Colossians 1:7-12 (JB Phillips) 7-10 You learned these things, we understand, from Epaphras who is in the same service as we are. He is a most well-loved minister of Christ, and has your well-being very much at heart. As a matter of fact, it was from him that we heard about your growth in Christian love, so you will understand that since we heard about you we have never missed you in our prayers. We are asking God that you may see things, as it were, from his point of view by being given spiritual insight and understanding. We also pray that your outward lives, which men see, may bring credit to your master’s name, and that you may bring joy to his heart by bearing genuine Christian fruit, and that your knowledge of God may grow yet deeper. 11-12 As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God’s boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with courage. You will even be able to thank God in the midst of pain and distress because you are privileged to share the lot of those who are living in the light.
Colossians 1:9-12 NIV 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Observation
Colossae is a town about 100 miles east of Ephesus. Epaphras was probably converted to Christianity under Paul’s Ephesian ministry and is thought to be the pastor of the church in Colossae. Let us not forget that the Gospel is an entirely new message, a revolutionary life style of direct and intimate relationship with God. Every convert – Jew or Gentile – came from some other background, some other form of religion, some other understanding of diety and its relationship with humankind. The pagan gods were generally fickle, selfish, cruel, abusive and/or wrathful toward humankind; some gods just took no notice. The Jewish religious leaders preached a god who was all justice and no mercy, no grace. There were also groups, such as the Gnostics, who were twisting the Gospel to exclude Christ.
Paul prayed for these new Gentile Christians to be able to make this complete turnaround spiritually, to keep faithful to the truth of the Gospel of Christ, the One Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the only Savior and Redeemer. This beautiful and powerful prayer of Paul’s rings out among all the competing religious voices, “We are asking God that you may see things, as it were, from his point of view by being given spiritual insight and understanding… that you may bring joy to his heart…”. It all boils down to setting themselves to bring God joy in His heart by remaining faithful inwardly and in their outside lives to the truth of Christ and Him crucified.
Impact on Me
“We are asking God that you may see things, as it were, from his point of view by being given spiritual insight and understanding. We also pray that your outward lives, which men see, may bring credit to your master’s name, and that you may bring joy to his heart by bearing genuine Christian fruit, and that your knowledge of God may grow yet deeper.” This prayer is full of whole life verses for me, especially vss. 9 & 10. I want to be everything that Paul says and prays for these people. These were humans who were not yet what Paul spoke over them, but were moving in the right direction in the midst of persecution and pressure to conform. He was tilling the ground by praying what they can become, encouraging them to aspire to go deeper into relationship with Father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
I want God’s heart to leap for joy because I bear the genuine Christian fruit that produces love, growth, character and fruit in others. I want to be a well-loved minister of Christ because I put the well-being and growth of others before my own, keeping my eye, strength and heart on accomplishing God’s goals because they are truly my own. I want to see from His point of view so that my heart is broken for the unlovely, the untouchable, those devalued by society, those who reject God. It is my heart’s goal to reveal Him to them through my outward life and the words He speaks through me in such a way that He is too real and too lovely to resist. I want those I meet to remember only Christ and His Love when we part.
Prayer & Dedication
Lord, help me to see things from Your point of view and respond in a way that brings joy to Your heart. May I be loved by others only because they see and experience Your Love in and through me, Love which is impossible to deny, discount or resist. I know, Lord, that this is counter intuitive for a human being with an emotional need to be approved, affirmed, recognized, so I am depending on You to help me to respond according to Your Word from my spirit, which is guided and directed by You alone, rather than my soul and my flesh, which may react in a completely human way. I love You. Continue to take the country of my heart, my mind, my awareness, my thoughts, my every action. In Jesus’ Name, I pray.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 