Colossians 1:9–14

The agape love of God is beyond our understanding. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins and the sins of the world. In His grace all people of every nation can come boldly to His mercy seat and receive forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ. 

What a wonderful, triune God we serve!

2 Peter 1:11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here’s the deal: We are primed for grace.

But let’s remember this; grace is not just a theological check mark (mental affirmation).

Grace happens when I find or know a place where I am at home in the arms of love. Grace is the gift of enough…

But gratefully, grace is alive and well.”

Indeed...
Grace: You are a gift from God. Sabbath Moments

Colossians 1:9–14

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; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. The New King James Version

Knowledge of His will refers to the believers’ awareness of Christ’s desires for how they ought to conduct themselves. False teachers might have described God’s will as unknowable—or knowable only through secret rituals. Paul rejects this idea: Followers of Christ, filled with the knowledge of His will, can live in a manner pleasing to God because they know what matters to Him. 

This is the purpose of his ministry, which is possible only because Christ Himself is the source of all wisdom and knowledge. The biblical conception of wisdom is oriented around God as the source of all wisdom; a wise person is a godly person. 

Wisdom refers to insight that comes from the Spirit. The purpose of having knowledge, wisdom, and insight is not to boast or brag, but to love God and others, thereby reflecting His image in the world. Knowledge of His will refers to experiential knowledge, not just intellectual understanding. As believers trust and obey God’s will, they become more acquainted with God’s ways—and with God Himself.

As non-Jews (Gentiles), the Colossians would have been considered outsiders to God’s blessings, which were reserved for the people of Israel. However, the central truth of the gospel for Paul was that Christ’s death and resurrection brought salvation for all who believed, Jews and Gentiles alike. Throughout his letters, Paul conveys this central truth using different kinds of imagery. Here, he affirms believers as God’s heirs; in the next verse, he shifts to language of deliverance. 

The realm in which Christ reigns as King, is where His sovereign rule is carried out. The transfer from one realm to the other is accomplished by God: In His love and grace, He brings believers out of the domain of sin and death and moves them into the kingdom of His Son. The kingdom of God (or kingdom of heaven) is one of the most dominant themes in Jesus’ teaching ministry. In this verse, Paul indicates that God’s kingdom is not just about the future; in some sense, it must already be present, because God has delivered believers from darkness and transferred them into His kingdom. 

Just as Israel was enslaved in Egypt before being rescued by Yahweh, so the Colossian believers had been enslaved to the domain of sin and death before they responded in faith to God’s act of salvation in Christ. God’s forgiveness removes sin and provides reconciliation. Forgiveness is an expression of God’s grace and love. Faithlife Study Bible

Paul’s chief concern is that the Colossians might have full knowledge of God’s will. The desire to serve God will be in vain without a proper understanding of the One we want to serve. Thus Paul prays that the Colossians might be filled with full knowledge that encompasses all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Wisdom is the practical outworking of knowledge, and that knowledge cannot be separated from the spiritual understanding that comes through the discernment given by the Holy Spirit. 

In addition to the full knowledge of the Lord’s will Paul desires that the Colossians may walk worthy of the Lord. Paul wanted the Colossians to live in a manner that adequately reflected what God had done for them and was doing in them. Being “worthy of God” is a phrase that occurs in ancient pagan inscriptions throughout Asia. It pictures someone’s life being weighed on scales to determine its worth. If these devotees to false gods knew they had to walk in a worthy manner, certainly Christians should dedicate their lives to the living God in order to please Him. 

Believers are empowered not in proportion to their need but according to God’s strength. So then, Paul desires to see nothing less than the very power of God Himself at work in the Colossian believers. A believer’s strength comes from God alone. The word qualified means to be able or authorized for a task. Believers can never be qualified on their own; instead God must make them sufficient through Jesus Christ. The tense of the verb points to “qualifying” as an act in the past rather than a process. Ordinarily to qualify for an event or a position, we have to prove ourselves. However the inheritance that believers receive is not one that they have earned but is based on being qualified by God. The Father “qualifies” us for eternal life with Him, whereas the Son will reward us at the end of the race. 

God has liberated believers from the dominion of darkness. The apostle uses the common symbolism of light and darkness for good and evil, for God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom, that is found throughout the New Testament. The kingdom from which believers have been rescued is the kingdom of darkness. The NKJV Study Bible

Proverbs 2:6 

For the LORD gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Ephesians 4:2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,

1 Thessalonians 2:12 that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.