Sermon Tone Analysis

Praying Like an Apostle

Col. 1:9-14

“How’s your prayer life?”

What does that question even mean?

“How often do you pray?” “How long do you pray?” “Do you use the right words when you pray?” “What posture do you use to pray?” “Where do you pray?” “What kinds of things do you pray for?” “Why do you pray?” “Whom are you addressing when you pray?”

In every one of Paul’s letters, the apostle gives us a glimpse into his own prayer life.

Several times, he requests specific prayer for himself, but in every letter he refers to or expresses something specific he is praying for his readers.

This morning, we’re going to take a look at one of those prayers, recorded in Col. 1:9-14.

Please turn there now.

In your sermon notes, you’ll see a sheet with an outline; go ahead and take a look at it, so that we can see where we’re headed.

This passage will help us address 3 questions: 1) What does Paul request in this prayer?

2) Whom does Paul address in prayer?

and 3) How can Paul pray?

What you see in your outline is a breakdown of this passage that I will be following this morning, beyond answering those 3 primary questions.

We read the passage earlier, so we’ll dive right in, but, before we do, let me make one more introductory observation about this passage.

Verses 9-14, in Greek, are part of the longest Greek sentence in the New Testament.

Col. 1:9-20 is, in fact, one single sentence in Greek, comprised of 216 Greek words.

Now, let’s begin unpacking this wondrously huge sentence; look at verse 9: And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Most Bible translations begin this verse with the words “for this reason,” which shows the connection to verses 7-8 more clearly.

Paul mentions how Epaphras, who had planted the church in Colossae, had recently delivered a report to Paul indicating that the Christians in Colossae were expressing love for each other, as the fruit of the Spirit.

Because of this good report, Paul says, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you.

He and Timothy, who are in some sense co-writing this letter, repeatedly, consistently, and regularly pray for these Christians.

As Pastor Barry mentioned last week, it’s important to remember that Paul has never met these Christians in Colossae.

He doesn’t know these folks, yet he prays for them unceasingly!

We will come back to this point to reflect on its implications for us.

Notice also that it’s not a crisis that provokes him to pray; it’s their good progress.

John MacArthur comments, “Paul...knew that the knowledge that others are progressing in the faith should never lead us to stop praying for them.

Rather, it should encourage prayer for their greater progress.”

So, what does Paul pray for these Colossian Christians he’s never met?

He prays that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The language of “fullness” and “being filled” is going to appear several times in Colossians, and many through the years have thought that Paul uses this word because the false teachers he is opposing use this word as a buzzword of sorts.

The word conveys the basic idea of completion, most often used with reference to filling a container with a substance.

It is this notion of “capacity” that drives Paul’s metaphorical usage of the term here.

He is depicting each of the Colossian Christians as like this cup, and he’s praying that God would pour something into this cup, filling it up to the very top.

What fills the cup?

Well, it seems that Paul envisions a sort of “mixed drink” that consists of 3 ingredients: the knowledge of his will, all spiritual wisdom, and all spiritual understanding.

Ingredient #1 is “knowing God’s will.”

What a concept!

When we speak of “knowing God’s will” or wanting to know God’s will, we’re usually referring to finding out what decision God wants us to make when faced with a variety of options.

“Who should I marry?” “Where should I work?” “Should I eat Chinese or Mexican for dinner?”

“Should we move to Africa or Kilgore?” I’m so glad to see some of our young men studying the book Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung; that book will help you recognize more clearly that, when the Bible speaks of God’s will, it’s not usually (if ever) talking about those kinds of day-to-day decisions.

DeYoung writes, concerning this passage, “Being filled with the knowledge of God’s will doesn’t mean getting divine messages about our summer plans and financial investments.

It means we bear fruit, grow in our understanding of God, are strengthened with power unto patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father.”

Reflecting on this passage in connection with the rest of Colossians, commentator David Pao writes, “‘The knowledge of his will’ is the knowledge of what God has done through Jesus Christ.

This ‘will’ is not concerned primarily with God’s private plan for individual believers; it is rather his salvific will as he accomplishes his plan of salvation.”

The concept of God’s will in Paul’s letters is at once more general and more comprehensive than the way we tend to use that phrase.

Knowing God’s will, according to Paul, “involves recognizing how Christ is the fulfillment of God’s redemptive purposes..., how God’s salvation is open to all people, and how God intends for Christians to live in whatever situation they find themselves.”

