Colossians 1:9 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Colossians 1:9

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For what cause does Paul mean? He means because they have been given faith and love and hope, and God has worked in their lives. Says the apostle, ‘Since we heard about your conversion and your church, we were compelled to pray, it was our absolute duty to pray for you.’ What does he pray for? He still isn’t praying for their deliverance from the gnostic heresy at the door of the church. He is not saying, ‘Lord, somehow, send a plague among them, do something, turn them away.’ He is not praying for that kind of deliverance. He prays that they will be strengthened and enlightened to see this for themselves. ‘I am going to pray that the Lord will turn on your own spiritual radar and you will see what is coming at you.’ This is such a burden on his heart. He uses that word ‘filled’, and the significance of it is this – that you might understand the will of God in all these respects and that it may displace, push out, all purely worldly ideas and thoughts. Filled to the exclusion of earthly values: that is the idea of the word ‘filled’ here, that you should be altogether governed by the word of God.Paul realised their needs, and they too needed a view of them; they are our needs also. They had a need of divine knowledge – ‘The knowledge of his will.’ We would say, the knowledge of the word of God, God’s will as expressed and unfolded in his word. It is very significant that the apostle chooses to speak of the will of God. When we seek counsel from the word, we are not doing it just because it is our duty according to Scripture; we are doing it because, being in the word, it is the will of God. If we fail and do something which is contrary to the word of God, then we defy the will of God. It is a momentous matter. ‘In all wisdom.’ When he speaks of wisdom in connection with knowledge, he usually seems to be talking about application. There is knowledge on the one hand, and when wisdom is linked with knowledge it has to do with how that knowledge is applied – what use you make of it.

Application

There is a tendency for some believers to think, ‘I have salvation, surely that is all I need. I understand the plan of redemption, I understand about Christ and Calvary, and the atonement, and my need of salvation. I have trusted in Christ and his shed blood for sinners. I have repented of my sin and I have yielded my life to him, and now I believe I am saved and have experienced a change of life and a new nature. Surely, that is everything, and yet you tire me with other things, and you speak of complex doctrines, and duties and obligations. Aren’t the basics enough?’ To think like that is a tragedy. God’s will for us is to deepen us and develop and equip us, but there are some people who remain untaught in doctrines.

There are also people who never come to understand how God deals with his people. They understand the plan of salvation and may even learn the doctrines, but it never sinks in how God deals with his people, the way he sanctifies us and trains us. Sometimes he puts us through hardships. What is God doing? Many Christians are perplexed – why is this happening to me? They have never come to terms with the lot of the believer.

Then again, it is common these days to find Christians who do not know the duties and the obligations of the Christian. And some believers will say, ‘To insist that Christians live according to certain rules is legalism.’ They think it is contrary to the Christian faith to have duties and obligations to God.

The word ‘desire’ is translated ‘ask’ by many modern translations, but the word implies that I am asking for something I am entitled to. Of course, all our entitlement comes through Christ and on account of his merits, but still we come asking for what has been promised to us, and we desire strongly to receive the promised answers. When we come to God to pray for the salvation of others, for difficulties of any kind, we come as those who have been invited to come. The Lord has said, ‘Come and pray. Lay these things before me. I will bless you.’ He has not said he will necessarily give us precisely what we ask for, but we are not coming uninvited. In fact, he has said, ‘If you don’t come, I won’t bless you.’ So, this special asking word is used. Desire is so important in prayer. Do you desire the things you pray for? Prayer must be energised by desire, genuine desire.

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Colossians 1:9 Commentary and Bible Study