Colossians 1:9-23

This letter, along with a second one (Philemon), was carried by Tychicus and a runaway slave named Onesimus (4:7-9) to the churches of Colossae and Laodicea. Barry, J. D. (2014). Colossians: Being Like Jesus (p. 5). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. Epaphras may be responsible for starting the church in Colossae. Because of Epaphras’ report Colossians about the “love of the Spirit” that these Christians have shown, Paul and Timothy have not stopped praying for them (1:9a). WHAT they have prayed and WHY they have prayed what they’ve prayed is laid out in verses 9-12.

Colossians 1:9–12 (NKJV)

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.

Each verse links to the next to help us better understand the what and why of this prayer. The prayer begins by asking to be "filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Having this prayer answered will enable the Christians to “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

Do you find that as you grow in your understanding of God it leads to a change in how you live your life?

“The ‘knowledge of God’s will’ is more than simply an insight into how God wants his people to behave: it is an understanding of God’s whole saving purpose in Christ, and hence (as in v. 10b) a knowledge of God himself” ([1] Wright, N. T. (1986). Colossians and Philemon: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 12, p. 61). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).

A.W. Tozer said that “...the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like” (–A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins, 1961), 1.).

Next they pray for spiritual strength. To be strengthened with all the might the Lord provides in accord with His glorious power. The reason for this prayer is so that they will have patience and longsuffering with joy. This all results in a response of thanksgiving because God has enabled us (brought us to perfection; empowered us) to share in an inheritance that was not ours originally. We have been allowed this blessing because we have been taken from where we were, under the power of darkness, and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love. This is none other than Jesus, our Redeemer. These last two verses in this section begins a very important transition in this chapter.

Firstborn (1:15, 18)

Colossians 1:15–18 NKJV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

This section is filled with theological significance. In these verse we see Jesus as both God and Man. The key words in this section are “firstborn” and “all things”.

In verse 15 we see Jesus as divine. He is “the firstborn over all creation”. In verse 18 we see Jesus as human. He is the “firstborn from the dead”.

In between these two key phrases we see that there is no area of creation that is not yielded to the sovereignty of God or impacted by the salvific work of Christ.