At the end of the letter, in Col. 4:12, Paul will let the Colossians know how Epaphras has also been praying that they would “stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.”

Two more ingredients make up this “cocktail” Paul is praying would fill the Colossian Christians: wisdom and understanding.

The adjectives “all” and “spiritual” probably go with both of these terms.

The 2011 edition of the NIV helps us see more clearly that the word usually translated “spiritual” is actually referring to the Holy Spirit in Paul’s Letters.

You can see their translation of this phrase on the screen or in your sermon notes: all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.

Paul is praying that God would fill all of the Colossian Christians—and ultimately all Christians everywhere—with the wisdom and understanding provided by the Spirit.

So, what is Paul requesting in this prayer?

Like a cup filled with a mixed drink, Paul asks God to enable the Colossian Christians to know God’s will completely, accompanied by the wisdom and understanding that only the Spirit can provide.

“Understanding” probably refers to “the ability to discern the truth,” while “wisdom” probably refers to making “good decisions based on that truth.”

The metaphor of being filled probably “implies elements of completeness (that a knowledge of God’s will is to shape the whole of life) and of exclusiveness (that only God’s will be allowed to shape life).”

After all, once the cup is full, you can’t put anything else in!

Paul goes on in verse 10 to highlight the result he expects from this filling.

He prays that God would fill the Colossian Christians, verse 10, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.

“Walking” is frequently used in the Bible as a metaphor for the way a person lives their life on a daily basis; it refers to our day-to-day conduct.

The imagery of “walking” is important, as it implies forward motion, rather than simply standing still.

Paul refers to “walking worthily” in 2 other places in his letters.

They’ll appear on the screen one at a time, and they’re down in your sermon notes.

Eph.

4:1 says, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

1 Thess.

2:12 says, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Notice that what Paul commands in Ephesians and 1 Thessalonians, he expects as a result of God’s work in answer to prayer in Colossians.

In verse 10 of our passage, he further characterizes what it means to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord” as being “fully pleasing” to the Lord Jesus.

Paul often speaks of pleasing God as a goal of the ordinary Christian life, as well as a goal of his own life and ministry.

Whereas “those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” according to Paul in Rom.

8:8, “we make it our ambition to please him,” as he says in 2 Cor.

5:9 (NET).

D.A. Carson writes, “In thought, word, and deed, in action and in reaction, I must be asking myself, ‘What would Jesus have me do?

What is speech or conduct worthy of him?

What sort of speech or conduct in this context should I avoid, simply because it would shame him?

What would please him the most?’”

Is that the goal you pursue in your relationships and in your endeavors?

Let the concern to please Jesus affect every decision you make.

Carson adds, “Transparently, we cannot begin to be utterly pleasing to Jesus unless God fills us with the knowledge of his will.

Conversely, the knowledge of his will is not an end in itself but has as its goal such Christian maturity that our deepest desire is to please the Lord Christ.”

What does the life “worthy of the Lord” and “fully pleasing to him” look like?

In the rest of verse 10 and on through the beginning of verse 12, Paul uses 4 Greek participles to flesh out what this life looks like.

The first 2 finish out verse 10; he continues, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

These 2 participles, “bearing fruit” and “increasing,” we’ve already seen in Col. 1:6, where Paul said that the gospel was “bearing fruit and increasing” “in the whole world,” as well as among the Colossian Christians.

In contrast to the way the Colossian Christians lived before the gospel “bore fruit” among them, “doing evil deeds” according to verse 21, now they are expected to “bear fruit” “in every good work.”

Paul often refers to good works as a vital part of the Christian life.

Let’s look at just 3 other examples, though there are several others.

First, see 2 Cor.

9:8 on the screen or in your sermon notes—And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Paul here highlights God’s grace as always available, in every circumstance, so that the believer can do good deeds.

Secondly, look at 2 Tim.

3:16-17—All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

This statement is so important for our understanding of the nature of Scripture as God’s very words that we often miss the main point Paul is making.

In 2 Cor.

9:8, God’s grace is the source of the believer’s ability to do “every good work”; here, in 2 Tim.

3:16-17, it is “all Scripture” which he insists provides all that is necessary for the believer to do “every good work.”

Finally, look at Eph. 2:10—For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God has saved us, created us anew, for the purpose of doing good works, and notice the metaphor of “walking” in good works, indicating that our daily lifestyle is to be characterized by doing good works.