A couple of weeks ago we started to look at the book of Colossians and have been going through it verse by verse. We took a look at the city of Colossae as well as the church located there. Then last week we looked at how Paul reacted to learning about this church that started as part of the fruit of his ministry in Ephesus. This week we start to look at his specific prayer for the church in Colossae. This prayer is one that specifically geared towards wanting to see the Colossian church grow spiritually. This prayer in fact is a prayer that we as believers should have regarding each other, as brothers in Christ we should have a desire to see each other grow spiritually. So what is this prayer? In Colossians 1:9-14 we see, “For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.” Today we are going to look at the first two verses of this section, “For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.”
Knowledge of His Will
The first thing that Paul prays for regarding the Colossian church is that they will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Remember this was a church that was facing false teachers that claimed there was a hidden knowledge that one needed to find, Paul is stating that God is willing to impart knowledge of His will on the believers. God’s will is not an Easter egg that is hidden in which you need to go searching for, no it is clearly revealed to us in His Word; all we need to do is seek to draw near to God, place our focus on Him and His will is revealed to us.
Walk Worthy of the Lord
It is not just enough to know God’s will it also needs to be applied. When Paul states that he prays that the Colossian church will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, he is essentially saying he prays that it becomes a controlling influence in their lives. As we focus more on God and His will we should naturally find ourselves wanting to “walk worthy of the Lord.” This means we will continue to grow in our knowledge of God, as we can never know everything there is to know, and do good works, as they are an outpouring of our faith. You see the first step of spiritual growth is learning more about God and His will as well as being obedient as we find ourselves wanting to do God’s will as we further seek to learn more about God and His will.
