Wisdom

Col. 1.8-10

Paul prays that the Colossians might know God's will so as to please him more fully.

Judging from his own ministry experience, no doubt, Paul realizes how easily individuals can deviate from the true path of grace.* It is for this reason that he moves from thanking God for the nascent—but evidenced—faith of the Colossians to praying for a developed understanding on their part as to the relationship between the God in which their faith is grounded (and is its object) and their Christian life.

Paul offers his prayer somewhat expectantly because he has already heard of the real fruit bearing that is occurring amongst the Colossians—“faith in Christ and love for the saints” (1.4). Fruit bearing is a sign of the gospel’s work so Paul has reason to believe that the Colossians are on the right track, so to speak, to living a life of “maturity in Christ” (1.28).

Having mentioned the Colossians’ actions in the previous paragraph, it’s interesting that Paul’s prayer begins not with behavior, but rather knowledge. A filling of “knowledge about God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (1.9) is necessary for the Colossians to get to where they, quite correctly, want to be—walking “in a manner worthy of the Lord, [pleasing] him to the utmost” (1.10).

Again, Paul agrees with the Colossians in their goal to live lives that make God happy and proud to be their God. What this looks like in practice is a continual process of “bearing fruit in every good work” and “increasing in the knowledge of God” (1.10). Along with the Colossians, we can possibly envision ourselves advancing in these two areas, but sometimes it's hard to see how they cohere. Typically, I take a laissez-faire approach, believing that somehow, once I believe in God and the gospel, my good works will be pleasing to God.

The fact that Paul is even writing this letter, however, seems to indicate it’s not always the case that our attempts at pleasing God lead to actions that do in fact accord with true knowledge of God. This suspicion seems confirmed by Paul’s placement of “increasing in the knowledge of God” second almost by way of emphasizing for the Colossians that true fruit bearing is something that leads to an increased knowledge of God, even as their initial fruit bearing was based upon their true reception of Christ in the first place. Apparently some of their later attempts at pleasing God actually led them farther from God. How do we ensure that our fruit-bearing attempts are grounded in and reinforce a true knowledge of God?


*1.5: “the word of truth, the Gospel”; 1.6:”the grace of God in truth”