1. That they might be filled with the knowledge of Gods will.

(1) It is one thing to have a full knowledge and another to be filled with knowledge. As far as God or His will are concerned we cannot have a full knowledge. God only knows the love, the glory, the will of God. But it is possible to be filled with the knowledge of God. The smallest of cups may be as full as the great ocean. So the smallest minds may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will.

(2) It was not immense spaces of vacant imaginations and day-dreamings that he desired, but knowledge of realities, that knowledge which is the principal thing.

(3) But not numerous details of knowledge in general; mans mind is too limited for that. He must choose between knowing a few things well and a large number indifferently. Hence Paul limits his petition to one all-important department–the will of God. This has two distinct applications–what God is determined to do Himself and what He is desirous that we should do. In the first sense it is used in Eph 1:11, and in the confession of Nebuchadnezzar; but it is more frequently used in the second. Thy will be done on earth–not done by Gods self. So far as Gods determination to take His own way is concerned His will is always done. The reference is to that will which we ought to do, and with the knowledge of which Paul prayed that the Colossians might be filled.

2. In all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Wisdom was needed, profitable to direct to the things worthiest and best; and understanding, that they might penetrate beneath the surface of things, so as to be standing under them and thence understanding them. When thus understood, things are joined together in a unity of subjective thought, and a higher agency than mans gets abundant scope for a gracious and beneficent operation.

3. But the highest knowledge is but a means to an end (1Co 13:1-3). The knowledge possessed by God, though immense, is not the most glorious of His attributes; even to Him it is but a means to an end. It is but one of His natural attributes. The most illustrious of Gods attributes are the moral–those which have a will within them.

II. The purpose of his desire. It is not therefore surprising that the apostle should guard the Colossians against the idea that they need aim no higher than this knowledge. He asked that they might have it, that–

1. They should

(1) walk–lit., walk about. He seized a prominent feature of human society. Men walk hither and thither in their homes, in the streets, and in the country. They walk out in the morning, go about their business; and in the evening walk about within the circle of their friends and visit. In the homes mothers walk about adjusting various details.

(2) There are different ways of demeaning ourselves as we walk about. Some go about stealthily to entrap the unwary and confiding; some in the dark to conceal their evil deeds; some bent on making profit of others, or on amusement. Paul might have prayed that the Colossians might walk circumspectly, humbly, consistently, with gifts in their hands or love in their hearts; but he chooses to say that ye may walk about in a way worthy of the Lord.

(3) It is assumed that the transcendent worth is in the Lord. As the Apocalyptic visions show us, in the estimation of all heavenly beings He is infinitely worthy; and hence it is that He is worth all the possible honour that can be reflected on Him by the most beautiful demeanour and most costly sacrifices of His disciples. Hence we should ever make it our aim to walk worthy of Him, and all our knowledge must be subservient to this.

2. The Colossians are told that if they do so Christ will take note of every step we take, and be pleased. He will appreciate our aim, and have in reference to our conduct a feeling of pleasure. How different this from putting Him to an open shame. We may make our Saviour happy, and not only in reference to a few acts of exceptional effort, but in reference to all the humble incidents of our every-day life.

3. But nothing will be really pleasing if fruitfulness be wanting.

(1) Leaves will not suffice, nor blossoms. Every Colossian was to be a tree of righteousness to bring forth fruit for the refreshment of the great Husbandman.

(2) Fruitful in every good work–in long-suffering in the home and beyond; in the continual restraint and guidance of all the passions; in the fruits of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, etc.

(3) What are the means of this abounding fruitfulness? By the knowledge of God. The most effective guarantee for increase in fruitfulness is the knowledge of God with which he desired they might be filled. This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, etc. (J. Morison, D. D.)

Spiritual knowledge and its practical results

I. The preciousness of spiritual knowledge. Consider–

1. The intensity of the apostles desire for it. It is the subject of earnest; ceaseless prayer.

2. The men for whom it is desired. Saints and faithful brethren, who knew the grace of God in truth, and were bringing forth fruit to God. We must not cease to pray for those who know the Lord that they may know more.

3. The measure of this knowledge. Filled–grand scholarship to have mind, heart, whole manhood filled with knowledge. When a measure is full of wheat there is no room for chaff. True knowledge excludes error. If we have empty places in our minds, unstored by holy teaching, they will be an invitation to the devil to enter and dwell. Try and know Divine truth more intimately. You know a man, for you pass him in the streets with a nod; you know another far better, for you lodge in the same house with him; but you know him best of all whose troubles and joys you have shared, and with whom you have had the closest fellowship.

4. The matter of it. The revealed will of God.

(1) The perceptive will. What wilt Thou have me to do?

(2) The will of God as it constitutes the gospel. This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one that believeth.

(3) This is the will of God, even your sanctification.

5. The manner.

(1) In all wisdom, which is better than knowledge, for it is knowledge rightly used. Knowledge may find room for folly, but wisdom casts it out. Knowledge may be the horse, but wisdom is the driver. Wisdom enables you to bring your knowledge practically to bear upon life, to separate the precious from the vile, and rightly conduct your affairs. All wisdom–wisdom that will be useful in the shop, the counting-house, the church, etc.

(2) That wisdom operates by a spiritual understanding that is powerful within. This is an inward knowledge of truth, a spiritual discernment, taste, experience, and reception of truth whereby the soul feeds upon it and takes it into herself.

II. The practical result of spiritual knowledge. That ye may walk–not that they might talk, sit down and meditate, and enjoy themselves. He desires that they may be instructed, so as to walk–

1. According to the best model. Let not a disciple walk so as to bring disgrace upon his Lord! When you walk with a king you should be royal in gait; when you commune with a prince you should not act the clown. It is well to have no lower standard than the life of Jesus, the life of tenderness, self sacrifice, love, holy service, and communion with God.

2. So as to be pleasing to our best friend.

(1) Some live to please themselves, or their wives, neighbours, and some, the devil. Our business is to please Him whose servants we are. Without holiness no man shall see Him, much less please Him.

(2) Unto all pleasing–from the moment we rise till we lie down, in eating and drinking, etc.

(3) Paul desires that we may be filled with knowledge to this end. If I do not know the will of God, how can I do it?

3. That we may produce the best fruit. Without knowledge we cannot be fruitful. Some are hindered in this because they do not know how to set about holy service. How can a man be fruitful as a preacher if he does not know what to preach? In a hundred ways ignorance will make us run risks, lose opportunities of usefulness, and fall into dangerous mistakes.

4. That he may cultivate a comprehensive variety of the best things. In every. Here is room and range enough. Let works of obedience, testimony, zeal, charity, piety, all be found in your life. Do not select big things as your spiritual line, but glorify the Lord in the littles. The Lord Jesus, if He were here, would gladly do a thousand things which His poor little servants are too great to touch.

III. The reflex action of holiness on knowledge.

1. Holiness is the road to knowledge.

2. This knowledge rises in tone–before it was in Gods will, now it is in God Himself.

3. He would have in us increased capacity to know yet more. In verse 9 it is filled; but if a man is full of knowledge, how can it increase? Make the vessel larger. Let no man think he can go no farther. Bernard says: He is not good at all who doth not desire to be better. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Intercessory prayer

It would be a useful exercise if we would give thanks for the gifts and graces of our brethren. I am afraid that we are more inclined to spy out their faults, and to suppose that we deplore them, than we are to discern the work of the Holy Spirit in them. Now, Paul surveyed the Church at Colosse, and observed their faith, love, and hope, and thanked God for them. But he noted that they were somewhat lacking in knowledge. They differed from the Corinthians, who abounded in talent and were enriched with knowledge. The Colossians had fewer gifted brethren, and as Paul would not have them come behind in any desirable attainment, he offered this prayer. He knew that spiritual ignorance is the constant source of error, instability, and sorrow; and therefore he desired that they might be soundly taught in the things of God. Intercessory prayer is–

I. A very important part of the work of Christians for one another. We are not sent into the world to live unto ourselves, but we are members of one body, and each member is expected to contribute to the health and comfort of the whole. We cannot all preach or distribute alms, but we can all pray.

II. An invaluable proof of love and the creator of more love. The man who will pray for me, will forgive me if I offend him, and relieve me if I am in necessity.

III. An infallible means of obtaining the blessings we desire for our friends. The unselfish devotion which pleads as eagerly for others as for itself is so pleasing to God that He puts great honour upon it. If we desire any blessing for them, our best course is to pray. If we wish them converted, taught of God, quickened to a nobler life, etc., take the case to God in prayer.

IV. Will be all the more valuable if it is our immediate resort. Since the day we heard it. Paul began to pray at once. Whenever you perceive the holy change begun, pray at once that it may proceed with power, and we shall find that God in answering quickly gives a double blessing. He who wins earthly riches is most diligent in their pursuit, and he shall be richest towards God who is most diligent in supplication.

V. Will be all the more valuable if they are incessant as well as immediate. We cease not. He was always praying for them in the sense he explains, and to desire. Desire is the essence of prayer. Though you cannot be always speaking in prayer, you can be always desiring. The act of prayer is blessed, the habit more so, the spirit most so, and this can continue for months and years.

VI. Will be increased in value if offered in union with other saints. We also. In two of you agree as touching My kingdom. Here is Paul, and with him youthful Timothy, who, compared with Paul, is inconsiderable; yet Pauls prayer is all the more effectual because Timothys is joined to it. Our Lord sent out His servants two and two, and it is well when they come back to Him in prayer two and two. The habit of frequent prayer together is to be commended. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The value of intercessory prayer

An aged woman, a member of my church, whom I frequently met, always appeared to me to have a more than common interest in the prosperity of religion. She would often inquire: Are any of our young people coming to Christ? One day, as I was passing her house, she called me in. Says she: I asked you to come in here because I wanted to tell you a revival is coming. How do you know that? said

I. Dear me, says she, now dont think me one of that sort of folks who think themselves particular favourites of the Lord, as they were inspired. But I have got faith, and I have got eyes and ears, and I believe in prayer. Perhaps you may think me too certain, but I tell you a revival is coming; and I dont know it by a miracle either, or because I am any better Khan other people, or nearer to God. But, for this good while, every day when I have been out in my garden, I have heard that old deacon (pointing to his house) at prayer in his chamber, where he thinks nobody hears him. The window is open just a little way off from my garden, and I have heard him praying there every day. He is not able to leave his house much, because he has got only one leg; but if he cant work he can pray; and his prayers will be answered. A revival did come. Before a year from that time more than a hundred persons in that congregation were led to indulge hope that they had been born of the Spirit. Among them were a son and a daughter of that old man of prayer, and a grandson of this woman who believed in prayer. (I. S. Spencer, D. D.)

The blessed occupancy

This is possible. Paul was in its enjoyment.

I. The nature of Gods will. The mill is the expression of the inner nature. God is love. His will is goodwill to all. It means happiness for all who will not thwart His loving purpose.

II. The knowledge of Gods will. This can be obtained by being willing to do, by searching the Scriptures and listening to the voice of the Spirit.

III. The measure of this knowledge. Filled–no room for self. Every cupboard opened, door unlocked, window raised, and the entire being flooded. Blessings then flow out. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The knowledge of the will of God

I. The will of God.

1. The phrase brings before us the personality of Deity. He is not a blind force, but a conscious being, or He could not have a will.

2. The text contradicts Deism, which says: God does not concern Himself with us.

3. But imagine God to have a malevolent will concerning us! As it is, however, the will of God moves not merely under the influence of His intelligence and righteousness, but of His mercy. It is in Christ Jesus concerning us.

4. This will has reference to our whole nature.

(1) To our mind; and therefore God has put before us doctrine. God has a will concerning our thoughts, and therefore has provided us with themes for meditation.

(2) To our hearts. We may not trust, distrust, love, everything we please. God has indicated the objects and the measure of our confidence and affection.

(3) To our will; giving us principles and motives, and rules of action, so that His will directs us in all things. This is not bondage, but freedom. He is the slave who is tethered to his whims and wishes; he is free who moves in harmony with the will which is connected with perfect wisdom and love.

II. The will of God revealed.

1. Not entirely, as, e.g., to your future circumstances; these are mercifully concealed.

2. The media employed.

(1) Conscience–imperfect, but under Christs influence gradually becoming sound.

(2) Gods Word.

(3) Gods Spirit.

(4) Providence.

(5) Christ, in whom it is perfectly embodied.

3. There is some little difficulty in getting at this will. You must search the Scriptures, and carefully analyze your own conscience to judge whether it is an index of Gods will. But the knowledge is well worth the trouble. If you take no trouble you will be perplexed, but if you do He will teach you.

III. The will of God known. The revelation is distinct from the knowledge, and may be possessed without it. The knowledge must be sought. Look at it as–

1. Full.

(1) We may know doctrine and not precept; both, and not the promises; or all partially. Knowledge is full when we know all we need to know.

(2) A young disciple in his novitiate cannot know all that is revealed, nor indeed the mature. There are many things concealed from the Church in its present state.

(3) But there are things which can be comprehended in the present age, and the present state of the believers mind. The Bible opens like flowers. You must sometimes wait before a text and seek a right influence on your spirit before the meaning will be manifest. The Bible to the child has one manifestation, to the young man another, and to the mature man another.

2. Correctly applied. It may be misapplied; hence the prayer in all wisdom, etc. We must get below the letter to the underlying Spirit, and with Divine sagacity apply it to our circumstances.

3. A fit subject for prayer.

4. A subject of deep anxiety to ministers as essential to the holiness and activity of the Church. (S. Martin.)

The knowledge of God

1. This knowledge lies at the foundation of all true religion. It is the want or indistinctness of it that occasions the stupidity of sinners, the false hopes of professors, and most of the religious errors that abound. Although it is open to all, there is very little of it. There is so much unbelief, pride, worldliness, guilt, which shrinks from clear views of God, sluggishness, which binds the soul to earth, that the mass even of Christians pass to the grave with a very incompetent knowledge of God. Now and then a Christian arises of pre-eminent piety, and when you search for the cause of it you find it in his superior knowledge of God.

2. In general, the great end for which we were sent into the world was to learn the character of our Master, by studying His glories in His works and word, that we might obey and enjoy Him. The object on which His eye is fixed, and which He will fully attain, is that the earth may be filled with the knowledge of His glory.

3. He is the Being with whom we have the most intimate and interesting connection, and therefore it chiefly concerns us to be acquainted with Him. In Him we live and move, etc., and He will be our final Judge.

4. There is room for far more enlarged knowledge of God than any of us have yet acquired. In His nature are treasures of knowledge which eternal research will not exhaust. Of course none but Christ could with perfect propriety say, I know this, but we may follow on to know the Lord.

5. This knowledge is–

I. Most purifying. A sight of God is transforming. When with open face we behold, as in a glass, tile glory of the Lord, we are charged with the same image. When God is seen in all the majesty of His glory and holiness the Christian cannot, dare not, wilfully sin.

II. Most humbling. Other knowledge puffeth up, but the more God is seen, the more abased the soul will be. All the glooms of guilt and fears of hell which are not accompanied with a spiritual discernment of God will not humble the soul. When Isaiah saw the Lord he exclaimed, I am a man of unclean lips, and when Peter discovered the Godhead of Christ he fell at His feet, saying, Depart from me, etc.

III. Most exalting. It will do more to ennoble the mind and elevate it above vulgar disputes, than all other views. If it is a dignity to be intimately acquainted with great men, what is the dignity of knowing and being known by God.

IV. Most blessed. One direct view of God fills the soul with greater peace than the most splendid attainments in other branches of knowledge, and than all the glories of the world. This is to be the happiness of heaven, because nothing greater can be provided. (E. D. Griffin, D. D.)

The experimental knowledge of God the end of all Christian endeavour

It is for the want of keeping this end steadily in view that many persons make so little progress. Their efforts are misdirected. They confound the means and effects of religion with its life. Digging, manuring, pruning, and fruit-bearing are not the life of a tree. What, then, is the soul of religion towards which all efforts are to be directed.

I. The life of true religion is an experimental knowledge of God. Such an appreciation of the excellence of His character as satisfies the soul. Philip said, Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. No earthly source of happiness does suffice. The pursuit of earthly desires is like the countrymans chase after the rainbow. They one after the other disappoint those who attain them. Their prismatic colours all vanish when we come close to them, and some new rainbow is seen ahead to lure us into another fruitless pursuit. But our Creator does not mock us by implanting great yearnings after happiness which have nothing to correspond to them. In the knowledge and enjoyment of Him man can find rest.

II. This knowledge is the end of ends, to which every other part of the religious system is subordinated. It is the end of the atoning and interceding work of our Lord. This removes barriers which preclude communion. Any knowledge of God independently of Christ must frighten us from Him, for God is infinitely holy, and His holiness is a consuming fire.

III. The exercises which so most directly to this end.

1. Living much with Him. If we only come across a man occasionally and in public, and see nothing of his private life, we cannot be said to know him. All the knowledge of God which many professing Christians have is derived from the formal salute they make to Him in their prayers. But no progress can be made thus. Try to draw God down into your daily work; consult Him about it; offer it as a contribution to His service; ask Him to help you in it and to bless it; refer to Him in your temptations; go back at once to Him if you have left Him; in short, walk hand in hand with Him, dreading above all things to quit His side; seek not so much to pray as to live in an atmosphere of prayer.

2. Studying His mind in His Word. We may be said to know an author, when we have so carefully read his works as to imbibe his spirit. It is through His Word that God speaks to us, as it is through prayer we speak to Him. Cultivate a taste for the Holy Scriptures. Oh, how sweet are Thy words unto my taste All the day long is my study of it. My mind in which it is stored is always recurring to it in the intervals of business, turning it over with fresh inquiry into its significance, finding new illustrations of its truth in nature, life, and experience. There is a study of Scripture which is analogous to ejaculatory prayer, which interweaves the Word into the daily life of the Christian, a rumination which can be carried on without book.

3. The discipline of life. If a man has no dealings with us personally, though he may be no stranger to us by reputation, we cannot be said to know him. But if transactions pass between us his character transpires. Now God comes close up to us, if we give our hearts to Him, and deals with us in all the changing scenes of life. So long as people keep Him at arms length, He only sweeps round the circumference Of their existence. Those who desire to have a practical knowledge of Him in His dealings try to learn the lesson of every part of their experience.

IV. Increase in the knowledge of God, as it characterizes the true Christians present course will be his business throughout eternity. We are not to conceive of a glorified saint as if he were stereotyped and could advance no further in the knowledge of God. Our nature is so constituted as not to acquiesce in a particular measure of knowledge on any subject. And why, as God is infinite, and His resources of wisdom, power, and love are inexhaustible, may not a blessed eternity be spent in fresh discoveries of His glory, each of which will throw preceding discoveries into the shade? (Dean Goulburn.)

God known imperfectly but really

No man can take a pencil and mark the features of Jehovah, and say: Thus far is God, and no farther. How poor a God must that be whom I can understand! He would be no larger than the measure of my thought–and that would be small indeed. No man can limit and define God after all intellectual statements have been made, after all definitions have been given, immensely more is left untouched than has been touched. But the functions of the Divine nature, the quality of that nature and its moral essence, one may suspect or know without comprehending all of God. Bring me but a glass of water, And I know what water is. I may not know, if I have not travelled, what are the springs in the mountain, what are cascades, what are the streams that thunder through deep gorges, what are broadening rivers, what are bays, or what is the ocean; and yet I may know what water is. A drop on my finger tells me its quality. From that I know that it is not wood, that it is not rock, that it is not air, that it is not anything but water. I am not able, by searching, to find out God unto perfection; and yet I know that, so far as I have found Him out, and so far as He is ever going to be found out, whatever there is in nobility, whatever there is in goodness, whatever there is in sweetness, whatever there is in patience; whatever can be revealed by the cradle, by the crib, by the couch, by the table; whatever there is in household love and in other loves; whatever there is in heroism among men; whatever there is of good report; whatever has been achieved by imagination or by reason; whatever separates man from the brute beast, and lifts him above the clod–I know that all these elements belong to God, the eternal and universal Father. Although I may not be able to draw an encyclopaediac circle and say: All inside of that is God, and anything outside of it is not God; yet I know that everything which tends upward, that everything which sets from a lower life to a higher, that everything which leads from the basilar to the coronal, that everything whose results are good, is an interpretation of God, who, though He may be found to be other than we suppose, will be found not less, but more glorious than we suspect. (H. W. Beecher.)

Knowledge of Divine will

The knowledge of the Divine will embraces in itself the knowledge

(1) of the law, which shows us the abyss of our misery, and also proposes to the regenerate a rule of new life;

(2) of the gospel, which opens to us the depths of Divine mercy, and also teaches the method of obtaining salvation. Neither is the bare apprehension of these things called the knowledge of the Divine will, but the efficacious apprehension which applies Christ to ourselves, and expresses the rule of the law in our life and actions, as far as in us lies. (1Jn 2:3) the commandments as well concerning faith as obedience. (Bishop Davenant.)

Filled with the knowledge of His will

The world is in darkness. This is the beginning of a natural day. The sun has not yet risen. Here is a great building. You see it; the sun rises and touches the top of it; gradually it touches the highest ridges and windows; then it comes down, and touches another story, and another, till at last the light, in all its fulness and amplitude, fills the whole house and bathes the whole building in the splendour of its rays. Every room–from the lowest to the highest–all filled! Now, that gives you a faint idea of what the apostle means. The knowledge of God fills, not one faculty alone, not the intellect looking at truth objectively, but the whole nature; feeling, imagination, sensibility, all flooded with this Divine light. (T. Binney.)

The use of spiritual understanding

By wisdom and spiritual understanding the Christians at Colosse would be led to distinguish things that differ; to detect the sophistry of new teachers; to discern the dangerous bearings of ingenious but seducing systems; to keep close to the letter and spirit of Scripture; to look around on the whole compass of truth and all the methods of Gods dispensations before they committed themselves to any conclusive opinion; to use every part of Divine revelation for the purposes, and in the proportion, and according to the order, and in the spirit of the divinely-inspired record. (Bishop D. Wilson.)

That ye walk worthy of the Lord.

Life a walk

Having entered the world, at once we leave the moment of our nativity, as a starting-place, and incessantly advance towards death, as a common habitation, where, sooner or later, all men meet. Other travellers may, if they please, delay their journey, or retrace their steps; but we cannot do either. Time, enfolding us from the first moment of our life, perpetually carries us forward, whether we wake or sleep, whether we consent to it or resist, without permitting us to turn back, or indulge in the shortest repose. We are like him on board a vessel propelled by sea and wind, whose personal motion does not arrest or abate his course. But as the roads and projects of travellers are very different, so there is a great diversity of habit and manners in mens lives. Wicked men follow one way, and good men another. The pagan steers one course, the Jew another, the Mohammedan another, and the Christian another, each wholly different from the others. This is what the Scripture calls the way of man; that is, the fashion and method of life which each man follows. And suitably to this expressive figure, it often makes use of the word walking, to signify a regulating and framing of the life after some certain manner, whether good or evil; meaning the tenor of our lives, and our customary deportment. There is nothing more common in the Psalms, and in the Proverbs, than these forms of speech; to walk in integrity; or, on the contrary, to walk in fraud and iniquity: and in the writings of the New Testament, to walk in light, or, in darkness; after the Spirit, or, after the flesh; with other similar phrases, all signifying a certain manner and condition of life, good or evil, as it is qualified. Agreeably to this scriptural style, the apostle says here, that ye might walk; meaning, that you may live, that you may regulate and form your lives. (J. Daille.)

Walk worthily

It is said that among the high Alps, at certain seasons, the traveller is told to proceed quietly; for on the steep slopes overhead the snow hangs so evenly balanced that the sound of a voice or the report of a gun may destroy the equilibrium, and bring down an immense avalanche that will overwhelm everything in ruin in its downward path. And so about our way there may be a soul in the very crisis of its moral history, trembling between life and death, and a mere touch or shadow may determine its destiny. A young lady, who was deeply impressed with the truth, and was ready, under conviction of sin, to ask, What must I do to be saved had all her solemn impressions dissipated by the unseemly jesting of a member of the Church. Her irreverent and worldly spirit cast a repellent shadow on the young lady not far from the kingdom of God. How important that we should always and everywhere walk worthy of our high calling as Christians. (T. Stork.)

Walking so as to please God

1. All mere speculative knowledge is profitless. If the whole world of science were before me, and yet if its principles were not applied, it might puff me up but it would be of no utility. Much more is this so with regard to Divine truth. I may have all knowledge, but if I lack the faith that worketh by love it is vain.

2. But there is one peculiar glory about Divine truth–he that knows one truth cannot be wholly ignorant of its bearings. It is a chain that has involved in it link within link, and he that touches one can move the whole. E.g., He that has a spiritual knowledge of God loves Him, and he that loves Him loves His will, and he that loves His will desires to do it.

I. The worthy walk. There are similar passages in Eph 4:1; 1Th 2:12.

1. Every man living in sin is dead, a cumberer of the ground, and only fit to be cut down. This is his worthlessness. He is as unprofitable servant and spiritually worthless. This is one of the first teachings of the Spirit, and even the saint is compelled to confess that in Him dwelleth no good thing (Gen 32:9-10). This was the confession of the Centurion and the Prodigal.

2. But although in the natural man this is so, and the spiritual man is made to feel it–yet the latter knows that he has been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, redeemed for glory, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, and so is made worthy by grace.

3. Hence he is under powerful obligations to walk worthy by being fruitful in good works. This the natural man cannot be any more than a bad tree can produce good fruit, but the renewed man can be and is.

(1) The characteristics of a good work are–

(a) that God has commanded it;

(b) that it is the result of faith–for without faith it is impossible to please God.

Faith first pleads the righteousness of Christ as the ground of acceptance, and then lays hold of the strength of Christ as the power for performance. In the Lord I have righteousness and strength.

(2) In these sorts of works we are to be fruitful. There must be no reserve. All we have and are is to be devoted to Gods service.

II. The high aim–to please God in all things.

1. This is impossible to the natural man who is without faith. Even a child of God does many things that are displeasing to God. There was but one who was perfectly well-pleasing to God. But in Him we are pleasing too–for we are made the righteousness of God in Him.

2. The Christian aims at acting out this righteousness in unreserved obedience, in little things as well as great–in eating and drinking, etc. With such a life God is well pleased.

III. The Divine knowledge. Notice the order of procedure–knowing the will of God, doing it, and by doing it brought into closer acquaintance with God. If any man will do His will he shall know. Thus shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. David knew more than the ancients, because he kept Gods precepts. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

All pleasing.

I. What is meant by all pleasing? We are to please everybody that we may please God.

1. The wish to please or to be liked by everybody is a virtue or a sin according as it is a means or an end. If you please only to be admired it is selfish and has no religion in it. But if you wish to please that Christ may be liked, and that you may have more influence for good, then in pleasing others you will please God.

2. By this rule we reconcile St. Pauls apparent contradiction, If I yet pleased men I should not be a servant of Christ, with Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. It is evident that we may, on the one hand, so make compromises in order to please that we shall not walk worthy of the Lord, and that on the other we may think we are walking worthy of the Lord by a strictness and severity which are certainly not unto all pleasing.

3. It would be quite a mistake to suppose that Christ did not please men. There were some, of course, He never tried to please–the proud and hypocritical. But he pleased the multitude. The record of his early life, is He grew in favour both with God and man; and afterwards all the people rejoiced for the glorious things which were done by Him.

II. How did Christ please men? and how may we by pleasing like Him, walk worthy of Him?

1. The first secret of all pleasing is humility. If you meet a man who is in everything your superior, and yet he treats you as if he were your equal without the least appearance of condescension, there is a charm in that which every one feels. This was exactly what Christ did and what we are to do.

2. Sympathy. It is the spring of all power to throw yourself into anothers mind, look with his eye, feel with his touch, to do this with all, and with the countenance and manner as well as the word, and to be always respectful with your sympathy. This is the capability to please, and Jesus had it without measure.

3. That potent and rare art of seeing the good in everybody. Christ saw the Israelite indeed in the rude Nathaniel; He loved the impetuous, self-ignorant young man; and asked his Father to forgive His murderers since they knew not what they did. Is there then anything more Christlike than to see the germ of piety before it developes, the bit of blue on a dark sky, the excuse in every thing? He who knows how to do that walks unto all pleasing.

III. It is the duty and in the power of every one to be pleasing. For to please does not depend upon the face, dress, form, riches, talents, wealth, etc, but upon moral character, tact, effort, and simple motive. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Fruitful in every good work.

Fruitfulness and progress

I. Fertility implies–

1. Life. A fruit-bearing tree is necessarily a living tree. The fruitful Christian has been grafted into the Saviour and partakes of His life. This life is worthy of our nature, capability, and destiny. How different the idea of many. Business, money, pleasure, science, art–the pursuit of these is life; all that it demands of energy, all that it imparts of joy.

2. Culture. The tree left without pruning will soon bring forth leaves only. So the fruitful Christian is one who is under the care of the Divine husbandman (Joh 15:2). Abounding fertility is the result of His gracious culture. The pruning processes of His providence are often necessary. Without these there may be woody suckers or luxuriant foliage, but no fruit.

3. The Christian living in Christ and pruned by God is to be fruitful in every good work (Joh 15:8). The works to be done must be good in their nature, influence, and issue, glorifying to God, beneficial to man, and worthy of the life the Christian has in union with His Lord. Note the breadth of requirement–every. The physical and social elevation of the alien, the outcast, and the ignorant should go hand and hand with saving agencies. Was Christ not Physician for body and soul, the loftiest Philanthropist, the sincerest Patriot, the truest Friend?

II. Progress. The fruitfulness is not exhaustive. The tree grows all the more healthily when its fruitfulness abounds.

1. Hence the connection here between fertility and progress. We must bear fruit that we may be strong, and do good that we may grow. Many forget this and find that withholding more than is meet tendeth to poverty. Their selfishness starves their souls.

2. The real means of growth is the knowledge of God. Our fruitfulness may be a condition, but it cannot make us grow. The knowledge of God is the true nourishment of the soul. A God in shadow or unknown creates superstition, and to view Him in only one aspect of His character will lead either to fanaticism or mysticism.

3. This knowledge is the only knowledge which encompasses our whole being and fills the whole man. It supplies truth for the intellect, conscience, and heart; stimulus and nourishment for every attribute of our being. Devotion to mere human studies may develop the intellectual side of our nature at the expense of the moral and social, but the growth which this promotes is symmetrical and full. Conclusion: These two things embrace two sides of our nature, action and reflection. They act and react on each other. The activity would pass into formalism were it not fed by the contemplation of God. Our meditation would pass into fanaticism were it not regulated by active duty. (J. Spence, D. D.)

Fruitfulness

This metaphor is taken from a tree; not every tree, but one bearing fruit (Psa 1:3; Joh 15:5). From this comparison note–

1. As no tree can bear fruit, unless it hath a certain life-giving seed in itself, and is nourished daily with good sap; so no one can bear spiritual fruit, unless he hath in himself the seed of the Spirit, and is daily watered with the outpourings of Divine grace.

2. As that tree is pleasing to God, which does not occupy the ground in vain, neither dissipates the moisture which it draws on leaves and blossoms alone; but produces good fruits: so he alone is pleasing to God, who does not uselessly occupy room in the Church, neither wears the appearance and form of godliness alone, but puts forth its power and virtue by fruitfulness.

3. As a tree lives and bears fruit not for itself but its owner, and for others to whom he sees fit to impart its fruits: so a godly man ought not to live for himself alone, nor to care only that his life be honourable to himself, but that it may be honourable to God and beneficial to all his brethren.

4. Behold the spacious manner in which the fruitfulness of a godly man is exercised. In this he differs from a tree. For no one seeks different fruits from the same tree, but God expects every Christian to produce every kind of good works (Gal 5:22). There are, therefore, two things to be noted in the matter of the fruitfulness.

(1) That God does not approve of every kind of fruitfulness, but restricts it to good works. But those are called good works which are commanded and directed by God. Wisely and piously spake Cyprian, The exercises of righteousness are to be chosen not by our own will, but by the will of God. And in Isaiah God complains of the Jews, that they worshipped Him by the precepts of men (Isa 29:13).

(2) That fruitfulness of any one kind is not sufficient, but we must be fruitful in every good work. If any one produce the good fruit of alms deeds, and mingle with them the impure fruits of lewdness; or if any one be conspicuous for chastity, and defile himself by avarice; he would not answer the Divine will, or the apostles desire of being fruitful in every good work: nay, he is accounted by God bad and unclean. For who shall say that any one is clean, who is wont to wallow even in a single sewer? (1Th 5:22-23). (Bishop Davenant.)

Fruitful in every good work

From the decalogue downwards. Scripture teaching has been poured impartially into two moulds–to know the truth and to do the right.

I. The nature of each.

1. Fruitfulness in every good work.

(1) Work. They who find Christ find rest, but not exemption from work; peace in believing only supplies a foothold whereon the labourer may stand more steadily and so work with more effect.

(2). Good work, not energy of action merely.

(a) The Master is good: God.

(b) The motive: love.

(c) The aim: the good of the world.

(d) The standard: the law.

(3) Every.

(a) Not that man should go round the world and meddle with every thing, but that he should neglect no opportunity that comes in his way. Do not waste time and effort in trying to do all at once, but cultivate a universal willingness.

(b) Act those virtues, too, that are not in your nature. When a man of might bears the infirmities of the weakest, and the timid display a martyr courage, there is more conspicuous evidence of grace.

(c) Do not pick and choose but do whatever God has put in your way, whether the opening of a church or the digging of a well, the support of a missionary or the widening of a street.

(4) Fruitful. This indicates–

(a) Spontaneousness. The tree has first been made good, and then the fruit grows spontaneously. A partaker of Christ gives forth Christ-like actions. There is a good deal of artificial charity. People can tie oranges to a fir-tree; but true Christian beneficence is a fruit that grows and is not tied on. The water in the pipes connected with a reservoir must flow by reason of the pressure from above. The love of Christ constraineth us.

(b) Sweetness and profitableness.

(c) Abundance.

2. Increase in the knowledge of God.

(1) In obtaining reconciliation through Christ we have the beginning of this knowledge, and those who attain the beginning can never rest there.

(2) Among other features of the Divine nature which the experienced disciple knows better now, the Fatherliness of God is perhaps that in which the greatest advances are attained. It is long ere perfect love casts out all fear; but much progress is made in its diminution by the inlet of confiding love. It is like the process of exhausting the air from a glass cup, and so making it adhere more and more firmly to the table. More and more fear is drawn off from the Christians bosom; more and more firmly therefore does it cleave to the Almighty strength it leans upon.

II. The union and reciprocal relations of the two.

1. They grow together not only as two parallel boughs of one tree, one of which might live if the other were wrenched off. The union is like two sides of a human body: if one were wanting the other would die.

2. Contemplate the two sides alternately.

(1) Active obedience is necessary to the increase of spiritual experience. Spiritual contemplation soon runs to seed when duty is neglected. The old monks desired to increase in the knowledge of God, and hid themselves in caves where good works were impossible. So they made themselves barren in that wherein God had commanded them to be fruitful. Simon on the top of his pillar with the world wondering at him as a saint, did not know God so well as he might if he had kept a shop all day and played with his children at night. In active life you will make most progress in this knowledge. The more work you do the more you will be wearied, which will lead you to lean oftener on the Father and thus increase your acquaintance.

