Colossians 1:9-14. Yesterday we started reading a letter written by Paul to the church at Colosse. The church was started by a guy named Epaphras who probably heard about Jesus in Ephesus from Paul and then traveled back to his hometown and told people what he had learned. Paul considered Epaphras a fellow servant of Jesus. Epaphras had kept in touch with Paul and kept him informed about how the new believers in Colosse were doing (By the time Paul wrote Colossians the church there was between 5-8 years old).

Paul heard that the believers there were filled with hope about their eternal future with God. They had a strong trust (faith) in what they had been taught about Jesus and were living their lives dedicated to serving God through serving others. This love was prompted by the Holy Spirit living in and motivating each believer. In verses 9-14 Paul tells them that their faith and lives encouraged him to pray to God for them all the time.

In verse 9 Paul uses two words to describe his how he talked to God: Pray and ask. The first one basically means to “talk to” although he used a prefix that seems to make the word more personal. The second word means “to crave, desire, want, or beg.” What we see here is Paul strongly and sincerely asking God to act in the lives of the believers in Colosse. Specifically he was asking God that they would know what God wanted them to do (the knowledge of his will) and that their understanding would include the spiritual part of life too.

In verse 10 we see that he was asking God to help them understand so that their lives would honor Jesus (worthy of the Lord), would please God, would be “fruitful”, and would help them understand even more. Lives worth of the Lord involve sacrifice and service. Jesus came to earth to give his life as the payment for all our disobedience and rebellion (sin, the price of sin is death, spiritual separation from God. Mark 10:45, Romans 3:23). When we want the same things that God wants and live that way it pleases God. This includes “bearing fruit”. That doesn’t means we turn into a tree and grow oranges from our fingertips. Fruit is often a metaphor for our actions (Matthew 3:7-12), in this case Paul wants them to live lives that honor God. Paul also wants them to keep understanding more and more about God and their relationship with him.

In verses 11-12 we see that the power to live for God comes from God and that that power makes us stable in our relationship with God. We also see tat this is source of joy and thankfulness to God. At the end of verse 12 Paul brings what he is saying full circle back to the “hope” of verse 5. As his request to God is fulfilled and the Colossians live more and more for God each day, their lives are filled with thanks to God; thanks for lives that prove the reality of what they had been hoping for; living with him for eternity. The light at the end of verse 12 is probably a metaphor for Jesus (see Matthew 4:16; John 1:5). Verse 13 echoes the quote in Matthew 4:16. We are all in a dark place spiritually but Jesus helps us see and understand spiritual reality and provides a way to return to God. In verses 13-14 we see that God is helping us return to the “kingdom of his beloved son”. We need to remember that God is one but exists as three persons all at the same time. Sometimes it is difficult to separate the persons and what they have done since ultimately there is one God (see  “Three or One?”). Was God the creator or Jesus? Is the kingdom God’s or Jesus’? Both, all three, don’t forget the Holy Spirit. Don’t get too stuck on trying to completely understand it all, know that the information we have about God and Jesus in the Bible is completely accurate. That, by the way, is part of Paul’s point here, our faith is based on facts and reality. If you read the “Intro to Colossians” you would know that part of what Paul is doing here is combatting people who are trying to get the believers in Colosse to become more Jewish, even to follow some of the stranger Jewish groups or sects. The Essenes were heavily into supernatural stuff, things that mysteries are made of. Paul is using word and examples that are here and now and out in the open; no mysteries just real life stuff out in the open.

There are lots of cults and religions in our world just like in the days of Paul. God’s not like that though. Everything is out in the open; God wants us to know about sin and separation, His son and salvation. The only mystery is why people would reject God’s offer of a free anew relationship with Him, one that will last into eternity and one that is filled with joy and peace. God has given hope to a hopeless world. If you don’t think your world in hopeless look at all the darkness in our entertainment, movies and games, and books and TV shows about Zombie Apocalypse and the Undead. Stories about an ugly bleak future. That is what we invent. God gives us hope for a new and renewed eternity. One filled with light and goodness, where there is no death, nor sorrow, no hunger nor thirst (Revelation 21:4, 7:16) One where we live with him forever. Wow I feel like Paul’s prayer is being answered in my life too.

Thank you God for showing me. Thank you for helping me learn more about you each day. Thank you for making the truth of your word, the Bible, more and more obvious each day. Give me the strength to keep on keeping in your word. Thank you for paying for me, thank you for forgiving me, thank you for a great future home, help me show this reality to others.