Pre-Study Reflections
Do you grapple with what to pray for when asked to pray for someone especially one whom you do not know personally?
Suggested answer: We often find difficulties praying beyond the immediate needs and well being of ourselves and people around us. These are legitimate and necessary but Paul is showing us a more excellent way of praying for people; he prays for them to increase in the knowledge of God’s will and to grow in maturity with the hope of being Christlike at his return. Let us see how Paul does this in today’s passage in Colossians 1:3-14.
Introduction
Very often our prayer tends to be self-focused and shallow, concerned about the matters that affect ourselves and people around us. Today’s study on Paul’s prayer helps us to pray for others, our church and even people we don’t know through the lens of the gospel.
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Read Colossian 1:3-14(ESV)
Colossians 1:3 We always thankGod,
the Fatherof our Lord Jesus Christ,
when we pray for you,
4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and
of the love that you have for all the saints,
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth,
the gospel,
6 which has come to you,
as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing
—as it also does among you,
since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.
He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
8 and has made known to us your love
in the Spirit.
9 And so, from the day we heard,
we have not ceased topray 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.
11May you be 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.
13 He has delivered 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.
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Study of Colossians 1:3-14[1]
Background
Paul was in prison when he heard of the good news of the Colossian believers’ growing faith and love springing from the heavenly hope in them as a result of receiving the gospel. Paul did not know the Colossians personally as the gospel was brought to them by Epaphras. Seeing that the fruit of the gospel was evident among the Colossians, as it was growing throughout the world, Paul was greatly moved to pray for them unceasingly. The Colossians church was also facing severe opposition against their faith. These include prevailing human philosophies like asceticism, human traditions on food and drink, keeping festivals, angel worship, seeking visions. All these threaten to diminish the pre-eminence and supremacy of Christ and dilute the gospel. Paul prayed that the Colossian church might have the knowledge of God’s will so that they might live a life worth of the Lord and pleasing him in every way. He prayed for them to have the full knowledge and wisdom of God in Christ so that they would not be deceived into believing other human wisdoms. Paul expanded on what he meant in the rest of the book.
Today we are also being assaulted daily by various substitute “gospels”. We need to pray for ourselves, our church and others to know God’s will so that we may live lives worthy of and pleasing to the Lord.
Section I: Paul’s Motivation to Pray (Col 1:3-9a)
Q1. What did Paul hear concerning the Colossian believers? How did Paul respond upon hearing their news? What did his response reveal about Paul? What can we learn from Paul’s example?
Answer: Paul heard of the lives of the Colossians being transformed by the Gospel. This is evidenced by their hope which gave rise to their faith in Christ and love for their fellow believers. He was thankful to God and motivated to pray for them unceasingly. We can learn to be thankful to God for news of Gospel touching and impacting the lives of people among us and in other parts of the world. And we can learn to be praying for them.
Section II: Paul’s Prayer Focus
A. To Know God’s Will (Col 1:9b)
Q2. What did Paul mean by the knowledge of God’s will? How was the Colossians to possess this knowledge (Col 1:4-5, 1:19-22)?
Answer: In Colossians 1:19-22 God’s will is to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of Christ’s cross, and to present all believers holy and blameless and above reproach before him. This is the hope laid up in heaven for all the saints. The big picture of the Gospel that we shall be Christ-like at his coming. This is the vision that should guide and motivate us to grow towards Christlikeness.
B. To Live Life Worthy of the Lord, Fully Pleasing To Him (Col 1:10-14)
Knowing God’s should motivate believer to live a life worthy of Christ and pleasing to him, and to grow in Christlikeness while expecting Christ’s return. Paul elaborated on four aspects of what life pleasing to Christ should look like.
1. Bearing Fruitin Every Good Work (Col 1:10b)
Q3. What did Paul mean by bearing fruit in every good work? How can believers be fruitful in good work? (Col 1:4-6, 3:1-17)?
Answer: The ultimate “Good Work” belongs to God. We see earlier (1:4-6) that the Gospel, God’s good work, is producing the fruits of hope, faith and love in the Colossian believers. Paul also exhorted them on the need for mind set and life style changes as the desired fruits of the transforming work of the power of the Gospel. The believers can only be fruitful as they allow the Gospel to transform them.
2. Increasing In the Knowledge of God (Col 1:10c)
Q4. What is meant by the knowledge of God? How do believers increase in it?
Answer: Earlier we see that God’s will refers to believers becoming Christlikeness at His coming. Paul went on to explain that Christ is God’s mystery, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:2-3). Thus Christ embodies the wisdom and knowledge of God. To increase in the knowledge of God, we need to walk in Christ, being rooted and built up in him (2:6-7).
3. Strengthened With All Power for Endurance and Patience with Joy (Col 1:11)
Q5. How are believers to be strengthened? What are the results of being strengthened?
Answer: Believers are being strengthened by God’s glorious might. We have seen that the Gospel is giving the Colossians their heavenly hope. This hope of Christ’s return gave them the strength for endurance, patience and joy. God is already powerfully at work in us as well.
4. Giving Joyful Thanks tothe Father (Col 1:12-14)
Q6. Thankfulness is the powerful motivator for discipleship and service to God. In what way would you like to serve Christ as an expression of your thankfulness to Him? How can you encourage other GBC members to do likewise (Col 1:12-14)?
Suggested answer: Allow members time to suggest possible opportunities for service within Grace Baptist Church e.g. sound ministry, ushering ministry or serving with the evangelism team etc. Besides verbal encouragement, members can model joyful self-sacrificial service to others in the church and to their neighbours. Through both verbal encouragement and example you would be able to convincingly encourage other members in the church to do likewise and serve as a response of thankfulness to the gospel.
Summary
We learn from Paul to pray for others through gospel lens of knowing God’s will of making us glorious with the full maturity of Christ at his coming. We pray that this knowledge would lead them to bears fruit, to grow in knowledge of Christ, to be strengthened in their discipleship and to give joyful thanks to God always.
Remarks:
The apostle Paul begins his letter to the young Christians in Colossae with a greeting and a prayer. He gives thanks that the grace of the Father, the gospel of the Son, and the love of the Spirit have been made manifest to them so that they can experience and exemplify the faith, love, and hope of the Christ-centered life. These three Christian virtues that believers share (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13) are based on the objective word of grace and truth that was proclaimed in the good news of the gospel. With the help of faithful partners in ministry like Epaphras, Paul calls on the Colossian Christians to remember who they are and what they have because of Christ’s wondrous work of grace and truth.
This work of grace and truth (Col. 1:6) is directly connected to what Christ has done in delivering all of his followers from the realm of darkness into light, from death to life (v. 13). Through Christ’s work on the cross, they have been redeemed from and forgiven of their sins (v. 14). Because of this change in position from one realm to another, Paul calls on Christians to practice a new life in Christ that pleases God and bears good fruit (v. 10; cf. Matt. 7:17–19). With the knowledge, wisdom, and power that the God of “glorious might” will provide (Col. 1:9–11), believers can endure the inevitable trials and tribulations of the Christian life with patience, joy, and thanksgiving (vv. 11–12). For it is the gospel itself that causes fruit to be borne in the lives of God’s people (v. 6). We do not “graduate” from the gospel of grace; rather, we move more deeply into it over time, as we continue to see how profoundly sinful we are, yet how much more profoundly gracious God is.
–(The Gospel Transformation Bible, p. 1607)
References:
- The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.
- The Gospel Transformation Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2013.
- Carson, D.A.Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014.
- Leow, Wen Pin. Sermon delivered at Grace Baptist Churchon 16th August 2015.
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[1]You can purchase and download the video (session 4) in which D.A. Carson discusses Colossians 1:3-14 here: