Praying and Giving Thanks for God’s Qualified Heirs
The Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Colossian church is high Christology. As with other letters in the early church, this communique has false teachers as the opponents of Christ’s church. False teaching took on numerous configurations in the early church, even as it does, today. The false teachers at Colossae suggested Christ Jesus was not sufficient — that something was missing in His Person and work.
All works-based salvation schemes, today, make the same suggestion. They demand something be added to Christ’s finished work on the cross. While the false teachers play their role, the Holy Spirit is playing His role, and greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world (1 Jn 4:4).
Gospel preaching, inspired by the indwelling Holy Spirit, has accomplished its ongoing task. The saints and faithful brethren were manifest by hearing the Word of Christ from men of God like Epaphras (Col 1:2, 7). The Spirit of Christ caused them to be born again (Jn 3:1–8; 1 Pet 1:3). Now their task was to live by faith as new creatures in Christ (2 Cor 5:17).
The Christian life is the Spirit of Christ living in the soul (heart + mind + will) of those now being sanctified into conformity with Christ (Rom 8:29), the icon of God (Gal 2:20; Col 1:15). Paul and those who were with him gave thanks to God for so great a salvation extended to the Colossians. The advance of the Gospel is unstoppable despite a formidable foe. A key element to our spiritual warfare is prayer. Without ceasing, Paul prayed for the believers at Colossae.
The report of the Colossians’ faith, hope, and love needed an encouragement to grow. The Gospel was bearing fruit and increasing. Allusions to agriculture are common in the New Testament. This particular one makes one think of Genesis. It was God’s creation mandate for man to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. It is God’s revealed will in the Bible to have a faithful people who worship Him as He ought to be worshiped.
The first prayer point was for the saints to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will (Col 1:9). God’s will is revealed to us in God’s Word. All the spiritual wisdom and understanding Christians need, to have full assurance of salvation, is at our fingertips. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God (1 Cor 1:24). He is able to save His people from their sins and gather each one of them to Himself (Heb 7:25; Jas 1:21).
The second prayer point was for the faithful brethren to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord (Col 1:10) Again, the Bible informs us that in order to please God, we must trust Him in everything (Prv 3:5–6). The life of God in the soul of man is Christ in us by His Spirit (Rom 8:9, 11). He causes the saints to walk in God’s statutes, even as He guides them into all truth (Ezek 36:27; Jn 16:13).
The Holy Spirit produces spiritual fruit in every believer (Gal 5:22–23). He also is the one who is willing and doing His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). The Spirit performs all our works for us (Is 26:12), accomplishing everything that concerns us (Ps 57:2; 138:8). God’s work in the Christian is called, “grace.” God is glorified in every good work He performs in us and through us.
In order to know the manner of the walk, the children of God must increase in the knowledge of God (Col 1:10). God’s grace (His work benefitting believers) accompanies this increase in the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge of the truth (2 Pet 3:18). We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16); and that too is the Word of God. Thus, we know God, by knowing Christ, by knowing His Word.
Growing up into spiritual maturity by the Spirit and the Word is the Christian’s life of sanctification (Jn 17:17). God is committed to having His adopted children resemble His only begotten Son, our Lord. The end goal, Christ-likeness, has this sure finish in the glorification of the saints (Rom 8:30; 1 Cor 15). We shall be holy and blameless before Him according to God’s unfailing Word (Eph 1:4; 5:27; Col 1:22).
It is the wisdom of God that has designed and executed His perfect plan of salvation. It is the power of God that makes it happen. Our God is able to perform the necessary works to meet His requirements. Simply put, God preserves His people to the end. He who began His good work in them will bring that work to its proper end (Phil 1:6).
Our third prayer point issued by Paul is that the saints in light would be strengthened with all power. The joy of the Lord is our strength because the power of God has come upon us to be witnesses of Christ’s work in us and through us (Acts 1:8). Hence, we press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14). There is no doubt in God’s holy Word that each of God’s adopted children will make home to glory (Rom 8:15, 23; Eph 1:4–5; 1 Jn 5:11–13).
There is one final prayer made by Paul for the Colossian believers. It is a prayer of thanksgiving to God the Father. There are a number of reasons given for this status of “qualified heirs” (Col 1:12). We will explore those reasons in subsequent sermon articles.
To summarize, Paul gave thanks to God the Father — the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Col 1:3). The faithful brethren at Colossae were blessed recipients of faith, hope, and love from God. As Paul wrote, the next stage was now in play — growing. We learned how integral prayers were toward that growth exercise, revealed in Paul’s thinking. We observed what Paul prayed for was fourfold: the knowledge of God’s will to fill them; for them to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord; for them to be strengthened; and a thanksgiving for what God had done for them, to include them in His gracious inheritance reserved for them in heaven (1 Pet 1:4).
In conclusion, every Christian must become a student in understanding the grace of God given us — to bring us into Christ and to sustain us in Christ (Col 1:13). It is for the believer in Jesus to demonstrate the faith granted to him or her. Thus, we pray that God makes us to be faithful witnesses of His Son (Acts 1:8), who is the fully sufficient Christ.
A faithful witness learns the truth; knows the truth; and then communicates that truth to others. There is much joy in the Lord — not to mention love — regarding those who are not ashamed of the Gospel and who are bold to herald the Gospel of Christ to all people. May God grant that we live in such a manner, by His grace, as qualified heirs (Col 1:12).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
November 19, 2023
Colossians 1:9–12
