Colossians 2.2-Paul Presents the Three-Fold Purpose of His Intense Struggle While Interceding in Prayer for Those Christians Who He Had Never Met
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday August 30, 2015
Colossians: Colossians 2:2-Paul Presents the Three-Fold Purpose of His Intense Struggle While Interceding in Prayer for Those Christians Who He Had Never Met
Lesson # 39
Colossians 2:1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself. (NASB95)
“That their hearts may be encouraged” presents the first purpose for which Paul experienced an intense struggle in prayer on behalf of the faithful Christians in Colossae, Laodicea and all those whom he had never met personally.
“Having been knit together in love” is composed of the following: (1) verb sumbibazō (συμβιβάζω), “having been knit together” (2) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (3) noun agapē (ἀγάπη), “the love.”
The verb sumbibazō is used in a figurative sense and means “to unite” since it pertains to bringing a certain group of people together as a unit.
The participle form of this verb is functioning as a participle of means which expresses the means by which these Christians who had never met Paul personally would be encouraged and is defining for the reader how these Christians would be encouraged.
The noun agapē means “divine-love” since it does not refer to the function of human love but rather, the word refers to the exercise of divine-love that is produced by the Holy Spirit through the believer who is obedient to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another as He loves.
Therefore, the noun agapē speaks of the love of God being reproduced and reflected in the lives of these Christians when they obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command to love one another as He loves the body of Christ.
The noun agapē is the object of the preposition en which means “by means of” since it is functioning as a marker of means indicating that these Christians who had never met Paul personally would be encouraged by being united “by means of divine-love.”
“And attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding” constitutes the second purpose for which Paul experienced an intense struggle while interceding in prayer for all those Christians who he had never met personally which is in addition to the first purpose.
“To all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding” is composed of the following: (1) preposition eis (εἰς), “to” (2) adjective pas (πᾶς), “all” (3) noun ploutos (πλοῦτος), “the wealth” (4) noun plērophoria (πληροφορία), “that comes from full assurance” (5) noun sunesis (σύνεσις), “of understanding.”
The noun ploutos means “wealth” and speaks of spiritual wealth, which is of infinite or immeasurable value and is modified by the adjective pas which means “absolute” since it pertains to being free from imperfection.
The noun ploutos is also the object of the preposition eis which is a marker of purpose expressing the second purpose for which Paul experienced an intense struggle while interceding in prayer for those Christians who he had never met personally.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that spiritual wealth which is absolute was the second purpose for which Paul experienced an intense struggle while interceding in prayer for those Christians who he had never met personally.
The noun plērophoria means “full confidence, full certainty, full assurance, conviction” since it pertains to a state of being completely convinced and certain of the truth of something.
Here it speaks of those Christians who had never met Paul personally possessing a wealth which is absolute which is produced by conviction with regards to the gospel of Jesus Christ who is the truth of God incarnate.
The noun plērophoria is in the genitive case and functions as a genitive of production which indicates that this absolute spiritual wealth is “produced by” that which is conviction.
The noun sunesis means “insight, discernment” since it pertains to the result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively and pertains to the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure, skill in discerning, and the power to see what is not evident to the average mind.
This word refers to the ability to choose what is God’s will and what is not.
The noun sunesis is in the genitive case and functions as a genitive of product which indicates that this discernment is “the product” of conviction.
“Resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself” presents the third purpose for which Paul interceded in prayer for all those Christians he had never met personally.
“True knowledge” is the noun epignōsis (ἐπίγνωσις), which refers to an “experiential knowledge” of Jesus Christ in the sense of personally encountering through the process of experiential sanctification or fellowship Jesus Christ as He is revealed by the Holy Spirit in a prayerful study of the gospel.
It also refers to being affected by this encounter with Jesus Christ which in turn will result in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
This noun epignōsis is the object of the preposition eis which functions again as a marker of purpose expressing the third purpose for which Paul experienced an intense struggle while interceding in prayer for those Christians who he had never met personally.
“The mystery” is the noun mustērion (μυστήριον), which does not mean that Jesus Christ was not known to Old Testament saints since His person and work were prophesied about by the Old Testament prophets of Israel.
Rather, the word describes Jesus Christ in relation to those who do not exercise faith in Him as Savior in order to be declared justified by the Father.
Jesus Christ is a mystery to those are not initiated and to be initiated is accomplished by being declared justified by the Father through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
So this word is an attack at the Essence branch of Judaism which possessed an incipient form of Gnosticism.
Colossians 2:1 In fact, I want each and every one of you to know for certain how great a struggle I am experiencing on behalf of each and every one of you as well as for those who are located in Laodicea, yes in fact, for all those who have never seen my face in the flesh. 2 The purpose of this struggle is that their hearts would be encouraged. Specifically by being united by means of divine-love. Also, for a wealth which is absolute which is produced by that which is conviction which produces that which is discernment. For the purpose of knowing experientially the mystery which originates from God (the Father), namely the Christ. (My translation)
The apostle Paul in Colossians 2:2 continues his thought from Colossians 2:1 in which he informs the faithful Christians in Colossae that he was experiencing an intense struggle while interceding in prayer for them and those faithful Christians in Laodicea and all those who had never met him personally.
Here in verse 2 he presents a three-fold purpose for which he experienced an intense struggle while interceding in prayer for all those Christians who he had never met personally and each of these three purpose clauses are directly related to each other.
As we noted with the first purpose, these Christians whom Paul had never met personally would receive encouragement by each one of them exercising the love of God toward each other which would result in uniting them experientially.
The third purpose is that they would know experientially Jesus Christ.
Now, they can’t exercise God’s love unless they know Jesus Christ experientially.
They would manifest the fact that they know Him experientially when they obey His command to love one another.
Obeying His command to love one another is the means by which these Christians would be united experientially with each other and receive encouragement.
This then points to the second purpose in that knowing Jesus Christ experientially is a wealth which is absolute and it is produced by conviction with regards to the gospel.
This conviction is the direct result of exercising faith in the gospel which results in experiencing the deliverance from sin and Satan which was provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In fact, exercising faith in the command to love one another as Christ loves enables the Spirit to reproduce the love of God in the life of the Christian.
The more the Christian experiences victory over sin and Satan by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father they will receive more conviction.
This conviction produces discernment in the sense that it provides the Christian the ability to discern what is the Father’s will and what is not and specifically identifies for the Christian what thoughts and actions are based upon the love of God in their life and what thoughts and actions are not.
So knowing Jesus Christ experientially will produce unity experientially in the body of Christ and encourage each member of the body of Christ because knowing Jesus Christ experientially is based upon exercising faith in His command love one another as He loves the Christian.
This faith produces conviction and discernment in the Christian.
This knowing of Jesus Christ experientially is wealth which is absolute or free from imperfection and is of infinite or immeasurable value to the Christian since it will result in rewards at the Bema Seat and a more intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ who is sovereign Creator and Redeemer of mankind.