COLOSSIANS 1:9

The Bible says in Colossians 1:9 “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Paul had heard about the faith of these believers. Evidently he had never seen them, but he heard about how they came to believe in Christ. Paul said in verse 3 that he became thankful when he heard about their faith in Christ. Now Paul says that he began to pray for these people once he heard that they had become believers. In Colossians 1:9 Paul states exactly what he prayed for.

Once a person becomes saved through faith in Christ, they enter into a new life. They have a new beginning. But in that new life, they have needs. What does a believer need? One of the things that a believer needs is found in Colossians 1:9 that says, “that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Christians need to be “filled.” A Christian becomes saved through faith in Christ, and then the Christian needs to be filled. What is this filling? What do Christians need to be filled with? This verse tells us three things that Christians need to be filled with: knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

Christians need to be filled with “the knowledge of his will.” This is listed first perhaps because it is the most important. There is a great difference between the will of man and the will of God. “My ways are not your ways, saith the Lord.” Man’s will is very strong and very stubborn and very deceitful. It is very important that a Christian learn to give up his own will, to know God’s will, and to be willing to do God’s will. Much has been lost in the service of God because Christians have done their own selfish will instead of God’s will. There is a reason that Jesus told us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Even Jesus when He was on the earth as a man had to pray with great drops of blood and say, “Not my will, but thine be done.” How many Christians have done their own will instead of God’s will? How many children have put their will above God’s will instead of trusting Him and obeying their parents in the Lord when they should? How many adults married when and whom they wanted instead of when and whom the Lord wanted? How many have struck out in anger against others, or have run away from a difficulty instead of seeking God’s will? If only they had been filled with the knowledge of God’s will, how differently things would have been. It is no wonder that Paul prayed that the Christians in Colosse would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.

Christians need to know God’s will. Christians also need “all wisdom.” Wisdom is practical. Wisdom is the ability to take knowledge and to apply it to a certain situation. The reason that Colossians 1:9 speaks of “all wisdom” is because a Christian needs God’s wisdom in every single situation that a Christian faces, whether small or great. What do you say and when? What decisions do you make? How do you react to each situation that comes your way? Without “all wisdom” you will fail to respond the way that God wants you to respond. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

Concerning understanding, Christians need “spiritual understanding.” A person can gain human understanding without turning to the Lord, but spiritual understanding only comes from the Spirit of God. The Bible says in First Corinthians 2:13-14, “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” If you do not have spiritual understanding, then you will be a carnal Christian, and you will interpret things the same way that unsaved people do. And if that happens, it will be a disaster, a spiritual disaster for your life. There have been Christians who have made terrible decisions because they did not have the spiritual understanding that they really needed.

Here are three wonderful things: “The knowledge of his will, all wisdom, and spiritual understanding.” Every Christian can and should have these three things after they are saved. O how the world would be different if only Christians would gain these things from God as soon as possible after being saved. No wonder that Paul prayed for these Christians in Colosse to have these things. Paul also prayed in Colossians 1:10, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” This verse emphasizes how high is the standard that has been given to Christians. If you have been saved, then you have been called to a great challenge. There are no excuses for failure. You should please the Lord with “all pleasing.” You should be “fruitful in every good work.” Also notice that Christians should always be “increasing in the knowledge of God.” No one has arrived at the place were they need to be. There is always more to know and more to experience about God and Christ. Do not ever think that you know it all, that you have figured it all out, or that you have all the answers. No matter what you have learned about God, there is much more to know about the great eternal God. Whatever difficulties or challenges that you might be called upon to face in this life, the next thing that you learn about God might be just what you need to know to get through them. You need to learn more about Him because you will need that new knowledge. The Bible says in Ephesians 3:17-19, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

In these last days there are too many weak believers. Every Christian will be weak unless they grow close to Christ. We have no power, and Jesus has all power. It is no wonder that Paul said that he prayed in Colossians 1:11 that these believers in Colosse would be “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” The first phrase of this verse is actually using the same word that is translated “strengthened” as the word that is translated “might.” It should be translated “strengthened with all strength” or “enabled with all enablement.” It is said this way for emphasis. Any Christian has access to the power of the All-powerful One, whose name is Jesus Christ.

In what ways will a believer know that he is gaining this power from Christ and using it? That is explained in the last part of Colossians 1:11. It says, “unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” Both patience and longsuffering refer to the same thing. They refer to the fact that a Christian will suffer trials and tribulations and persecutions, and it will take divine enablement to get through all of those things properly. To have patience refers to being able to bear up under whatever things are pressing down upon you. To have longsuffering means exactly what it says: to be able to suffer for a long time: as long as necessary to do things the right way. You will not be able to endure, and you will not be able to suffer in your own strength.

Many Christians fail miserably because instead of enduring some trial to the end, they take things into their own hands and they get out from under the suffering in their own way and in their own time. In other words, they run away. We must rely upon God especially in the midst of some great trial. Speaking of trials and tribulations, Jesus said, “He that endures unto the end shall be saved.” Of course, Jesus is not talking in this context about the saving of the soul. He is talking about being saved from a trial or tribulation. If you endure the trial, by trusting in God to end it in His way and in His time, then you will be saved from the trial when and how He sees fit. If you get out from under the trial early and do not lean on the Lord because of your own impatience and selfishness, then you will not be saved from the trial. You will suffer an even worse fate that your own self-will shall lead you to. You will be carnal instead of spiritual.

Every Christian will need patience and longsuffering to walk in fellowship with Christ in this world. The good news is that both patience and longsuffering are possible because Jesus is all-powerful. Of course, the fact that we will need patience and longsuffering means that every Christian will have some very difficult trials to endure in this life. The trials will not be pleasant. The Christian life is not a walk through a rose garden. There is a cross to bear. The servant is not greater than his Lord. But in spite of these facts we are not supposed to be going around moaning and groaning about our trials and tribulations. Colossians 1:11 says that we should have patience and longsuffering “with joyfulness.” Without the power of God it will be completely impossible to have joyfulness when we are experiencing our greatest trials. But having this joyfulness will definitely be a good measure of how much of the power of God we have in our hearts.

Paul evidently thought of what he could be thankful for. He thought of what was dearest to his heart. Paul wrote in Colossians 1:12, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” We can look at the past and be thankful, and we can look at the future and be thankful. God did something for us in the past which will have its final and complete fulfillment in the future. In the past God gave salvation to everyone who believed in Jesus. And because He did something for us in the past, He will also do something for us in the future. He will take us to heaven. Jesus said to His believers, “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, ye may be also.” Colossians 1:12 says that we will be “partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” The only way to gain this inheritance is to be a saint. The word saint means “holy one.” We are given a holy status and a holy position in the eyes of God simply by believing in Christ. That is one of the great things that God did for us the moment that we believed. That is why it says in Colossians 1:12 that God “made us meet to be partakers.” The believer believed. God did the work. Salvation is His work, not man’s work. The word “saint” is misused by the Roman Catholics. Every believer is a saint as far as the biblical use of the word is concerned.

The last phrase of Colossians 1:12 is “in light.” The moment that a person is saved, he is placed “in light.” The next verse expands on this and says in Colossians 1:13, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” The problem that every person has before they get saved is that they are in darkness. Darkness refers to a lack of spiritual understanding. Darkness refers to not knowing God personally. Darkness refers to being a part of the kingdom of evil that shrouds this world. This spiritual darkness is powerful. People are captured by the “power of darkness.” No one has the strength to get out of darkness on their own. It takes a miracle. It takes the power of God. It takes faith in Christ. It takes the new birth. Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.”

When we are saved by turning to Christ for forgiveness and salvation, Colossians 1:13 says that we are “translated into the kingdom of his dear Son.” The word “translated” means literally “to cause a change in position.” When you get saved by Christ, God changes your position. You were positioned in darkness. But once you are saved, God places you into the kingdom of his dear Son. That sounds like eternal security. First of all, God does it, and what He does cannot be undone. Secondly, God has already done it. If you have been saved by Christ, you are already positioned in His kingdom. If you have not been saved by Christ, now is the time to turn to Him so that you can be delivered “from the power of darkness.”

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