9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Colossians 1:9-12
…Indeed. A lot of people make a lot of jokes about how they’d make a beeline to wherever Adam and Eve are, when they find themselves fully in eternity. They’d go to them, probably to Eve in particular, and ask her, ‘What were you thinking!?‘
Me, I’m probably going to go to Paul, and ask him, what in the world was he on, that he would go ahead and write compound sentences thinking that we would easily be able to keep up with him!?
I’ve done this more than once before, and I think I should do it here – that is, to ‘trim the fat’ so we see Paul’s point beneath all the added details he wrote about:
we have not ceased to pray for you… that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will… so as to:
- walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
- bearing fruit in every good work,
- increasing in the knowledge of God;
- being strengthened… according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Clarifying further, Paul is saying we also pray for the Colossians to know more and more of God’s will, that they would walk in holiness and righteousness (worthy of the Lord), being fruitful in all that they do, growing wiser in His knowledge, and growing stronger in His might
Paul continues with his rambling by saying that he gives thanks to our Father because He has qualified the Colossians ‘to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.‘
Bottom line is that we would all do well to move along with the Holy Spirit in our lives, that, indeed, we would be filled with the knowledge of the will of God – And, surprise, surprise – God’s will is known in and through Jesus Christ and His finished work.
You can see a picture of God’s will in Christ’s famous conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.John 3:13-17
I thought I’d go ahead and include the long form so we would take in the context of John 3:16. In other words, if we’re only looking at John 3:16, sure, we have an idea of God’s will, but the more we pan out, the more we appreciate, and the more I believe we’re filled with the knowledge of His will.
The Son of Man came down from heaven to be lifted us as Moses’ serpent in the wilderness; That, just as those afflicted by snakes looked at the serpent and did not perish, so whoever believes in the Son of Man lifted up, shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Here we see more facets to the jewel that is God’s will: We are all aware of His deep love for the whole world, and sure, we’re able to come alive and thrive, merely through that – BUT for us to realize that God had to give up so much – that is, His only begotten Son coming down from heaven, to be lifted up on a cross in such a brutal fashion; Well, I personally am humbled, thankful, ultimately floored to know God loved us THAT much.
I know I mentioned that one ending scene in Kingdom of Heaven, where, after terms had been agreed upon and Jerusalem was surrendered to the invaders, Balian asked Saladin, ‘What is Jerusalem worth?‘
Saladin instantly responded, ‘Nothing‘, turned away and walked a few steps.
He then turned back, flexed his fists to in front of his neck, smiling straight back at Balian, saying, ‘Everything.‘
This is the Will of God: He gave up everything in the form of His only begotten Son, that if we who were perishing would believe in Him, we would not be condemned, but we would be saved, and we would have eternal, everlasting life.
And just as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, I believe that, here, taking in the will of the Lord (Jesus Christ) is the beginning of eternal, everlasting Life; That is, righteousness, fruitfulness, wisdom and strength.
Earlier today I sat to a substantial lunch, with Episode 3 of Band of Brothers playing. This was one line Lieutenant Ronald Speirs of Dog Company had to share with Private Albert Blithe:
The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function: without mercy, without compassion, without remorse. All war depends upon it.
This has ‘Memento Mori’ vibes to it, but fortunately, for us in the body of Christ, we have another supplement to this. And, yes, I say ‘supplement’ because this is all true, in the sense that Christ’s finished work rendered us dead – That is, our old self is already dead. The old has passed away.
But the OTHER hope we have to accept/believe is that Truth that in Christ, we’re already living forever.
That’s right. The operative word is ‘already’. Here and now, in this wretched world full of all sorts of darkness, torn apart by chaos, corrupted by sin – Here and now, we are ALREADY living forever. We are ALREADY living life everlasting, life eternal.
And the sooner we accept this, the sooner we’re able, not only to think, but to function as the redeemed is supposed to function – bearing love, peace, patience, joy, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
We are fully dependent on Christ in this war.
This is what we pray, for ourselves, and for others – that we would understand and be filled with the knowledge of the will of God; And in our meditating on the Word unto Christ, and Christ unto the Word, I have no doubt that our beings would be more attuned to the will of our Father.
In other words, we speak the name and word of Jesus on our own lives, and upon those within our sphere of influence; and we have no doubt that as we take Him in more and more, we ourselves would thrive – in righteousness, fruitfulness, increasing in power, increasing in wisdom.
Christ continues to bring us to each other in harmony, and together, we testify among ourselves and to the world, of the will of God.
For the unity of the body of Christ, and for the expansion of His kingdom, to the glory of His name.
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