(2) Contemplative communion with God is necessary to successful activity. If you rush into work without prayer the work will wane like the flame of a lamp when the oil is exhausted. When our work increases in bulk we need more of experimental communion to animate the extended body. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Multiform fruitfulness

You never saw in nature a tree which yielded all sorts of fruit, and you never will. I have seen a tree so grafted that it produced four kinds of fruit at one time, but I remarked that it was a poor business in reference to two of the varieties; for one of the grafts, more natural than the others to the parent stem, drew off the most of the sap, and flourished well, but robbed the other branches. The second sort of fruit managed to live pretty fairly, but not so well as it would have done on its own stem. As for the third and fourth, they were mere attempts at fruit of the smallest size. This tree was shown to me as a great curiosity; it is not likely that practical gardeners will be encouraged by the experiment. But what would you think of a tree upon which you saw grapes, and figs, and olives, and apples, and all other good fruits growing at one time? This is the emblem of what instructed believers will become: they will produce all sorts of goodness and graciousness to the honour of their heavenly Father, I have no doubt that you will naturally abound most in certain good works for which you have the largest capacity, but still nothing ought to come amiss to you. In the great house of the Church we want servants who will not be simply cooks or housemaids, but general servants, maids of all-work, prepared to do anything and everything. I have known persons in household employment in England who would not do a turn beyond their special work to save their masters lives: these are a sort of servants of whom the fewer the better. In India this is carried to a ridiculous extreme. The Hindoo water-bearer will not sweep the house, nor light a fire, nor brush your clothes–he will fetch water, and nothing else: you must, therefore, have a servant for each separate thing, and then each man will do his own little bit, but he will not go an inch beyond. When we enter into Christs Church we should come prepared to wash the saints feet, or bear their burdens, or bind up their wounds, or fight their foes, or act as steward, or shepherd, or nurse. It has been well said that if two angels in heaven were summoned to serve the Lord, and there were two works to be done, an empire to be ruled, or a crossing to be swept, neither angel would have a choice as to which should be appointed him, but would gladly abide the will of the Lord. Let us be equally prepared for anything, for everything by which fruit can be produced for the Well-beloved. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The necessity of Divine knowledge to Christian fruitfulness

There is a well in your garden, and a pump for raising the water to the surface. This for ordinary seasons is sufficient. But at length a drought compels you to make a greater demand upon the well. Every day you ply the handle harder and longer, to preserve the life of the languishing vegetation. At last the supply fails, and you ply your task in vain. No water comes, because there has been too much working; the work degenerates into a barren noise. What then? Sink your well deeper, and it will stand a greater strain. We must go and do likewise when, by too long-continued activity, our movement becomes fruitless labour. When we work till our souls are wrought out, we must go deeper down into the hidden veins of the souls supply–go deeper into the love of God, by secret communion with the Saviour; and the increase of His favour consciously compassing your soul will sustain a new and greater effort of Christian activity. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The necessity of Christian fruitfulness to Divine knowledge

In the case of the monks, their kite, so to speak, was pointing heavenward and rising; but it was not rising far enough nor fast enough. It seemed to be struggling upward, but held in check by the string that attached it to the ground. That line which bound it to the earth seemed the only hindrance of its flight to heaven. Like foolish children, they cut the line that bound it to the earth, expecting to see it then rising unimpeded to the sky; but, lo! the kite when so set free, instead of ascending majestically to heaven, whirled round two or three times wildly, giddily, and then fell fiat upon the ground. Such was the result of Romes effort to raise her votaries to heaven, by cutting their connection with the earth. The so-called saints fell lower than before. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The essential connection between knowledge and piety

As the swing of the pendulum to the right becomes the power which carries it to the left, and its swing to the left the power which carries it back to the right; so true good-doing makes the doer know God more, and true knowledge of God sends back the scholar with a new impulse to his work in the world. Moreover, by the balancing alternations of the pendulum aberrations are prevented, and the steady, true-going of the clock is secured; so the Christian life goes best which goes between a deep, comtemplative, spiritual knowledge of God, and hearty practical work, as far as opportunity offers, for every interest of every brother man. These two God hath joined; let no man dare to put them asunder. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

No work must be declined

You have probably read of a certain renowned corporal in the American service a century ago. A general as he rode along saw a body of men endeavouring to lift timber. They were short-handed, and the work lagged, but their famous corporal stood by ordering them about at a magnificent rate. The general paused and said, Why dont you lend them help and put your shoulder to it? Why, sir, said the great little officer, how can you think of such a thing? Do you know who I am? I am a corporal! The general got off his horse, pulled off his coat, and helped to move the timber, and by his judicious help the soldiers achieved their task. Then he turned to the high and mighty gentleman and said, Mr. Corporal, next time you want a man to do such work as this you can send for me. I am General Washington. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Col 1:9-14

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you.

The knowledge of the Divine will

The petition asks–

I. For a bestowment of a knowledge of the divine will as attained by a spiritual understanding and wisdom. The faith and charity of the Colossians had been so reported to the apostle as to fill his heart with thankfulness, which took its habitual course, that of unceasing prayer. Blending the subject of his prayer with his purpose in offering it, St. Paul asks–

1. Generally that they may he filled, etc.

three terms which in their union signify an impartation from above of a thorough insight into the will of God as directing the practical life. Based on the eternal purpose of redemption, this will is the counsel of human sanctification. As a matter of request it is the Holy Spirits operation on our faculties making the knowledge experimental, rewriting the moral law on the heart, and making it there supreme.

2. Particularly the apostle connects with this the spiritual wisdom and understanding which bring Divine knowledge into the sphere of the human faculties. The Holy Spirit imparts it to the understanding which makes it the object of study, and aggregates the whole into wisdom, which is the practical application to life of the precepts which the understanding embraces. But both are spiritual. The unregenerate understanding may make the moral law an object of study, and arrange the whole into a system of rules for the wisdom of human ethics. But in the regenerate the precepts are studied in the light of the new nature, and the whole wisdom of holiness is the result of a teaching that is from above (Jam 1:17).

II. For practical conformity with that will in–

1. Fruitfulness

(1) in every good work. All the manifestations of godliness are the fruit of a Divine life within wrought by Christ indwelling by His Spirit. But the phrase every good work teaches us that the thoughts, words, and deeds of holiness are our own. In their secret source they have a heavenly origin, in their manifestation they are human. The wonderful completeness arrests attention. The tree brings forth all the fruits that the infinite diversity of the relations of life permit.

(2) The words increasing in the knowledge of God suggests that Christian fruitfulness knows no limitation. As the knowledge of God and His will grows, the fruits of obedience grow likewise, and with growing sanctity the notion of the Divine Being becomes more clear. But the general spirit of the prayer recommends the former, viz., that the enlarging knowledge of Gods will, as proved in its varying applications in daily life, leads to an unlimited increase in good works. To the Christian the interior law of God unfolds perpetually new obligations; and as it does this, the obedient life puts on new aspects of perfection.

(3) We now go back to the glowing words which precede That ye might walk, etc. Here is a twofold standard.

(a) Such a walk as should do honour to God.

(b) Such an aim to secure His approval as should win His complacency always and in all things.

There is a daring completeness in this sentence. There is no reservation for human infirmity, no undertone of deprecation of the Divine severity, no hint of a tolerant construction of our conduct.

2. Endurance presented as a passive patience combined with an active longsuffering.

(1) While the Divine knowledge is the instrument or energy of the holy life, it is the Divine power which is connected with the patience of that holiness. The strength of God of course accomplishes all; but that strength is made perfect in weakness. The interior discipline of religion is both endurance of what is imposed, and resistance of all temptation to rebel. Thus the grandeur of the Christian conflict is that the omnipotence of God is brought down into the secret arena of the struggle. He infuses every kind of strength–strength to bear the inflictions of the Divine will in the sorrows of life, its disappointments, the oppositions of evil, the inexhaustible varieties of the pressure of the one great cross; strength to resist temptations from without, in the assaults of Satan, the waywardness of men, persecution, etc.

(2) If this be the case, surely the believer should count it all joy to be undergoing temptation and that only in the feeling of victory. The very conflict itself is joyous, if Divine and human strength unite; the spirit feels most here what it is to be one with Christ.

3. Thanksgiving enters into all the other elements of the Christian life, and is not merely their supplement. It is here made to spring solely from the sense of redemption. But since the perfecting of the redemptional scheme all the benedictions of providence become redemptional. To pass from the kingdom of darkness into that of Gods dear Son is not to leave the kingdoms of nature and providence, but to add to them, as he shows further on, all the glory of the inheritance of the saints in light. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

The apostolic prayer

Chrysostom said to those who would realize the classical allusion more vividly than we do, that as in the games we urge on those who are near victory, so Paul here prays for an increase of Christian attainment for the Church that had already attained so much. Hence he says, For this cause. We should rightly consider this prayer for such increase:—

(1) Because it teaches us what we should seek in our intercession for Churches. Our standard of Church prosperity is convicted by such a prayer; our right plans for Church increase are here inspired.

(2) Because it teaches us what we are to seek and expect for ourselves: what is really worth aiming, struggling, praying for. Paul prays–

I. That their knowledge may increase–doubtless partly because of the error that was confusing some, but also because knowledge is always good. Three expressions describe it that are frequently used in combination in Scripture, and which Aristotle denotes as intellectual virtues.

1. Knowledge. This is descriptive of acquaintance with any subject. He has it who has information. It is essential as the basis of culture, but is only the basis.

2. Wisdom is higher than knowledge, and includes both that and understanding. Newman well calls it Reason exercised upon knowledge.

3. Spiritual understanding the application of knowledge to practical detail, the following out of its processes to daily duty and to the spiritual realm.

II. That as a result of their knowledge their character may ripen. The knowledge of Gods will must result in action, or it is valueless. The character resulting from this knowledge includes–

1. Walking worthily of the Lord. The Christian life is an activity, a progress tested by the highest standard.

2. Increasing in the knowledge of God. So knowledge increases. This time it is more than knowledge of Gods will, it is knowledge of Gods self. Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge.

3. Being strengthened with all might. Energy, inner energy, inner energy of the highest sort for endurance.

4. Giving thanks to the Father. Life shall have music in it–the highest music of praise. For what?

(1) Fitness for blessedness, meet for inheritance. An inheritance is allotted to those who are ready for it.

(2) Emancipation from the power of darkness–rescue from the tyranny of confusion, ignorance, peril, evil.

(3) Settlement in an empire of liberty, order and honour.

(4) And through and above all for Christ as the means to blessing, and Himself the chiefest blessing. (U. R. Thomas.)

The power of unceasing prayer

If I was ever brought into the kingdom of God, said a venerable Christian lady, it was owing to the intercessions of old Dr. L. He married me, and he used often to call and speak a few earnest words to me about my soul. You are now a wife and a mother, he would say; do not delay to give yourself to the Lord, and to pray for grace to fulfil your duties. I shall never cease to plead for you. The thought that a man of God was pleading for her before God, as well as pleading with her at the bar of her own conscience, was the point which seems to have made the impression.

Sanctified knowledge

Sanctified knowledge is the Holy Spirits greatest helper. It carries the torch before faith; it opens the door of eternity to hope; it presents love with a perfectly beautiful object; it furnishes joy with its sweetest melodies; it supplies patience with the strongest motives, and resignation with the noblest patterns. (S. Charnock.)

Spiritual knowledge

The difference between believers and unbelievers is not so much in the extent, as in the manner of their knowledge. An unbeliever may know more, and be able to talk more of Divine things than many believers, but he knows nothing spiritually and savingly, with a holy, heavenly light. A believer may comprehend less, but he apprehends more. (G. S. Bowes.)

The best knowledge

Many there are that are accounted deep scholars, great linguists, excellent mathematicians, sharp logicians, knowing politicians, fine rhetoricians, sweet musicians, etc. These may be good or bad, as the case may be, but he is certainly the best grammarian that has learnt to speak the truth from his heart; the best astronomer that hath his conversation in heaven; the best musician that hath learned to sing the praises of his God; the best arithmetician, that so numbereth his days as to apply himself to wisdom; he is knowing in ethics, that traineth up his family in the fear of the Lord; he is the best economist who is wise to salvation, prudent in giving and taking good counsel; he is the best politician, and he is a good linguist that speaks the language of Canaan. (J. Spencer.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 9. For this cause] See on Eph 1:15-16 (note), where the same sentiment occurs.

That ye might be filled] Nothing could satisfy the apostle, either for himself or his hearers, but the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace. The Colossians had knowledge, but they must have more; it is their privilege to be filled with it. As the bright shining of the sun in the firmament of heaven fills the whole world with light and heat, so the light of the Sun of righteousness is to illuminate their whole souls, and fill them with Divine splendour, so that they might know the will of God, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; in a word, that they might have such a knowledge of Divine things as the Spirit of truth can teach to the soul of man.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

For this cause we also; he doth here suggest the motive mentioned in the precedent verses, viz. their faith and love, Col 1:4,5, and their special love to him, Col 1:8, why he and his brethren had them so much upon their hearts: See Poole on “Eph 1:15-17“.

Since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you: it seems, from the time they were refreshed with these things they did (as he exhorts the Colossians here, Col 4:2) always upon all solemn occasions wait upon God for the Colossians spiritual prosperity, as Paul himself did for the Philippians: See Poole on “Luk 18:1“. See Poole on “Rom 12:12“. See Poole on “Phi 1:4“. See Poole on “Phi 1:9“. See Poole on “1Th 5:17“.

And to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will; and the subject matter of their instant prayer was, that they might attain to a more distinct, clear, and practical knowledge of the mind of God in Christ, and a greater measure of conformity to what he requires in the gospel, Col 1:6; Eph 5:15-17.

In all wisdom; in (rather than with) all necessary knowledge of the things of faith and manners, according to the prescript of the gospel: for sapience or wisdom doth properly respect the most excellent things, and such we learn most distinctly and satisfactorily from the revealed will of God, which we have in the Bible: this is that which Paul and other holy men spoke as taught of God amongst the perfect or grown Christians, in opposition both to the wisdom of man and of the world, 1Co 2:4,6, being agreeable to the will of God, Job 28:28; Pro 28:7; Joh 6:40; 1Th 4:3. And with this Christian wisdom some would render the following words, in

spiritual prudence, but if we render it understanding, or intelligence, it may be expounded to the same sense; for which there may be very good reason, for the philosopher doth sometimes by the Greek word mean that power or habit whereby men judge aright of things presented conducing to happiness, so as upon a due expense of circumstances to discern the good from the evil, the true from the false, and the real from the apparent: such a gift as Paul prays the Lord would give unto Timothy, 2Ti 2:7, compared with 1Co 1:5, that they might rightly distinguish between the simplicity and purity of the gospel, and those false glosses and colours that false teachers went about to sophisticate it with; not be without understanding his some who followed our Saviour, Mat 15:16 what course they should take in the practice of piety, but be able to discern the times, 1Ch 12:32, and other circumstances, Psa 39:1; 50:23; Ecc 5:1; Luk 8:18; for the ordering their actions aright, so as they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, as becomes the gospel, Eph 1:8, with Phi 1:10,27; Col 4:5; Tit 2:10. Ignorance then can be no mother of true devotion, nor the inventions of men acceptable service to the living God, whose will alone is the rule of his worship.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. we alsoon our part.

heard it (Col1:4).

prayHere he stateswhat in particular he prays for; as in Col1:3 he stated generally the fact of his praying for them.

to desire“to makerequest.”

might be filledrather,”may be filled”; a verb, often found in this Epistle(Col 4:12; Col 4:17).

knowledgeGreek,“full and accurate knowledge.” Akin to the Greek for”knew” (see on Col 1:6).

of his willas to howye ought to walk (Eph 5:17); aswell as chiefly that “mystery of His will, according to His goodpleasure which He purposed in Himself; that in the fulness of timesHe might gather together in one all things in Christ” (Eph 1:9;Eph 1:10); God’s “will,”whereby He eternally purposed to reconcile to Himself, and save menby Christ, not by angels, as the false teachers in some degree taught(Col 2:18) [ESTIUS].There seems to have been a want of knowledge among theColossians; notwithstanding their general excellencies; hence he sooften dwells on this subject (Col 1:28;Col 2:2; Col 2:3;Col 3:10; Col 3:13;Col 4:5; Col 4:6).On the contrary he less extols wisdom to the Corinthians, whowere puffed up with the conceit of knowledge.

wisdomoften mentionedin this Epistle, as opposed to the (false) “philosophy” and”show of wisdom” (Col 2:8;Col 2:23; compare Eph1:8).

understandingsagacityto discern what on each occasion is suited to the place and the time;its seat is “the understanding” or intellect; wisdom ismore general and has its seat in the whole compass of the facultiesof the soul [BENGEL].”Wouldst thou know that the matters in the word of Christ arereal things? Then never read them for mere knowledge sake”[Quoted by GAUSSEN.]Knowledge is desirable only when seasoned by “spiritualunderstanding.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For this cause we also,…. Not merely for their love to the apostle, and the rest that were with him; which sense is too much contracted, and carries some appearance of meanness and selfishness; but because of their faith in Christ, their love to all the saints, and the good hope they had of eternal happiness; and because they had heard the Gospel, and truly knew it, and sincerely professed it: therefore,

since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray for you, and to desire; which shows that the apostles prayed without ceasing; not that they were every moment praying, without intermission, but that they were frequent and constant every day at the throne of grace; and as often as they were there, they were mindful of these Colossians, even ever since they heard of their reception of the Gospel, of their profession of it, and of the fruit it brought forth in them; and in their petitions “prayed” and “desired”, earnestly and importunately entreated God on their behalf:

that ye might he filled with the knowledge of his will; the will “of God”, as the Syriac version reads it, by which is meant, not the secret will of God, according to the counsel of which he does all things in nature, providence, and grace, but his revealed will; and that either as it is signified in the law, which declares the good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God, relating to what he would have done, or avoided by his creatures; or rather, as it is exhibited in the Gospel, which contains the will of God respecting the salvation of his chosen ones; as that it is his will that Christ should obtain eternal redemption for them, to do which he voluntarily substituted himself in their room, came into this world, and has accomplished it; and that all those that are redeemed by Christ should be regenerated by the Spirit; and that whoever sees the Son, and believes in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life; as also, that all those whom he has chosen in Christ, and given to him, and he has redeemed by his blood, and who are sanctified by his Spirit, none of them should be lost, but that they should be all saved with an everlasting salvation. Now the apostle does, not pray that they might have a “knowledge” of this will of God, for some knowledge of it they had already; they had heard of the hope laid up in heaven, in the truth of the word of the Gospel; they had not only had the external, revelation, and had heard the Gospel outwardly preached, but they had known truly the grace of God; and therefore what he asks for is, that they might be “filled” with the knowledge of it; which supposes that they had knowledge, but it was not full and complete; it was imperfect, as is the knowledge of the best of saints in this life; and that they might have a larger measure of it, and such a fulness of it as they were capable of in the present state, and not such an one as the saints will have in heaven, when they shall know even as they are known. He adds,

in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; his meaning is, that they might be led into all the wisdom of God, which is so largely displayed in the revelation of his will concerning the salvation of his people, which is made in the Gospel; which is the manifold wisdom of God, wherein he has abounded in all wisdom and prudence; and contains such a scheme of things, so wisely contrived and formed, that angels desire to look into it; and that they might have a “spiritual understanding” of the mysteries of grace, without which they cannot be discerned to spiritual advantage, nor indeed without the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of them: and the Ethiopic version renders it, by “the prudence of the Holy Ghost”: who searches the deep things of God, and reveals them to the saints, and improves and increases their spiritual and experimental knowledge of them, which is what is here intended.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Paul’s Prayer for the Colossians.

A. D. 62.

      9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;   10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;   11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

      The apostle proceeds in these verses to pray for them. He heard that they were good, and he prayed that they might be better. He was constant in this prayer: We do not cease to pray for you. It may be he could hear of them but seldom, but he constantly prayed for them.–And desire that you may be filled with the knowledge, c. Observe what it is that he begs of God for them,

      I. That they might be knowing intelligent Christians: filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Observe, 1. The knowledge of our duty is the best knowledge. A mere empty notion of the greatest truths is insignificant. Our knowledge of the will of God must be always practical: we must know it, in order to do it. 2. Our knowledge is then a blessing indeed when it is in wisdom, when we know how to apply our general knowledge to our particular occasions, and to suit it to all emergencies. 3. Christians should endeavour to be filled with knowledge not only to know the will of God, but to know more of it, and to increase in the knowledge of God (as it is v. 10), and to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, 2 Pet. iii. 18.

      II. That their conversation might be good. Good knowledge without a good life will not profit. Our understanding is then a spiritual understanding when we exemplify it in our way of living: That you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing (v. 10), that is, as becomes the relation we stand in to him and the profession we make of him. The agreeableness of our conversation to our religion is pleasing to God as well as to good men. We walk unto all well-pleasing when we walk in all things according to the will of God. Being fruitful in every good work. This is what we should aim at. Good words will not do without good works. We must abound in good works, and in every good work: not in some only, which are more easy, and suitable, and safe, but in all, and every instance of them. There must be a regular uniform regard to all the will of God. And the more fruitful we are in good works the more we shall increase in the knowledge of God. He who doeth his will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, John vii. 17.

      III. That they might be strengthened: Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power (v. 11), fortified against the temptations of Satan and furnished for all their duty. It is a great comfort to us that he who undertakes to give strength to his people is a God of power and of glorious power. Where there is spiritual life there is still need of spiritual strength, strength for all the actions of the spiritual life. To be strengthened is to be furnished by the grace of God for every good work, and fortified by that grace against every evil one: it is to be enabled to do our duty, and still to hold fast our integrity. The blessed Spirit is the author of this strength; for we are strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward man, Eph. iii. 16. The word of God is the means of it, by which he conveys it; and it must be fetched in by prayer. It was in answer to earnest prayer that the apostle obtained sufficient grace. In praying for spiritual strength we are not straitened in the promises, and therefore should not be straitened in our own hopes and desires. Observe, 1. He prayed that they might be strengthened with might: this seems a tautology; but he means, that they might be mightily strengthened, or strengthened with might derived from another. 2. It is with all might. It seems unreasonable that a creature should be strengthened with all might, for that is to make him almighty; but he means, with all that might which we have occasion for, to enable us to discharge our duty or preserve our innocence, that grace which is sufficient for us in all the trials of life and able to help us in time of need. 3. It is according to his glorious power. He means, according to the grace of God: but the grace of God in the hearts of believers is the power of God; and there is a glory in this power; it is an excellent and sufficient power. And the communications of strength are not according to our weakness, to whom the strength is communicated, but according to his power, from whom it is received. When God gives he gives like himself, and when he strengthens he strengthens like himself. 4. The special use of this strength was for suffering work: That you may be strengthened unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. He prays not only that they may be supported under their troubles, but strengthened for them: the reason is there is work to be done even when we are suffering. And those who are strengthened according to his glorious power are strengthened, (1.) To all patience. When patience hath its perfect work (Jam. i. 4) then we are strengthened to all patience–when we not only bear our troubles patiently, but receive them as gifts from God, and are thankful for them. To you it is given to suffer, Phil. i. 29. When we bear our troubles well, though ever so many, and the circumstances of them ever so aggravating, then we bear them with all patience. And the same reason for bearing one trouble will hold for bearing another, if it be a good reason. All patience includes all the kinds of it; not only bearing patience, but waiting patience. (2.) This is even unto long-suffering, that is, drawn out to a great length: not only to bear trouble awhile, but to bear it as long as God pleases to continue it. (3.) It is with joyfulness, to rejoice in tribulation, to take joyfully the spoiling of our goods, and rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for his name, to have joy as well as patience in the troubles of life. This we could never do by any strength of our own, but as we are strengthened by the grace of God.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

That ye may be filled with ( ). First aorist (effective) passive subjunctive of , to fill full.

The knowledge of his will ( ). The accusative case is retained with this passive verb. is a Koine word (Polybius, Plutarch, etc.) for additional () or full knowledge. The word is the keynote of Paul’s reply to the conceit of Gnosticism. The cure for these intellectual upstarts is not ignorance, not obscurantism, but more knowledge of the will of God.

In all spiritual wisdom and understanding ( ). Both (all) and (spiritual) are to be taken with both and . In Eph 1:8 Paul uses (from , intellect) rather than (grasp, from , to send together). is the faculty of deciding in particular cases while gives the general principles (Abbott). Paul faces Gnosticism with full front and wishes the freest use of all one’s intellectual powers in interpreting Christianity. The preacher ought to be the greatest man in the world for he has to deal with the greatest problems of life and death.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

We also. Marking the reciprocal feeling of Paul and Timothy with that of the Colossians.

Pray – desire [ – ] . The words occur together in Mr 11:24. The former is general, the latter special. Rev. make request is better than desire. The A. V. renders indiscriminately ask and desire. Rev. alters desire to ask. Desire in the sense of ask occurs in Shakespeare and Spenser.

Knowledge [] . See on Rom 3:20; Phl 1:6. Full knowledge. See Rom 1:21, 28; 1Co 13:12, where Paul contrasts ginwskein to know gnwsiv knowledge, with ejpiginwskein to know fully, ejpignwsiv full knowledge. Here appropriate to the knowledge of God in Christ as the perfection of knowledge.

Wisdom and spiritual understanding [ ] . Rev., better, applies spiritual to both – spiritual wisdom and understanding. The kindred adjectives sofov wise and sunetov prudent, occur together, Mt 11:25; Luk 10:21. For sofia wisdom, see on Rom 11:33, and on wise, Jas 3:13. For sunesiv understanding, see on Mr 12:33, and prudent, Mt 11:25. The distinction is between general and special. Understanding is the critical apprehension of particulars growing out of wisdom, which apprehension is practically applied by fronhsiv prudence, see on Luk 1:17; Eph 1:8. Spiritual is emphatic, as contrasted with the vain philosophy of false teachers.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

PAUL’S PRAYER FOR SEVEN THINGS V. 9.14

1) “For this cause we also” (dia touto kai hemeis) on account of this we also.” The faithfulness of saints in one church, one community can challenge and influence for good those in another community, to the good of each, 1Th 1:6-10.

2) “Since the day we heard it” (aph’ hes hemeras ekousamen) “From the day on which we heard.” Faith comes by hearing-the faith of one saint or church expressed in word or deed, may bless, encourage another, to the help of each, Rom 10:17-18; Psa 19:4.

3) “Do not cease to pray for you” (ou pauometha huper humon proseuchomenoi) Do not cease praying on your behalf.” 1Th 3:9-13; 2Th 1:11-12; 2Th 2:16-17.

4) “And to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge (kai aitoumenoi hina pierothete ten ;epignosin) “And asking (God) in order that ye may be filled with the full knowledge;” Rom 12:2; Eph 5:10; Eph 5:17. It is a worthy thought that one may know the will of, God through prayer, Act 9:6.

5) “Of his Will” (tou thelematos autou) “of the will of God”- Joh 7:17, Luk 11:9-13.

6) “In all wisdom and understanding” (en pase sophia kai sunesei pneumatike) “In wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Such comes both through study of the Word and prayer in the Spirit, Jas 1:5; Eph 1:8.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

9. For this cause we also. As he has previously shewn his affection for them in his thanksgivings, so he now shews it still farther in the earnestness of his prayers in their behalf. (288) And, assuredly, the more that the grace of God is conspicuous in any, we ought in that proportion specially to love and esteem them, and to be concerned as to their welfare. But what does he pray for in their behalf? That they may know God more fully; by which he indirectly intimates, that something is still wanting in them, that he may prepare the way for imparting instruction to them, and may secure their attention to a fuller statement of doctrine. For those who think that they have already attained everything that is worthy of being known, despise and disdain everything farther that is presented to them. Hence he removes from the Colossians an impression of this nature, lest it should be a hinderance in the way of their cheerfully making progress, and allowing what had been begun in them to receive an additional polish. But what knowledge does he desire in their behalf? The knowledge of the divine will, by which expression he sets aside all inventions of men, and all speculations that are at variance with the word of God. For his will is not to be sought anywhere else than in his word.

He adds — in all wisdom; by which he intimates that the will of God, of which he had made mention, was the only rule of right knowledge. For if any one is desirous simply to know those things which it has pleased God to reveal, that is the man who accurately knows what it is to be truly wise. If we desire anything beyond that, this will be nothing else than to be foolish, by not keeping within due bounds. By the word συνέσεως which we render prudentiam , (prudence,) I understand — that discrimination which proceeds from intelligence. Both are called spiritual by Paul, because they are not attained in any other way than by the guidance of the Spirit.

For the animal man does not perceive the things that are of God. (1Co 2:14.)

So long as men are regulated by their own carnal perceptions, they have also their own wisdom, but it is of such a nature as is mere vanity, however much they may delight themselves in it. We see what sort of theology there is under the Papacy, what is contained in the books of philosophers, and what wisdom profane men hold in estimation. Let us, however, bear in mind, that the wisdom which is alone commended by Paul is comprehended in the will of God.

(288) “ Comme il a ci dessus demonstré l’amour qu’il auoit enuers eux, en protestant qu’il s’esiouit de leurs auancemens, et en rend graces a Dieu, aussi le fait — il maintenant en son affection vehemente, et continuation de prier;” — “As he has already shewn the love which he cherished towards them, by declaring that he rejoices in their proficiency, and gives thanks to God for it, so he does the same now by his intense eagerness and perseverance in prayer.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Col. 1:9. Do not cease to pray for you, and to desire.R.V. pray and make request. The general notion comes first, then the particulars; so in Mar. 11:24. In the Lords Prayer there are several petitions or requests. Knowledge.Here represents the advanced knowledge of the initiated. Spiritual understanding is the use in the realm of things spiritual of the faculty which, as employed in physical research, makes the difference between the man of scientific method and the empiric. Compare the union of wisdom and spiritual understanding with our Lords words, Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.

Col. 1:10. Walk worthy.The end of all knowledge, the apostle would say, is conduct (Lightfoot). The previous verse taken with this gives the theory and practice of religion. Unto all pleasing.With the end ever before you of being approved by God. For the same combination, see 1Th. 4:1. Being fruitful and increasing.Like the gospel itself see Col. 1:6).

Col. 1:11. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power.Lit. with all power made powerful, etc. The two words representing might and power have become familiar in dynamite and the termination of auto-crat; the one indicates stored-up energy, the other victorious or ruling force. Patience and longsuffering.The first word indicates the attitude of an unfainting mind when things go wrong; the second the quiet endurance under irritation from others, the being not soon angry.

Col. 1:12. Made us meet.Duly qualified us, gave us competence. Just as a man needs to be a qualified practitioner of medicine or the law, so these Colossians are recognised as fit and proper persons for participation in the kingdom of light.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Col. 1:9-11

A Comprehensive Apostolic Prayer.

I. It was a prayer expressive of deep spiritual interest.

1. It was suggested by the report of their active Christian virtues. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray (Col. 1:9). They had believed in Christ, they had shown a genuine love to the brethren, they hoped for the glory of the future, they brought forth the fruits of the Spirit. All this excites the grateful heart of the apostle to pray that they may enjoy yet higher spiritual blessings, may increase in knowledge and wisdom, and rise to the highest standard of moral perfection. We best show our love to others by praying for them. Prayer is always needed, since the most excellent Christian graces are imperfect, liable to decay, and may be abused.

2. It was constant and fervent.Do not cease to pray for you and to desire (Col. 1:9). The apostle had unbounded faith in the efficacy of prayer. Many in these days limit the advantage of prayer to its reflex influence on the individual who praysexpanding the thoughts, spiritualising the mind, and sanctifying the heart; and maintain that it is powerless to affect God, whose purposes must advance by the irresistible operation of unchanging law, irrespective of human supplication. Above this partial philosophy of the modern scientist we have the authority and practice of an inspired apostle. If God did not hear and answer prayeranswer it, not in violation of, but in harmony with, the highest lawthen the frequent intercessions of the apostle are reduced to a solemn mockery, are unjustifiable and inexplicable. The apostle prayed with the utmost assiduitynight and day, as opportunity permittedand with the utmost ardency, desiring that the blessings sought might be liberally and at once bestowed. As Augustine puts it, our desires being prayers, these are continual when our desires are continual.

II. It was a prayer for amplest knowledge.

1. The main subject of the knowledge desired. The knowledge of His will (Col. 1:9). Man thirsts for knowledge. He is eager to become acquainted with himself and the wonders around him. In his unwearied search after knowledge he has conquered colossal difficulties; has penetrated the starry spaces with the telescope; revealed the smallest visual atom with the microscope; and, with the deep-sea dredge, has made us familiar with the long-hidden treasures of the ocean. But the highest knowledge is the knowledge of Godnot simply of His nature, majesty, perfections, works, but the knowledge of His will. So far as we are concerned, that will comprehends all that God wishes us to be, believe, and do. We must know His will in order to salvation, and as the supreme rule and guide of every action. Man may be ignorant of many things; but he cannot be ignorant of Gods will and be saved. The knowledge of that will is the first great urgent duty of life.

2. The measure in which the knowledge may be possessed.Filled with knowledge. The word knowledge is full and emphatic, indicating a living, comprehensive, complete knowledge of the divine will. They already possessed some knowledge of that will; and the apostle prays that it may be deeper, clearer, and increasingly potent within them, that they may be filled. The soul is not only to possess this knowledge, but it is to possess the soulinforming, animating, and impelling it onwards to higher attainments in the things of God. Knowledge is a power for good only as it acquaints with the divine will, and as it pervades and actuates the whole spiritual being. We may seek great things from God. He gives largely, according to His infinite bounty. There is no limit to our increase in divine knowledge but our own capacity, diligence, and faith.

3. The practical form in which the knowledge should be exercised.In all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Col. 1:9). The word spiritual applies to both wisdom and understanding. The false teachers offered a wisdom which they highly extolled, but it had only a show of wisdom; it was an empty counterfeit, calling itself philosophy; the offspring of vanity, nurtured by the flesh: it was unspiritual. The true gospel is spiritual in its origin, characteristics, and effects. The wisdom and understanding it imparts are the work of the Holy Spirit. Without His presence and operation in the soul both the knowledge of the divine will and advancement in it would be impossible. The two terms are similar in meaning, but there is a distinction. Wisdom refers to the God-given organ by which truth is selected and stored up; understanding to the faculty by which truth is practically and prudently used: the one is comprehensive and accumulative, the other discriminative and practical. True spiritual insight is the work of the Holy Spirit. No amount of mental or moral culture, of human wisdom and sagacity, can supply it. This was the power lacked by the Galatians when they were so soon seduced from the gospel; and to prevent a similar result among the Colossians the apostle prays they may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that they may discern between the false and the true, the carnal and spiritual, the human and the divine.

III. It was a prayer for the loftiest Christian career.

1. The standard of Christian conduct. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord (Col. 1:10). Life is a journey; death is the common goal and resting-place where all meet. Our conduct is the pathway on which we travel. The walk therefore describes the general course of life, the actions, habits, and deportment of the man in his relations to God and to the race. This walk is to be worthy of the Lordworthy of His holy and dignified character; worthy of His law, of His kingdom, of His glory, of the high destiny He has designed for us. When a certain prince, on being captured, was asked how he should be treated, his prompt reply was, As a king. We should ever remember the high vocation wherewith we are called, and the exalted pattern after which our behaviour should be modelled (Eph. 4:1; 1Th. 2:12). Our life is to be worthy of the Lordin its spirit, motive, active outgoing, development, scope, and aim. For this purpose we are filled with the knowledge of His will. The end of knowledge is practice; its value consists in what it enables us to do. He is not an architect who simply theorises about buildings, but he who has the art to erect them. To speak eloquently of war does not constitute a general; he only deserves that distinction who can skilfully manage an army in the field, whether in attacking or defending.

2. The rule by which that standard is maintained.Unto all pleasing (Col. 1:10). We are to please the Lord in all things; to attempt and sanction nothing that will not be acceptable to Him. We are not to please ourselveswe are not to please othersas the ultimate object of life. If our conduct please othersour parents, our friends, our countryit is well; but though all others are displeased and estranged, we must strive in all things to please God. This is the simplest as well as the highest and grandest rule of life. Attention to this will settle many perplexing questions concerning human duty. The will of God must be studied as our supreme rule, and to it all our thoughts, words, and actions must be conformed. Thus the life on earth becomes a preparation and discipline for heaven, and blends the present with a future of immortal blessedness. It is well with us when we obey the Lord (Jer. 42:6).

3. The productiveness of Christian consistency.Being fruitful in every good work (Col. 1:10). One result of a worthy walk is fertility in Christian activity. In order to fruitfulness there must be life. The believers life is hid with Christ in God, and the existence of the hidden life is manifest in the fruits. Fruitfulness also involves culture. Neglect the vine, and instead of the pendent clusters of glossy, luscious fruit there will be barrenness and decaywithered branches fit only for the consuming fire. God disciplines His people for fruitful and abundant service by painful but loving exercises of His providence (Joh. 15:2). It is not enough to bear one kind of fruit; there must be fertility in every good work. The Christian is in sympathy with every good enterprise that aims at the physical, social, or moral welfare of man, and will heartily contribute his influence and effort in its promotion.

4. Progress in divine knowledge.And increasing in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:10). The knowledge of God is the real instrument of enlargement, in soul and life, of the believer (Alford). We can reach no stage in Christian experience and practice in which additional knowledge is unnecessary. Activity in goodness sharpens the knowing faculty and adds to the stores of wisdom. On the other hand, increased knowledge reacts and stimulates the worker (Joh. 7:17; Mat. 25:29). Divine knowledge is the great necessity of the soul, and the real means of fruitfulness and growth in goodness. It appeals to, elevates, and expands the whole man.

IV. It was a prayer for supernatural strength.

1. The appropriateness and fulness of the blessing desired. Strengthened with all might (Col. 1:11). Man is morally weak. Sin has enfeebled and debased the soul; it has tyrannised over humanity for ages. When we were yet without strength Christ came and introduced another force which counteracts sin and will ultimately effect its overthrow. All who believe in Christ receive strength to struggle against and conquer sin. This imparted strength is especially necessary in realising the blessings for which the apostle prayscomplete knowledge of the divine will; a life worthy of the Lord; spiritual fertility and advancement in heavenly wisdom. Strengthened with all might. Our enemies are numerous, violent, and obstinate, and our infirmities are many. We therefore need strength of every kind. As it is necessary to overcome all our enemies, so it is necessary to be endued with all mightmight to endure the most furious assault, might to resist the most bewitching solicitation to evil.

2. The supernatural source of the blessing.According to His glorious power (Col. 1:11)or, more correctly, according to the power of His glory. Moral power is not native to the Christian; it has its source in God. He imparts it to the believing heart. The motive and measure of our strength is in the might of His glory. Power is an essential attribute of the divine glory; it is manifested in the splendid works of creation, in the inscrutable ways of providence, and preeminently in the marvels of human redemption. Gods revelation of Himself to us, in whatever form, is the one source of our highest strength. The power of His glory reveals itself more and more to him who walks worthy of the Lord. Armed with this supernatural energy, the weakest saint becomes invincible.

3. The great practical purpose contemplated by the blessing.Unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness (Col. 1:11). Patience is the temper which does not easily succumb under trial; longsuffering, or longmindedness, is the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong. Patience respects the weight of the affliction, longsuffering its duration. The former is exercised in relation to God, in the endurance of trial, or in waiting for promised blessing; the latter in relation to man, in long-continued forbearance under irritating wrongs. The true strength of the believer consists, not so much in what he can do, as in what he can endure (Isa. 30:15). The quiet, uncomplaining sufferer is greater than the most vigorous athlete. The characteristic of both patience and longsuffering is expressed in the phrase with joyfulness. To suffer with joyfulness is the great distinction and triumph of the Christian spirit. The endurance of the Stoic was often the effect of pride or insensibility. But the Christian, though keenly sensitive to pain, is enabled by the Holy Spirit to rejoice in the assurance of Gods presence, in the certain victory of his cause, and in the prospect of reward both here and hereafter.

Lessons.

1. How sublime are the topics of genuine prayer.

2. Deep experimental acquaintance with the things of God is essential to a lofty and useful career.

3. Knowledge, wisdom, spiritual fertility, and strength are the gifts of God.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Col. 1:9-11. Pauls Prayer for the Colossians

I. For knowledge.Fulness of knowledge both extensively and intensively is the burden of his desire. In all wisdomas a practical guide, not as mere theory. And spiritual understandingthe spirit of the believer receiving the Spirit of God to lead him inwardly to understand, realise, and delight in the divine will.

II. For fruitfulness.

1. A life worthy of the Christian as it is well pleasing unto his Lord.

2. Good works of every kind.

3. Substantial growth.

III. For strength.In order to this fruitfulness all might is required of body, mind, and spirit, but especially that of the Spirit within. The measureaccording to His glorious power; so as to suffer patiently the constant trials of the Christian life, and exercise all longsuffering towards persecutors and enemies of the truth, and this with joyfulness. It is not what we can do, but what He can do in us, and we through Him.Preachers Magazine.

Col. 1:11. Divine Strength

I. Is spiritual strength, the source and sustenance of all might.

II. May be realised in increasing measure.

III. Arms the soul with invincible power.Power to endure with patience the trials of life; power to bear with the opposition and cruelty of others.

IV. Enables the soul to rejoice in the midst of suffering.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Col. 1:12

Meetness for the Saintly Inheritance.

The epistle has been hitherto occupied with prefatory observations. In this verse the writer enters upon his principal theme relating to the person and redemption of Jesus Christ. He offers thanks to God the Father as the primal source of that grace which constitutes the meetness for the saintly heritage. Observe:

I. The opulent inheritance provided for the good.

1. It is a present and prospective possession. The inheritance of the saints in light. Light is symbolic of knowledge, purity, and joy. The saints even now are called out of darkness into Gods kingdom of marvellous light. They walk in the light as He is in the light. They have a measure of knowledge, but it is dimmed by many earthly obscurities; of purity, but it is surrounded with imperfections; of joy, but it is moderated by lifes sorrows. In the prospective heavenly inheritance, of which the earthly portion is a preparation and pledge, knowledge shall be unclouded and complete, purity unsullied, joy uninterrupted. The life for eternity is already begun: we are at and from the very hour of our regeneration introduced into the spiritual worlda world which, though mysterious and invisible, is as real as the world of sense around us: the Christians life of heavenliness is the first stage of heaven itself! There is a power now within the believer in the germ, of which his celestial immortality shall be the proper fruit. The dawn of heaven hath already begun in all who are yet to rejoice in its noontide glory (Archer Butler).

2. It is a possession provided for the good.The saints. Not for the unholy, the impenitent, the unbelieving, the worldly. It is an inheritance where only the pure in heart can dwell. There is a world of significance in that pithy saying of an old divine: Every one will get to heaven who could live there. Only the saints who have made the Lord their light and their salvation can bear the splendour of His presence.

3. It is a possession freely given.The legal heir has no need to work for his inheritance; he enters in possession by right of succession or testatorial bequest. The saint enters upon his inheritance of righteousness, not by natural descent or by any self-constituted right, but on the ground of a free, divine gift. The believer has a title to the inheritance; but it is not earned by his own efforts: it is bestowed by Christ who won the inheritance by suffering and dying. Thus all idea of merit is excluded; we can do nothing to deserve such a heritage of blessing. The word inheritance really means the parcel of the lotan expression borrowed from the Old Testament (Psa. 16:5). The promised Canaan suggests an analogy between it and the higher hopes and wealthier possessions of the new dispensation. As each Israelite, through the grace of God, obtained his allotment, so the Christian obtains his portion in the kingdom of God. The present and future possession of the saints infinitely surpasses the earthly inheritance.

II. The special meetness necessary to a participation in the inheritance.Hath made us meet to be partakers.

1. This meetness is absolutely necessary.Naturally we are unmeet. A monarch may raise the basest slave to a dukedom, but he cannot give him fitness to discharge the duties of the exalted position; he may change his state, but he cannot change his nature. To obtain a moral fitness for the saintly inheritance our nature must be changed. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

2. This meetness consists in the loving conformity of the human will to the divine.The future life of heaven is the object and pattern of our present heavenly life: there is the mighty model on which we are to reconstruct our nature; there dwells that central form of moral and spiritual beauty of which our life is to be the transcript. The celestial spirits find their highest glory and blessedness in the complete submission of their whole nature to God; in cheerful, willing, loving obedience to His will. The heavenly life is the test and standard of our life on earthof every motive, word, and deed. The Church of Christ is a training-school for a more exalted career. An ancient sage once said, Boys ought most to learn what most they shall need when they become men. So men ought to learn in this life what they shall need most as glorified beings in the future. Only as our whole soul is conformed in loving obedience to the will of God are we meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. We are thus brought into sympathy with the good in all realms, and fitted to participate in the most exalted fellowships of the future!

3. This meetness is a divine work.It is God the Father who hath made us meet. He provides the inheritance; He gives the title to it; He confers the moral fitness by which the soul enters into its possession and enjoyment. None but God, the fountain of holiness, goodness, and power, could accomplish this work. He worketh in us to will and to do. In the meetening process He hath dealt with us as a FATHER, instructing our ignorance, correcting and chastising our faults, and comforting and strengthening us in trouble.

III. The great duty we owe to the generous donor of the inheritance.Giving thanks. Gratitude is the easiest and commonest duty of a dependent creature; yet is the duty most frequently and grossly neglected. Our hearts should ever glow with an unquenchable flame of grateful praise to the bountiful Author of all our blessings.

Lessons.

1. We owe thanks to God as the Provider of the inheritance.

2. We owe thanks to God as the active Agent in producing the special meetness to participate in the enjoyments of the inheritance.

3. Our thanks to God should be expressed in active obedience to His uill.

4. Our thanks to God should be joyful, fervent, and constant.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE

Col. 1:12. Qualification for Heaven.

I. The state contemplated.It is an inheritance; not a purchased property, but the common heritage of the children of God. Of the saints, holy persons. In light, knowledge, holiness, happiness.

II. The meetness required.Adaptations in the natural world. In social arrangement. In regard to the heavenly state. A change of heart is necessary. Without it heaven would not be heaven to us. It must be sought and obtained in the present world. It is here ascribed to the Father.

III. The thanks to be rendered.We thank our fellow-men for their gifts. We thank God for His other gifts. We should thank Him for meetness for heaven. This thanksgiving prepares us for heaven.G. Brooks.

Meetness for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light.Life for eternity is already begun. The business and the beatitude of heaven must consist in conformity of the will to the will of God: this is equally the law of earth.

I. Faith is the realising power of this meetness.

II. Hope is the consoling and fortifying power.

III. Love is the uniting power, the consummation, and the perfection of all.A. Butler.

The Inheritance of the Saints.

I. An interesting view of the future world as it is inherited by believers.

1. The saints are in light in respect to the place.

2. As it respects purity.

3. In respect of the permanency of their felicity.

4. As it respects knowledge.

II. The meetness which is wrought by God in the hearts of all who are raised to the enjoyment of this inheritance.

1. The relative meetness is expressed by the word inheritance. It is assigned to heirs.

2. The personal meetness is indicated by the term saints.

Lessons.

1. Give thanks to God for those who are made meet.

2. Give thanks to God if the work be begun in yourselves.R. Watson.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

9. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10. to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Translation and Paraphrase

9. On account of this (love which you have) we also, since the day when we (first) heard (about it), do not cease praying and making request (to God) in behalf of you, that you may be filled with the precise knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10. (And that you may have the motivation and strength) to walk (and live) worthily of the Lord, (making it your goal to attain) unto ever (thing) pleasing (to God), bearing fruit and increasing in the precise knowledge of God.

Notes

1.

1:913 contains Pauls prayer of request for the Colossians. His prayer contains two requests: (1) that they be filled with the knowledge of Gods will; (2) that they walk (that is, live) worthily of the Lord.

These are comprehensive requests. They sum up everything that is of real importance in the Christian life. What more could we ask than that we know Gods will and that we do it? Physical needs will be cared for if we know and do Gods will.

2.

Paul not only had a constant gratitude (Col. 1:3), but also a continuing prayer (Col. 1:9) Compare Eph. 1:15-19.

3.

Let us join Paul in prayer that we all may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. We all have a long way to go to attain this. There are vast portions of the Bible with which most of us have almost no acquaintance. Furthermore it is probably pure presumption to say that we really know the parts with which we are acquainted.

Until we sense how very little we know, we really know nothing at all. 1Co. 8:2.

We should stop trying to make God listen to us, and begin listening to God.

4.

Pauls prayer that they might know Gods will was perhaps a dig at the Gnostics, who thought that they knew all. See Introductory Study on Gnosticism.

5.

We ate to be filled with precise knowledge of Gods will. The Greek word for knowledge here is epignosis, a somewhat stronger word than gnosis, basic knowledge. Compare 2Ti. 3:7.

6.

The implications of the phrase in all wisdom and spiritual understanding are very broad. These words recall to our minds the introduction to Proverbs, which says that that book was written so that we might know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding. (Pro. 1:12.) Thus it seems to us that Paul was praying that the Colossians might know all of the practical godliness portrayed in Proverbs and other parts of Gods word.

7.

Paul wanted the Colossians to walk (live) worthily of the Lord. They were to translate the knowledge of God into human situations. How sad it is to see a man who is a master of theology and a failure in living.

The concept of a worthy walk, a worthy way of life, is very common in Pauls writings. Eph. 4:1; Php. 1:27; 1Th. 2:12.

8.

To walk worthily . . . unto all pleasing means simply unto every pleasing thing. To arrive at the point where pleasing God is more important to us than pleasing ourselves should be our goal.

9.

There are four participles or participial phrases in Col. 1:10-12 that describe what Paul meant when he said that we were to walk worthily of the Lord:

(1)

being fruitful; Col. 1:10.

(2)

Increasing in the knowledge of God; Col. 1:10.

(3)

Strengthened with all might; Col. 1:11.

(4)

Giving thanks; Col. 1:12.

10.

Bring fruitful in every good work is a primary goal for every Christians life. A plant or tree lives for the purpose of blooming and beaing fruit and reproducing itself; likewise fruit-bearing should be the purpose of our existence as Christians. The fruit of a Christians life includes such things as holy living, a good influence, relief of human misery, and soul won to Christ. See Rom. 1:13; Joh. 4:36; Joh. 15:4-5; Joh. 15:16; Php. 1:22; Col. 1:6; 2Pe. 1:8.

11.

Pauls phrase in Col. 1:10 about increasing in the knowledge of God seems at first glance to be a repetition of the prayer in Col. 1:9 that we be filled with the knowledge of God, and in truth it is a repetition. (Both verses use the word epignosis, meaning precise knowledge.) In Col. 1:10 increasing in knowledge is mentioned as a part of our worthy walk, and not as something distinct from it. Christian knowledge and Christian living are in one way distinct items (as in Col. 1:9), and yet in another way they are inseparable (as in Col. 1:10).

Study and Review

21.

To what cause does Paul refer in Col. 1:9?

22.

What did Paul not cease to do after hearing about the Colossians?

23.

What two things did Paul pray for and request concerning the Colossians? (Col. 1:9-10)

24.

What sort of knowledge did Paul want the Colossians to have?

25.

What does to walk in Col. 1:10 mean?

26.

What are the four participles (or participial phrases) in Col. 1:10-12 which describe the worthy walk?

27.

In what are we to bear fruit? (Col. 1:10)

28.

In what are we to increase?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(9) Do not cease to pray for you.Comp. Eph. 1:16. To pray (see Eph. 6:18; Php. 4:6) is the general word for to worship; to desire indicates prayer, properly so called, asking from God what is requisite and necessary for ourselves or for others.

The knowledge of his will.The knowledge here spoken of is the full knowledge, to be attained in measure here, to be made perfect in heaven. See 1Co. 13:12, Now I know in part; but then shall I know (perfectly) even as I am known. On this word, especially frequent in the Epistles of the captivity, see Note on Eph. 1:17. It should be noted that the knowledge here prayed for is the knowledge of Gods willnot speculation as to the nature of God, or as to emanations from Deity, or even as to the reasons of Gods mysterious counsels, but knowledge of what actually is His will, both in the dispensation which is to be accepted in faith, and in the commandments to be obeyed in love. So St. Paul (in 1Ti. 1:4-5) contrasts with the fables and endless genealogies of Gnostic speculation, the end of the commandment, charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.

In all wisdom and spiritual understanding.This knowledge of Gods will is mans wisdom. For wisdom is the knowledge of the true end of life; which is (as the Book of Ecclesiastes so tragically shows) vainly sought, if contemplated apart from Gods will, but found (see Ecc. 12:13; Job. 28:28; Pro. 1:7) in the fear of the Lord and the keeping of His commandments. (On the relation of the supreme gift of wisdom to lesser cognate gifts, see Note on Eph. 1:8.) Understanding here is properly the faculty of spiritual insight or judgment, the speculative exercise of wisdom, as the prudence of Eph. 1:8 is the practical. Hence St. Paul subjoins the practical element at once in the next verse.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(9-12) From thanksgiving St. Paul passes, as always, to pray for them. The prayer is for their full and perfect knowledge of Gods will; but this is emphatically connected with practical walking in that will, first by fruitfulness in good work, next by showing themselves strong in Christ to endure sufferings, lastly by thankful acceptance of Gods call to inheritance among the saints in light. There is a hearty recognition of the blessing of knowledge (on which the incipient Gnosticism of the day was so eloquent); but it is to be tried by the three tests of practical goodness, patience, and thankful humility.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9. For this cause Namely, the report of their faith and love, from the foundation of their Church. A like report respecting the Ephesians had incited the apostle to special prayer for them. Eph 1:16. There is a marked resemblance in the two prayers, particularly in the request for an enlarged knowledge of God, as lying at the foundation of all spiritual growth and hope. In the present case, the prayer more specifically beseeches that they may be filled with the full knowledge of the divine will, both as to the truth to be known and believed, and also as to the things to be done by them as Christians. In this knowledge of God’s thoughts is true wisdom, but a correct understanding of them requires the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and to make request for you that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.’

Their first prayer was that the Holy Spirit might bring home to them (and to us) the true knowledge of His will. ‘That you might be filled with the knowledge of His will.’ There is nothing more important for us than that we should have an understanding of the will of God filling our hearts and minds Many teachers of all kinds tried to catch their ears claiming to impart a special ‘knowledge’ (gnosis) about God. So it was vital that through it all they should have the true knowledge (epignosis) of the will of God. And that could only be by being enlightened by the Spirit.

‘In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.’ He prays that they might have spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is understanding and wisdom imparted by the Spirit of God, something that should be our constant desire and prayer. And we know that to Paul the true wisdom was found in the cross (1Co 1:17-24 compare Col 1:13-14), and in the crucified One Who was Himself the Wisdom from God (1Co 1:30). He also knew that this could only be brought home to the spiritual man by the Spirit of God (1Co 2:11-15).

As he says later, in Christ Himself ‘are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ (Col 2:3). Thus he is praying that they might have a full understanding of Jesus Christ as the crucified Saviour (Col 2:13-14), Who was made unto them wisdom from God revealed in righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1Co 1:30). A wisdom that would lead them in the way and walk of humility (Php 2:5-11). For truly, ‘The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding’ (Job 28:28; Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10). Wisdom signifies a true awareness of God and of all that He is, knowledge refers to an understanding of His ways.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Paul’s Prayer that They Might Have Understanding, and Strength ( Col 1:9-14 ).

Once Paul had learned of their response to Christ he and his fellow-workers had begun to pray for them constantly. Their first prayer was that they might have spiritual wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of His will. This is the most important thing for us all, true knowledge and understanding, and it leads on to what follows. Then they prayed that they may walk in accordance with that wisdom and understanding (Col 1:10). For such wisdom and understanding, if genuine, will produce ‘the fear of the Lord’ and departure from evil (Job 28:28). And then they prayed that they might have the strength imparted to enable them to do it (Job 28:11), for without that God given strength all would be impossible. And finally they prayed that they might appreciate the power and glory through which this has become possible, our redemption in Christ (Job 28:12-14).

The liturgical nature of some of what follows may suggest that they result from creeds and prayers put together by Paul and the other Apostles to assist in the church’s worship, resembling similarly constructed liturgies found in synagogue worship. As Christ had taught them to pray and worship, so they would teach others.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Paul’s Prayer for Understanding Christ’s Preeminence Paul begins many of his epistles with a prayer, a feature typical of ancient Greco-Roman epistles as well, [74] with each prayer reflecting the respective themes of these epistles. For example, Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving to the church at Rome (Rom 1:8-12) reflects the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in redeeming mankind. Paul’s prayer of thanks for the Corinthians (1Co 1:4-8) reflects the theme of the sanctification of believers so that the gifts of the Spirit can operate through them as mature believers walking in love. Paul’s prayer to the Corinthians of blessing to God for comforting them in their tribulations (2Co 1:3-7) reflects the theme of higher level of sanctification so that believers will bear the sufferings of Christ and partake of His consolation. Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians (Eph 1:15-22) reflects the theme of the believer’s participation in God the Father’s great plan of redemption, as they come to the revelation this divine plan in their lives. Paul’s prayer to the Philippians (Php 1:3-11) reflects the theme of the believer’s role of participating with those whom God the Father has called to minister redemption for mankind. Paul’s prayer to the Colossians (Col 1:9-16) reflects the theme of the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the life of every believer, as they walk worthy of Him in pleasing Him. Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving to the Thessalonians (1Th 1:2-4) reflects the theme of the role of the Holy Spirit in our complete sanctification, spirit, soul, and body. Paul’s second prayer of thanksgiving to the Thessalonians (2Th 1:3-4) reflects the theme of maturity in the believer’s sanctification.

[74] John Grassmick says many ancient Greek and Roman epistles open with a “health wish” and a prayer to their god in behalf of the recipient. See John D. Grassmick, “Epistolary Genre,” in Interpreting the New Testament Text, eds. Darrell L. Bock and Buist M. Fanning (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2006), 232.

We can see the theme of Colossians within Paul’s prayer in Col 1:9-12. Paul prays for them to come to the knowledge of the riches that have been given to us in Christ Jesus (Col 1:9) so that we will be able to walk in the fullness of that knowledge (Col 1:10) by being strengthened with His glorious power (Col 1:11), and thus be able to partake of our inheritance which is reserved only for those saints who are walking in the light of this knowledge and understanding (Col 1:12). We cannot serve the Lord and please Him with a lifestyle of carnal reasoning. We must have spiritual insight and discernment from the Holy Spirit, which Paul calls “all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” In the book of Colossians Paul reveals the riches of our inheritance in Christ Jesus so that the saints can walk in this understanding and revelation. He calls them “saints in light” who are walking in this revelation (Col 1:12). Thus, the phrase “all spiritual wisdom and understanding” also describes a person who is walking with a renewed mind and understanding the way of God and how to be led by the Spirit. He is one who has the Spirit of God operating in his life and revealing God’s divine will to him on a continual basis. This is how we are “filled with the knowledge of His will” (Col 1:9). This results in a life that pleases God and bears spiritual fruit in the Kingdom of God.

We cannot walk worthy of God, nor please Him nor be fruitful (Col 1:10) unless we first know His will for our lives. This comes by first knowing His Word, which produces wisdom in our minds and also by spiritual revelation, which is a work of the Holy Spirit making His Word personal in our daily walk (Col 1:9). As we study God’s Word and come to know His “logos” Word and as we learn to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit giving us divine revelations as “rhema” words, we are then able to pursue God’s plan in our lives. As we learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit and to stay filled with the Spirit (Col 1:11), we become men of God, filled with faith in His Word and filled with the anointing of the Holy Ghost, as were Stephen and Barnabas in the book of Acts. These two men were very fruitful in the work of the Lord.

Col 1:9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

Col 1:9 “For this cause” Comments Paul writes, “for this cause” because of their faith in Jesus (verse 4) and because of their love towards one another (verses 4, 8); because they had received the Gospel and were growing in the knowledge of God.

Col 1:9 “be filled with the knowledge of his will” Comments They will be filled with the knowledge of His will by renewing your mind with God’s Word (Rom 12:2).

Rom 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Col 1:9 “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” Comments The phrase “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” refers to our understanding in the ways of God, or in understanding the spiritual laws of God. With this understand is needed His wisdom to show us how to apply this understanding to our daily living. Just because we have understanding in the Scriptures does not mean that we can apply it properly without the wisdom of God to guide us and properly manage this understanding of the spiritual realm.

Someone once gave a clear distinction between knowledge and wisdom. “Knowledge is the apprehension of the truth in one’s mind, but wisdom is the application of truth to one’s life.” Bob Yandian says that “knowledge is taking in the Word of God,” and wisdom is “the correct output or application of that knowledge.” [75] However, we may also see Paul using these two words in Col 1:9 as synonyms as he will do often throughout this epistle to the Colossians.

[75] Bob Yandian, Salt and Light: The Sermon on the Mount (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, c1983, 1988), 11.

Paul’s New Testament epistles are the best source for bringing us into this divine wisdom and spiritual understanding in order to walk worthy of His calling. Of course, the entire Scriptures are also a source for such spiritual understanding in how to conduct our daily lives.

Col 1:9 Comments The epistle of Colossians opens and closes with a prayer for them to fulfill the will of God in their lives (Col 4:12).

Col 4:12, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”

Col 1:10  That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Col 1:10 “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” Comments – You cannot walk worthy of the Lord until you are filled with the knowledge of His will (verse 9), and thus, you know how the Lord wants you to walk.

The result and purpose of learning God’s will for our daily conduct (verse 9) is so that we can move readily to do God’s will (verse 10). Another way to say it is that learning God’s will (verse 9) results in doing God’s will (verse 10).

Col 1:10 “being fruitful in every good work” – Comments Jesus told us that we become fruitful in the Kingdom of God by abiding in Him and He in us (Joh 15:5; Joh 15:16).

Joh 15:5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

Joh 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”

This phrase means that we are not meant to just survive, but to be victorious in every area of our lives.

Col 1:11  Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

Col 1:11 “unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness” Comments – We understand that the phrase “unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness” refers to the perseverance of the saints. The place to find this theme taught to us is in the epistles of Hebrews through Jude. Note how patience and joy are dealt with in a number of verses in the General Epistles:

Jas 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;”

1Pe 1:6-7, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”

Illustration:

Act 5:41, “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”

Col 1:11 Comments – When we begin such walk in spiritual wisdom that pleases God, we will face resistance from the enemy, the god of this world; however, we overcome by patiently serving Him. In order for us to persevere during trials and maintain our joy, the inner man must be stronger than the outer man during trials (Pro 24:10).

Pro 24:10, “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.”

We must learn to tap into His power that strengthens our inner man, so that we continue to bear fruit and grow with patience and longsuffering while being filled with the joy of the Lord. We see Paul praying for this inner power twice in Ephesians (Eh Col 1:19; Col 3:16).

Eph 1:19, “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,”

Eph 3:16, “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;”

Also, we see how Paul endured and laboured because of this inner anointing of the Holy spirit that strengthened him (Col 1:29).

Col 1:29, “Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The apostle’s intercession for the Colossian Christians:

v. 9. for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

v. 10. that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

v. 11. strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness;

v. 12. giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

v. 13. who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son;

v. 14. in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

The good report from Colossae, which had caused Paul to break forth in a prayer of thanksgiving, now also prompts him to add an earnest intercession in behalf of the Colossian congregation: For this cause also we, since the day we heard, do not cease praying in your behalf and desiring that you might be filled with reference to the understanding of His will in all wisdom and spiritual insight. Just when the condition of a congregation is most gratifying and hopeful, this prayer for the continued success of the Gospel is most necessary. The prayer of Paul had been unceasing from the very first day that the good news from Colossae had reached him. But it had culminated in a definite request, in a specific petition, a cordial, urgent supplication. He wanted the Colossian Christians to be filled with the understanding, with the knowledge of the will of God. All Christians should know that the domain of the gracious will of God extends to them, that God’s thoughts toward them, as toward all men, are thoughts of peace and mercy and love. This knowledge has been in their hearts from the beginning of faith, but it must grow ever fuller, ever more perfect. The true and complete knowledge of the gracious will of God in Jesus Christ is not only wrought in the heart by faith, but is maintained and increased in its certainty by the Gospel. It is effected, moreover, in all wisdom and spiritual insight. The enlightened mind of the Christian bears down upon, tries to penetrate ever more deeply into, the wonderful truths of the Gospel. The knowledge of God works true wisdom in us, it increases spiritual understanding in our hearts. All this is the work of the Spirit, it cannot be effected by any purely natural development of human mental life, it is an enlightenment from above. In this way the Christian moves forward day by day toward the perfection of the knowledge of God, the consummation of which will take place in heaven.

The aim of such understanding and knowledge is: To walk, to lead a life, worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, in every good work bringing forth fruit and increasing through the knowledge of God. If a Christian is fully equipped with the wisdom and knowledge from above, if the eyes of his understanding are enlightened through the power of the Spirit, then he is able to make the proper choice of paths in life, then he will know what will please the Lord under certain circumstances, in certain positions and situations. Then his object will be to conduct himself at all times in such a way as to agree with the exalted position of the Lord, to avoid everything that is apt to bring shame and disgrace upon the name of Christ. Pleasing to Christ a believer’s life and conduct must be, that everything which he map say or do will meet with the approval of Him whose name the Christian bears. “To that end our wisdom and knowledge in the understanding of God shall serve and be of use, that we become such people as are an honor and praise to God, that He be praised through us, and that we thus live to the pleasure of God and in every way please Him according to His Word. ” This is done, first of all, if the Christians in every good work bring forth fruit. The fruits of a Christian’s faith are his good works, as the apostle writes, Gal 5:22. In every good work the Christian should become proficient, not only in this or that individual case which just happens to strike his fancy. In this way the believers grow through the understanding of God, they increase in sanctification, make progress in every good work, because they are growing up to manhood, to the full stature demanded by the will of God. Thus the knowledge of God is the means, the instrument, of our spiritual growth. As we get to know God better and ever better in His essence, we also advance in the knowledge of His will and are thus enabled to make headway in such conduct and life as will meet with the approval of God on every hand.

Another point that Christians should strive for is: in all strength made strong according to the power of His glory unto all patience and long-suffering. It is impossible for the believers, by their own reason and strength, to lead the life demanded by the will of God. But they have a source of strength and spiritual power which is unlimited, since it flows from the divine supply. They are strengthened with power from above, and the strength thus obtained they apply in every direction, in all efforts of will and understanding, in the home and outside of the home, in the Church and outside of the Church. God gives this strength in proportion to His own almighty power; for through this power His glory is revealed, first to the believer, and through him to all with whom he comes in contact. But above all does the power of God enable the Christian to observe the right attitude in times of tribulation, when poverty, sickness, and various temporal afflictions, when scorn, mockery, persecution come upon him. It is then that patience and long-suffering are needed, which the believer cannot obtain by his own efforts, but which must come to him according to the measure of God’s majesty and glory. In His power he can patiently endure all sufferings and tribulations unto the end, if he be but instant in prayer.

Another feature of the Christian’s conduct in life is: With joy giving thanks to God the Father, who has qualified us to take part in the inheritance of the saints in light. The thanksgiving of the believers is not one which is dictated to them by a sense of duty: it is a free and joyful, almost a spontaneous outgrowth of their relation to God. Their entire life, both in good and evil days, both in joy and in sorrow, is one continued round of thanksgiving to God for His unspeakable gifts. This attitude and its expression is wrought in the Christians by the fact that they realize that God is their Father. By keeping this fact in mind, that the Father above, the great God of heaven and earth, guides and governs His children’s lives according to His gracious and good will, and that He will surely lead them home, whether through clouds or through sunshine, these children will always find new cause for rejoicing, and their praise of His fatherly love and care will be ever more sincere and joyful. But the most wonderful gift of the heavenly Father is this, that He has made us meet, ready, has qualified us for taking part in the inheritance of the saints in light. Two things are here stated of the inheritance of heaven; first, that it belongs to the saints, being intended for all believers; secondly, that it consists in light. The final, eternal glory of salvation, the consummation and realization of the Christians’ highest hopes, is given to the believers by God’s free grace. For this He made us ready by having mercy upon our sinful state, by making us His children through faith in Christ Jesus, by guaranteeing to us the glory of heaven for our everlasting possession. It is not an uncertain, indefinite expectation with which the Christians are trying to bolster up their own courage, but a definite certainty, resting upon the promise of the ever-faithful God.

This thought is now expounded at greater length: Who has torn us out of the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. By nature we Christians, with all other men, were under the power, in the slavery, of darkness, in the kingdom of Satan, where there is only curse, wrath, punishment, damnation, not one ray of light or hope. As sinners by nature we were held captive in this slavery and could look forward only to death and damnation. But God rescued us, He tore us away forcibly from the power of the devil. By the same act and at the same time He transferred us to, gave us a position in, the kingdom of His beloved Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. By sending His one, His beloved Son, in whom the full love of the Father is realized, into this world, by giving Him into death for our sakes and reconciling the world to Himself, God has established the kingdom of His Son, the Church, the realm of light, where righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost are ever present. Moreover, by working faith in our hearts, He has made us citizens in this Kingdom; we are Christ’s own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and happiness. In Christ, through Christ’s atoning work, we have redemption; He paid the ransom by which we were delivered from the power of Satan. In His immeasurable mercy and love toward us Christ gave Himself as our Substitute, He shed His holy blood in payment of our debt of sins and transgressions. We now have forgiveness of sins in Him; for His blood cleanses us from all sins, it makes us free from their guilt and power. That deliverance, with all its resulting blessings, is our abiding possession.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Col 1:9. Since the day we heard it, Our translators, by inserting it, shew that they thought this verse stood connected with Col 1:7-8 whereas those two verses are rather a parenthesis; and the present verse is to be joined with Col 1:6. This seems clear from what he says,That ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will. The , his, relates here to God, mentioned in the end of the 6th verse, and consequently the sense is better supplied by these things;that is, all the good things which he had before mentioned concerning them. By comparing the latter part of this verse with Eph 1:8-9 it appears, that in both places is meant a comprehensive view of the will of God; or, as he there calls it, the mystery of his will; namely, his great purpose of calling the Gentiles. Thespiritual understanding is an understanding of spiritual things, or such things as were revealed by the Spirit, of which the afore-said mystery was one. St. Paul shews himself very desirous that the Colossians should thoroughly understand and acknowledge this mystery. See Col 2:1-2.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Col 1:9 . Intercession , down to Col 1:12 .

] on account of all that has been said from in Col 1:4 onward: induced thereby, we also cease not , etc. This reference is required by , which cannot correspond to the , belonging as that does merely to an accessory thought, but must take up again (in opposition to Bleek and Hofmann) the which was said in Col 1:4 . This resumption is emphatic , not tautological (Holtzmann).

] are to be taken together , and it is not allowable to join either with (de Wette), or even with . (Baumgarten-Crusius). The words are to be rendered: We also (I and Timothy), like others , who make the same intercession for you, and among whom there is mentioned by name the founder of the church, who stood in closest relation to them.

.] “ Precum mentionem generatim fecit, Col 1:3 ; nunc exprimit, quid precetur” (Bengel).

] adds the special ( asking ) to the general ( praying ). Comp. 1Ma 3:44 ; Mat 21:22 ; Mar 11:24 ; Eph 6:18 ; Phi 4:6 . As to the popular form of hyperbole, ., comp. on Eph 1:16 . On , so far as it is also to be taken with . ., comp. Lys. c. Alc . p. 141.

.] Contents of the asking in the form of its purpose . Comp. on Phi 1:9 . The emphasis lies not on . (F. Nitzsch, Hofmann), but on the object (comp. Rom 15:14 ; Rom 1:29 , al .), which gives to the further elucidation in Col 1:9-10 its specific definition of contents.

. . ] with the knowledge of His will , accusative, as in Phi 1:11 ; applies to God as the subject, to whom prayer and supplication are addressed. The context in Col 1:10 shows that by the is meant, not the counsel of redemption (Eph 1:9 ; Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, and many others, including Huther and Dalmer), but, doubtless (Mat 6:10 ), that which God wills in a moral respect (so Theodoret, who makes out a contrast with the ). Comp. Rom 2:18 ; Rom 12:2 ; Eph 5:17 ; Eph 6:6 ; Col 4:12 . The distinction between and , which both here and also in Col 1:10 ; Col 2:2 ; Col 3:10 , is the knowledge which grasps and penetrates into the object, is incorrectly denied by Olshausen. See on Eph 1:17 .

. . .] instrumental definition of manner, how, namely, this . . . (a knowledge which is to be the product not of mere human mental activity, but of objectively divine endowment by the Holy Spirit) must be brought about: by every kind of spiritual wisdom and insight , by the communication of these from God; comp. on Eph 1:8 . A combination with the following (comp. Col 4:5 : .), such as Hofmann suggests, is inappropriate, because the two parts of the whole intercession stand to one another in the relation of the divine ethical foundation , (Col 1:9 ), and of the corresponding practical conduct of life (Col 1:10 f.); hence the latter portion is most naturally and emphatically headed by the expression of this Christian practice, the , to which are then subjoined its modal definitions in detail. Accordingly, is not, with Hofmann, to be made dependent on . and taken as its contents, but . . . . is to be left as an absolute idea, as in Col 4:12 . On , proceeding from the Holy Spirit , [16] comp. Rom 1:11 ; 1Co 2:13 ; 1Co 12:1 ; Eph 1:3 ; Eph 5:19 , et al . The is the insight , in a theoretical and (comp. on Mar 12:33 ) practical respect, depending upon judgment and inference, Eph 3:4 ; 2Ti 2:7 . For the opposite of the pneumatic , see 1Co 1:19 . It is related to the as the special to the general , since it is peculiarly the expression of the intelligence in the domain of truth, [17] while the concerns the collective faculties of the mind, the activities of knowledge, willing, and feeling, the tendency and working of which are harmoniously subservient to the recognised highest aim, if the wisdom is ; its opposite is the (2Co 1:12 ; Jas 3:15 ), being of man, and not of God, in its aim and efforts. According as is conceived subjectively or objectivized, the may be considered either as synonymous with it (Eph 1:8 ; Dan 2:21 ; Plat. Crat . p. 411 A), or as an attribute of it ( Sir 1:4 : ).

[16] Hence , Jas 3:15 ; Jas 3:17 . The predicate, although in the case of divine endowment with and obvious of itself (as Hofmann objects), was yet all the more apposite for expressly bringing the point into prominence, the greater the danger which threatened Colossae from non-divine, fleshly wisdom; comp. Col 2:23 .

[17] Comp. Dem. 269. 24: , .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

2. Earnest supplication for the progress of the Church in true knowledge, especially of the Being and Work of Christ

(Col 1:9-23.)

9For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire16 that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all Wisdom 10 and spiritual understanding [in all spiritual wisdom and understanding]: That ye17 might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in [by]18 the knowledge of God; 11Strengthened with all might [strength]19 according to his glorious power [the power of his glory],20 unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness [joy];21 12Giving thanks unto the Father, which [who]22 hath made us meet, to be partakers [for the portion, ]23 of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13Who hath delivered us from [out of] the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son [the Son of his love];24 14In whom we have redemption through his blood [omit through his blood],25 even the forgiveness of sins: 15Who is the image of the invisible God, the 16 firstborn of [before] every creature: For [Because] by [in] him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in [on] earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he Isaiah 26 before all things, and by [, in] him all things consist [subsist]. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn27 from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell [Because in him God was pleased that the whole fulness should dwell]:28 20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself: by him, I say, whether they be things in [on] earth, or things in heaven. 21And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works 22 [lit.: as to your understanding in wicked works], yet now hath he reconciled,29 In the body of his flesh through [his] death,30 to present you holy and unblamable and un 23 reprovable in his sight: If [If at least, ] ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature31 which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.32

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The immediate object of supplication: full knowledge of the Divine will, (Col 1:9.)

Col 1:9. For this cause refers to the entire paragraph, Col 1:3-8. What the Apostle had heard of the Colossians moved him to the petition. This is required by the contents of the petition and by the accords: since the day we heard (Col 1:9), to which the object must be supplied from above (your faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the saints); Col 1:6. since the day ye heard and Col 1:4. since we heard: and also do not cease to pray for you (Col 1:9), and Col 1:3, praying also for you. After his thanks to God, Paul now gives the purport of his prayer. Certainly Col 1:9 is not connected with Col 1:8 alone, where the love of the Colossians to himself is spoken of: because he had heard this, he now prays for them (Bleek); as though Paul, like the Pharisees, prayed only for those who loved him.

We also, as in we give thanks (Col 1:3), is Paul and those with him, hence not Timothy merely (Meyer, Schenkel), nor is he excluded (Baehr). , also, refers chiefly to Epaphras, who represents and labors for the Colossians (Col 1:7-8), and then to the Colossians also, who were won to the gospel (Col 1:6) and have love to the brethren (Col 1:4; Col 1:8). It does not therefore indicate merely the reciprocity of intercourse between the Colossians and Paul (Schenkel, Meyer). [It has here its slightly contrastive force (Ellicott), and marks the change of subject; we on our part (Alford).R.] It is not to be separated from and joined to (De Wette), nor by any means to (Baumgarten-Crcsius).

[Since the day we heard.Ellicott: incidental definition of the time with reference to , Col 1:4. Eadie: The receipt of the intelligence produced immediate results and led to prayer. The effect was instantand it was not spent with a single impulse. The prayer was continuous also.R.]

Do not cease to pray for you, and to desire.On with the participles, see Eph 1:16. [Ellicott: an exactly similar affectionate hyperbole.R.] The first verb denotes the wish (2Co 13:9; 3Jn 1:2; Act 27:29), addressed to any one, then in general a prayer expressing a wish; the second, the supplication, entreaty, the medium with its reflection; sibi expetere, the pressing hearty petition from a sense of fellowship. [It seems a better distinction to regard the first as general, the second as special, the one prayer in its ordinary aspect, the other direct request. brings into prominence a special after a general (Alford). The comma of the E. V. answers the same purpose here.R.]

That ye might be filled.(Bengel: He made mention of his supplications generally Col 1:3; he now expresses what he supplicates. indicates the aim of the petition, the purpose of the petitioner, hence not simply its purport (against Harless, Eph. 17). [On after verbs of praying, see Alford, 1Co 14:13. The purport and purpose become compounded in the expression. Ellicott: has here its secondary telic force, the subject of the prayer is blended with the purpose of making it.R.] pre-supposes the imperfect state of those prayed for, and from its position at the beginning renders prominent the importance of progress to fulness. It occurs in this Epistle alone five times, here; Col 1:25; Col 2:10; Col 4:12; Col 4:17; in Ephesians (Eph 1:23;Eph 3:19; Eph 4:10; Eph 5:18), and in Philippians (Php 1:11; Php 2:2; Php 4:18-19), each four times.

With the knowledge of his will. is an accusative of reference, like Php 1:11; so (Act 18:3). [Ellicott: accusative of the remoter, the quantitative object in which the action of the verb has its realization. The genitive marks the absolute material out of which the fulness was realized, the accusative as it were, the domain of which the fulness was evinced.R.] See Winers Gram. p. 216. Further it is not = , since they were not to be filled with the knowledge, but their knowledge should be full, perfect. The word itself describes the knowledge which grasps and penetrates the object (Meyer), as Col 1:10; Col 2:3; Col 3:10. [Wordsworth: , full knowledge is more than , it is a gift and grace of the Holy Spirit. This word occurs oftener in this Epistle than in any other of St. Paul. He may perhaps have used it as a contrast to the false or gnosticism of the false teachers, who were beguiling the Colossians with the speciousness of their vain philosophy. They in their theories promise , but the Apostle gave by his ministry. De Wette suggests, the former is a mere impractical and theoretical, the latter full and living knowledge.R.] Of his will, since it concerns the purpose of the prayer, is Gods will, and, according to the context (Col 1:10), the will of God respecting the walk and conversation of the Christian in the world. Hence not the redemptive decree, as Eph 1:9 (Steiger and others), not the will of God which operates on us and is efficient in us, but the will of God to be obeyed by us, hence not the will of the majority (Schenkel). [The immediate context in all wisdom, is against this limitation of His will. The result of full knowledge was to be worthy walk, but the knowledge was not therefore to be limited to His will respecting walk. As a fact Christian walk is based on a far wider knowledge.R.]

Paul now sets forth the mode in which this being filled was to be consummated: In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.Hence this is not to be joined with walk (Col 1:10), which is otherwise defined (Theodoret and others). See Eph 1:8 : in all wisdom and prudence. is not identical with (Sir 1:4; ); the latter refers more to the God-given organ, the former more to the activity of man in using it; the latter more to the original gift, the former obtained rather by exercise. [The former is perhaps seen more in practically embracing a truth, the latter more in bringing the mind to bear upon it (Ellicott).R.] The adjective spiritual belongs to both substantives. It indicates that the being filled cannot be effected by any purely natural, development of human mental life from its own power. The wisdom is not fleshly (2Co 1:12; 1Co 1:26), nor is the understanding of this character; yet neither are of themselves spiritual, they become so only through the Holy Ghost. [Eadie and Alford join to alone, but it seems better with Ellicott to join both adjectives to both substantives. On and , the general and particular, Ellicott remarks: both appear to have a practical reference; the former is, however, a general term; the latter its more special result and application.R.]

The aim of the petition; Christian walk. Col 1:10-12. They were not to rest with knowledge of His will, but advance.

Col 1:10. That ye might walk.The infinitive, , depending on is epexegetical (Winers Gram. pp. 298, 301); it is not necessary to supply or . The closer definition follows.Worthy of the Lord refers to Christ [as always apparently in St. Pauls Epistles (Ellicott).R.], the model of the Christian. Neither 1Th 2:12, worthy of God, nor Eph 4:1, followers of God, will justify us in understanding it otherwise.Unto all pleasing describes the manner of the worthy walk, giving prominence to the purpose (). , only here, in a good sense, describes in classical authors the conduct of the , the obsequious, i. e., obsequiousness. The context requires that it be understood as pleasing Christ not God, in spite of Mat 5:48 (Schenkel). Since Christ can be pleased in everything, all is added.

This is confirmed by the following characteristic of the Christian walk: Being fruitful in every work.[Braune reads, being fruitful and increasing in every good work, a collocation in conformity with his view of the text and his exegesis. The order of the E. V. seems to preserve the symmetry and present the meaning better.R.] On the nominatives ., instead of the more exact accusatives, to agree with implied after , see Eph 4:1; Eph 4:3. Here it is readily explained, yet not by joining the participles to (Bengel); the two participles are united as in Col 1:6; first bearing fruit, then growing more, as in a tree, in order to greater fruitfulness. The sphere of both is denoted by in. The prepositional phrase, standing first for emphasis, is not to be joined with pleasing (Oecumen, Steiger and others), but with the verbs [or according to the view of Alford, Ellicott and others, with the verb being fruitfulundoubtedly to be preferred if the instrumental dative is retained. See below.R.] By good works we are to understand, works required by the will of God, growing out of faith, demanded, not merely by law, but by relations, circumstances, by the inward impulse of the conscience and the Holy Ghost.

[And increasing by the knowledge of God.] The advance is made into, up to the knowledge of God. This indeed depends upon their being filled with the knowledge of His will (Col 1:9). Their being fruitful and increasing in every good work aids thereto. Hence Luther is incorrect; and be fruitful in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God. [The order of the E. V. is the same.R] Advance is made from knowledge to knowledge in the Christian walk, wherein the spirit of God guides into all truth (Joh 16:13; Joh 14:26). is neither = (Bhmer) nor = (Beza), nor = the dative which Huther and others read. [The close union of the two participles above and the preceding exegetical note are based on the less supported reading: . The better reading is (instrumental dative). This is to be joined with increasing by the knowledge of God. As the main reason for retaining the reading of the fewer MSS. is that it is more difficult, Alford remarks, supporting : this is by far the most difficult of the three readings, the meaning of and being very obvious, the former pointing out the element, the latter the proposed measure of the increase. And hence, probably, the variations. It is the knowledge of God which is the real instrument of enlargement, in soul and life, of the believernot a which , but an which . So Olshausen, De Wette, Huther, Eadie, Ellicott.R.]

Col 1:11 gives a second definition of the walk, almost exactly like the first in its construction.Strengthened with all strength, . The verb, which occurs only here, marks those walking worthy of the Lord as energized in activity, not in one direction, but in all: in will, affection and perception, in understanding, in home and calling, in all external relations. [Braune seems to regard as indicating the element, and as subjective (so Alford). It seems more natural and accordant with the phrase immediately following, to take as instrumental and as objective, i. e., strength from God. So Meyer, Eadie, Ellicott (Theodoret is quoted by the latter), and E. V.; in either case all implies that the energy extends to every department.R.] The paranomasia, as well as the construction like that of the previous clause, forbid the separation of the prepositional phrase from the verb, to join it with what precedes.

According to the power of His glory, .Power is requisite, the Christian does not have it in himself; the measure of it is not inconsiderable, it increases. God alone gives it in proportion to the Power which He has, in comparison with whose glory, majesty, grace and mercy, we are and have nothing. His glory ever reveals itself more and more to him who walks worthy of the Lord. The motive and measure of our strength is in the might of the majesty of God, whom we know ever better. Hence and (Eph 1:19; Eph 6:10, according to the power of his might) are not to be considered as parallels and the former limited here to the Rulers dignity (Steiger), nor is the phrase=glorious power (Luther, Baehr, [E. V.], and others), as though it were .

Unto all patience and long-suffering with joy.Through growing strength progress is made in directions the most various (, all) unto patience () which is not merely suffering (, Judges 7. only) i. e., sustinere. means the mind in suffering; denotes this constancy and patience of the mind. Hence we find, not the patience of God, but the God of patience spoken of (Rom 15:5), it is not God, who demands, but who dispenses patience (Tittmann, Syn., I. p. 191). Patience is opposed to displeasure without power to help or change; long-suffering, to displeasure with power to punish, to avenge, to alter and avert. Chrysostom: one is long-suffering towards those whom it is possible to requite, but patient towards those whom he is unable to requite. In the former case the objects are usually men, in the latter, circumstances. It is incorrect to make patience refer to the extent, and long suffering to the continuance of the feeling (Schenkel), or to contrast timidity with the former and irritability with the latter (Huther), or to ignore the distinction (Meyer, Bleek). [Ellicott renders , to insure, to lead you into, marking the final destination; Eadie: in order to. See his notes in loco, on the distinction between patience and long suffering.R.] That which is characteristically Christian in both is: with joy, which is impossible in such a case without the power of God. In patience and long-suffering the Christian is glad, and certain of the victory of his cause, of his reward with God both in his own heart and in heaven. It must not then be joined with giving thanks (Col 1:12), as is done by the Greek fathers, Estius, Huther, Meyer, Schenkel, Bleek. [And also by Tischendorf, Lachmann, Ellicott, on the ground of the parallelism in the structure of the clauses.R.] With joy would be entirely superfluous in that connection; the parallelism is not compulsory, and besides it is not in joy, indicating the element, but with (), which shows that it is only an accompaniment with patience. [As De Wette says: by such a connection we lose the essential idea of joyful enduranceand the beautiful train of thought, that joyfulness in suffering expresses itself in thankfulness to God (Alford).R.]

The third definition follows (Col 1:12-14).

Col 1:12.Giving thanks to the Father who hath made us meet.Even in sorrow, let there be thanksgiving; let not Him be forgotten who giveth gifts and is the Father. It is incorrect, to take the participle, not as cordinate with being fruitful, increasing, strengthened, but as connected with do not cease, Col 1:9 (Greek fathers, Calvin, Bengel); or to supply of our Lord Jesus Christ (Col 1:3) after Father (Meyer) [Alford, Ellicott.R.], instead of regarding Him, in accordance with the context, as our Father, who however is and proves Himself such in Christ: qui idoneos fecit, fueramus enim inidonei, 2Co 3:6 (BenGel). Us includes the Apostle and his companions and his readers, who are Christians.For what has He made us meet?For the portion of the inheritance of the saints in light.For ( as above) marks the aim the making meet, which (as aorist) shows that it is already, even though incipiently, attained. describes the portion, share, which falls to one personally (Luk 10:42; Luk 12:43), and the inheritance ( ) describes the whole of which the Christian is partaker, as given sorte non pretio (Bengel), as undeserved. The expression is borrowed from the Old Testament (Psa 16:5, the portion of my inheritance, ); as the chosen people obtained Canaan ( ) through the grace of God, and each Israelite his part in the distribution of the land, so the Christian obtains his portion in and of the kingdom of heaven. The saints then describes the possessors of the heritage. The position of forbids our connecting it with , making meet (Greek fathers, Steiger, Meyer), which besides is accomplished in another way than in light; or with inheritance (Beza, Huther, Bleek), or with Portion (Bengel). It is a closer description of the sphere in which the saints, the Christians, (Col 1:2) are found in their walk (Col 1:10), in order to mark the extent of the benefit conferred, upon them through the aking meet, which is the occasion of the thanksgiving. Comp. Eph 5:9; Eph 5:11; Eph 4:18 According to the context the result is the principal point here, not the means, which are introduced afterwards, but without any exposition of in light or any reference to it. Hence it is incorrect, to contrast with Christians as the saints in light other saints in darkness, under the law in the Old Testament, which is contrary to the usus loquendi and to Pauline views (Grotius: thus is shown the distinction of the law and the gospel), or to refer it to future glory (Schenkel: = ). [This last view is the popular one;. light is taken to mean heaven, and the passage interpreted as a thanksgiving for what God has done to prepare us for an inheritance in heaven, or inheritance with the saints in heaven. Obviously this is forbidden by the context. Eadie, who joins it with inheritance as descriptive of it, Alford, who connects it with, the whole phrase portionsaints, and Ellicott, who indicates a preference for joining it with inheritance of the saints, all avoid this mistake. The saints are now in light, and the inheritance is in light. In light as the sphere of their walk, the saints enjoy their inheritance which is begun here and the meetness conferred in gradual sanctification, but completed hereafter.R.]

Gods act and gift, as the foundation and beginning of the Christian walk, more accurately, defined (Col 1:13-14).

Col 1:13. Who hath delivered its out of the power of darkness.Who refers back to Father. His act is first, hath delivered us, i. e., has drawn, snatched us out of danger (see Passow, Lex.). Chrysostom: He does not say delivered, but snatched (), showing our and their great misery and captivity. Zanchius: This is more than: he has liberated. For those are liberated, who are willing and desirous and deserving of being made free; those who are seized are often unwilling, as Lot from Sodom; he magnifies both the grace and the power of God. Out of the power of darkness denotes the power under the dominion of which Christians were before Redemption. The first substantive describes the organized power, the second its character, as Eph 2:2 : the power of the air; Eph 6:12 : powers of this darkness. [Alford: power i.e., in the territorial sense; darknessnot to be understood of a person but of the character of the region. Ellicott: evil and sin viewed objectively. Davies refers here to the dualism of the Zend-avesta.R.] Necessarily opposed to this is the power of His glory (Eph 1:11), and as a consequence the saints are in light. Here we find a justification of the exposition given above.

And translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.But He did not stop with this deliverance (); He has translated () us. The word denotes a local change, hence a change of relation, determining the conduct and walk. Into the kingdom is in contrast with out of the power, and the Son of His love with darkness. The Son of His love, which recalls both in phrase and connection Eph 1:6, occurs only here, and sets forth the Son with the greatest emphasis as the Object of His love, upon whom His entire love flows, and through Him therefore upon us. The Son is not conceived of here as out of the love, born out of its substance (Augustine), [i. e., Love considered more as an essence than an attribute.R.]; nor is it=His beloved Son (Mat 3:17; Mat 17:25; Mat 12:18). [Nor His dear Son (E. V).R.] Not only is the power His, but the kingdom also, the Messianic kingdom of heaven, which is already actually present here, but not completed in the Christian Church, and therefore not identical with it. This is not then to be understood of the church (Baehr, Huther and others). [The term has a reference neither purely metaphorical (the church), nor ethical and inward, nor yet ideal and proleptic (Meyer), butsemi-local and descriptivenor is this wholly future (Ellicott).R.]

Col 1:14 gives the modus translations (Thomas Aquinas): In whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins.Like Eph 1:7, except that through his blood is omitted here [retained in Rec. and E. V.R.], the means of redemption not being made prominent; and that is deeper and more internal than . Pauls freedom and independence are unmistakable. [The exact force is: In whom we are having the redemption (Ellicott).R.] Such a possession is the result of the act of God which changes our relation to Him [through the Redeemer whom the Apostle then describes.R.]

The exalted relation of the Mediator to God and the world. Col 1:15-17. Bengel: He describes the glory and eminence of Christ above the highest angels; and scatters those germs from which he afterwards confutes the worshippers of angels. This so full knowledge of Christ is comprehended only by those who are experienced in the mystery of redemption.

Col 1:15. Who is.Is, not was or became; hence we have here defined, not what He became at His appearing in the flesh, but what He is, and is personally ( ). [Undoubtedly the subject of the whole passage is the Son of Gods love (Col 1:13); and this subject must be taken in its widest and most complex relations, whether as Creator or Redeemer, the immediate context defining the precise nature of the reference (Ellicott). Meyer very justly remarks: It must be noted that Paul is viewing Christ according to His present Being, i. e., according to His present and permanent status of exaltation, and hence he expresses not what Christ was, but what He is. Yet it cannot be denied that while this is true, there must be a distinction made in referring the various predicates to the subject, for even Meyer in objecting to this says: The only correct reference is to His whole Person, which in the theanthropic status of his present heavenly Being is continuously what His Divine nature (considered in itself) was before the Incarnation, so that by virtue of the identity of His Divine Nature, we can attribute the same predicates to the Exalted One as to the Logos. He thus himself implies a distinction, which he will not permit in Pauls language. In claiming as we do with the Fathers generally, Bengel, Ellicott, Bleek, Wordsworth and many others, that the immediate reference throughout this verse is to the (against Melanchthon, Barnes, Eadie, and Alford, who refer it to the ), we by no means deny that all which is here predicated is, now and forever, true of the Son of Gods love, but guard against a false interpretation of the predicates themselves. Admitting that such a distinction can be made, we find a reason for the above reference in the fact that Col 1:16, which gives a reason for the statements of this verse, must be referred to the Logos, or to the whole Person of Christ, by virtue of the identity of His Divine Nature. The grammatical connection with Col 1:14, which refers to the is not so close. The subject then in this verse is the Son of Gods love, as He wag before the incarnation, and as He still is.R.]

The image of the invisible God, (2Co 4:4). The first thing is His relation to God, immanent and permanent. is not in itself something visible (Philo: ). Comp. Gen 1:26-27. Gods image in man is not that which is perceptible by the sense, only thus cognizable. Compare the expression with , (Php 2:6), and (Heb 1:3). It denotes likeness to and equality with the invisible God (Joh 1:18; 1Ti 6:18), who cannot be perceived absolutely without a Mediator and a revelation, hence is invisible to angels and the redeemed (Heb 12:14). The context here differs entirely from Joh 1:14. Here we must think of the Exalted One, transported from our sight, who yet already existed before the creation. Thus the Son of His love is further described (Theophylact: ). The revelation, the making known, the rendering visible of the Father is put in the second place. It is not to be viewed as the chief point here, nor as the sole ground of this expression (Joh 14:9), as Calvin, Schenkel and others prefer; nor is it to be entirely denied (Baehr, Huther). [It is worthy of note that here, as in all the terms used in the Scriptures to express His relation to the Father, there seems to be an implication of revelation (, , , and even in . .) On this relation, immanent and permanent, the actual revelation in the Person of Jesus Christ, indeed the context implies, in all other ways, seems to rest. Still we must be careful not to limit the meaning to this actual revelation as Eadie, Barnes and others do, for as Braune remarks:R.] it is a sad dilution to interpret: God has as it were made Himself visible in Him (DeWette), in Christ it is manifest that God is wise, powerful, good and the like (Grotius).

The first-born before every creature, .[So Ellicott. Braunes exegesis is better set forth by: the first begotten before every creature.R.] This second predicate defines His relation to the created world. distinguishes Him as the Son from the creation (); it is =, first begotten (Philo), but not = , (among the Alexandrians, Origen). It is joined with the first predicate, closely uniting with God and distinguishing from the creation. (Theodoret: not as having creation for a sister, but as begotten before all creation. Chrysostom: not significant of glory and honor, but only of time.) It is synonymous with (Col 1:18; Rev 3:4). The genitive depends on as , Joh 1:15; Joh 1:30 (Winers Gram. p. 229). [So Meyer. It must be here remarked that Winer does not expressly sanction this view of this passage. It would not perhaps be strictly correct to say that the genitive is governed by in composition, although the Greek syntax favors such government in composition. Bengel even governs this genitive by the found in . Ellicotts view is a safe one: genitive of the point of view, rendered more intelligible by the latent comparative force involved in , though even this is but a circumlocutory statement of its dependence on , As the word is Alexandrian, the syntax has been supported by Hebrew usage, though the broad use of the Greek genitive scarcely requires this.R.]

Since denotes every kind of creature, angels and men, Christ existed before all. He does not begin the series of a category, as first begotten of the dead (Rev 1:15), among many brethren (Rom 8:29), but He is antecedent, conditioning the creation. [It is doubtful, whether it is better to take , collectively: the whole creation, or individually: every creature, the context favors the former, so Alford; the polemic aim of the Apostle, the latter, so Ellicott.Braune makes this predicate refer exclusively to priority in time. On this Ellicott speaks of His deigning by the mouth of His Apostle to institute a temporal comparison between His own generation from eternity and their creation in time, but he admits the possibility of a secondary and inferential reference to priority in dignity. Alford seems to include both views; not only first-born, of His mother in the world, but first-begotten of His Father before the worldsHe holds the rank, as compared with every created thing, of first-born in dignity. To the view which makes the latter thought the chief one, as held by Whitby, Barnes, Eadie (the acting President of the Universe and therefore the first-born of every creature), it may be objected; 1. that it confuses the aspects in which this verse refers to the Son of Gods love, see above; 2. it gives to a secondary and figurative meaning, where a more literal one seems more appropriate; 3. it ignores, or at least throws too far into the back-ground, the relation to the Father which is not only expressed in , but given further prominence by the close connection with the preceding clause; hence those who adopt it consistently refer that predicate also mainly to the revelation of the Father in Christ, rather than to the relation of the Son to the Father. Yet it must be admitted that there is an inferential reference to priority in dignity, a consequence of the priority in time of the Begotten to every creature; not only so, but as Braune well remarks: He ia antecedent, conditioning the creationfor the context, giving a reason () for this verse, goes on to set forth in detail His relation to tho creation. So that while His priority in time shows His independence of creation, creation is not independent of Him, as He is here described. In this His relation to the Invisible God is to be found the ground or condition of the whole creation. The 16th verse asserts that He is the causa conditionalis, this one seems to intimate that in virtue of His relation immanent and permanent to the Father, as the Image and Only Begotten, He holds the relation to the creation subsequently defined. So Wordsworth quotes Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch: when God desired to create the world, He begat the world as , . While He is thus placed out of the category of the created, He is the more intimately linked with every creature.R.]

Therefore the view of the Arians that He is the first creature is incorrect, as also that of the So-cinians, Grotics and others, who refer to the new moral creation, in which case would not be wanting (2Co 5:17). To make of the two predicates but one and join as an adjective to (Schleiermacher, Stud. und Krit. 1832, p. 497) is not only harsh, but grammatically inadmissible. To read, , first bringer forth (Isidore of Pelusium, Erasmus and others), is not allowable, since this is applied only to the female sex, and in that case would be irrelevant.

Col 1:16. Because in him were all things created.This verse justifies the explanation given above. adds the reason that ante om-nem creaturam genitum esse filium, non creatum, before every creature the Son was begotten, not created: in Him were all things created. The emphasis is placed upon in Him. The verb requires us to understand the fact of creation as here spoken of; the historical act, as the aorist denotes. Act 10:6 has . .., while Act 14:7, reads: . The same interchange occurs Gen 6:7; Deu 4:22, Sir 15:14; Sir 24:9 [LXX.]. Schleiermacher should not therefore affirm that is not used in Hellenistic Greek of the original creation, but means to give order, arrangement. This creation is , not , which would indicate the first cause. This is not the Son, but the Father, as the thought in the word is efficient in the Son, out from whom the creation is accomplished; but there is no thought of emanation, hence is not used. It is here indicated that the accomplishment of the creation rests in Him, its immediate instrumental cause is to be sought in Him, but not the last, principalis. is not to be referred to the , the idea omnium rerum, which was in Him (Schleiermacher and others), nor is it = (Usteri); nor does refer to the new moral creation, which reference is not supported by Eph 4:23, where the context is entirely different. [ here denotes, not the causa instrumental is nor causa exemplaris, but causa conditionalis, as the conditional element pre-existent and all-including. Alford, Ellicott.R.] is the existing all, the totality of things [the universe, Alford.R.], would be all that actually is (Winers Gram. p. 105). A specification as regards place follows: in heaven and that are on earth, .Thus Paul writes instead of , not excluding these however, because to him all depends upon this, that nothing was created without Him; He stands in such a relation to the whole creation that He was before it and it exists first through Him. There is no reason for understanding by this, habitatores qui reconciliantur (Wettstein), or only living creatures (Baehr) or rational creatures. On see Eph 1:10. We cannot conclude from the precedence of that emphasis is placed upon the creation of angels (Theophylact), nor from the omission of under the earth, that God has not created for the lower world (Unterwelt): the context gives no warrant for this.Visible and invisible.This is added to describe the nature of what was created. There is no reason for referring both exclusively either to earthly (Schleiermacher), or to heavenly things (Theodoret); nor are the former alone visible, and the latter invisible, since among the visible we must reckon sun, moon and stars, and among the invisible human souls. The Apostle places the highest, things in heaven, first, but here the more important follows, because he intends to give a specification of the angels. It must be borne in mind that is described. Hence invisible does not refer merely to the heavenly world of spirits (Meyer), though this is the main reference (Bleek).Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, , , , . , thus repeated, specifies the world of angels, to which we arrive through invisible; at the same time it indicates an uncertainty respecting the classes of angels, or that nothing essential depends upon this classification. In Eph 1:21, we find , ,, ; is not found here, nor there. This latter word occurs here only in the New Testament, but is applied by the Rabbins, by Dionysius the Areopagite and testamentum Levi, to the angels in the seventh or highest heaven. These classes maybe regarded as different orders, joined in pairs; , the highest, , the lowest, and , the intermediate. [Ellicott, comparing Eph 1:21, where the order seems descensive, says, we may possibly infer that the are the highest order, etc., if indeed all such distinctions are not to be deemed precarious and presumptuous. It may have been suggested by some known theosophistic speculations of the Colossians, but more probably was an incidental revelation, which the term evoked. Pearson thus gives the intent of the passage and the force of : Lest in that invisible world, among the many degrees of the celestial hierarchy, any order might seem excepted from an essential dependence upon Him, he nameth those which are of greatest eminence, and in them comprehendeth the rest.R.] Schleiermacher most incorrectly applies to earthly empires, civil orders and legal conditions (Melanchthon similarly), and understands here magisterial offices and other functions of persons in power.

All things were created by him and for him, . [Literally, all things have been created through Him and to Him.R.] Solemn recapitulation (Meyer). The perfect, setting the past in relation to the present, is chosen instead of the aorist, noting the factum, because we have here a dogmatic consideration of the completed and now existing creation (Winers Gram. p. 255). Hence also we have not merely (instrumental), but , indicating Him as the of creation. Bengel: denotat prius quiddam guam mox et . Notatur initium, progressus, finis. Comp. Rom 11:36; 1Co 8:6, where refers to God, as here to Christ, to whom the is committed (Mat 28:18; Php 2:9; 1Co 15:27), who is the delegated Regent of the world (Meyer). denotes not simply for Him, but also to Him, in Him (Winers Gram. p. 390). That He is Lord over all is but one side therefore; the other is, that to Him the whole is directed, and thus is developed, exalted, glorified. To His exalted dignity is joined the glorifying of what is created, the participation of the creatures in His glory and blessedness. [Ellicott: , causa conditionalis; , causa medians; , causa finalis or finis ultimus. Alford: He is the end of creation, containing the reason in Himself, why creation is at all and why it is as it is.R.]

Col 1:17 accordingly adds: And he is before all things. and are emphatic from their position.[He Himself is or exists.R.] Both the permanence of the existence of Christ and His pre-existence are affirmed. The usus loquendi requires only, that it be understood of time, the context, of the whole; compare Joh 8:58. The Vulgate is incorrect: ante omnes, and Luther, vor Allen, [i. e., before all beings.R.] So also the Socinians, Schleiermacher and others, who limit the meaning to superior rank, which is indeed sufficiently implied in such an assertion of priority.And in him all things subsist.[The E. V. here as in Col 1:15, unfortunately renders , by.R.] The verb is used of things held together, as milk, which runs. So 2Pe 3:5; . Without Christ all things would fall asunder. The perfect, following has the force of the presentput together and now subsisting. The reference is to organic permanence, the continuance of the composition of the things of the world in Him, because He holds together what He has created. [Ellicott: the causal sphere of their continuing existence,not exactly identical with above. Christ was the conditional element of their creation, the causal element of their persistence.R.] It does not refer to a consolidation of earthly relations (Schleiermacher), nor to the acknowledgment and rule of the Lord in the new world (Baumgarten-Crusius).

The relation of the Mediator to the Church. Col 1:18-20.

Col 1:18. And he is the head of the body, the church.And He, , [is emphatic, possibly involving an antithesis to some errors of the Colossian Church (Alford, Ellicott). The subject is the Son of Gods love, the passage requiring a reference to the , the now glorified Christ.R.] Is :in form this is a resumption of Col 1:17, connected closely with that verse, but in matter it refers back to the starting-point, Col 1:14, so that just as in Col 1:15-16, the corresponding relative clause ( ) follows, together with its proof (). The parallel of thoughtChrist, the Son of God, is before and over the world, as He is Head of the Churchis echoed in the chain of parallel clauses. On the Head of the Body, the Church, see Eph 1:22-23. The second genitive is unquestionably appositional (Winers Gram., p. 494, and Eph 4:9). In the parallel passage: Head over all things, etc.the relation of Christ to the world is defined by over all things. On the Church as an organism, a Body, see Eph 4:12; Eph 5:23; Eph 5:30; that the world might not be considered this Body, the Church is added. It does not refer to the family of God in heaven and on earth (Rsselt); this is too spiritualistic, is contrary to biblical realism and usus loquendi.

Who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, , .First-born, , here is somewhat different from Col 1:15,in the more exact sense of one beginning a series. Hence can be omitted, as in Rev 1:5. The preposition marks the fact, conceived of as in Eph 5:14 : arise from () the dead; as also occurs, to denote the separation of the living from the dead. The reference is not to those merely who have died within the church (Schenkel); for when the dead revived in the Old Testament times, they were not first-born from the dead, since they died again; it is otherwise in the case of Christ. [Ellicott distinguishes this passage from Rev 1:5, where the preposition is omitted: first-born not only of, but out of the deadHe left their realm and came again as with a new begetting and new birth into life.R.] It is pre-supposed, but not stated either in the text or context: because He restores life to others (Calvin. Theodoret: the phrase hints also at the resurrection of us all). [Eadie retaining his view of , as referring to priority in dignity, remarks: as He rose from the midst of the dead, He became their chief,came out from among them as their representative. His people rise in virtue of His power. He is not only the pledge, He is also the pattern. This is undoubtedly true, but only implied here.R.] By first-born, which was not chosen without a reference to Col 1:15, , a word of wide signification, is here more closely defined as the Beginning, while the personality is at the same time thus emphasized as the principal thing. Comp. Joh 11:25. So Gen 49:3 : Reuben my first-born ( = , Deu 21:17). It is therefore=the first-fruits of them that slept ( , 1Co 15:20), first, that should rise from the dead ( , Act 26:23); hence to be taken as referring to time, with a secondary reference, however, to a power efficient in a succeeding series (Rev 3:14; Rev 22:13); in which it differs from . Hence it is neither principium (Baehr, Steiger, Huther), nor Regent of the world (Flatt), nor author of the Church (Baumgarten-Crusius), nor beginning of the second and new creation (Calvin). Nor is of the resurrection to be supplied (De Wette), since the Apostle had far more in view than the dead, nor of the church (Schenkel), since there is nothing to indicate this; nor is first-born an adjective joined to beginning (Schleiermacher). [While has here a primary temporal reference, and is further defined as a Personality by , there is an argumentative force in the relative who involving a secondary reference to the church which immediately precedes. So Ellicott, Eadie, who insists upon this too exclusively, however. Alford: He is the beginning, in that in Him is begun and conditioned the church. Wordsworth suggests the two-fold sense of ; 1. principium, beginning. 2. principalitas, dominion, rule. In the first sense, Christ is the source of life to the church: in the second, the Principality of all things, therefore even in His manhood superior to the angelic principalities and powers (against the false teachers).R.]

That in all things he might have the pre-eminence.[In order that () in all things he (, emphatic,) might become () pre-eminent.R.] denotes the purpose of God working herein; it is not= (Estius, Baehr). What He is, is the basis for something else, which is accomplished in the purposewhich becomes (); hence such permanent relations are here concerned, as took shape historically, and are adapted for definite ends, to be realized in time (Steiger). In that He is the Risen One, it is the design of God, that He becomes , He, emphatically, and none other, sine locum tenentibus, sine vicario (Bengel), and in all, on all sides, in wisdom, holiness, might, death-overcoming power, dominion and glory, as respects the world as well as the church. The First, for ever and for every one. The verb occurs only here in the New Testament and denotes strongly, to have the first rank. [Alford: The wordis a transitional one, from priority in time to priority in dignity, and shows incontestibly that the two ideas have been before the Apostles mind throughout, though, as Ellicott suggests, this being a result, the same meaning does not necessarily belong to .R.] must be neuter, as Tit 2:9-10; 1Ti 3:11; 1Ti 4:15; 2Ti 2:7; 2Ti 4:5; Heb 13:4; Heb 13:18,= (1Co 1:5; 2Co 4:8, etc). Did it refer to , it must have the article. Hence inter omnes (Beza and others) is incorrect.

Col 1:19. Because in him God was pleased that the whole fulness should dwell.As in Col 1:16, introduces the ground of the last clause, and thus mediately of the whole preceding verse. It is not therefore a proof of the relative clause exclusively (Steiger), nor is this to be excluded (Meyer). may be simply rendered; the finite verb leads to a will, a personal author as final cause, over against a becoming of necessity: on this account is the self-evident subject, hence not specially indicated; is to be joined with , it is placed first emphatically, and denotes the same as in the foregoing; is the accusative subject of the infinitive, and according to the context, without the necessity of supplying anything, the whole fulness of Him, who had formed the decree (Eph 3:19 : all the fulness of God; Col 2:9 : of the God-head). [With this rendering, the E. V. agrees, but supplies Father instead of God, marking, it is true, an obvious antithesis between Christ (the subject hitherto), and the new one. But the impersonal form of the verb is not strictly correct. Ellicott renders: the whole fulness of God was pleased to dwell, making the subject of the finite verb. The question is only a grammatical one, as the dogmatical result is the same in either case. See Ellicott in loco.R.] On , compare Eph 1:10; on , Eph 3:17; on , Eph 1:5. To regard as the fulness of the Gentiles and totality of Israel (Schleiermacher), is as unfounded, as to understand it, from the terminology of Valentin, of the complex of ons (Baur). Hofmann also is in error, in understanding it as the fulness of that which is, making Christ the subject of , too artificial. [Wordsworth, after giving two interpretations: 1. that God the Son was pleased; 2. that God was pleased, with a preference for (1), adds on the whole, we may perhaps affirm, that the Apostle designedly placed here without any limitation of a nominative expressed, in order to bring out the truth more fully that the is to be ascribed to the Father in the Son, and to the Son in the Father, and that there is perfect unity in will and operation in both.R.]

Col 1:20. And by him to reconcile all things unto himself.Locus hic torquet interpretes et vicissim ab illis torquetur (Davenant). The force of is clear: this indwelling (Col 1:19) is the foundation of the reconciliation (Bengel). i.e., Christ, is placed emphatically first, denoting the known mediation. The main difficulty is found in . The verb occurs only here, Col 1:21 and Eph 2:16; here with , in the last passage with . Rom 5:10; 2Co 5:18-19 : , ; 1Co 7:11 : . The meaning is: to reconcile, strengthened by . So that the one reconciled is freed, removed from something; open, conscious, outspoken enmity is not meant, rather concealed unconscious estrangement and separation of one or two parts (Hofmann): but it is found only in him who is reconciled, not in him who reconciles. See on Eph 2:16. With Meyer we hold as follows: sin began among the angels, and came, was brought from the angelic world to the race of men (Joh 8:44; 2Co 11:3; Eph 1:10); thereby the whole creation was disturbed in its harmony, was made subject to vanity, in the bondage of corruption, and suffered according to the saying: delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi (comp. Rom 8:19-22). In Christ the act of reconciliation is accomplished, and this reconciliation is to unfold itself in all directions unto the palingenesia (Mat 19:28; 2Pe 3:15), to the coming (Parusie) of Christ (1Co 15:24; 1Co 15:28). The aorist infinitive denotes the historical fact; instead of the usual dative marks the direction, and consequently the gradually accomplished development. We meet here the comprehensive and classical idea of reconciliation, which is considerably modified with respect to the universe, as well as to the human race and the angelic world, as is afterwards indicated. It is therefore incorrect to identify with , Eph 1:10 (Melanchthon, Grotius, Baehr and others), or in accordance with this view, to apply to Christ (Luther and others) and not to God, as the context requires. [E. V., to Himself, correctly applies it.R.] Nor is to be limited to intelligent beings, or to men only (A-Lapide and others) or to universam ecclesiam (Beza); nor does the verb mean; the removal of reciprocal enmity (Stolz, Schleiermacher and others). [Ellicott, while objecting to any dilution of reconcile, or limitation of , cautions against the irreverence of far-reaching speculations on the reconciliation of the finite and infinite. It does say that the eternal and incarnate Son is the causa medians by which the absolute totality of created things shall be restored into its primal harmony with its Creatormore than this it does not say, and where God is silent it is not for man to speak. Eadie: The one Reconciler is the head of these vast dominions, and in Him meet and merge the discordant elements which sin had introduced. The humanity of Jesus bringing all creatures around it, unites them to God in a bond which never before existeda bond which has its origin in the mystery of redemption. Thus all things in heaven and earth feel the effect of mans renovation. The view of Braune, that this will find its full development at the coming of Christ, is not in opposition to the above view. See Eadie and Alford, also De Wette.R.]

Having made peace through the blood of his cross. naturally and grammatically agrees with the latent subject of , God. The Verb, only here, like the substantive (Mat 5:9) is clear in its meaning. The aorist participle indicates the modality of reconcile, as Eph 1:19. Both acts are contemporaneous, conceived of as one, this does not ante-date the other [as E. V. impliesR.]. Through the blood marks the act as one of royal judgment and priestly sacrifice (Rom 3:25; Heb 6:14; Heb 6:18; Heb 6:20; 1Pe 1:19); while of His cross marks the shedding of blood as a consequence of the punishment to which He devoted Himself, in humblest obedience (Php 2:18), in innocence for our sake, in holiness to make us holy. Both denote the definite, historical act, over against all spiritualistic conceptions, as well as Christs suffering and death over against our moral or ascetic works. In order to preclude any materialistic or magical views of the blood of Christ, Paul reaffirms; by him, thus making prominent the Person of Him, who had shed His blood, and thereby made peace with God. [I say added in E. V. conveys the meaning.R.]Besides this repetition, designed to guard against false views, there is added, in explanation of the object, which has been and shall be reconciled, made partaker of the peace: Whether there be things on earth, or things in heaven (comp. Col 1:16).Here earth stands first, because he has been just speaking of the act on earth, by which the reconciliation begins. It is not easy to determine how the reconciliation of angels may be conceived of, since it cannot be applied to wicked ones, who remain unreconciled and are condemned, and the good need no reconciliation, only sustaining power. This difficulty leads us to refrain from any explanation, which would be at best a mere surmise. [See above on , which is specified here. Ellicott remarks: How the reconciliation of Christ affects the spiritual worldwhether by the annihilation of posse peccare, or by the infusion of a more perfect knowledge, or (less probably) some restorative application to the fallen spiritual worldwe know not, and we dare not speculate. Wordsworth specifies a fourfold reconciliation, 1. Between God and man. 2. Between angels and man. 3. Between Jew and Gentile. 4. Between man and the inferior creatures. Under the last particular he refers to the attempt of false teachers to mar this work of universal reconciliation, by forbidding the free use of the creatures, Col 2:20-21. This is open to the objection stated below.R.] The disjunctive force of forbids the idea of reconciliation of the two parts with each other (Erasmus), nor do things on earth, things in heaven, favor the view, that Jews and Gentiles had become hostile to each other on account of heavenly and earthly things, matters of Divine worship and principles related thereto, but should now be reconciled (Schleiermacher). Nor does this refer to the reconciliation of the Jews and Gentiles to each other and with the world of spirits, nor to the final conversion and blessedness of the demons (Origen), nor to a tendency at least thereto (Olshausen).

Application. Col 1:21-23.

Col 1:21. And you. , as Eph 2:1, to begin a new sentence. There is an anacoluthon in the construction, since the reading is , not . See critical note 14. [The additional note gives the authorities for the reading Braune rejects. So great is the preponderance in its favor, that the translator feels bound to differ from the author here. The anacoluthon is not so strong with this reading; is the object of the verb, though intervenes.R.] There is no reason for joining and you, with its immediate attributive, to the preceding sentence (Lachmann and others). [The better punctuation is that of E. V. and most modern editors, beginning a new sentence or paragraph here.R.] is not merely a copulative particle (and); but is = even, precisely, as the following characteristic requires: that were sometime alienated and enemies, .With he refers to their past condition, and with emphasis, as its position indicates, in praise and thanksgiving; the participle is imperfect. On alienated, see Eph 2:12. Neither from the commonwealth of Israel, from that passage, nor from the life of God, from Eph 4:18, is to be supplied (Baehr); the context clearly suggests from God. But more than alienation is mentioned, they had passed into enmity of which the former is the germ; is therefore active, enemy against God (Rom 8:7). It is incorrect to consider it as passive, invisos deo (Rom 5:10, Steiger), since it is enmity, not on the part of God, but of men, which is extirpated, out of which they are delivered in the reconciliation.As to your understanding in wicked works, .Their enmity is thus described. The article refers to a known previous disposition and mode of conduct. The simple dative is one of reference; in marks the sphere in which the alienation and enmity manifested itself. Both belong to alienated as well as enemies. On , see Eph 2:3; Eph 4:18; 1Jn 5:20. [Ellicott: the higher intellectual nature especially as shown in its practical relations. Understanding, mind (as distinguished from heart in E. V.) is correct rendering, though Braune, referring it to the state rather than to the faculty itself, has Gesinnung, disposition.R.] This manifests itself actively; in it the wicked works have their ground and soil. [The form . . . emphasizes the character of the works.R.] The phrase includes all works which are done contrary to Gods command, or if formally in accordance with the law, yet from carnal appetites and propensities. It is incorrect to govern by (Erasmus: enemies to reason) or to consider it as the ground: through their disposition (Meyer), through their reason (Luther), since the cause of the enmity cannot be found in this organ or in this disposition, which is a product as respects the enmity. Nor does depend on (Beza, Baehr).Yet now hath he reconciled, .[Braune, reading now you are reconciled.R.] marks the present which begins with the reconciliation, when the readers have become par takers of it; marks the resumption of the thought uninterrupted by the parenthesis [describing their previous conditionR.], like the Latin inquam. Reconciled is an act through Christ, (Col 1:20) not of Christ (Greek fathers, Calvin, Calov., others). Compare 2Co 5:19. [The subject throughout is God.R.]

Col 1:22. In the body of his flesh through death.This sets forth in twofold manner the way or the means of reconciliation. First: In the body of his flesh. This describes the earthly, sensible, historical appearance of Christ. Sir 16:23 : , where refers to the sensual lusting. Here the reference is to the Redeemer and Reconciler, who had taken upon Him our flesh and blood and appeared in the life and history of our race; is to be taken locally. [Alford: The situation or element of the reconciliation. Ellicott: the substratum of the action is pointed to by .R.] It is entirely foreign to the context to suppose of his flesh is in contrast with the body of the church, as Col 1:20 (Bengel). The antithesis is less docetic false teachers according to Col 2:23 (Steiger), or the glorified body of the Risen One, 1Co 15:44 (Schenkel), or exaggerated doctrine of angels (Meyer), than this, that the work of Redemption was far too easily separated from the person of Christ and His historical, human nature in the form of a servant. The expression is evidently anti-spiritualistic. Secondly: through death, [the means, instrumental cause.R.] renders prominent the exit from this natural life, in short, the suffering and death referred to in Col 1:20; the entrance into this life through birth must have corresponded with such an exit. Hence it is not strange that Paul speaks often of the latter, but never of the former ex professo.

To present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.The end to be attained. To present you depends on the verb reconciled. What has occurred to the Christian in this reconciliation is something to be preserved, unfolded, perfected. The God who effects reconciliation, effects more, as Eph 5:27. The subject is not the subject of the passive , but of the active [i. e., of the verb , as most readR.]; the accusative is the object not the subject of the infinitive (Meyer, Schenkel). Certainly the immediate result of the reconciliation, the righteousness imputed for the sake of Christ, is not meant (Huther and others). The three adjectives mark the continued effect of the reconciliation, viz., moral purity in three directions. As holy, , they are consecrated to God, live to God, die to the world, have conducted and shown themselves as such; as unblameable, , they are free from the faults and stains of sin; as unreprovable, , they are not accused by their neighbors. Bengel is not incorrect in his: erga deum, respectu vestri, respectu proximi. [Alford and Ellicott follow Meyer in referring the first to the positive, the latter two to the negative side of holiness. Davenant deems it the aggregation of three similar ideas. On the whole Braunes view, which is that of Eadie, is much preferable.R.] In his sight, , refers undoubtedly to the Judgment, hence according to the context we may apply it to Christ. Comp. 2Co 5:10. [Alford seems most correct; referring it to the day of Christs appearing; but before His i. e., Gods presence. Ellicott doubts the former reference, but renders: before Him, God not Christ. The passage undoubtedly refers to justitia inhrens, as the necessary result of the reconciliation which gave to the believer justitia imputata. So Calvin, but, as Hooker judiciously remarks, whensoever we have any of these (actual, inherent or imputed holiness) we have allthey go together.R.]

Col 1:23. If at least ye continue in the faith.Gods act for and upon them is not carried out to a blessed consummation without subjective advance and personal activity. marks a condition, about which there is no doubt. [Alford: assuming that.R.] It is the mildest, most delicate method of calling attention to the necessity of faith (Bleek), and seems to belong to present, rather than to depend on the finite verb, Col 1:21 (Bengel). See on Eph 3:2; Eph 4:21. is construed, as Rom 6:1; Rom 11:22-23; 1Ti 4:16. [Stronger than , implying with the dative, rest at a place, perseverance to and rest in the end, persist (Alford, Ellicott).R.] The article marks the faith as definite; an indefinite one, after their own pleasure, does not suffice.Grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.[Grounded and settled and not being moved away is the literal construction. The E. V. seems to make moved away co-ordinate with continue.R.] The modality of the persistence is thus denoted: 1. (see on Eph 3:18), whose antithesis is (Luk 6:49 : without a foundation), refers to an objectively given foundation, placed upon which they still stand. This is a reference to Christ, to Gods grace in Him, not to the hope (Meyer). 2. dicit internum robur, quod fideles ipsi habent; quemadmodum dificum primo quidem fundamento recte solideque inniti, deinde vero sua etiam mole probe cohrere et firmiter consistere debet (Bengel), 1Co 15:58. [These two denote the positive side of the modality of their persistence; then the negative followsR.] 3. marks, through the present participle passive, what is very possible, likely to enter every moment from without and within; circumstances, purposes and suggestions, as well as lusts and selfish thought and desire can easily move, so that they are moved away from the hope of the gospel, held up before them as an aim (not a point of supportSchenkel), and both sure and glorious as belonging to the gospel (see on Eph 1:18). [Alford makes the hope subjective, but grounded on the objective, and the genitive possessive. Ellicott says: the hope arising from, evoked by the Gospel,subjective, therefore: . is the genitive of the origin or the originating agentwhich is preferable. Eadie thus discriminates between the three expressions: the first epithet alludes to the cause, the second to its effect, the third depicts a general result,as the use of seems to indicate. is usual and proper, however, in such a sentence as thissee Winers Gram. p. 443.R.] refers to the inward change in being moved, to removal from the given object, thereby effected.Which ye have heard, denotes a fact which takes away all excuse, they know it, it has been told them. [Ellicott objects to have in the E. V. without reason, as the inexcusableness rests upon the fact that it has already been heard, thus best expressed.R.]It has been made efficient for them, and not for them alone: And which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, ==in the whole world. The command of Christ, Mar 16:15 : preach the gospel to every creature has begun to be carried out. Preached to every creature is not hyperbolical (Meyer), nor is to be limited to the Gentiles. [Alford incorrectly renders: in the whole creation. Eadie and Ellicott call this hyperbole, though agreeing with Braunes next remark.R.] The Apostle prophetically sees as accomplished what has as yet only begun, and marks the universality of Christianity. Sane undiquaque vulgatum evangelium Christi, ne quid cogitarent Colossenses de mutanda fide, qu jam ab omnibus esset recepta (Erasmus). [On the phrase, which is under heaven, Ellicott remarks, that it characterizes the as , including, however, thereby, all mankind.R.]

Whereof I Paul am made a minister.See on Eph 3:1. [Meyer makes here three considerations enforcing their not being moved awayIt would be, 1) inexcusable for themselves, because they had heard the gospel; 2) inconsistent with the universality of the gospel preached to every creature; 3) contrary to the personal relation of the Apostle to the gospel, whereof I Paul, etc.R.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Christian knowledge. The progress of Pauls thanksgiving for the faith and love of the Church to supplication for their advance in true knowledge derives its motive from the end in view, viz., Christian walk. Herein is implied. First: the basis of Christian knowledge is the Christian morality of the perceiving subject, in its fundamental traits and principles, in faith and love. Here it begins, and hence advance is made to and in the former. The subject of knowledge must also be correctly situated on account of the object of knowledge, and the organ of knowledge in the knowing subject must, at the same time, be first acted upon, that it may enjoy healthy activity and the reward of sound knowledge. Yet is faith itself an immediate knowing, and love, a desire which directly grasps the objects of faith, so that what makes an impression in faith, can be intelligently conceived. Second: the object of Christian knowledge is the will of God, in the unity of that will in creation, law and redemption, hence in the visible and invisible, in the temporal and eternal, in the moral and intelligent world, both what was designed in creation and redemption, and what was commanded in word as precept. Third: the effect of Christian knowledge is essentially a re-action upon the Christian walk, and thus they reciprocally further each other. Fourth: the way to Christian knowledge is essentially a life of practical morality. Fifth: its course is like that of the Christian life, a gradual advance, moving and developing itself in various experiences, temptations and circumstances.

2. The Christian walk has its ground in the fact of redemption, which has been decreed and ordained by God the Father, mediated and accomplished through the Son; its beginning, in the appropriation of this fact of objective redemption and subjective acceptance; its standard, in the example of our Lord Jesus Christ; its motive, in pleasing this Lord; its activity, in good works, according to the various relations of life in which we are placed; its modality in this, that what is done, is done from inward constraint and not from calculation; its development, in this, that it perceives more clearly each moment the will of God, grasps it more securely, retains it more firmly, proves it more widely: its genuineness, in the joy with which it bears and forbears, and controls itself with ever increasing strength; its tone, in gratitude for what God had done to and in and for One, and its aim in the eternal heritage in heaven, of which an earnest is given within us.

3. The Apostles conception of God. God, who is the beginning and end for the Christian, is conceived of, not as absolute substance, but as an absolute Person, in substance a Spirit, in character Love; here especially in the latter aspect. He has His will, and His (Col 1:19) wills itself as the good, wills it with energy and al-mightiness, and accomplishes His will in general and particular alike. In this recession (Zurcktreten) of the absolute substance behind the freedom of the absolute Subject, the right of Pantheism and Emanatism is taken away, in the precession (Vortreten) of His almighty and saving Love, that of Deism and Naturalism. The personality of the Living One, and the Life of the Absolute Person are the cardinal points of the Christians belief in God. Against Indifference the whole fulness of God (Col 1:19) speaks. By this is meant the fulness of Love and Holiness, of Wisdom and Power, of Grace and Majesty and Blessedness, which bursts forth in the works of Creation, Redemption, Sanctification and Glorification, but which neither is nor can be exhausted in the world; although immanent in the world, He far transcends it. Only in the Son of His Love is the whole fulness to be seen and found. Hence there is a reference to a Triune relation, since such fulness of God, the Living One, did not first come in flow with the creation, but moved already in Him, who is before and above all creatures.The self-existence of God the Father, who is , is indicated; on Him the Son Himself depends and His activity in the works of Creation and Redemption.

4. The Person of Christ is more accurately described in a threefold relation:

a) His relation to God is set forth in the phrases: , the Son of His Love, (Col 1:13); , the image of the invisible God, (Col 1:15). The first expression marks Him as the object of the Fathers love, which has in Him, nothing that can grieve it, holy as it is, or that it must first subdue; thus His Holiness, Sinlessness are implied, on account of which it is He, in whom the forgiveness of sin is obtained. The other phrase leads into the substance of the glory of God, manifesting itself first and most of all in Him, and denotes also His Divine Personality; He is indeed the Image of a Personality, so that he must both have existence and be a Person, especially as all the fulness of God is said to dwell in the Son of Man. It may be conceded to Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, I. 153158), Beischlag (Christologie des N. T., 228233), Schenkel and others, that the historical Christ must be made the subject for the most part (Col 1:13). [See Exeg. Notes on Col 1:15.R.] But what gives to this One His position in history and His Dignity, lies above this history in his super-terrestrial position and intrinsically Divine Dignity. Indeed the historical events pre suppose the relation of the Son to the Father, His Divinity, and do not first constitute Him the Son, or God the Father, or Him a Person, who did not exist before, or was not yet a Person nor the Son of God.

b) His relation to the world is described by , first-born of every creature (Col 1:15), and further explained by the confirmatory clause (Col 1:16), in him were all things createdby him and to him (), and sharply defined in Col 1:17 : He is before all things and in him all things subsist. In the given connexion there is first, a temporal definition ( ), so that here His pre-existence is decidedly and expressly asserted, in agreement with Joh 17:5 : , before the world was; Col 1:1 : , in the beginning; Eph 1:4 : before the foundation of the world. Second: Prominence is given to the Personality, denoted both by and the creation of God in, by and to Him, as in Joh 1:1 : ; Joh 8:58 : . So that the Apostle here treats of a pre-existent Person, not merely of a pre-existent principle, or of a historical Person, as though the pre-existent principle first became personal in Jesus at the Incarnation, or the personality had previously been only ideal. Compare Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, pp. 6066. Thirdly: His Creatorship excludes any creatureship in Him, and the identity of the Creator and Redeemer is so affirmed, that He who became man is placed more under the idea God than the idea man. On this account Theodoret aptly says, not as having creation for a sister, but as begotten before all creation. Fourthly: Our text defines Him, not as Him, all things were created, and yet as active in the creation: ; He is not simply an archetype of the creation for the Creator. Fifthly: He is emphatically indicated as the foundation and centre of the world and its history, its stability, and development. [Chrysostom interprets this passage and Eph 2:22 : as teaching that Christ is the Living Centre, to which all things in creation converge, the Divine Keystone in the arch of the Universe, on which the whole fabric leans; but he. warns his readers against supposing that Christ Himself is consubstantial with the creatures whom He made and upholds (Wordsworth).R.]

c) His relation to the Church is described by Head of the body, the Church; beginning; first-born from the dead. On the first expression, see on Eph 1:22. It is the organizing power, dwelling in Him, through which the Church has come into being. The other expression refers to the victory over death, as the fact upon which the secure status of the Church rests; as indeed Paul appears especially as a witness of the resurrection, wherever as Apostle he founds churches. All views which will not recognize and appreciate the Person of Christ as the centre of His work and His Church, as Divine in origin and nature, as eternal, pre-ter restrial and super-terrestrial, efficient both in Creation and Redemption, degenerate into a false speculation against which this Epistle to the colossians contends. The question is not raised here, not even a hint given, how we are to conceive of Divinity and humanity united in One; nothing is said upon this point; hence Nestorian error does not lie so near, as Schenkel thinks, but rather Arian or Sabellian or Gnostic or another spiritual error, which volatilizes the eternal reality of the Person of Christ, or a dualistic one, which overshadows and crowds out the act of the Redeeming Subject by asceticism or legality, the so-called virtue of the subject to be redeemed.

5. The Work of Christ, with respect to God, from whom the world has apostatized through sin, is described as an , reconciling all things; with respect to the state into which the world has fallen through sin, as , the redemption, and as to its beginning and principle, as , the forgiveness of sins. First of all, the ultimate cause of Reconciliation and Redemption is God the Father (Col 1:13 : , Col 1:19 : ), as in creation. The Mediation of these belongs, as in the creation, to the Son of God, as Theanthropos in His historical Personality (Col 1:20 : by Himand that through the blood of His Cross, Col 1:22 : in the body of His flesh through death); His Person has central importance, His suffering and death is the climax. He entered into the fellowship of humanity, which is the object of Divine wrath, endured in this fellowship the wrath of God resting upon it, gave Himself as a Sacrifice, holy and innocent, proved in His self-denying obedience, in His office as Saviour, that just as His Son in whom He was well pleased became man, so it was the man in whom He was well pleased,so that the Father for the sake of this One could turn His complacency upon the whole race which through Him dies to sin, and turns to God in grateful love.

The work of Redemption, as to its Object, relates to the totality of the creatures, although it begins in the human race; as to its Purpose, it tends to a restitution of the creation, or to a bringing back of the creation to the path which it has forsaken, toward its proper consummation. The former marks the extent of the corruption of sin. Man is a prey to the power of darkness, which forms the antithesis to the kingdom of Love, so that darkness, which is opposed to Love, is to be conceived of, rather, as moral, than intellectual. Will, as well as knowledge, religiousness and morality, social and political relations, are effected and corrupted, and this can not only be affirmed of heathen (Col 1:21 : ), but is applicable to Jews (Col 1:13 : ). In the presence of this Redemption in Christ the advantages of Israel over the Gentiles disappear. The purpose of Redemption is directed, chiefly, to the internal sanctification of men, to the forgiveness of sin, extirpation of it and its consequences, to justification before God in the judgment within the conscience, and in the future at the last day (Col 1:21). But it extends in ever wider circles, in order to permeate the whole creation, and bring all creatures and all relations to happiness and blessedness with Him into eternity. [To avoid any misconception, see Exeg. notes on Col 1:20.R.] Hence no dualistic view finds any justification here, in fact, dualism is anti-christian. The overcoming of the antagonisms, which are easily recognized, is thus set forth as a possibility and an indispensable task, and this is accomplished by ethical means, from the reconciliation of the world to the transformation of the world. [Henry: Christ is the Mediator of reconciliation, who promises peace, as well as pardon, and brings into a state of friendship and favor at present, and will bring all holy creatures, angels as well as men, into one glorious and blessed society at last.R.]

6. The Church in which the Redemption, objective in Christ, and accomplished by Him, is, and will be subjectively appropriated, is presented in our text in a two-fold aspect;

a) as respects its regionthe militant and triumphant church, referred to in the expression, (Col 1:18); , ;

b) as respects its inner life: ctus vocatorum et fidelium, referred to in the expression (Col 1:12): , saints in light. The organism of the church is indicated by the expression (Col 1:18): Head of the body, the church. Its extent is denoted by the former reference, its vitality by the latter, and its mission is to further, subjectively, the purpose of the work of Christ. It is by no means indifferent how one stands in the church and holds to her; but it is just as little without important influence, whether or that one belongs to her, as it is indifferent in what nation or family one is incorporated.

7. The morality of the individual within the church of Christ is defined as objectively caused (, holy), subjectively internal (, unblamable), and constantly referred to God ( , unreprovable in his sight); and on that account conditioned by faith, which must prove itself in a two-fold manner, in its life and its substance, as right and correct, as genuine and true, as fides qua and as fides qu creditur; it is indeed the word of God become alive in the Christian. This, at the same time, explains, why and that faith must be stable and independent of time and human opinions; it depends upon permanence.

8. The Word of God, which should be heard and proclaimed, requires living persons who have been filled and moved by it, whom it has first served, to serve it in turn. Here we find a direction for the establishment of public worship, in which the exposition and proclamation of the Word should not be wanting, as well as for the labors of Bible Societies, that should circulate Gods Word, not merely in black and white, as copies from the press, like booksellers, and bookbinders, but in accordance with the organism and mission of the Church, in connexion with the efforts of Home and Foreign Missions.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

There is an order in prayer. Luther sets it forth in his explanation of the second Commandment [Luthers small catechism, the 2nd answeron our Third Commandment.R.]: In all necessities call, pray, praise and give thanks. The call for help, the cry of distress, the entreaty, which necessity presses out, is the easiest, briefest, first, the prayer of an elementary pupil; the petition in perplexity for a need is an affair of the apprentice, who has learned first to pray for himself, and when further advanced, to offer supplications of unselfish love for others. The journeyman knows how to give thanks for gifts received, but the master praises the giver, not forgetting Him in His bounty. Whoever can and does do this, will not slight the easier part. Paul always goes from praise to thanksgiving, and from thanksgiving to supplication. He begins with the former, nor does he neglect the latter. Do you also? [The Apostles order is that of mature Christian experience. But the other is that of the learner. It is also that of the Psalms. They usually begin with petition and end with praise. They were written in the times of preparation for Christ. How often Christians revert to Davids method. The Old Testament still leads us to the Newwe pray first like the Psalmist, then like the Apostle.R.]

Theory succeeds practice, as Philosophy follows Poetry. To live the truth is more than to know the truth. To perceive the truth is rather a matter of the sanctified will, than of the will-stored memory or the isolated intellect.Being filled with the knowledge of the truth, is to know both what is nearest and what is most remote. Reason is both a telescope, to look into distant eternal things, and a microscope to inspect and understand the things at hand, in house and heart, in life and business, but to adjust the glasses aright is not hers, it belongs to the will, it is not an intellectual, but a moral act. Christian living is not the product, but the producer of Christian thinking.The more you do, the more you become.Only when bearing fruit, does the Christian grow.Self-redemption is a falsity, and forgiveness of sins, without Christ, a lie. The folly of the sixteenth century, when people bought absolution with money, is laughed at, but why should we not also ridicule the blindness of the nineteenth century, when people forgive their own guilt and sin, and fancy they get absolution at a still cheaper rate. Those who credit Christ, no longer have a creditor in God; in this privilege unbelief has no share.The Christian cannot divide or divorce God and Christ, God and the world, Creation and Redemption, Christs Person and Work, this world and the next, faith and love, faith and Gods word, faith and forgiveness, faith and bliss, religion and morality, church and Christianity, sin and corruption, grace and salvation, salvation and sanctification, though it is he who accurately distinguishes them.The truth in Christ is the greatest paradox of life; the cross is a throne, death is life, weakness is strength, defeat is victory, gain is loss.Christ, who satisfies all the needs of the human heart, begins with pardon, with grace that ends in blessedness with God. He blesses man in himself and goes on until He completes the whole creationto the choirs of angels.The Bible is the jewel of all the literature of the world; in the ring of the Bible the gospel is the diamond.The news and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures come to us in personalities, and in him who understands them they become again personal.

Starke:You flatter yourself that you are a good Christian because you do nothing wicked! Is a tree good then, that does not bear thorns and thistles? If you are not diligent in good works, your Christianity is nothing, your imagination is vain, your hope is lost. We must grow in knowledge, grow in the power of God, grow in spiritual walk and in holiness. If a new-born child does not grow perceptibly, it is a bad sign. So it is with a Christian also.To be patient in so many sufferings of this present time, and long-suffering amid so many adversities are excellent gifts of God. But those are far advanced, who endure evil not only with patience, but with joy also.Eternal life is an inheritance, hence it can be trifled away with sin, but not earned with good works. For a little child, though it have done nothing as yet, comes to its inheritance as well as the larger ones, who have done much.Sad condition of men through the fall of Adam! once monarchs over all creatures, they must now be subject to the devil and his empire.[Believers also are first born, and enjoy the liberty of the First Born.The dignity of believers surpasses that of angels, for they are united with the Son of God, who is higher than all angels.R.]

Rieger:Darkness, ignorance, doubt, inability man traces to himself; vexation and impatience break out of this darkness. But the gospel first makes known that behind this there is concealed a rule and power of darkness, out of which a deliverance is required, deliverance accomplished by means of right and justice moreover.It was not done by the Fathers sending the Son into the world, as a great witness of His love, to tell much of His name, and thus lead us away from our hostile disposition toward God, or direct us to confidence in Him: but God laid our sins and those of the whole world on this our Mediator, accepted His obedience, His sufferings, His sacrifice and the shedding of His blood as a ransom-price for us.There is no doubt the corruption in heathenism was greater than now, although we, who spring from Christian, perhaps specially sainted parents, are still wicked and born sinners; yet much is ameliorated in our hereditary disease, and the favorable opportunity for us to find God as Love, is much facilitated. But this must be regarded rather as an advantage of our age, and not one of our persons. Through neglect of this grace of our age, we may become again as bad and worse than a heathen.[The praise of the blood of Christ reaches to our being presented holy and unreprovable before God.R.] Heubner:The heart of a Christian is a large heart. Paul had already entered into intimate fellowship with this Church, although he had never seen it. What attracts the heart of one Christian to another? How easily true Christians at once understand each other!The more fruitful our walk, the more does our knowledge of God grow. True knowledge can come only out of and with action. It is not only the knowledge that increases, but the power is enlarged, the capacity of enduring, holding out in conflict, as well as of cherishing kindly sentiments toward enemiesand of doing both with joy. We must live ourselves into Christianity.Those who do not desire to become holy or to be made meet, may be external adherents, but are not citizens of the kingdom of heaven.Christ is before all with respect to time; He does not belong to the series of beings created in time. This before of priority naturally includes the before of preminence.Justification precedes, sanctification follows: the heart must first be stilled, then it can collect itself and prepare for sanctification. The latter is the end of the reconciliation. Why then will we ever invert this order? Because we would ascribe pardon to our merit, and not to the merit of Christ.

Schleiermacher:A mind, that would fully apprehend the truth of the gospel, will soon mark a voice in itself, when something important and essential is omitted, while on the other hand, good sense will soon warn us, if we allow ourselves to be misled, so as to insert in the Scripture, through artifice, something which is not there.Only when He has become to us the knowledge of the Divine will, is there a walk worthy of Him.Expanded knowledge is itself a consequence of fruitfulness in good works.The more plain the will of God becomes to us, the more we see what God has laid upon us to do; so much the more do we encounter opposition, the more difficult it becomes to instil the same view into others, and the more does this spiritual conduct of life enter into spheres which appear foreign to it.Oh that we so investigated the Scriptures, that it tended to edification!Paul makes sanctification dependent upon being grounded in faith, and upon not being moved away from the hope of the gospel, which is no other than that of the consummation of the kingdom of God in Christ.

Passavant:At the time of the council of Constance, three cardinals in their ride met a poor shepherd weeping on the beach. They asked him why he wept so. Out of gratitude, he answered, pointing to a worm, that God has made me a man and not a poor worm like that. What would have been the gratitude of the poor shepherd, had the cardinals revealed to him, that God could, besides, make him meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.Darkness is a kingdom, and this kingdom has its principalities and powers, and their artifice and malice is great; their might is great and the abyss is deep.Many a one may appear pure and refined in conduct and culture, whose conscience sleeps, whose heart deceives itself; it is a dream of rest and peace, a false dream of life: sin can scatter over the whole life of a sinner her poppy leaves.There exists among highly cultivated minds, among educated people, an alienation from God, and in consequence an enmity, which seems to arise not so much from the ordinary sinful flesh, as from the temerity and pride of the thinking or subtilizing faculty in us, which indeed is also flesh. [One canand the inconsistency is not rareworship Jesus Christ as God, and yet not have acknowledged Him as God formally and with the understanding; the heart makes Him God, the understanding makes Him man, still with most men the heart cannot cure the mind of its error, but is rather led astray itself. Quotation in Passavant.R.] To extend the law of Christ, says Theodorus, they did not use carnal weapons. The power of convincing speech alone attested the power of these divine precepts. Every where exposed to the greatest dangers, they endured in all cities, through which they passed, the most shameful and cruel mal-treatment: scourge and rack, prisons, executions and martyrdoms of all kinds were daily their lot: yet though the executioner could kill the bearers of the divine message, they could not kill the message itself. It proved still mightier after their death: the gospel survived with equal vital power the efforts and the rage of Barbarians and Romans: out of the funeral pile where they would bury the memory of those fishermen and tent makers, it went forth yet more brilliantly and gloriously.

[Henry:The Apostle heard that they were good, and he prayed that they might be better.1. That they might be knowing, intelligent Christians. 2. That their conversation might be good. 3.

That they might be strengthened. Col 1:12 sq. Here is the summary of the doctrine of the gospel concerning the great work of our redemption by Christ. It comes in here not as the matter of a sermon, but as the matter of a thanksgiving.He does not discourse of the work of redemption in the natural order of it; for then he would speak of the purchase of it first, and afterwards of the application of it. But here he inverts the order; because in our sense and feeling of it, the application goes before the purchase. We first find the benefits of redemption in our own hearts, and then are led by those streams to the original and Fountainhead.They who are not saints on earth, will never be saints in heaven. All who are designed for heaven hereafter, are prepared for heaven now. They who have the inheritance of sons, have the education of sons, and the disposition of sons.This meetness for heaven is the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts; which is part of payment, and assures the full payment.The greatest enemies to God, who have stood at the greatest distance and bidden Him defiance, may be reconciled, if it is not their own fault.There was such a value in the blood of Christ, that on account of Christs shedding it, God was willing to deal with men upon new terms, and bring them under a covenant of grace; and for His sake and in consideration of His death upon the cross, to pardon and accept to favor all who comply with them.This gospel may be preached to every creature; for it excludes none who do not exclude themselves.Paul was a great Apostle; but he looks upon it as the highest of his titles of honor, to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.R.]

[Burkitt:

Col 1:10. Our fruitfulness should be an universal fruitfulness, an humble and self-denying fruitfulness, a proportionable fruitfulness, an abounding and abiding fruitfulness; this is to be fruitful in every good work.

Col 1:12. This meetness is a spiritual blessing, a transcendent favor, a discriminating favor, an everlasting favor; eternity will be too short to spend in the admiration of it; let such as are interested in it, now begin the work upon earth, of giving thanks to the Father for it.R.]

[Eadie:

Col 1:10. Superabundance of one kind of fruit is no compensation for the absence of another. Every good work is inculcated. Such fruitfulness is not exhaustive. The tree grows healthfully while its fertility is so great.

Col 1:11. That peculiar position which necessitates the exercise of patience and long suffering should not induce despondency, as if it were inevitable fate, to be sullenly submitted to, but rather should there be joy that this Divine power is communicated, and that the mind is upborne in triumph, and enabled to hope and wait in quiet expectation.

Col 1:12. None but the saints, as being light in the Lordcan dwell in that light. They who enjoy it are made meet for social intercourse. Selfishness vanishes before universal love, the intense yearnings of a spiritual brotherhood are developed and perfected.

Col 1:13. The one kingdom of God has an earthly and a celestial phasis. It resembles a city divided by a river, but still under the same municipal administration and having one common franchise.

Col 1:14. Forgiveness is more closely connected with redemption than any other blessing; it comes at once from the cross to the believing soul.

Col 1:15-19. The sentences in which Paul describes the rank and prerogative of Christ are like a bursting torrent. How he exults in the precious theme, and how his soul swells into impassioned panegyric!Had the Divine Being remained alone, His glory would have been unseen and His praises unsung. Christ fitted up these all things for Himself, in order that He might exhibit His glory, while He diffused happiness through creatures of innumerable worlds, and enabled them to behold His mirrored brightness and to reflect it.At every point of His existence, it may be said of Him, He is. What faith in power and extent should not be reposed in such a Saviour-God!In all things He has the preeminence. None like Christ is the decision of faith, none but Christ is the motto of love.Every grace as it is needed, and when it is needed, in every variety of phasis and operation, is wrapt up in that fulness which dwells in Christ.

Col 1:20. Blood shed on earth creates feuds to be extinguished only by other blood; but the blood of Christs violent and vicarious death brings peace, restores alliance between heaven and earth.

Col 1:21. Man does not win his way back to the Divine favor by either costly offering or profound penitence. God re-unites him to Himself; has not only provided for such an alliance, but actually forms and cements it. The incarnation rightly understood, enhances the Redeemers greatness.

Col 1:23. Thus a life of faith is one of hope. The loss of faith is the knell of hope.Man is not acted on mechanically by the grace of God, but his whole spiritual nature is excited to earnest prayer and anxious effort. The confidence of success inspirits them.R.]

[Barnes: Col 1:9-11. It is a good time to pray for Christians when they are already prosperous, and are distinguished for zeal and love. We have then encouragement to do it.

Col 1:12-13. No words can express appropriately the goodness of God in thus making us heirs of light.

Col 1:15-18. In the affections of our hearts let the Saviour in all things have the preeminence. None should be loved by us as Christ is loved.

Col 1:19. In all our wants let us go to Christ, in whom all fulness dwells.

Col 1:20. What a glorious work is that of the gospel! It reconciles and harmonizes distant worlds.R.]

[Robert Hall:

Col 1:19. In Jesus Christ all fulness dwells, for the supply of spiritual destitution. Fulness of knowledge: knowledge is the great distinction of the mind, and here is all spiritual knowledge. Christ is Himself the wisdom of God; to know Him is to attain at once the highest knowledge. Fulness of holiness; holiness is the proper riches and beauty of the soul; and the subjects of Christ are created anew in holiness after His image. Fulness of consolation; the greatest comforts that ever visited the troubled heart of man are those which flow from Christ as their fountain. Fulness once more, as it respects the inheritance in reserve; of which the saints have at certain seasons a present sense and foretaste, though the light of eternity is required to display its real extent, to display the accessible fulness of the present Saviour.R.]

Ahlfeld: He who places the full Christian grace before his soul, will strive the more earnestly to possess it. 1) Wherein does it consist? 2) How may I gain what I still lack?Carsten: Peace through His blood on the cross. 1) Between God and man, 2) Heaven and earth, 3) in each human breastor 1) The world reconciled with God, 2) Heaven opened, 3) Conscience stilled.Lhe: A ladder that reaches from heaven to earth. 1) God the Father has set it through the Son of His Love; 2) the highest round, at first concealed, shines in the light of sanctification; 3) the second in that of justification; 4) the third in the bloody scene of Golgotha; and our Redemption.Khler: Thanksgiving for the benefit of Redemption; 1) end; 2) mode; 3) means; 4) Person of Redemption.

Zimmerman: Strife of two kingdoms for the souls of sinners; 1) God the Father devised the struggle concerning us; 2) God the Son has won the victory and kingdom for us; 3) whoever abides in Him, has escaped the enemy.33

On the epistle for the 24th Sunday after Trinity [Col 1:9-14. The Prot. Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, following that of the Church of England, uses Col 1:3-12.R.]Heubner: The great change wrought in man by Christianity. 1) Its nature: a) new light, full of knowledge and wisdom; b) a new virtuous walk, worthy of God; c) the translation into a new kingdom; d) the eternal Redemption. 2) The consequences: a) what is the reason, if we have not yet experienced this change? b) what have we to do?Rautenburg: The question respecting our growth in Christianity. 1) Can we2) will we grow? 3) Have we grown?Paul prays for the believers in Colosse : 1) that, 2) what, 3) where and when he prayed for them.Kapff: What is eternal blessedness ? 1) Redemption for all evil; 2) blessed fellowship with God and all saints; 3) unspeakable joy and honor in the glory of the heavenly kingdom.Lorenz: Darkness and light. 1) Man according to nature; 2) man according to grace.Florey: Light, the believers inheritance. 1) They have the light of truth; 2) they walk in the light of virtue; 3) they come into the light of blessedness.Beck: How a share in the glorious power of God 1) makes us meet; 2) admonishes us to thanksgiving.

[Beveridge: Col 1:12. The happiness of the saints in heaven. 1) What kind of persons they are, who are or shall be happy in the other world; they are saints. 2) The happiness they enjoy there; the inheritance in light. 3) They who desire to enjoy that happiness must be duly qualified for it; made meet. 4) All who are so qualified must ascribe it wholly to God, and give Him thanks for it; giving thanks, etc.Steinhofer : The economy of the Triune God in the work of our blessedness. 1) What God has determined according to the counsel of His own good pleasure; 2) what in His Son from all eternity for our salvation; 3) what actually takes place in us to the praise and glory of His name.The three glorious names of Jesus (Begotten before every creature, first-born from the dead, Head of the Body) should awaken us 1) to an humble joy, 2) a complete faith, 3) a tender love to Him.Lisco: The actual union of God with the human nature in Christ the ground of the most intimate re-union of humanity with God through Christ.Schenkel: A fruitful teachers duty to pray unceasingly for his people.The Christian should not rest until he has fully known the will of God, 1) in its highest designs and ends; 2) according to its manifold methods and means.How Christian life and Christian thought reciprocally condition each other. 1) Without Christian thought the Christian life is not plain. 2) Without Christian life Christian thought is not correct.The blessing of Redemption: 1) Wherein it consists (forgiveness of sins); 2) whereby it is obtained (through the blood of Christ.)Jesus Christ, the Risen One, the Head of the church: 1) Its Founder, 2) its Upholder, 3) its Ruler.Jesus Christ, according to Gods good pleasure, the Bearer of all fulness of humanity and of man. Consider then 1) His glory, 2) our poverty.The threefold witness for the truth of the gospel: resting 1) on the antiquity, 2) the extent, 3) the power of the proclamation of the same.R.]

Footnotes:

[16]Col 1:9. is wanting in B. [On the order of the latter part of the verse see Exeg. Notes.R.]

[17]Col 1:10.[, inserted after , Rec. Tischendorf, Wordsworth. Rejected by Lachmann, Meyer, Scholz, Alford, Ellicott, on the authority of . A. B. C. D. F. The subject ye necessarily supplied in the finite construction of our language.R.]

[18]Col 1:10.Instead of the more difficult reading: , of D.3 E.2 K. L., we find in . B. [C. D. F. G] , which with Meyer is to be regarded as an explanation. [Braunes German text: in der Erkenntniss, is certainly a typographical error for in die. Erkenntniss. The reading with the dative has little support. with the accusative, which Braune adopts, is that of Tischendorf (eds. 2 and 7, not 1). But Lachmann, Griesbach, Scholz, De Wette, Alford, Ellicott follow the preponderant uncial authority and read , all of them previous to the discovery of ., which confirms this reading. I have therefore altered the English text to express the force of this reading (instrumental dative).R.]

[19]Col 1:11.[Strengthened with strength; .R.]

[20]Col 1:11.[The hendiadys of the E. V. is generally considered unfortunate. Coverdale, Rhemish: the might of His glory.R.]

[21]Col 1:11.[Joy; Wickliffe, Rhemish, Eadie, Alford, Ellicott.R.]

[22]Col 1:12.B. inserts before [retained by Lachmann only.R.]. D.1 F. G. read only, omitting . The first appears to have been interpolated, then the subsequent omission.

[23]Ver 12.[For the portion, more literal than E. V., following the versions of Wickliffe, Coverdale and the Rhemishfor the share, for the part, etc.R.]

[24]Col 1:13.[Son of his love, preferred by all modern commentators, avoiding the hendiadys of the E. V.R.]

[25]Col 1:14.[Ellicott: rests only on cursive manuscripts, and is rightly omitted by nearly all modern editors. From Eph 1:7.R.]

[26]Col 1:17.Wordsworth reads , exists, instead of is. Subsist, Alford, Ellicott.R.]

[27]Col 1:18. is to be retained before with B. and the corrector of .B. alone has the article before .

[28]Col 1:19.[The rendering of Alford, given above, coincides with that of Braune. See Exeg. Notes.R.]

[29]Col 1:21.B. and others have . The reading , . A. C. and others, seems to be an emendation on account of the construction. [The preponderance of authority is on the other side. Lachmann adopts the reading of B., but Rec, E. V., Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth follow the mass of MSS. See Exeg. Notes.R.]

[30]Col 1:22. after . A., is properly omitted in B. [ is=his death here.R.]

[31]Col 1:23. is omitted after in . A. B. C. and others. The corrector of . adds it.

[32]Col 1:23.Instead of , the reading of . B. [?A.] is , yet is added in the margin of .

[33][These divisions are made to rhyme in Germana fashion in sermonizing that happily has not yet come into vogue in America: 1) Gott der Vater hat den Kampf um uns ersonnen, 2) Gott der Sohn hat Sieg und Reich fur uns gewonnen; 3) wer in Ihm, bleibt, der ist dem Feind entronnen.R.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 2167
PRAYER FOR GROWTH IN GRACE

Col 1:9-13. We do not cease to pray for you that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

UNIVERSAL benevolence will begin to shew itself wherever Christianity gains a just ascendency. This is particularly observable in the prayers which the Apostle offered for others; the fervour and fulness of which clearly proved, that they proceeded from a heart fraught with love, and deeply impressed with the excellency of those blessings which are provided for us in the Gospel. He confined not his attention to the welfare of a few with whom he might happen to sojourn; but extended it to the whole Church, as well to those whom he had never seen, as to those amongst whom he had ministered. He needed only to be informed that a work of grace was begun in any persons, and he instantly felt an union of heart with them, and took a lively interest in all that concerned them. This remark is strongly exemplified in the prayer before us. He had heard of the blessed state of the Colossian Church; and, from the instant he had received the glad tidings, he remembered that people in all his stated prayers: and, in the passage before us, he tells them what he prayed for on their behalf. He desired that they might advance

I.

In the knowledge of Gods will

[The knowledge of Gods revealed will is the foundation of all acceptable obedience: and every Christian must of necessity be in some degree endued with it. But he will not be satisfied with a scanty measure of it: he wishes to be filled with it, so that it may engage all the faculties of his mind. Not that he can rest in a speculative view of Divine truth, however clear or comprehensive it may be: the knowledge which he covets, is a practical and experimental knowledge; a knowledge that diffuses a spiritual savour over his soul, and enables him to conduct himself, with all wisdom, as well in his secret conflicts with sin, as in the public exercises of his duty to God and man.
Such then was the Apostles first request for the converts at Colosse: he desired, that, as they already had some knowledge of Gods will, so they might be filled with it, enjoying at the same time its sweet savour, and its practical influence, in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding.
And should not such be our prayer also for ourselves? Let us not forget, that, while we aspire after divine knowledge, we must chiefly seek that which brings a feast to the soul, and endues it with a nice and accurate discernment of good and evil.]

II.

In obedience to his commands

[The more enlarged views the Christian has of divine truth, the more studious will he be to fulfil the will of God. And in his endeavours after holiness he will propose to himself the highest measure of obedience, and the noblest end. He will not limit himself to the rules prescribed by men; nor will he aim merely at obtaining eternal happiness: but he will consider the relation he bears to God, and the obligations he has received from him, and the expectations which he has of future benefits; and will endeavour to walk worthy of such a Father, such a Redeemer, such an unspeakable Benefactor. He will resemble a dutiful and affectionate servant, who does not merely consider what he must do in order to escape censure, and receive his wages, but what will please his Master. He inquires with himself, What will please my God? That is the great object of his ambition: that is the spring of his activity: and with that view he endeavours to be fruitful, not in some good works only, but in every good work, however difficult or self-denying.

Suited to these dispositions was the Apostles prayer: he desired for the Colossians what he knew they desired for themselves, even that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. And it is certain, that in proportion as we have attained a just knowledge of Gods will, we shall desire, both for ourselves and others, an increase of righteousness and true holiness.]

III.

In the enjoyment of his presence

[The knowledge of God seems to be different from the knowledge of his will, that has been before mentioned: the former relates to a view of his truth, and the latter to the enjoyment of his presence. In this sense the latter is not a mere repetition, but a blessing intimately connected with a holy life. Whom will God meet, and unto whom will lie reveal himself, but him that rejoiceth in working righteousness [Note: Isa 64:5.]? Yes; there are manifestations which such persons shall receive, and such manifestations as the world can form no idea of [Note: Joh 14:21; Joh 14:23.]. God will shed abroad his love in the hearts of his people; and will testify to them their adoption into his family, and seal them unto the day of redemption. How desirable is this for every saint! and how rich a recompence is it for any self-denial he may exercise in the path of duty! Would to God that all professing Christians might experience this; and that not a single day might ever pass, in which they cannot say with the beloved Disciple, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ [Note: 1Jn 1:3.]!]

IV.

In submission to his dispensations

[The more any person lives in the enjoyment of God, and a diligent performance of his will, the more must he expect to be hated and persecuted by an ungodly world. But under all his trials he must be patient: to whatever length of time they be protracted, he must be long-suffering: nor must he merely possess his soul in patience; he must have it blended with joyfulness, regarding it as his honour and his happiness that he is counted worthy to suffer shame for his Redeemers sake [Note: Act 5:41.]. But who is sufficient for these things? It is not possible for feeble man. to maintain such a conduct, unless he be strengthened with all might by the Holy Ghost: yea, there must be such an exertion of omnipotence as will serve for a bright display of his glorious power; nor can any thing less than this effect so great a work.

Here then again we see the suitableness of the Apostles prayer: for if we cannot serve the Lord without participating his cross, or sustain by our own power the trials that will come upon us, what alternative remains, but either to abandon our profession, or to implore such help from God as shall make us more than conquerors over all?]

V.

In thankfulness to him for his mercies

[There can be no state, however afflictive, in which a Christian ought not to abound in thanksgivings to God. The Israelites, to whom he divided Canaan by lot, were unspeakably indebted to him: but how are they indebted, to whom he has given an inheritance among the saints in light; even in heaven, where they dwell in the immediate presence of their God! For this they are rendered meet; (for it is impossible that they can enjoy it, if they possess not a meetness for it:) their heavenly Father has delivered them from the power of darkness, even as he did Lot from Sodom, and the Israelites from Egypt, with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm: lie has moreover translated them into the kingdom of his dear Son, and brought them into a cheerful and unreserved obedience to his will. Must not they then give glory to their God? What if they be burning at the stake, ought they not to rejoice that God has rescued them from hell, and that they are entering on a state of uninterrupted everlasting happiness?

Surely no Christian should rest short of this attainment: but we should all unite in wrestling with our God, till he pour out his Spirit upon us, and form us to the model which was here proposed for the Colossian converts.]

Infer
1.

How glorious are the Christians privileges!

[Did the Apostle incessantly ask of God what God was not willing to bestow? No; if we opened our mouth wide, he would fill it; and all these graces should abound in us, to the praise and glory of our God. What then must the Christian be, in whom these things are found! O believer, aim not at low things; but aspire after the highest measures of wisdom, purity, and joy.]

2.

How dependent are we upon our God!

[It is not at our first commencement only of a religious course that we depend on God, but to the latest hour of our lives. We can have no knowledge, holiness, or joy, but as we receive it from him. Let us then make our requests known to him, and depend on him for all seasonable supplies of grace and strength.]

3.

How great is the benefit of intercession!

[We certainly are not sufficiently apprised of this. But when we recollect the intercessions of Abraham for Sodom, of Lot for Zoar, of Moses for Israel, how can we be so remiss in this duty! Let us incessantly plead for each other, knowing that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(9) For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; (10) That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (11) Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; (12) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

It is blessed to observe, how uniformly the Apostle joins prayer with all his spiritual employments. And, as it relates to the Church, it is blessed to observe also what are the chief objects of his prayers for the people, namely, that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in Christ; and strengthened with all might in the apprehension of it. Reader! it is a most important discovery, for our direction in going to the throne, to have it always in remembrance, what to pray for; and never to lose sight, at the same time, that it is God the Spirit, who alone can shew, what we should desire; and help us in our infirmities, how to plead for the supply. Rom 7:25 . The great evil of the present day is, that few, comparatively speaking, of God’s people, have their spirits suitably exercised to apprehend, what will make most for their happiness. The great mass, even of those whom the Lord hath regenerated, and in some measure brought acquainted with the plague of their own heart, are forever looking for a work, supposed to he wrought in them; and are not simply looking to, and depending upon, a work wrought for them. And, though every day’s disappointment, shews them the error; yet, it is a long time before that they are fully weaned from it. Reader! mark Paul’s prayer for the Church, Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power: not according to our supposed attainments; but the glorious power of Christ, in his finished work, and glory. It is blessed to be thus living upon him, in whom all salvation is found; and in whose Person, the whole Church is beheld complete.

I admire what the Apostle saith, of giving thanks to the Father, both for his original choice of the Church to an inheritance in, and with Christ; and for the translation of the Church as children of his adoption, from the power of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear Son. Depend upon it, the beginnings of the triumphs of faith are found in these things. For, though by regeneration our eyes are opened, to see, and feel sin; and the first joy of the newly awakened soul, is the consciousness, when we are delivered, from darkness to light by Christ; yet, when God the Spirit hath brought us on to see further, and that it was God the Father who by his original choice of the Church in Christ, made us meet to be partakers of an inheritance of the saints in light; here we trace our mercies to the fountain-head, and we cry out with the Apostle: Thanks be unto God, who always ceaseth us to triumph in Christ, 2Co 2:17 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

“Handfuls of Purpose”

For All Gleaners

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col 1:9 .)

The effect upon the Apostle himself is thus seen. Because he hears of the spread of the gospel he continues to pray more, and he desires that the work which has been begun may be perfected. Paul does not rest content with present attainments, saying, You have done enough for the time being, and by-and-by you may endeavour to do a little more if you feel so disposed. Paul never lowers the tone of his exhortation; he will have nothing less than the best that heaven can give, with which to enrich the hearts of the saints; he will that Colossians and Christians everywhere might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Here the Apostle is grandly metaphysical. He will not be alphabetic and elementary always; he will continue his processes of education until the soul is literally bathed and submerged in all the holiest influence which God can bring to bear upon it. Paul will not have literal Christians that is, literalists, learning only in the letter; he will have his followers rich in “spiritual understanding.” That is one thing which the churches most want the churches of literature and science; they are consummately able in debate and controversy, but what have they of inward, vital, spiritual understanding?

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it , do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

Ver. 9. In all wisdom and spiritual ] See Trapp on “ Eph 1:8 “ There you have the same expression. And indeed this Epistle hath many passages common with that, and seemeth to have been written soon after that, cum adhuc qua ad Ephesios scripserat, in animo haererent, while the things that he had written to the Ephesians were yet fresh in his mind and memory. (Grotius.)

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

9 12 .] Prayer for their confirmation and completion in the spiritual life .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

9 .] For this reason (on account of your love and faith, &c. which Epaphras announced to us) we also ( , on our side the Colossians having been the subject before; used too on account of the close correspondence of the words following with those used of the Colossians above) from the day when we heard ( it ) (viz. as in Col 1:4 ) do not cease praying for you (‘precum mentionem generatim fecit Col 1:3 ; nunc exprimit, quid precetur,’ Beng.) and (brings into prominence a special after a general, cf. Eph 6:18-19 ) beseeching that (on after verbs of praying, see note, 1Co 14:13 ) ye may be filled with (accusative, as in reff.) the thorough knowledge ( . stronger than : see 1Co 13:12 ) of His (God’s, understood as the object of our prayer) will (respecting your walk and conduct, as the context shews: not so much His purpose in Christ, as Chrys. ( , ), (c., Thl., al.: cf. Eph 1:9 ; but of course not excluding the great source of that special will respecting you, His general will to be glorified in His Son) in all wisdom (seeing that , in the similar clauses, Eph 1:8 ; Col 1:28 , ch. Col 3:16 , is absolute, I prefer taking it so here, and not, as Ellic., with ) and spiritual understanding (the instrument by which we are to be thus filled, the working of the Holy Spirit, . On and , the general and particular, see note Eph 1:8 ; so Bengel here, “ est quiddam generalius: est sollertia qudam, ut quovis tempore aliquid succurrat, quod hic et nunc aptum est. est in intellectu: est in toto complexu facultatum anim”) to walk (aim of the foregoing imparting of wisdom: ‘so that ye may walk.’ . . Chrys.) worthily of the Lord (Christ, see reff. and cf. , 3Jn 1:6 ) unto (‘ with a view to ,’ subjective: or, ‘ so as to effect ,’ objective: the latter is preferable) all (all manner of, all that your case admits) well-pleasing (the word occurs in Theophr. Character. 5, which is on as a subjective quality. Mey. quotes from Polyb. xxxi. 26. 5, . The meaning is, ‘so that (see above) in every way ye may be well pleasing to God’): in (exemplifying element of the .; see below) every good work (not to be joined with the former clause, as (c., Thl., Erasm., al., to the destruction of the parallelism) bearing fruit (the good works being the fruits: the is now further specified, being subdivided into four departments, noted by the four participles , , , and . On the construction, see Eph 3:18 note) and increasing (see on Col 1:6 above) by the knowledge of God (the instrument of the increase. This is by far the most difficult of the three readings (see var. readd.), the meaning of and being very obvious the former pointing out the element, the latter the proposed measure, of the increase. And hence, probably, the variations. It is the knowledge of God which is the real instrument of enlargement , in soul and in life, of the believer not a which , but an which ),

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Col 1:9-14 . PAUL’S UNCEASING PRAYER FOR THAT MORAL DISCERNMENT WHICH WILL ENABLE THEM TO PLEASE GOD IN ALL THEIR CONDUCT, THAT STRENGTH WHICH WILL GIVE THEM ENDURANCE IN FACE OF ALL PROVOCATION AND TRIAL, AND THAT THANKFULNESS TO GOD, WHICH BEFITS THE GREAT DELIVERANCE HE HAS ACHIEVED FOR THEM THROUGH HIS SON.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Col 1:9 . . The good report from Coloss prompts Paul’s prayer. Apparently the reference is to all that has been said in Col 1:4-8 , though Haupt confines it to Col 1:8 . : “we also,” i.e. , as the Colossians had prayed for Paul, so he had made unceasing prayer for them. Similar assurances are common in the letters of the period, but their conventional character must not in the case of one of so intense a nature as Paul’s lead us to degrade them into polite commonplaces. . The former verb is general, the latter special, referring to the definite request. Soden thinks the middle ( ) is chosen to express Paul’s personal interest, but there seems to have been no distinction between the middle and active of this verb in later Greek. . After verbs of praying, etc., is used in a weakened sense to express the content of the prayer. . with the accusative is not precisely the same as with the genitive or dative. So here “filled with respect to”. is stronger than . Meyer defines it as the knowledge which grasps and penetrates into the object. . This does not mean God’s counsel of redemption (Chrys., Beng., De W., Kl [4] ), nor “the whole counsel of God as made known to us in Christ” (Findl.), but, as the context indicates (Col 1:10 ), the moral aspect of God’s will, “His will for the conduct of our lives” (Mey., Sod., Haupt, Abb.). : to be taken with the preceding, not (as by Hofm.) with the following words. is general, special. embraces the whole range of mental faculties; is the special faculty of intelligence or insight which discriminates between the false and the true, and grasps the relations in which things stand to each other. The addition of . shows that both are to proceed from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They thus stand in opposition to fleshly wisdom (2Co 1:12 ), and especially, it would seem, though Haupt denies this, to the false wisdom, by which the Colossians were in danger of being ensnared ( Cf. , Col 2:18 ). The repetition of in this context should be noticed. The early part of the Epistle is strongly marked by repetition of particular words and phrases.

[4] Klpper.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Col 1:9-14

9For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. 13For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Col 1:9-20 This is one sentence in Greek. Col 1:9-12 is Paul’s prayer for these believers. Col 1:13-14 describes what the Father has done for believers through the Son. Col 1:15-18 are possibly a quote from an early Christian hymn or confessional statement related to the ministry of the Son (i.e., other possible hymns, cf. Php 2:6-11, 1Ti 3:16, 2Ti 2:11-12). This is one of the greatest Christological confession in Paul’s writings (compare with Php 2:6-11).

Col 1:9 “heard of it” Paul did not start this church, nor did he know its members personally. He heard about their faith and love from its founder, Epaphras (cf. Col 1:7-8).

“we have not ceased to pray for you” The plural refers to (1) Paul himself (i.e., editorial plural) or (2) Paul and his mission team. Leaders should constantly hold up their flocks to the Lord. See Special Topic: Intercessory Prayer at Col 4:3.

“that you may be filled” This is an aorist passive subjunctive. Believers cannot fill themselves, but they must allow and co-operate with the Spirit (cf. Eph 5:18).

“Filled” is the main verb of Col 1:9-12. It is the first of two requests that Paul made of the Father on behalf of the Colossian believers. The other is for their walk to be worthy (Col 1:10). Notice he links knowledge of God with a godly lifestyle (cf. Eph 4:1; Eph 4:17; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:15). Faith without works is dead (cf. Jas 2:14-26).

“knowledge of His will” The content of this knowledge (epignsk, i.e., experiential knowledge, cf. v.6) is the gospel. The gospel is (1) a body of truth to be believed; (2) a person to be received; and (3) a life like that person’s to live. God’s will is that individuals personally respond to Christ (cf. Joh 6:29; Joh 6:40) who is the goal of all “spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

This verse is a play on the theology of the false teachers. This is confirmed by (1) Paul’s use of “filled” (plerma), one of the Gnostics’ favorite terms for the aeons between the high god and angelic levels and (2) their emphasis on secret knowledge (cf. Col 2:3). For Paul, all fullness and knowledge was in Christ, who was God’s wisdom (sophia, cf. Col 1:28; Col 2:3; Col 2:23; Col 3:16; Col 4:5; Eph 1:8; Eph 1:17; Eph 3:10) and the convergence of all truth (sunesis, cf. Col 2:2).

Notice the threefold repetition: “knowledge,” “wisdom,” and “understanding.” This reflects the false teachers’ emphasis on secret truth (cf. Col 2:3). Christ is the truth of God (cf. Joh 14:6)!

Col 1:10 “walk in a manner worthy” This is an aorist active infinitive. It is defined by four present participles (cf. Col 1:10-12) which describes the worthy walk (cf. Col 2:6; Col 3:7; Col 4:5; Eph 2:10; Eph 4:1; Eph 4:17; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:15; 1Th 2:12; 1Th 4:1). God’s will is that His children reflect His character daily.

” bearing fruit in every good work” For “fruit bearing” see note at Col 1:6. This is the first of four present participles (cf. Col 1:10-12) which describe worthy lives.

God’s will is that believers live godly lives. The moral transformation of believers is evidence that the image of God has been restored! It serves as a bridge to evangelism. It reflects the believer’s new family characteristics and shows who our true father is – God.

Biblical salvation is a free gift, which must result in a new and different life (cf. Eph 2:8-10).

“increasing in the knowledge of God” This is the second present participle. This is a strong compound term for experiential knowledge (epignsk, cf. Col 1:9-10; Col 3:10; Eph 1:17; Eph 4:13). Believers are to continue to grasp the meaning of the gospel and continue to live out its implications.

Col 1:11 “strengthened with all power” This is the third present participle meaning “with all power being empowered.” Like salvation, the Christian life is a supernatural gift, not unaided, strenuous human effort or commitment (cf. Gal 3:1-3). Believers must yield to the Spirit to produce effective, godly lives (cf. Eph 5:18). This term is always used of supernatural strength (cf. Eph 1:19; Php 4:13).

“according to His glorious might” This phrase describes how believers are to be “strengthened with all power.” They must yield to God’s Spirit, and the energy, power and glory are His!

“steadfastness and patience” One wonders if these were used synonymously. They had slightly different foci. Steadfastness (hupomon) meant patient endurance and perseverance, while patience (makrothumia) meant patient endurance of evil or suffering. They were both frequent admonitions from Paul (cf. 2Co 6:4; 2Co 6:6; 2Ti 3:10). Believers are only capable of them in God’s power. These terms were often used to describe how God treats fallen mankind (cf. Rom 2:4; Rom 9:22; 1Co 6:6) and how redeemed mankind should therefore treat one another (cf. Gal 5:22-23; Eph 4:2; Col 3:12).

“joyously” This can relate grammatically to Col 1:11 ( NKJV) or Col 1:12 (NASB, NRSV, TEV, NJB).

Col 1:12 “giving thanks” This is the last of the four present participles of Col 1:10-12 which describe the worthy walk as constant thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a characteristic of the Spirit-filled life (cf. Col 3:17; Eph 5:20; 1Th 5:18).

“to the Father” Christians need to be constantly reminded that the NT focus on the ministry of the Son should not diminish their praise of God the Father. He is the One whose character and grace are exhibited in Jesus. He was the sender and sustainer of the Son (cf. Eph 1:3-23).

There are several Greek manuscript variations of this phrase. However, this reading is supported by the ancient Greek manuscripts P61, A, C, D, K, and P as well as the Latin Vulgate translation. The UBS4 gives it a “B” rating (almost certain). These variations, as is so often true, do not affect the sense, truth or trustworthiness of the text. Early scribes tried to make the texts they copied clearer. See Appendix Two.

NASB, NKJV”qualified”

NRSV”enabled”

TEV”has made you fit”

NJB”has made you able”

This term is used only here and in 2Co 3:5-6 (the adjective is used in 2Co 2:16; 2Co 3:5 and 2Ti 2:2). God has qualified us (1) by declaring us to be righteous in Christ (justification and positional sanctification) and (2) by developing Christlikeness in us (progressive sanctification). See Special Topic: Sanctification at Eph 1:1.

“us” The ancient Greek texts are equally divided between “us” (NASB, NKJV) and “you” (NRSV, TEV, NJB). The UBS4 gives “you” a “B” rating (almost certain). The “you” may have been written here by a copyist to match Col 1:13.

“to share in the inheritance” Inheritance is literally the term “lot.” In the OT God promised Abraham a land and a seed (cf. Gen 12:12). The OT focuses on the land; the NT focuses on the seed. In the OT, the land of Palestine was given as a tribal inheritance to all the children of Jacob (cf. Joshua 12-19) except the Levites because they served God in a unique role (cf. Num 4:45). God Himself was said to be their inheritance (cf. Num 18:24). In a sense all the OT people of God were priests (Exo 19:4-6). They were a kingdom of priests to bring the whole world to God. The NT people of God are spoken of in OT terms as priests (1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9; Rev 1:6). As the Levites had God as their inheritance, so now do all the NT believers (cf. Act 20:32; Rom 8:17; Gal 4:7).

SPECIAL TOPIC: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE

“of the saints” See Special Topic at Col 1:2.

“in light” This was either (1) an ethical statement (cf. Joh 3:19) or (2) a statement about Christlikeness in opposition to the demonic (cf. Eph 6:12; Act 26:18).

Col 1:13-14 These verses function as a transition to the wonderful Christological creed of Col 1:15-20. It describes what God the Father has done for the believers through the Son.

Col 1:13 “He delivered us” The pronoun refers to the Father. This aorist middle (deponent) indicative is used in the sense of rescued (NRSV, TEV, NJB).

“from the dominion of darkness” Literally this is “authority (exousia) of darkness” (cf. Col 1:12; Luk 22:53). NJB has “ruling force of darkness.” Light and darkness were often used in Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls to represent the two spiritual realms of good and evil (cf. Joh 3:19-21). Paul uses this term several times in Col. (cf. Col 1:13; Col 1:16; Col 2:10; Col 2:15).

“transferred” This is literally “resettled” or “relocated.” Both of the verbs in this verse are aorist. These are things God has already accomplished for believers.

“kingdom” Jesus used this concept as a present reality with a future consummation. The context emphasized what believers already possess in Christ (cf. Eph 2:5-6)! See Special Topic: The Kingdom of God at Eph 5:5.

Paul did not use Jesus’ exact phrase “the Kingdom of God” often, possibly because the Gentiles would not have understood this Jewish concept.

“of His beloved Son” God the Father gave this title to Jesus at His baptism and transfiguration (cf. Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5). Jesus is the unique Son (monogens, cf. Joh 1:18; Joh 3:16; Joh 3:18; 1Jn 4:9). Believers are sons through Him.

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE SON OF GOD

Col 1:14 “in whom we have” This is a present active indicative. In Christ believers have and continue to have the family blessings of God.

“redemption” This may have been an allusion to the OT terms (paduh, “to free or redeem” and gaal, “to free through the agency of a relative [go’el]). Jesus bought us back from slavery (cf. Isa 53:11-12; Mar 10:45; Eph 1:7). Redemption is a present reality (cf. Eph 1:7) and a future consummation (cf. Eph 4:30).

SPECIAL TOPIC: RANSOM/REDEEM

“the forgiveness of sins” There were several Greek terms for “forgiveness.” This one (aphesis) meant “to send away,” which was an allusion to the ritual of the Day of Atonement (cf. Leviticus 16). The scapegoat symbolically carried away the sins of the people.

We learn from Irenaeus’ Heresies, 1:21:2 that some Gnostic teachers separated redemption from remission by a time and maturity factor. Paul may have been addressing this falsehood.

The King James Version adds the phrase “through His blood,” which later scribes added from the parallel in Eph 1:7.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

For this cause = On account of (App-104. Col 1:2) this (i.e. their faith and love).

not. App-105.

desire. App-134.

that = in order that. Greek. hina

filled. App-125.

knowledge. App-182.

spiritual. See 1Co 12:1.

understanding. See Cor. Col 1:19. App-132.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

9-12.] Prayer for their confirmation and completion in the spiritual life.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Col 1:9. , we have heard) Col 1:4.-, praying) He made mention of prayers for them generally, Col 1:3 : he now states what he prays for.-, ye may be filled) This verb, with its derivatives (conjugates), often occurs in this epistle, as far as ch. Col 4:12; Col 4:17.- , with the knowledge of His will) There is a gradation in the following verse, in the knowledge of GOD.- , will) Eph 5:17; Eph 1:9.-, in wisdom) a word often used in this epistle; that they may be led the more from false wisdom and philosophy, Eph 1:8. [There seems to have been a want of knowledge among the Colossians, who were otherwise of an excellent spirit; wherefore the apostle urges that point with so great earnestness throughout the whole epistle, Col 1:11; Col 1:28; Col 2:2-3; Col 3:10; Col 3:16; Col 4:5-6.-V. g.] Knowledge is less recommended to the Corinthians, who were more apt to be puffed up. Wisdom denotes taste: comp. Mat 23:34, note.-, understanding) that you may discern what is consistent with, or opposed to the truth, and may not pass by what requires consideration. Wisdom () is something more general; is a kind of sagacity. So that on every occasion, there may suggest itself something which is suited to the place and time. is in the understanding; wisdom is in the whole compass (complexu) of the faculties of the soul.-, spiritual) not natural.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Col 1:9

Col 1:9

For this cause-This refers to the entire preceding paragraph, because of what had been heard respecting the Colossian church.

we also, since the day we heard it,-The receipt of the intelligence produced immediate results and led to prayer.

do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will-[To be so filled that every part of their being should be permeated, and thus controlled and elevated by an intelligent comprehension of the will of God.]

At the time this was written the full will of God had not been revealed and collected. The preaching was done chiefly by men partially inspired, or gifted, and they were not able to teach the whole will of God. Even the apostles did not know it all at once. Some things were revealed to one that were not to another, and Paul and Barnabas had to go up to Jerusalem to the other apostles that they might have a decision from the whole body on the question of the circumcision of the Gentiles. Then there was disputing, conferring, and hearing what had been revealed to the different ones before the decision was reached. (Act 15:1-29). There was then a care and anxiety that those taught by the less gifted should be taught the whole will of God.

in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,-The combination of wisdom and understanding is what we all need, and is that for which Paul prayed on behalf of the Colossians. [One may have intellectual attainments and his mind filled with learning without being wise. In the knowledge of Gods will both wisdom and insight are required. He prays that amid such wisdom and understanding they may be made full with a fullness embracing intelligent acquaintance with the will of God. The progress does not consist in leaving behind old truths, but in profounder conception of what is contained in these truths. The law of the Christian life is continuous increase in the knowledge of the depths that lie in the old truths, and of their far-reaching applications. We are to grow in knowledge of the Christ by coming ever nearer to him, and learning more of the infinite meaning of our earliest lesson that he is the Son of God who died for us.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Our Wondrous Privileges in Christ

Col 1:9-20

Here is a paragraph which may fitly form part of our daily intercession for ourselves and others. We all need a quicker insight into Gods will, and this is only acquired through the wisdom and understanding communicated by the Holy Spirit to our spirits. But that understanding is conditioned, as in Col 1:10, by a daily behavior which pleases God and bears fruit in every good work. It is as we slowly climb the ascent of consistent living that the landscape of Gods nature expands around us. As character and knowledge grow, so will our spiritual strength; but notice that frequently such strength is needed not so much for great exploits, as for the patient bearing of the Cross, Col 1:11.

In view of the fact that we are being qualified for an inheritance in light, there should be a song of perennial thanksgiving proceeding from us. What a wonder that the sons of ignorance and night can dwell in the Eternal Light, through the Eternal Love! It is not enough to receive the forgiveness of sins, we must be conformed to the image of the Son, who is Himself the image of the Father, Col 1:15. Notice the pre-eminence of Jesus-in creation, Col 1:16; in the Church, Col 1:18; in resurrection, Col 1:18; and in the great enterprise of reconciliation and restoration, Col 1:20. Let Him be pre-eminent for us also!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter 3 Paul’s Player, and Thanksgiving

Col 1:9-14

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. (vv. 9-14)

This section reminds us of the prayers of the apostle for the Ephesians, as recorded in chapters 1 and 3 of that epistle. There is something very precious and exceedingly instructive in being thus permitted to share the thoughts of, and notice the petitions offered up by, the apostle Paul for the Lords people in various circumstances. His deep concern for their growth in grace, their enlightenment in divine things, their apprehension of the purpose of God, and the manifestation of spiritual power in the life-all these come out very strikingly as he bows his knees before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was not content to know people were justified and hence safe for eternity.

He was controlled by the earnest desire that each one should understand the hope of his calling in order that the life and walk might be in harmony with it, and that they might remember they were here to represent Christ, their risen Head. These are what formed the burden of his prayers. It is questionable if any merely human writer has ever been able to give as helpful suggestions for our own prayer life as will come to us in our meditation upon these various petitions.

In verses 9-11 we have set forth certain blessings for which he prays. In verses 12-14 there are others for which he gives thanks. It is very important to distinguish these things, that is, to have clearly in mind the privileges and blessings which are nonforfeitable because confirmed to us by God in Christ from the moment we believe on Him who died to make them good to us. The additional blessings for which we need to pray daily, and concerning which there should be constant soul-exercise lest we fail to enter into and enjoy them. Many believers fail in not distinguishing the two classes of blessings.

In certain circles almost every public prayer will be concluded somewhat as follows: We pray Thee, forgive us our sins and wash us in the blood of Jesus. Receive us into Thy kingdom, give us Thy Holy Spirit, and save us at last for Christs sake, Amen. Yet every petition in this prayer has already been granted to the believer in Christ! God has forgiven us all trespasses. We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. He has already translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into that of the Son of His love. He has sealed us with His Holy Spirit, for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And we are saved eternally from the moment we believe the gospel. Therefore we might far rather cry exultantly in faith: We thank Thee that Thou hast forgiven all our sins, and washed us from every stain in the blood of the Lamb. Thou hast brought us into Thy kingdom, given us Thy Holy Spirit, and saved us for eternity.

Faith says Amen to what God has declared in His Word to be true. To go on praying for blessings that He tells us are already ours is the most subtle kind of unbelief, and robs us of the enjoyment that should be our portion if we but had faith to lay hold of the exceeding great and precious promises which are ours in Christ.

Let us then follow carefully the apostles prayer, weighing every phrase and clause. He says, [I] pray for you, [that] ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will. Those who were troubling the Colossian saints boasted of their superior knowledge. They had evolved a complex system of mystical and wholly imaginative teaching in regard to the souls approach to God through an interminable number of intermediaries, coupled with ascetic regulations and legal observances. In their eyes the gospel as preached by Paul was simplicity indeed, so much so that they looked upon it as a childs conception of the philosophy of the universe, which was puerile for men of mature minds. But he who knew this gospel in all its grandeur, as few other men have ever known it, speaks here of being filled with the knowledge of Gods will. He uses a superlative in the place of a word which the Gnostics were very fond of. They boasted of Gnosis-knowledge. He says, Epignosis, meaning, literally, super-knowledge. It is in the divine revelation alone that this is found.

By this term, the knowledge of his will, I do not understand him to be referring merely to Gods will for the individual believers life from day to day (though, indeed, that would be involved in the fuller thought of the will of God, as the drop of water is included in the ocean), but by His will, I take it, he means the wondrous plan or program of the Father known from eternity and now being carried out in time to have its consummation in the ages to come-the eternal purpose of God. Here is super-knowledge indeed! Here is that which the cleverest human intellect could never fathom, apart from divine revelation. And this revelation we have in our Bibles. It runs throughout the Scriptures from Genesis to the Apocalypse, furnishing a theme for devout contemplation, and demanding enthusiastic study and careful examination by men of the most erudite minds and brilliant intellects, and the deepest investigation of the most spiritual believers. But in which also the unlearned and the ignorant Christians will find constant enjoyment if they but allow themselves to be guided by the Spirit in searching the Scriptures to see whether these things are so.

So the words that follow stress the important fact that truth is not learned through the intellect alone. He prays that they may comprehend these things in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge aright, and is imparted by the Spirit, and He alone gives true understanding. Therefore, if we would learn the mind of God as revealed in His Word, there must be subjection of heart to the divine Teacher, and that self-judgment and self-distrust which leads one to walk softly before God; not in self-will or egotism, but in humility and lowly dependence on the One who inspired the Holy Scriptures, which alone can make wise the simple.

Then we learn in verse 10 that if God opens up His truth to us it is not merely that we may delight in the wondrous things He has revealed, but it is His desire that we walk in the power of that which He makes known to us. So the prayer goes on, That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. We can only walk worthy of the Lord as we know His mind. The study of His Word and a godly walk should ever go together.

It is noteworthy that in Eph 4:1 we are exhorted to walk worthy of [our] vocation, or calling, as members of the body of Christ, while in Php 1:27 we are told to walk worthy of the gospel, which we are left in the world to proclaim. Then in 1Th 2:12 we are bidden to walk worthy of God, Himself, who has called us to His kingdom and glory. Our walk is ever to be in accordance with the truth revealed to our souls. So here we are to walk worthy of the Lord, He who is the Head of the new creation to which we now belong.

Dr. Griffith Thomas points out that the word here rendered pleasing is not found in any other passage in the New Testament, but is used in Greek elsewhere to mean a preference of the will of others before our own. Bishop Handley Moule translated the phrase, Unto every anticipation of His will.

This is blessed indeed, when the will of God is sweeter far than our own will, and we delight in doing as He would have us, not in order to propitiate Him but to give joy to His heart. Yet most of us learn so slowly that the only true happiness in life is to be found in doing the will of God. In vain we seek for satisfaction by trying to have our own way, until at last like a bird, wearied out with flying against the bars of its cage, we fall back upon the will of God and learn that in it the mind and heart find perfect rest.

Oh, the peace my Saviour gives;

Peace I never knew before;

And the way has brighter grown

Since Ive learned to trust Him more.

It is the subject believer who becomes fruitful, so he adds, being fruitful in every good work. Or it might be better rendered, bearing fruit in every good work. When we speak of every good work, we are not to think simply of preaching the gospel, teaching the Holy Scriptures, or engaging in what is sometimes called Christian activity or church work. We are very prone to do this and to distinguish between secular employment and sacred. But we need to be reminded over and over again that everything in a believers life is sacred. The church of Rome distinguishes seven sacraments. But every act of a Christian should have a sacramental character using the word as generally understood. Whatsoever is right and proper for me to do in any circumstance, I should do with an eye single to the glory of God, and by so doing I shall be bearing fruit unto Him. The testimony of the little maid who said, I know I am converted, and my mistress knows I am converted too, because I sweep under the mats now, has gone around the world, and wherever this gospel is preached it is told for a memorial of her. She was right, for even in the most commonplace duties she was bearing fruit for God, and she sought to glorify Him by the faithful performance of her responsibilities, done not with eye-service as a man-pleaser, but as pleasing God which trieth the heart.

Then we have, Increasing in the knowledge of God. This is more than the knowledge of the Word of God, though undoubtedly the one leads to the other, for God has made Himself known through His Word. But we increase in the knowledge of God as we walk with Him from day to day, learning more of His love and grace, His tender compassion, His care for those who trust Him; and proving, too, how solemn a thing it is to deviate from the path of obedience and thus be exposed to the rod of correction. We know God as we walk with Him. We walk with Him as we obey His Word.

We know Him as we could not know

Through heavens golden years;

We there shall see His glorious face,

On earth they saw His tears;

The touch that heals the broken heart

Is never felt above;

His angels know His blessedness,

His way-worn saints His love.

We shall thank Him for all eternity for every trial along our pilgrim path that gave Him a new opportunity to display His grace and to manifest His heart to us, His needy people, so dependent upon His power and grace.

As we thus go on with Him, we will be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, and this unto all patience and long-suffering with joyful-ness. How much have we here upon which our souls may well meditate? It is He who supplies strength, giving all needed power in order that we may overcome in every adverse circumstance, according to the might of His glory. What room is there for discouragement as temptations and trials surround me and seem about to overwhelm me, if I realize that the very same spiritual dynamic, that wondrous energy which raised Christ from the dead, operates in me by the Spirit that I may be even more than victorious through Him who loves me!

But we might have supposed that all this manifestation of divine energy would result in producing some great outward display that would astonish and amaze an unbelieving world. But no it is unto all patience. I need this dynamic force so to keep the flesh in subjection that I can patiently endure whatsoever God in His wisdom sees fit to let me go through while in this wilderness world. Neither will I simply endure with stoic resignation, such as even a pagan philosopher might exhibit, but God would have me patiently wait upon Him and rest in His love even amid circumstances that press hard upon my soul, with long-suffering, that is, uncomplaining endurance. But there is even more than this. In the hour of trial a song of gladness will well up in the heart where the will of God is supreme. And so he adds, With joyfulness.

Here is something that the natural man knows nothing of-joy in the time of trial; gladness in the time of hardship; songs in the night, though the darkness be overwhelming; praises to the God of my salvation when nature shrinks and trembles. It was thus the martyrs could rejoice in the arena when thrown to the lions, or exult in the Lord when the flames leaped up around them as they suffered at the stake. And myriads of sufferers all through the Christian era have been able to testify to the sustaining grace of God, when the spirit seemed about to be overwhelmed. The joy of the Lord is your strength.

The three verses that follow are in marked contrast to those we have just been considering. We have now thanksgiving instead of prayer. Here all is positive and eternally settled. The blessings enumerated are ours from the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are absolutely nonforfeitable. To pray for these is to dishonor God by casting doubt upon His Word. Notice the three haths and the one have of the King James Version; words that speak of present possession. Faith lays hold of such testimonies and rejoices in the assurance that these wondrous blessings are to be enjoyed even now.

First we read, Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. This is true of every Christian, and there are no degrees in this divine fitness. We are made meet to be partakers of our glorious inheritance the instant we are cleansed from our sins and receive the new nature, which is imparted by a divine operation when we are born of God. How different are the thoughts of even some of the best of men! How often we hear it said of some devoted and aged believer, He is fit for heaven at last. But he was just as truly fit for heaven the moment he received Christ as he is at the end of a long life of devoted service. Fitness does not depend upon experience. But in this connection it is well to remember that there is something more than the Fathers house, the inheritance of the saints in light, before us.

It is important that we should also have in mind the coming glorious kingdom. In 2Pe 1:10-11 we are told, Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The expression, these things, refers to the various Christian virtues enumerated in verses 5-7. It is through these things we are fitted for a place in the coming kingdom, but it is the justifying, regenerating grace of God that alone makes us meet for our heavenly inheritance. In other words, it is important that we distinguish between salvation by grace and reward for service.

We next read, Who hath delivered us from the power [or, authority] of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of [the Son of his love]. This is a different kingdom to that of which we have been reading in 2 Peter. It is the present sphere where Christs authority is owned, the kingdom which we see and enter by new birth. This kingdom consists not of meat and drink, but [of] righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. As born of God we have lost our old standing as sons of fallen Adam in the satanic kingdom of darkness. We have been brought out of the darkness into the marvelous light of children of God, and it is here, of course, that responsibility comes in to walk as children of light. J. N. Darby was once asked, But suppose a Christian turned his back on the light. What then? He replied, Then the light will shine upon his back! Most blessed it is to see this. We are in the light in all the value of the precious atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ sprinkled upon the mercy seat, the very throne of God from which the light shines.

Lastly we read, In Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. There is some question as to the manuscripts authority of the expression, through His blood. The best editors generally omit it. It seems to have been inserted from Eph 1:7. But that does not for a moment touch the truth of which we have been speaking. It would only suggest the fuller character of redemption which is both by blood and by power. The blood having been shed, the omnipotent power of God makes redemption real to the believer, whose sins have all been forgiven and who has been lifted completely out of those circumstances in which he was once exposed to the judgment of God. As the soul meditates on the wonderful truths so succinctly presented in these three verses the heart will surely go out to God in worship and the life be yielded for devoted service!

Let me recapitulate, as I close:

He hath made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.

He hath delivered us from the authority of darkness.

He hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

We have redemption through His blood.

Blessed certainties these that tell in unmistakable terms of our eternal security if once in Christ!

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

since: Col 1:3, Col 1:4, Col 1:6, Rom 1:8-10, Eph 1:15, Eph 1:16

do: 1Sa 12:23, Act 12:5, Phi 1:4, 1Th 1:3, 1Th 5:17, 2Th 1:11, 2Ti 1:3, 2Ti 1:4, Phm 1:4

that ye: 1Co 1:5, Eph 1:15-20, Eph 3:14-19, Phi 1:9-11

of his: Col 4:12, Psa 143:10, Joh 7:17, Rom 12:2, Eph 5:10, Eph 5:17, Eph 6:6, Heb 10:36, Heb 13:21, 1Pe 2:15, 1Pe 4:2, 1Jo 2:17

wisdom: Col 3:16, Col 4:5, Psa 119:99, Eph 1:8, Jam 1:5, Jam 3:17

spiritual: 1Jo 5:20

Reciprocal: Pro 14:8 – wisdom Ecc 2:26 – wisdom Ecc 7:19 – General Ecc 8:5 – a wise Son 4:16 – the spices Isa 11:2 – the spirit of wisdom Eze 28:12 – full Dan 1:17 – God Mat 6:10 – Thy will Mat 10:16 – wise Mat 15:10 – Hear Act 6:4 – prayer Rom 1:9 – I make Rom 6:4 – even Rom 16:19 – yet 1Co 2:15 – he that 2Co 6:6 – knowledge Eph 1:17 – the spirit Eph 5:15 – walk Col 2:2 – to the Col 2:3 – In whom Col 4:2 – Continue 1Th 4:3 – this 2Ti 2:7 – and Jam 5:16 – pray 2Pe 1:5 – knowledge

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

(Col 1:9.) , , , -On this account, we too, since the day we heard of it, cease not praying and asking. -on this account, because ye know the grace of God in truth-because such are your condition and prospects-because of the faith which sustains you, the love which glows within you, the blessed hope laid up for you, and the verdant fertility which characterizes you, and sets its seal on the genuineness of your Christianity. -we too, we on our part. There is no reason, with De Wette, for subjoining the to and rendering on this account, indeed. The phrase not only refers to Col 1:8, but carries us back to Col 1:4. The receipt of the intelligence produced immediate result, and led to prayer. The report did not lie in dormancy, or slowly wake up the reciprocal love of Paul and Timothy. The effect was instant-and it was not spent with a single impulse. From the day we heard it down to the period of our writing this letter-we cease not. This continuous prayer is explained by the beautiful remark of Augustine on Psalms 37 -ipsum desiderium tuum oratio tua est, si continuum est desiderium-continua est oratio.

The verb is here followed by a participle, , and not by the infinitive. There is indeed a difference of meaning in the two usages, as the participle expresses an action which already exists. Winer, 45, 4; Bernhardy, p. 477. [Eph 1:16.] The distinction between the two participles has been variously understood. But the best mode of characterizing the difference is to regard the one as general, and the other as special; the first is prayer in its ordinary aspect, and the second is direct request. But it is an error on the part of Baumgarten-Crusius to say that depends upon the last participle-for is followed by the conjunction in Mat 24:20; Mar 13:18; 1Co 14:13. The phrase belongs also to both participles. What the special object of supplication was is now made known. Praying-

-that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will. [As to this use of , see Eph 1:17.] The verb , like the correspondent term in Hebrew, governs two accusatives in the active conjugation, and may therefore govern one of them in the passive. The genitive is the case oftenest employed in the New Testament to denote the complement-that with which the action of the verb is realized. In this use of the accusative there is no need, with Beza and Erasmus, to supply . Winer, 32, 5. We cannot agree with Olshausen, that and have no distinction in the diction of the Apostle Paul. We have shown the true difference under Eph 1:17. The vague definition of Steiger cannot be sustained; it is wrapt in uncertainty, and is at best but a metaphysical subtlety. The idea of Bhr, that is subjective, and is also objective, is only a partial view. . is full knowledge exhaustive of its object, and is especially meant for those who have already some little . The Colossians had , but the apostle wished them to be filled with additional and supplemental knowledge, not new knowledge, or a different form or section of Christian science, but a fuller development of the partial theological information which they already possessed. Had he gently wished them somewhat more of knowledge, he might have used , but as he prayed that they might be filled with more of that insight which they already enjoyed, such an accumulation was naturally expressed by .

That augmentation of knowledge had for its theme the Divine will. We apprehend that the principal fault of commentators has been to restrict too much the meaning of the phrase, His will. Chrysostom, and the Greek Fathers OEcumenius and Theophylact, followed by Huther, refer it to the plan of redemption-especially salvation by Christ, not by angels- . Others refer it to the secret purpose of God-such as Suicer and Bhr, and that because it is elsewhere accompanied by . A third and numerous party understand the legislative will of God-the ethical feature of the Divine counsel, such as Theodoret, De Wette, and Meyer. We are inclined to take the phrase without any restriction-the Divine will as well in creed as in moral obligation; the one basis alike of what we ought to believe and of what we ought to do; the only rule of faith and manners. 1Co 1:4-5; 1Co 1:7; 1Co 2:12; 1Co 12:8; Eph 1:17. The apostle implored for them a complete knowledge of the Divine Will in all its revealed aspects and elements-

, -in all wisdom and spiritual insight. Some join the clause to the following verse, but without any necessity. The preposition does not signify along with, nor does it, as Boehmer thinks, define the result. Nor does it mean, as Bhr takes it, by means of; nor does it, as Huther supposes, point out the quality of the knowledge. It seems to refer us to the mode of its acquisition-in all wisdom and understanding. The prayer was not one for plenary inspiration-nor that God would by some dazzling self-discovery imbue them with a knowledge of His will, but that He would give them this higher spiritual science in the way of giving them all spiritual wisdom and understanding. These two nouns are not easily comprehended in their specific shades of difference. As a specimen of the scholastic forms of definition, we present that of Peter Lombard-Sapientia est habitus infusus ad solius aeternae veritatis contemplationem et delectationem. Intelligentia ad Creatoris et creaturarum invisibilium speculationem.But,-

1. Not a few, such as Michaelis, Storr, Flatt, and Heinrichs, regard them as synonymous; a mode of interpretation too easy to be correct-too slovenly to be in accordance with accurate philology.

2. Many give the sense of theoretic wisdom, and , the meaning of practical discernment-such as Bhr, Heinsius, and Calvin.

3. Bengel, Meyer, and Baumgarten – Crusius, think the nouns related in the sense of general and special, while De Wette thinks the first term to be practical and general, and the second theoretical and special. We are inclined to take in a general sense, and to regard as its characteristic form or peculiarity. For if God fill men with the knowledge of His will, it is usually by clearing their spiritual apprehension, and enlarging the sphere of their spiritual vision. The mind is trained and tutored to the study of Divine things; and as the horizon of its view is gradually expanded in such an exercise, it gathers in wisdom-and what is this wisdom but spiritual insight? Let there be intense practical application of the mental powers; prolonged reflection; devout and pensive contemplation; the inspection and comparison of premises; the solution of doubts; the ascent, step by step, slowly and surely, to first principles; the glimpse of ulterior relations based upon present realities, and conclusions drawn from recognized truths; and surely the mind so interested and occupied must feel all such acquisitions to be wisdom-wisdom, and not mere theory to be tested-wisdom, and not simple hypothesis that may be dismissed. And those fruits of diligent investigation are not like the coloured glimpses of a distant reverie which may be dimmed or exchanged, or may wholly fade away, as the whim of such imaginational pastime may lazily will it; but they bear at once upon the nearest of interests, and evince their immediate connection with the most momentous of relations. Of all forms of intellectual operation and enlightenment, this is the most practical-it is wisdom. God fills the mind, not by the passive inpouring of transcendental truths, but by directing and upholding its energies, and so enabling it to work out the result which it makes its own, and recognize s as all wisdom.

And this wisdom is really -spiritual insight. As we have shown at length under Eph 1:3, the prevailing meaning of in the New Testament, is of, or belonging to the Holy Spirit. Spiritual is not opposed to carnal, and means not-in connection with the human spirit, but the phrase signifies discernment conferred and quickened by the Holy Ghost. This enjoyment of the Spirit of Light is the special privilege of believers. He dispels the mists which obscure the inner vision, fills the soul with an ardent relish for Divine truth and a fuller perception of it, enables it to see through a perfect medium, and thus confers upon it that power and perspicacity termed by the apostle spiritual understanding. And where this purity and penetration of discernment are possessed, and the fruits of such wisdom are gleaned and garnered up, the mind, in the use of such a faculty, and the enjoyment of such acquisitions, cannot but be conscious that it has risen to an ampler knowledge of the Divine will. The apostle prefixes -all. This wisdom and spiritual understanding are not limited or shrivelled, but may be enjoyed to their utmost bounds.

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Col 1:9. For this cause refers to the good things that Paul (and his companions) had heard about the Colos-sian brethren. Ever since he heard about it, the apostle had continuously prayed for them. Such good disciples are worthy of further encouragement and assistance, hence he desired that they might be filled with knowledge of the Lord’s will. For all practical purposes, wisdom and understanding may be used with the same sense, but when a distinction is made by using them in one sentence, the first refers to the mind or intellect, and the second to the proper use of it in applying the truths at hand. Paul specifies that he is speaking of truths that have been revealed by the Spirit.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Col 1:9. For this cause; referring to the entire preceding paragraph (Col 1:3-8), because of what had been heard respecting the Colossians.

We also; comp. Col 1:3. Also marks the change of subject: we on our part as well as others, probably with special thought of Epaphras who has just been named (Meyer).

Since the day we heard it; comp. Col 1:4. The receipt of the intelligence produced immediate results and led to prayer. The effect was instantand it was not spent with a single impulse (Eadie).

Do not cease, etc. Comp. Eph 1:16 : an exactly similar affectionate hyperbole (Ellicott).

Praying for you and asking. The former participle points to prayer in general, the latter to direct petition; for you belongs to both words, and the former points to constant habitual action.

That, etc. On that after verbs of asking, see on Eph 1:17. This clause is joined with asking (as the punctuation of the E. V. suggests) and not with both participles. It gives the purport and purpose of the petition.

Ye may be filled. The verb filled occurs five times in this Epistle; it suggests the imperfect state of those prayed for.

with the knowledge of his will Knowledge here is full knowledge, being a stronger form corresponding with the verb used in Col 1:6. The reference is of course to Gods will, and, as Col 1:10 indicates, His will respecting the walk of the Christian; but not this exclusively, since Christian life is based on a wider knowledge than this.

In all spiritual wisdom and understanding. This phrase indicates the mode in which this being filled was to take place; not through human, fleshly wisdom, but wisdom and understanding wrought by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual (comp. Eph 1:3) qualifies both nouns, not understanding alone (E. V.). Wisdom is a more general term than understanding, but both refer to practical wisdom.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Paul’s Prayer for the Church at Colossae

From the time Paul heard of the love of the truth which the Colossian brethren possessed, Paul prayed without undue interval, or without ceasing, that they should be filled, or fully grown, in specific understanding of God’s desire for them. He also prayed that God would give them the ability to apply it to their specific circumstances. Weed says the word “understanding means the critical judgment to distinguish between truth and falsehood.”

He also prayed their knowledge would be translated into a way of life which was worthy of their high calling (compare Eph 4:1 ). A Christian life will be shown by the fruit of good works ( Gal 5:22-25 ). We cannot produce another Christian in and of ourselves but must plant the seed of God’s word, water it with the truth of the gospel and wait for God to give the increase ( Luk 8:11 ; 1Co 3:6 ). The fruit of good works shows the positive impact of the gospel and readies us for judgment ( Php 2:12-15 ; Rom 2:6-11 ; 2Co 5:10 ). The more good works we perform the more we will grow in the understanding of God’s will ( Heb 5:12-14 ).

When one practices the good works outlined in God’s word, he is strengthened by His power, as contained in the word ( Rom 1:16 ; Joh 14:23 ). God’s power is so great that one strengthened according to His power is blessed beyond man’s ability of description. When we have such power on our side, we can patiently face trials and suffer long with the failings of our brethren and they with ours ( Rom 5:1-5 ; 1Co 13:4 ). We can even have an attitude of joy knowing our end if we remain faithful in His good works ( Col 1:9-11 ; 1Pe 4:12-16 ; Act 16:22-25 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Col 1:9-11. For this cause The report of your faith and love; we do not cease to pray for you We fail not to remember you in all our prayers. This was mentioned in general, Col 1:3, but now more particularly; that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will That is, his revealed will concerning the salvation of mankind by faith, (Eph 1:5; Eph 1:9; Eph 1:11,) or the gospel of Christ, the truths declared, the blessings offered, and the duties enjoined in it; in all wisdom That ye may have just, clear, and full views of every part of it; and spiritual understanding That understanding which proceeds from the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, spoken of Eph 1:17, (where see the notes,) and is a spiritual and experimental, and therefore a practical knowledge of divine things, very different from that mere speculative and notional knowledge of them with which many rest satisfied, though it neither changes their hearts nor governs their lives. That Knowing his will, and complying with it; you may walk worthy of the Lord May conduct yourselves in a manner suitable to his nature and attributes, the relation in which you stand to him, the benefits you have received from him, and the profession you make of believing in, loving, and serving him; unto all pleasing So as actually to please him in all things. The apostle mentions next four particulars included in this walking worthy of the Lord. 1st, The being fruitful in every good work Or embracing all opportunities of doing good to the bodies and souls of men, according to our ability, and thus showing our faith continually by our works, and our love by our obedience, Jas 2:14-18; 1Jn 3:17. And, 2d, Increasing in the knowledge The experimental practical knowledge; of God That is, while we are diligent in performing good works outwardly, taking care that we increase in vital religion inwardly, even in a participation of the divine nature, and a conformity to the divine image. 3d, Receiving and bearing with patience, long-suffering, and joyfulness All the sufferings which come upon us in the course of divine providence: in other words, that we sustain, with entire resignation to, and acquiescence in, the divine will, and with a calm and tranquil mind, all the chastisements of our heavenly Father, knowing they are for our profit; and all the trials by which it is his will our faith and other graces should be exercised, and all the purifying fires through which he is pleased to lead us; that we patiently bear with the infirmities, failings, and faults of our fellow-creatures, saints or sinners, and receive even their injuries and provocations without resentment; and that in the midst of all these apparent evils, we rejoice on account of the present blessings we possess, and especially in the knowledge we have that all these, and such like things, however afflictive to flesh and blood, shall infallibly work together for our good, while we love God. Well might the apostle signify, that, in order to all this, we need to be strengthened with all might, or very mightily strengthened, according to Gods glorious power, always ready to be exerted in behalf of his suffering people. The fourth particular mentioned by the apostle, as included in walking worthy of the Lord, is continual gratitude for the blessings enumerated in the three next verses; blessings which whosoever enjoys, has unspeakable reason for thankfulness, whatever his state or condition may be as to the present world.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

ARGUMENT 2

THE SCHOOL OF THE SPIRIT

9. That you may be filled with the perfect knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Man is a trinity like God. His is an immortal spirit, having a mind and body. In the fall the human spirit was utterly bereft of Divine life, and has been dead ever since, till the resurrection of the Holy Spirit raises it into life. Our educational system is radically defective at this point. As a rule, our colleges, under the auspices of the different religious denominations, are minus the school of the Holy Ghost. They educate the mind, but not the heart, sending out semi-infidels to occupy the pulpits. We have a few holiness colleges, and need a thousand more. These schools, like holiness revivals, recognize the Bible as the only authority, and the great Textbook to which all others are subordinated. We can not depend on the dualistic system of theology to educate our young people, if we do not want them to graduate like Samson, shorn of his locks, to go out and grind in the mills of Dagon all of their lives. We must have teachers filled with the Holy Ghost. The holiness movement must take our schools into hand, if we would supply the world with able ministers of the New Testament. Instead of spending four years studying heathen authors as I did, and many others are now doing, we should make out our Latin course in the Latin Bible, and our Greek course in the Greek Bible, and likewise with the Hebrew. It is a shame on the escutcheon of Christianity to educate our young people in the heathen classics. I would rather than a million of dollars today I had spent my four years in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Bible, instead of the pagan authors. It is high time we would throw off this semi-paganism which we carried out of the Dark Ages. If we are going to save the world, we must have Spirit-filled teachers as well as preachers. We must wake to the fact that the Bible is the only Book, and let all others be merely subsidiary. The secret of the awful apostasy now so fearfully prevailing in the Churches is, that the pulpits are filled with intellectual giants and spiritual babies (in the same person).

10. That you walk worthily of the Lord in all loyalty. All of this clamor about Church loyalty is heretical and misleading. The Bible says nothing

about it, but teaches us to be loyal to God. If you are loyal to God, you are loyal to everything in Church and State which is in harmony with God, and disloyal to everything which is disharmonious with God. When you let any one but God expound your loyalty, look out! There is danger ahead. There is where all of the martyrs bled. Be loyal to God alone, revealed in his Word, Spirit, and providence. Abide your destiny right there. If God needs a martyr, put in the first bid. If Church and State are loyal to God, I gladly accept of their company. If they are disloyal to God, I am disloyal to them.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Col 1:9-14. A Paragraph of Prayer.Paul reciprocates their prayers for him. He constantly offers petition on their behalf since first he heard of them. He desires for them (a) fulness of knowledge to discern the Divine will, that so they may walk worthily of Christ and please Him, and by means of the knowledge of God may bear fruit and increase (cf. Col 1:6) in every good activity; and (b) strength proportioned to the power of the Divine glory, that so they may endure and be patient, and that with joy, giving thanks meanwhile to the Father, who has qualified them for a share in the inheritance of His holy people in (the realm of) Light: for God has rescued both Paul and his readers from the tyranny of Darkness, and transplanted them into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who is the source of their emancipation from slavery and of the forgiveness of their sins.

Col 1:13. Son of his love: the Son who is the object of His love, i.e. His beloved Son. For another view see Lightfoot.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

SECTION 3. PAULS PRAYER FOR HIS READERS FURTHER DEVELOPMENT CH. 1:9-14.

For this cause also we, from the day we heard it, cease not praying on your behalf and asking that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk worthily of the Lord for all pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and increasing by the understanding of God, with all power being made powerful according to the might of His glory for all endurance and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has made you meet for your share of the lot of the saints in the light, who has rescued us from the rule of the darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Col 1:9. Result on the writers side of the fact stated in Col 1:8 : because of this also we etc. These words place Paul and Timothy, as a third party, in contrast to Epaphras and especially to the Colossian Christians.

From the day we heard: same phrase in Col 1:6. As soon as the Colossians heard the word of grace, it began to bear continual fruit in them: as soon as Paul heard of their Christian love, he began and continued to pray unceasingly for their further development.

Do not cease praying on your behalf: cp. Eph 1:16, I do not cease giving thanks on your behalf.

Praying: general term for approach to God, as in Col 1:3, where the specific form of prayer is thanksgiving. Here the specific form is immediately added: and asking that ye may be filled. Same words together, praying and asking, in Mar 11:24.

Asking: more fully asking as a favour to myself.

That ye may be filled: immediate matter and purpose of Pauls request: further purpose in Col 1:10 a, with collateral details in Col 1:10 b, 11, 12.

Filled: so that every part of their being be permeated, and thus controlled and elevated, by an intelligent comprehension of the will of God.

Knowledge: full and complete knowledge, as in Php 1:9.

His will: embracing Gods purpose of mercy towards us and the path in which He would have us walk. [The accusative case after filled, as in Php 1:11, where see note. I specifies the kind and extent of the fulness which Paul has in view.]

Wisdom and understanding: found together in 1Co 1:19, from the LXX. where the words are often associated and their cognate adjectives in Mat 11:25.

Wisdom: acquaintance with first principles, these being looked upon by the Jews as a guide in action: see note under 1Co 2:5.

Understanding: the faculty of putting together, and reading the significance of, facts and phenomena around.

Spiritual: wrought by the Holy Spirit: for to Him most frequently does the word spirit refer. But the distinction is not important. For the spirit in man is that highest element of his nature on which the Holy Spirit directly operates. Same word in 1Co 2:13, where see note; 1Co 3:1; 1Co 15:44. It distinguishes the wisdom and understanding wrought in us by the Holy Spirit from that mentioned in 1Co 1:19-20; 1Co 2:5-6; 1Co 2:13; 1Co 3:19; 2Co 1:12; Jas 3:15.

All wisdom and understanding: embracing every element given to man of acquaintance with the great realities behind and beneath and above the visible world around, and a faculty of interpreting phenomena of every kind. All this is looked upon here as the surrounding element in which was to be realised the fulness of knowledge which Paul desired for his readers. He prays that amid such wisdom and understanding they may be made full with a fulness embracing intelligent acquaintance with the will of God. A similar prayer, including the word here rendered knowledge, is found in each of the letters written by Paul during his first imprisonment at Rome, Php 1:9; Eph 1:17; Phm 1:6. It may almost be called the key-note of this group of epistles.

Col 1:10 a. Further purpose to be attained by this fulness of knowledge: viz. to take such steps in life as are worthy of the Lord, i.e. of the great Master.

Walk worthily of: so Eph 4:1; 1Th 2:12; cp. Php 1:27; Rom 16:2. The grandeur of the Master claims corresponding conduct in His servants. How wide is this claim, we shall learn from Col 1:10 b, 11, 12, which expound in detail Col 1:10 a.

For all pleasing: i.e. in order to please Him in all things, making His pleasure our constant aim. So 1Co 7:32. This aim is the only one worthy of the Master whom we serve. And it will mark out for us a worthy path. Thus Paul desires for his readers knowledge not merely for its own sake but that it may produce in them a worthy Christian life. So Php 1:9-11 an important parallel.

Col 1:10 b. The first of three participial clauses describing further the worthy walk which Paul desires for his readers.

Bearing-fruit and increasing; recalls the same words in Col 1:6. To those who receive it the Gospel communicates its own vitality, and fruitfulness, and growth. As it bears fruit in them so they bear fruit in every good work, i.e. in beneficence of every kind. These last two words occur together in 1Ti 5:10; 2Ti 2:21; 2Ti 3:17; Tit 1:16; Tit 3:1; 1Ti 2:10; Rom 2:7; 2Co 9:8; Eph 2:10; Php 1:6; 2Th 2:17. The visible outgrowth of the Christians inner life is found in good deeds. As before, fruitbearing and spiritual growth go together. Just as the Gospel by producing good results itself comes to occupy a larger place on the worlds great stage, so all good we do to others increases our own spiritual stature.

Knowledge of God: as in Col 1:9, which it recalls. Just as there Paul desired for his readers full and complete knowledge of God in order that they may walk worthy of Christ their Master, so now, while speaking of the growth he desires to accompany this worthy walk, he mentions the full knowledge of God as the means by which this growth is to be wrought. This quick repetition of the same thought, viz. knowledge as a means of something beyond itself, gives to this thought great emphasis. This emphasis, and the close connection between fruitbearing and growth suggested by the repetition of these words together, with the indisputable fact that fruitbearing as much as growth is a result of knowledge of God, suggests that the instrumental clause by the full knowledge of God embraces both fruitbearing and growth. (Cp. Joh 15:7.) If so, the balance of the sentence suggests that the early clause in every good work has in some measure the same compass. In other words, Paul desires his readers to be filled with knowledge of the will of God, producing in them a walk worthy of their Master, and along with this a fruitbearing and growth showing itself in every good work and produced by knowledge of God. Just as in Col 1:6 we have a comparison of the work at Coloss with that throughout the world, and this turned back upon itself by a further comparison of the work throughout the world with that at Coloss, so here after tracing Christian knowledge to its practical result in Christian conduct Paul traces back Christian beneficence and growth to the instrumentality of specific Christian knowledge.

Col 1:11. Second detail which Paul desires may accompany his readers worthy walk, viz. spiritual power producing endurance.

Power: ability to overcome obstacles and to do work.

Being made powerful: day by day receiving power, like the same tense of a cognate word in Eph 6:10, a very close parallel, and Php 4:13.

With all power: every kind of ability, this looked upon as an objective ornament for the Christian work and fight. Similarly, Eph 3:16.

His glory: the manifested grandeur of God, evoking His creatures admiration. See under Rom 1:21. With this divine grandeur is associated infinite might, i.e. the power of a ruler. And this might is the measure of the power with which Paul desires his readers to be made strong: according to the might etc. For whatever there is in God He communicates, according to their need and their faith, to His servants.

All endurance: maintenance of our position under all burdens which would press us down and in face of all foes who would drive us back; as in Rom 2:7, etc.

Longsuffering: a holding back of emotion, whether anger as in Rom 2:4; Eph 4:2, or fear as is implied here by the connection with endurance. Paul desires that in spite of all obstacles his readers hold on their way and preserve a serene Christian spirit.

With joy: a desired accompaniment of this endurance and longsuffering. So completely are the Colossian Christians to maintain their position and their serenity in spite of hardships that these are not even to dim their joy. This last word adds immense force to those foregoing as a note of absolute victory. The note is clearly sounded in 1Th 1:6. But this complete victory is possible only by the inbreathing of power in divine measure.

Grammatically, the words with joy might be joined to Col 1:12. And this would preserve in some measure the symmetry of the three participial clauses, giving to each participle a foregoing prepositional specification: in every good work, in all power, with joy. The practical difference is very slight. For in any case the endurance and longsuffering are associated with joy. But these last words would add very little to giving thanks: (for all thanksgiving is joyful:) whereas joined to endurance they are a note of triumph. [This is somewhat confirmed by the word which joins together dissimilar or at least distinct objects; and therefore more naturally connects joy with endurance than with thanksgiving.]

Col 1:12. Third participial detail collateral with, and expounding, the worthy walk of Col 1:10 a. This must be accompanied not only by fruitbearing and growth, and by divinely-given strength producing joyful endurance, but also by thanksgiving. This last is very conspicuous with Paul: Col 2:7; Col 3:17; Col 4:2; Eph 5:4; Eph 5:20; Php 4:6. It is cognate to, and was perhaps suggested by the word rendered joy in Col 1:11. The endurance and longsuffering are to be accompanied by joy: and this is to assume the form of expressed gratitude to God. Whether He is here spoken of as Father of the Firstborn Son or of us His human brethren, the close relation between Christ and us leaves us unable to determine; and makes the distinction unimportant.

The word lot or allotment, and the word saints which never throws off its O.T. reference and which has here its usual N.T. sense of church-members, these looked upon as claimed by God to be specially His own, recall the division of Canaan among the sacred people. Similarly Act 26:18, a lot among the sanctified: a close coincidence, from the lips of Paul. Cp. Num 33:54, where the lot is the instrument of allotment: and Num 32:19; Jos 17:6, where it is an allotted portion of the land. And Deu 10:9, For this cause the Levites have no share and lot among their brethren: the Lord Himself is his lot. The lot of the saints seems to include the whole portion of spiritual blessing allotted to the human family of God.

The share of the lot: that part of this general allotment of blessing which falls to each of the saints. The word share reminds us that in this allotment many joined, and that the Colossians were now sharers with the ancient people of God.

Made-meet: same word in 2Co 3:6, meet or sufficient to be ministers of the New Covenant. It implies that for this participation some fitness is needed and that this fitness God has given to the Colossian Christians. This can be no other than the righteousness of faith: for righteousness is ever the condition of spiritual blessing, and it can be obtained only by faith. This divinely-given fitness is abundant and constant reason for thanksgiving. The O.T. colouring of these words recalls Eph 2:12-13. It somewhat favours the reading you found in the two best Greek copies, as against us which is read by most other authorities. For the word you would contrast the Colossians who were Gentiles with Paul and others who were Jews. Cp. Eph 2:1 and Eph 3:12 and Eph 3:14. This internal confirmation of our two best witnesses perhaps slightly outweighs abundant documentary evidence on the other side.

In the light: locality or environment, probably, of the lot of the saints. Similarly in Col 1:13 the darkness has a semi-local sense. Light is a characteristic of everything pertaining to the inheritance of the saints. Their eternal home will be a world of light, as God is light and dwells in light: Rev 21:24; 1Jn 1:5; 1Ti 6:16. And the glory of that splendour will illumine their path on earth: 2Co 4:6; Eph 5:8. Since the lot of the saints is both a future enjoyment (a laid-up hope) and a present possession, the words in the light must have the same double reference. The sons of God are already heirs (a word cognate with lot) and therefore in the light: and the light in which they walk is an earnest of their share of the allotment of blessing which belongs to the consecrated people of God.

[In the light can hardly be the instrument by which (cp. 2Co 4:4 the light of the Gospel) God made them meet for the inheritance. For its distance from the verb would require this to be very definitely indicated. But the Greek preposition here only notes the light as a surrounding element. Moreover, the contrast with out of darkness in Col 1:13 suggests very strongly that the light is an environment of that for which God has made His people meet.]

Col 1:13. Further statement of what God has done, expounding Col 1:12 and giving further reason for thanks to God.

The darkness: the objective realm of evil, looked upon as causing ignorance and gloom and as possessing power and thus exercising authority or rule over its victims: so Luk 22:53 and Eph 6:12, this darkness. It is practically the authority of the air in Eph 2:2 the rule of moral and spiritual night. These words imply that under this rule all men once lay bound. Out of this rule of darkness God had rescued the Colossian Christians: i.e. by His kindness and power He had brought them out into the light.

Translated: removed from one place to another: same word in Luk 16:4; Act 13:22; 1Co 13:2.

The Son of His love: who belongs to the love of God as its eternal personal object. The phrase fixes our attention on the relation of the Son to this unique attribute of the Father.

The kingdom of etc.: the realm over which Christ will reign for ever: Eph 5:5; Joh 18:36. This kingdom will have its full realisation in the final glory. But already its citizens are being enrolled. And enrolment brings at once a foretaste of the blessings of the rule of Christ. Notice the complete change which God has wrought. Once these Colossians were in bondage under the rule of darkness, a rule shutting out the many blessings of the light. From that realm of darkness God has rescued them and brought them into another realm over which reigns the eternal Son, the divine Object of divine love. By this rescue and this transfer God made these Gentiles meet to share the lot of His holy people. For such benefit, well might Paul wish his readers to give thanks to God.

Col 1:14. Our relation, in this kingdom, to the King. This verse is a transition from the foregoing thanksgiving to the great matter of this Epistle, viz. the dignity and work of Christ.

In whom redemption: as in Rom 3:24. This last word suggests or asserts that our rescue was costly. In the parallel passage, Eph 1:7, the cost is stated: through His blood. Since surrender to the rule of sin is the due penalty of sin, rescue from the power of sin implies forgiveness of sins: same words in Eph 1:7; Act 13:38; Act 26:18; Luk 1:77; Luk 3:3; Mar 1:4; Mat 26:28; Luk 24:47; Act 2:38; Act 5:31; Act 10:43. It is practically the same as justification: for the justified are guilty. And we are (Rom 3:24) justified through the redemption which is in Christ.

In whom we have etc.: objectively through His death and subjectively by inward union with Christ, a union which makes us sharers of all He has and is.

Notice the assurance of personal salvation implied in we have

forgiveness of sins. For our sins and the forgiveness of them are essentially personal matters. This assurance, Paul assumes that his readers share.

The introduction to the Epistle is now complete. Paul has thanked God for the Christian life at Coloss as he has heard of it from the founder of the Church there, Epaphras. To praise he has added prayer for his readers, full development in knowledge of the will of God, this leading to a life worthy of the Master whom they serve, viz. to fruitbearing and to growth, to joyful endurance and gratitude to God. This prayer has been on the lips of Paul from the time he first heard about the work at Coloss. Abundant reason for gratitude, he finds in the fact that God has made these Gentiles sharers in the inheritance promised to the sons of Abraham, an inheritance in the realm of eternal light; or, to state the same benefit in other words, He has rescued them from the realm of darkness and made them citizens of the kingdom of the beloved Son of God. To this royal Son they already stand in closest relation. For in Him is their liberation: because in Him they have forgiveness of sins.

This gratitude for mercies already received brings us into the presence of the Son of God. To expound His essential grandeur and His work, as a corrective to prevalent error, is the chief aim of this Epistle.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”

Wow, can you imagine the feeling of those hearing these words – Paul has declared he prays for them twice in the early part of this letter. What would it be like to know someone like Paul was praying for you? Pretty great I would think.

As a whole this verse portrays something that is neat. You are so burdened with someone that you begin to pray for them on a daily basis. People you don’t know – maybe people you haven’t seen in many years.

A missionary family came to our church many years ago and presented their work in Papua New Guinea. For several years after that I would pray for them on a daily basis. The Lord had given me a tremendous burden for them and their ministry. I never saw them again, and never heard from them, but I felt led to pray for them on a continuing basis for many years.

Paul is very concerned with them finding God’s will for their lives. Many today spend great amounts of time looking and seeking God’s will for their lives.

I see three phases of God’s will. Understanding all three will help us find God’s will.

a. His overall will – His decrees – His plan for the ages, which includes each of us as individuals. We can do nothing about this – it is set – don’t sweat it.

b. His will for our life as revealed in His Word. Baptism, Lord’s Table, use of our gift, refraining from sin, being fruitful and many other items. These aren’t options – do them – don’t wonder if they are for you – they are.

c. His will for our life – what he wants us to do with our life. There may be some aspect to His will in a specific location of ministry and/or your freedom in that sort of decisions. He is usually very clear in this area – you will normally know what he wants.

Someone once asked me how I would answer someone that thought they had missed God’s will in their life. I replied that since God is God, it is inconceivable to me that He could not communicate His will to someone unless they were living in sin for a protracted time.

Anyone that is seeking His will, will certainly find it – He isn’t running a top secret organization.

Wisdom is a term that appears six times in the book. (James mentions, if we lack it we should ask – Jam 1:5)

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of {f} his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

(f) God’s will.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

C. Prayer 1:9-14

Paul told his readers that he prayed for their full perception and deepest understanding of God’s will for them and for all believers. He did this so they would be able to glorify God in their conduct. He told them this to remind them that their understanding must come through the working of God’s Spirit in them and that correct understanding is foundational to correct behavior.

"It so often happens that in prayer we are really saying, ’Thy will be changed,’ when we ought to be saying, ’Thy will be done.’ . . .

"We pray, not in order to escape life, but in order to be better able to meet life. We pray, not in order to withdraw ourselves from life, but in order to live life in the world of men as it ought to be lived." [Note: Barclay, p. 130.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

In view of the Colossians’ trust in Christ, Paul and his companions had been praying consistently for them. They had prayed both thanksgivings and petitions since they had heard of the Colossians’ reception of the Word and their consequent love, which the Holy Spirit produced in them. Specifically they asked that God would give them full and exact knowledge of all His desires for them. The Greek word translated "knowledge" is epignosis. This word can mean either full knowledge or more precise knowledge. [Note: Lightfoot, p. 136; J. Armitage Robinson, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, pp. 248-54.] Probably Paul prayed for greater knowledge in both respects. This word always describes moral and religious knowledge in the New Testament. Especially it refers to full and comprehensive knowledge of God’s will that rests on the knowledge of God and of Christ. [Note: Cf. Lightfoot, p. 138.] Gnosis ("knowledge") was a favorite term of the gnostic philosophers, and Paul undoubtedly had them in mind when he prayed for epignosis for his readers.

The "will" (thelematos) of God is what God has revealed in His Word to be correct regarding both belief (faith) and behavior (works, morality; cf. Col 4:12; Act 22:14; Rom 12:2). In the broadest sense, the will of God is the whole purpose of God revealed in Christ. [Note: Vaughan, p. 177.]

"For a theist who believes that God’s active purpose determines the ordering of the world, lies behind events on earth, and shapes their consequences, one of the most desirable objectives must be to know God’s will." [Note: Dunn, p. 69.]

This knowledge included wisdom (the broadest term covering the whole range of mental faculties) and understanding (how to apply wisdom in specific cases).

"’Wisdom’ and ’understanding’ probably should not be treated separately but should be looked on as expressing a single thought, something like practical wisdom or clear discernment." [Note: Vaughan, p. 177.]

This interpretation takes the words as a hendiadys. This knowledge would come to them only by the illumination of the Holy Spirit ("spiritual wisdom"). The false teachers in Colosse were evidently promoting what they called a deeper knowledge attainable only by the privileged few.

"The false teachers promised the Colossian believers that they would be ’in the know’ if they accepted the new doctrines. Words like knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual understanding were a part of their religious vocabulary; so Paul used these words in his prayer." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:110.]

"The true antidote to heresy is always a deeper and richer knowledge of the truth concerning Jesus Christ." [Note: Johnson, 472:341.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 1

THE PRAYER

Col 1:9-12 (R.V.)

WE have here to deal with one of Pauls prayers for his brethren. In some respects these are the very topmost pinnacles of his letters. Nowhere else does his spirit move so freely, in no other parts are the fervour of his piety and the beautiful simplicity and depth of his love more touchingly shown. The freedom and heartiness of our prayers for others are a very sharp test of both our piety to God and our love to men. Plenty of people can talk and vow who would find it hard to pray. Pauls intercessory prayers are the high water mark of the epistles in which they occur. He must have been a good man and a true friend of whom so much can be said. This prayer sets forth the ideal of Christian character. What Paul desired for his friends in Colossae is what all true Christian hearts should chiefly desire for those whom they love, and should strive after and ask for themselves. If we look carefully at these words we shall see a clear division into parts which stand related to each other as root, stem, and fourfold branches, or as fountain, undivided stream, and “four heads” into which this “river” of Christian life “is parted.” To be filled with the knowledge of Gods will is the root or fountain source of all. From it comes a walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing-the practical life being the outcome and expression of the inward possession of the will of God. Then we have four clauses, evidently coordinate, each beginning with a participle, and together presenting an analysis of this worthy walk. It will be fruitful in all outward work. It will be growing in all inward knowledge of God. Because life is not all doing and knowing, but is suffering likewise, the worthy walk must be patient and long suffering, because strengthened by God Himself. And to crown all, above work and knowledge and suffering it must be thankfulness to the Father. The magnificent massing together of the grounds of gratitude which follows, we must leave for future consideration, and pause, however abruptly, yet not illogically, at the close of the enumeration of these four branches of the tree, the four sides of the firm tower of the true Christian life.

I. Consider the Fountain or Root of all Christian character:

“that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

One or two remarks in the nature of verbal exposition may be desirable. Generally speaking, the thing desired is the perfecting of the Colossians in religious knowledge, and the perfection is forcibly expressed in three different aspects. The idea of completeness up to the height of their capacity is given in the prayer that they may be “filled,” like some jar charged with sparkling water to the brim. The advanced degree of the knowledge desired for them is given in the word here employed, which is a favourite in the Epistles of the Captivity, and means additional or mature knowledge, that deeper apprehension of Gods truth which perhaps had become more obvious to Paul in the quiet growth of his spirit during his life in Rome. And the rich variety of forms which that advanced knowledge would assume is set forth by the final words of the clause, which may either be connected with its first words, so meaning “filled so that ye may abound in wisdom, and understanding”; or with “the knowledge of His will,” so meaning a “knowledge which is manifested in.” That knowledge will blossom out into every kind of “wisdom” and “understanding,” two words which it is hard to distinguish, but of which the former is perhaps the more general and the latter the more special, the former the more theoretical and the latter the more practical; and both are the work of the Divine Spirit whose sevenfold perfection of gifts illuminates with perfect light each waiting heart. So perfect, whether in regard to its measure, its maturity, or its manifoldness, is the knowledge of the will of God, which the Apostle regards as the deepest good which his love can ask for these Colossians. Passing by many thoughts suggested by the words, we may touch one or two large principles which they involve. The first is, that the foundation of all Christian character and conduct is laid in the knowledge of the will of God. Every revelation of God is a law. What it concerns us to know is not abstract truth, or a revelation for speculative thought, but Gods will. He does not show Himself to us in order merely that we may know, but in order that, knowing, we may do, and, what is more than either knowing or doing, in order that we may be. No revelation from God has accomplished its purpose when a man has simply understood it, but every fragmentary flash of light which comes from Him in nature and providence, and still more the steady radiance that pours from Jesus, is meant indeed to teach us how we should think of God, but to do that mainly as a means to the end that we may live in conformity with His will. The light is knowledge, but it is a light to guide our feet, knowledge which is meant to shape practice.

If that had been remembered, two opposite errors would have been avoided. The error that was threatening the Colossian Church, and has haunted the Church in general ever since, was that of fancying Christianity to be merely a system of truth to be believed, a rattling skeleton of abstract dogmas, very many and very dry. An unpractical heterodoxy was their danger. An unpractical orthodoxy is as real a peril. You may swallow all the creeds bodily, you may even find in Gods truth the food of very sweet and real feeling: but neither knowing nor feeling is enough. The one all-important question for us is-does our Christianity work? It is knowledge of His will, which becomes an ever active force in our lives! Any other kind of religious knowledge is windy food; as Paul says, it “puffeth up”; the knowledge which feeds the soul with wholesome nourishment is the knowledge of His will.

The converse error to that of unpractical knowledge, that of an unintelligent practice, is quite as bad. There is always a class of people, and they are unusually numerous today, who profess to attach no importance to Christian doctrines, but to put all the stress on Christian morals. They swear by the “Sermon on the Mount,” and are blind to the deep doctrinal basis laid in that “sermon” itself, on which its lofty moral teaching is built. What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. Why pit the parent against the child? why wrench the blossom from its stem? Knowledge is sound when it moulds conduct. Action is good when it is based on knowledge. The knowledge of God is wholesome when it shapes the life. Morality has a basis which makes it vigorous and permanent when it rests upon the knowledge of His will.

Again: Progress in knowledge is the law of the Christian life. There should be a continual advancement in the apprehension of Gods will, from that first glimpse which saves, to the mature knowledge which Paul here desires for his friends. The progress does not consist in leaving behind old truths, but in a profounder conception of what is contained in these truths. How differently a Fijian just saved, and a Paul on earth, or a Paul in heaven, look at that verse, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”! The truths which are dim to the one, like stars seen through a mist, blaze to the other like the same stars to an eye that has travelled millions of leagues nearer them, and sees them to be suns. The law of the Christian life is continuous increase in the knowledge of the depths that lie in the old truths, and of their far-reaching applications. We are to grow in knowledge of the Christ by coming ever nearer to Him, and learning more of the infinite meaning of our earliest lesson that He is the Son of God who has died for us. The constellations that burn in our nightly sky looked down on Chaldean astronomers, but though these are the same, how much more is known about them at Greenwich than was dreamed at Babylon!

II. Consider the River or Stem of Christian conduct.

The purpose and outcome of this full knowledge of the will of God in Christ is to “walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing.” By “walk” is of course meant the whole active life; so that the principle is brought out here, very distinctly, that the last result of knowledge of the Divine will is an outward life regulated by that will. And the sort of life which such knowledge leads to is designated in most general terms as “worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,” in which we have set forth two aspects of the true Christian life.

“Worthily of the Lord!” The “Lord” here, as generally, is Christ, and “worthily” seems to mean, in a manner corresponding to what: Christ is to us, and has done for us. We find other forms of the same thought in such expressions as “worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,” {Eph 4:1} “worthily of saints,” {Rom 16:2} “worthy of the gospel,” {Php 1:27} “worthily of God,” {1Th 2:12} in all of which there is the idea of a standard to which the practical life is to be conformed. Thus the Apostle condenses into one word all the manifold relations in which we stand to Christ, and all the multifarious arguments for a holy life which they yield.

These are mainly two. The Christian should “walk” in a manner corresponding to what Christ has done for him. “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people, and unwise?” was the mournful wondering question of the dying Moses to his people, as he summed up the history of unbroken tenderness and love on the one side, and of disloyalty almost as uninterrupted on the other. How much more pathetically and emphatically might the question be asked of us! We say that we are not our own, but bought with a price. Then how do we repay that costly purchase? Do we not requite His blood and tears, His unquenchable, unalterable love, with a little tepid love which grudges sacrifices and has scarcely power enough to influence conduct at all, with a little trembling faith which but poorly corresponds to His firm promises, with a little reluctant obedience? The richest treasure of heaven has been freely lavished for us, and we return a sparing expenditure of our hearts and ourselves, repaying fine gold with tarnished copper, and the flood of love from the heart of Christ with a few niggard drops grudgingly squeezed from ours. Nothing short of complete self-surrender, perfect obedience, and unwavering, unfaltering love can characterise the walk that corresponds with our profound obligations to Him. Surely there can be no stronger cord with which to bind us as sacrifices to the horns of the altar than the cords of love. This is the unique glory and power of Christian ethics, that it brings in this tender personal element to transmute the coldness of duty into the warmth of gratitude, so throwing rosy light over the snowy summits of abstract virtue. Repugnant duties become tokens of love, pleasant as every sacrifice made at its bidding ever is. The true Christian spirit says: Thou hast given Thyself wholly for me: help me to yield myself to Thee. Thou hast loved me perfectly: help me to love Thee with all my heart.

The other side of this conception of a worthy walk is, that the Christian should act in a manner corresponding to Christs character and conduct. We profess to be His by sacredest ties: then we should set our watches by that dial, being conformed to His likeness, and in all our daily life trying to do as He has done, or as we believe He would do if He were in our place. Nothing less than the effort to tread in His footsteps is a walk worthy of the Lord. All unlikeness to His pattern is a dishonour to Him and to ourselves. It is neither worthy of the Lord, nor of the vocation wherewith we are called, nor of the name of saints. Only when these two things are brought about in my experience-when the glow of His love melts my heart and makes it flow down in answering affection, and when the beauty of His perfect life stands ever before me, and though it be high above me, is not a despair, but a stimulus and a hope-only then do I “walk worthy of the Lord.”

Another thought as to the nature of the life in which the knowledge of the Divine will should issue, is expressed in the other clause-“unto all pleasing,” Which sets forth the great aim as being to please Christ in everything. That is a strange purpose to propose to men, as the supreme end to be ever kept in view, to satisfy Jesus Christ by their conduct. To make the good opinion of men our aim is to be slaves; but to please this Man ennobles us and exalts life. Who or what is He, whose judgment of us is thus all-important, whose approbation is praise indeed, and to win whose smile is a worthy object for which to use life, or even to lose it? We should ask ourselves, Do we make it our ever-present object to satisfy Jesus Christ? We are not to mind about other peoples approbation. We can do without that. We are not to hunt after the good word of our fellows. Every life into which that craving for mans praise and good opinion enters is tarnished by it. It is a canker, a creeping leprosy, which eats sincerity and nobleness and strength out of a man. Let us not care to trim our sails to catch the shifting winds of this or that mans favour and eulogium, but look higher and say, “With me it is a very small matter to be judged of mans judgment.” “I appeal unto Caesar.” He, the true Commander and Emperor, holds our fate in His hands; we have to please Him and Him. only. There is no thought which will so reduce the importance of the babble around us, and teach us such brave and wholesome contempt for popular applause, and all the strife of tongues, as the constant habit of trying to act as ever in our great Taskmasters eye. What does it matter who praise, if He frowns? or who blame, if His face lights with a smile? No thought will so spur us to diligence, and make all life solemn and grand as the thought that “we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing to Him.” Nothing will so string the muscles for the fight, and free us from being entangled with the things of this life, as the ambition to “please Him who has called us to be soldiers.”

Men have willingly flung away their lives for a couple of lines of praise in a despatch, or for a smile from some great commander. Let us try to live and die so as to get “honourable mention” from our captain. Praise from His lips is praise indeed. We shall not know how much it is worth, till the smile lights His face, and the love comes into His eyes, as He looks at us, and says, “Well done! good and faithful servant.”

III. We have finally the fourfold streams or branches into which this general conception of Christian character parts itself.

There are four participial clauses here, which seem all to stand on one level, and to present an analysis in more detail of the component parts of this worthy walk. In general terms it is divided into fruitfulness in work, increase in knowledge, strength for suffering, and, as the climax of all, thankfulness.

The first element is-“bearing fruit in every good work.” These words carry us back to what was said in Col 1:6 about the fruitfulness of the gospel. Here the man in whom that word is planted is regarded as the producer of the fruit, by the same natural transition by which, in our Lords Parable of the Sower, the men in whose hearts the seed was sown are spoken of as themselves on the one hand, bringing no fruit to perfection, and on the other, bringing forth fruit with patience. The worthy walk will be first manifested in the production of a rich variety of forms of goodness. All profound knowledge of God, and all lofty thoughts of imitating and pleasing Christ, are to be tested at last by their power to make men good, and that not after any monotonous type, nor on one side of their nature only.

One plain principle implied here is that the only true fruit is goodness. We may be busy, as many a man in our great commercial cities is busy, from Monday morning till Saturday night for a long lifetime, and may have had to build bigger barns for our “fruits and our goods,” and yet, in the high and solemn meaning of the word here, our life may be utterly empty and fruitless. Much of our work and of its results is no more fruit than the galls on the oak leaves are. They are a swelling from a puncture made by an insect, a sign of disease, not of life. The only sort of work which can be called fruit, in the highest meaning of the word, is that which corresponds to a mans whole nature and relations; and the only work which does so correspond is a life of loving service of God, which cultivates all things lovely and of good report. Goodness, therefore, alone deserves to be called fruit-as for all the rest of our busy lives, they and their toils are like the rootless, lifeless chaff that is whirled out of the threshing floor by every gust. A life which has not in it holiness and loving obedience, however richly productive it may be in lower respects, is in inmost reality blighted and barren, and is “nigh unto burning.” Goodness is fruit; all else is nothing but leaves.

Again: the Christian life is to be “fruitful in every good work.” This tree is to be like that in the apocalyptic vision, which “bare twelve manner of fruits,” yielding every month a different sort. So we should fill the whole circuit of the year with various holiness, and seek to make widely different forms of goodness our own. We have all certain kinds of excellence which are more natural and easier for us than others are. We should seek to cultivate the kind which is hardest for us. The thorny stock of our own character should bear not only grapes, but figs too, and olives as well, being grafted upon the true olive tree, which is Christ. Let us aim at this all round and multiform virtue, and not be like a scene for a stage, all gay and bright on one side, and dirty canvas and stretchers hung with cobwebs on the other.

The second element in the analysis of the true Christian life is-“increasing in the knowledge of God.” The figure of the tree is probably continued here. If it fruits, its girth will increase, its branches will spread, its top will mount, and next year its shadow on the grass will cover a larger circle. Some would take the “knowledge” here as the instrument or means of growth, and would render “increasing by the knowledge of God,” supposing, that the knowledge is represented as the rain or the sunshine which ministers to the growth of the plant. But perhaps it is better to keep to the idea conveyed by the common rendering, which regards the words “in knowledge” as the specification of that region in which the growth enjoined is to be realised. So here we have the converse of the relation between work and knowledge which we met in the earlier part of the chapter. There, knowledge led to a worthy walk; here, fruitfulness in good works leads to, or at all events is accompanied with, an increased knowledge. And both are true. These two work on each other a reciprocal increase. All true knowledge which is not mere empty notions, naturally tends to influence action, and all true action naturally tends to confirm the knowledge from which it proceeds. Obedience gives insight: “If any man wills to do My will, he shall know of the doctrine.” If I am faithful up to the limits of my present knowledge, and have brought it all to bear on character and conduct, I shall find that in the effort to make my every thought a deed, there have fallen from my eyes as it were scales, and I see some things clearly which were faint and doubtful before. Moral truth becomes dim to a bad man. Religious truth grows bright to a good one, and whosoever strives to bring all his creed into practice, and all his practice under the guidance of his creed, will find that the path of obedience is the path of growing light.

Then comes the third element in this resolution of the Christian character into its component parts -“strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness.” Knowing and doing are not the whole of life: there are sorrow and suffering too.

Here again we have the Apostles favourite “all,” which occurs so frequently in this connection. As he desired for the Colossians all wisdom, unto all pleasing, and fruitfulness in every good work, so he prays for all power to strengthen them. Every kind of strength which God can give and man can receive, is to be sought after by us, that we may be “girded with strength,” cast like a brazen wall all round our human weakness. And that Divine power is to flow into us, having this for its measure and limit-“the might of His glory.” His “glory” is the lustrous light of His self-revelation; and the far-flashing energy revealed in that self-manifestation is the immeasurable measure of the strength that may be ours. True, a finite nature cart never contain the infinite, but mans finite nature is capable of indefinite expansion. Its elastic walls stretch to contain the increasing gift. The more we desire the more we receive, and the more we receive the more we are able to receive. The amount which filled our hearts today should not fill them tomorrow. Our capacity is at each moment the working limit of the measure of the strength given us. But it is always shifting, and may be continually increasing. The only real limit is “the might of His glory,” the limitless omnipotence of the self-revealing God. To that we may indefinitely approach, and till we have exhausted God we have not reached the furthest point to which we should aspire.

And what exalted mission is destined for this wonderful communicated strength? Nothing that the world thinks great: only helping some lone widow to stay her heart in patience, and flinging a gleam of brightness, like sunrise on a stormy sea, over some tempest-tossed life. The strength is worthily employed and absorbed in producing “all patience and long suffering with joy.” Again the favourite “all” expresses the universality of the patience and long suffering. Patience here is not merely passive endurance. It includes the idea of perseverance in the right course, as well as that of uncomplaining bearing of evil. It is the “steering right onward,” without bating one jot of heart or hope; the temper of the traveller who struggles forward, though the wind in his face dashes the sleet in his eyes, and he has to wade through deep snow. While “patience” regards the evil mainly as sent by God, and as making the race set before us difficult, “long suffering” describes the temper under suffering when considered as a wrong or injury done by man. And whether we think of our afflictions in the one or the other light, Gods strength will steal into our hearts, if we will, not merely to help us to bear them with perseverance and with meekness as unruffled as Christs, but to crown both graces-as the clouds are sometimes rimmed with flashing gold-with a great light of joy. That is the highest attainment of all. “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Flowers beneath the snow, songs in the night, fire burning beneath the water, “peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation,” cool airs in the very crater of Vesuvius-all these paradoxes may be surpassed in our hearts if they are strengthened with all might by an indwelling Christ.

The crown of all, the last of the elements of the Christian character, is thankfulness-“giving thanks unto the Father.” This is the summit of all; and is to be diffused through all. All our progressive fruitfulness and insight, as well as our perseverance and unruffled meekness in suffering, should have a breath of thankfulness breathed through them. We shall see the grand enumeration of the reasons for thankfulness in the next verses. Here we pause for the present, with this final constituent of the life which Paul desired for the Colossian Christians. Thankfulness should mingle with all our thoughts and feelings, like the fragrance of some perfume penetrating through the common scentless air. It should embrace all events. It should be an operating motive in all actions. We should be clear sighted and believing enough to be thankful for pain and disappointment and loss. That gratitude will add the crowning consecration to service and knowledge and endurance. It will touch our spirits to the finest of all issues, for it will lead to glad self-surrender, and make of our whole life a sacrifice of praise. “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Our lives will then exhale in fragrance and shoot up in flashing tongues of ruddy light and beauty, when kindled into a flame of gratitude by the glow of Christs great love. Let us lay our poor selves on that altar, as sacrifices of thanksgiving; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary