1. The Epistle to the Colossians
Col 1:9,10 Knowledge of God's Will and Worthy Walk
Col 1:9 – “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”
For what reason?
Likely reflects verses 4-8, the good news form Colossae.
Who is ‘we’?
Paul, Timothy and likely many others.
Do not cease (indicative) to pray for you – how are you doing?
pray (proseuchomai) – general word for prayer that means to offer petitions (Wuest).
A reminder of Col 1:3.
and to ask (desire, aiteō) – a petition for something to be given (Wuest).
You may be filled (subjunctive).
May be filled or may be not? 1
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2. The Epistle to the Colossians
Col 1:9,10 Knowledge of God's Will and Worthy Walk
If we so will, how do we become filled with the knowledge (epignōsis) of His will (thelēma) in all wisdom and spiritual understanding?
None but the Hungry Heart?
epignosis – more than gnōsis (knowledge), it represents a superior more in depth knowledge that is deep seeded – and in us!
And this is as available to us and all believers as the world-system-based superior knowledge was to the Gnostics.
And it’s more than having it but being filled (abound in, plēroō) in all wisdom and understanding!
Rom 10:17 - So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
First, what is God’s will for all of us?
Rom 8:28 - For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
2 Cor 3:18 - But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2
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3. The Epistle to the Colossians
Col 1:9,10 Knowledge of God's Will and Worthy Walk
How does this will of God influence our everyday life?
Black Chevy or white Ford?
Wuest – ‘This thorough, perfect knowledge of God's will should be in the sphere of "all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Again, Paul uses two Gnostic words, sophia (wisdom) and sunesis (understanding). Expositors in defining these words, says: "Sophia is general, sunesis, special. sophia embraces the whole range of mental faculties; sunesis is the special faculty of intelligence or insight which discriminates between the false and the true, and grasps the relations in which things stand to each other. The addition of pneumatikos, (spiritual) shows that both are to proceed from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.’
To be contrasted with – ‘For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you – 1 Cor 1:12.
Also 1 Cor 2:14 - But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
And Epaphras’ prayer was so directed - Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God – Col 4:12. 3
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4. The Epistle to the Colossians
Col 1:9,10 Knowledge of God's Will and Worthy Walk
JFB – ‘There seems to have been a want of knowledge among the Colossians; notwithstanding their general excellencies; hence he so often dwells on the subject of God’s will’
Col 1:28; Col 2:2,3; 3:10;13; 4:5,6.’
To be contrasted with the false doctrine to which the Colossians were exposed.
Col 2:8 - Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Col 2:23 - These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
And the apostle John sends us a reminder!
1 John 5:20 - And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Col 1:10 – “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully 4
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5. The Epistle to the Colossians
Col 1:9,10 Knowledge of God's Will and Worthy Walk
pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”
What’s this may (active infinitive not subjunctive) walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him?
Sounds kind of legal doesn’t it?
worthy walk mentioned elsewhere – Eph 4:1, Phil 1:27, 1 Thess 2:12.
Eph 4:1 - I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
worthy – means like value, worth as much
This is identification
Phil 1:21 - For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Psalm 111:2 - The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.
being fruitful (Gal 5:22,23) in every good work
What does this look like?
Wuest – ‘This fruit bearing and increasing is to be, not in the 5
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6. The Epistle to the Colossians
Col 1:9,10 Knowledge of God's Will and Worthy Walk
knowledge of God, since the latter is the motivating energy which produces the former, but by means of the knowledge of God.’
How is this measured?
Should we care?
increasing (passive participle) in the knowledge (epignosis) of God
We have a role but the Holy Spirit does the teaching.
John 14:16,17 - “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
How do we increase in this knowledge, in other words what is our role here?
By faith – believing what God has revealed!
What are the benefits we experience?
1 Thess 4:1 - Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 6
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