Surpassed only by the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being God’s own Son, God in the flesh, enjoyed an existence of perfect unbroken communion with God the Father except for His agonizing hours on the cross, the New Testament gives no greater example of a life of Christian prayer than that of the apostle Paul. His letters practically drip with prayers for baby Christians in the baby churches of the ancient Roman world in the early days of the Christian movement. And his written prayers are but a glimpse of what must’ve been a near constant prayerful murmur in his heart and on his lips before God on behalf of his fellow believers.
Paul’s letter to the Colossian church is no exception. Paul gives the most thorough written expression of God’s foreordaining and predestining prerogative of working out His perfect plan in every tiny detail of the universe, including our human lives and decisions, Paul also gives the strongest exhortation to Christians everywhere to pray—an exhortation backed up by none other than the example of his own prayer life. Whether we touch as many people for eternity as Paul did isn’t important; but we should strive in every way, by every means to have prayer lives marked by the same traits as Paul’s: serious, sincere, specific, seeking the salvation of the lost and the sanctification of the saved. If your prayer life lacks these traits, remember it’s okay to ask God for them. God loves to hear and answer His children’s prayers about prayer!
Paul begins by identifying himself in v. 1 as, “An apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…” He’s not an apostle by accident, and certainly not by his own doing. God willed from eternity past that Paul, once a hater of Christ and enemy of Christians, would one day be His primary missionary to the Gentiles. Don’t you just love God’s sense of humor and irony? Let those who hate the church today beware: God might make you missionaries one day. But let carnal-minded, all-for-show, holier-than-thou, live-for-Jesus-on-Sunday only, so-called Christians also beware: God will expose you as frauds in due time, and while there might be irony in that, there will certainly be no humor in it!
Paul then addresses his audience in v. 2: “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” Paul doesn’t see himself as an apostle by his own efforts, nor does he see the Colossians as his saved, saintly, faithful brethren by their own efforts. They are who they are in Christ by the same will and plan of the same soul-saving, life-transforming, fore-ordering God who made him an apostle. But this doesn’t strip Paul or the Colossians of their responsibility to think, decide, and act as conscious, moral beings made in God’s image who will one day answer to God. Note Paul’s prayerfulness after the greeting. Again, it’s not a contradiction to believe that God both answers prayer AND orders all things in His universe, just as long as we believe that His ordering of all things includes our prayers. Paul believed this. So while he’s unwavering in his commitment to a sovereign, pre-ordaining God, he’s also unwavering in communion with a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. So let’s take a closer look at the two main components of Paul’s prayer for the Colossians: thanksgiving and petition.
Thanksgiving
Starting with thanksgiving, Paul says in v. 3, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”
Paul was an inspired man. Yes, he was inspired by God’s Spirit, but he was also inspired by the God’s saints. What was it about these Christians that so inspired him? In this text I see three very important things that appear all over Paul’s letters. First of all, I see faith. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.” The Christian faith is worthless unless it’s a Christ-ward faith. Is your life Christ-ward? Does your life exhibit the character of Christ, or just the external marks of some version of Christianity? The difference is eternally huge! Well I’ve always been a Christian… My family’s always been Methodist… Baptist… Catholic… Really? How long have you had that problem with gossip? How long have you been greedy? How long have people in the community known you to be an arrogant, insensitive, spiteful, vindictive person? Listen, your denominational affiliation, your nominal connection with Christianity will be just about the first thing to burn up on Judgment Day. So you’d better have something besides that to show for yourself, namely a faith-relationship with Jesus demonstrated, not in perfection but in a life that consistently sought to display the character of Christ.
Paul is inspired when he hears from Epaphras that a faith producing Christ-like character is very strong in the Colossian church. And that news stirs in him a deep thankfulness to God for that faith.
Secondly, Paul is inspired by love: “the love you have for all the saints.” Love for the saints is Jesus’ first and most fundamental human-ward trait. He loves all the saints, so when we love all the saints we’re being like Him, not just giving a religious head nod that we believe certain things about Him. How and how often do we prove our love for all the saints? We can do other things too, but prayer is a way to often and easily love our fellow believers. How often do you thank God for the faith that’s producing the Christ-like love for other believers in our church? Bridge is a loving church. That can’t be said of every group out there calling itself a “church.” This doesn’t happen by accident, so let’s not take it for granted! Paul mentions his thankfulness for the Colossians love, because he wanted to see that love continue and spread. And I mention my thankfulness for your love for the same reason. Paul didn’t just point out flaws when he wrote to churches; he noted the good things and thanked God for them! I thank God for the brotherly love in our church because I know God has given it. God gives us love for each other, but promoting and preserving it takes work; and a lot of that work is prayer!
Thirdly, Paul is inspired by the Colossians’ hope. “We always thank God…when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” Faith in Jesus produces love for imperfect people (including Christians) only when we hope for something beyond this world. “Of this hope,” Paul says in v. 5, “you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth…”
The Colossians aren’t hoping in the economy, politicians, jobs, or guns. Paul prays so thankfully because they’re hoping in the only thing worth hoping in: the gospel of God’s grace through Jesus Christ—the gospel which, as Paul says, is growing and bearing fruit worldwide, just as it had among the Colossians from the day they first heard it from Epaphras. Would Paul be this thankful for our faith, love, and hope were he to visit us? Let’s ask God for faith, hope, and love, and thank Him for giving them, but we can ask for other things too!
Petition
Paul’s second prayer section is petition. He says in v. 9, “And so, from the day we heard…” Heard what? That they’d heard and believed the gospel of grace, that’s what. “From that day,” Paul says, “we have not ceased to pray for you.” But didn’t Paul pray for the Colossians before they heard the gospel? He certainly would’ve prayed for that (and for gospel advance in plenty of other places). But now with Epaphras’ eyewitness report from Colossae—complete with stories of individuals and families being saved and baptized, and perhaps even some miracles—Paul, Timothy, and their apostolic companions can now pray with far greater focus and intensity.
Before I went to Africa last year I found it hard to pray for people I’d never met. But now that I’ve been there, hugged those brothers and sisters, eaten and worshiped with them, and heard their testimonies in person, I can pray more intently that the gospel of grace will continue growing among the Anii people through Mustaupha, Gabriel, D’Jimon, Job, N’Caise, Francis, and others. I love and miss those guys! But, until I can see them again, I want the Lord to turn my loving and missing them into intense and specific praying for them. And what will be my petition to the Lord on their behalf? Paul makes two big petitions on the Colossians’ behalf that are appropriate for any group of believers, anywhere, any time; he asks for filling and for strengthening.
“From the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled…” Filled with what? “Filled with the knowledge of God’s will…” We’ve talked a lot about God’s will in this prayer series—that He has a will and isn’t just sitting by watching the universe unfold along with us. How are they to be filled with this knowledge? Look at v. 8. The Spirit who enables them to love each other, by whom they also believed and hoped in the gospel of grace in the first place is the same Spirit who will fill them with knowledge of God’s will. After all, Paul says in all ‘spiritual wisdom and understanding’ they’re to be filled.
What results from this filling with knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding? Paul says in v. 10: “Walk[ing] in a manner worthy of the Lord.” That’s the biggie. And ‘walking in a manner worthy of the Lord’ has three sub-parts. First: being “Fully pleasing to him.” We’re saved by grace, not by pleasing God through effort. We stand worthy before God through Jesus’ blood. But God wants more from us than just to stand before Him in the worthiness of Christ. He wants us to walk before Him as His grace-transformed representatives in this world; and knowing His will through Spirit-given wisdom and understanding is key to pleasing God fully in this way.
Second: “Bearing fruit in every good work.” No word picture in the N.T. better captures what it means to please God than fruit bearing. Deborah’s been buying ‘Cuties’ lately, the little easy-to-peel oranges that explode when you bite into them. I’m not saved by how much work I produce for God, but I want my efforts, your efforts—just as Paul wanted the gospel lives and labors of the Colossian Christians—to explode with juicy sweetness in God’s mouth. Yet our works won’t bring God that kind of joy if we don’t seek to know His will. That’s why Paul first petitions God to fill the Colossians with that knowledge.
Thirdly, according to Paul, we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord by increasing in the knowledge of God. Our infinite God can’t be known completely, thus walking in a manner worthy of Him means continually seeking to know Him more. But O how many things seemingly more interesting than God does this world supply! With Snap Chat and Sports Center at our fingertips, sitting down to Scripture and a cup of coffee may seem just a little, shall we say, ‘analog.’ Paul knew the world’s distractions; that’s why he prayed for the Colossians to have an ever-increasing knowledge of the God who made and rules the world.
That’s Paul’s first petition: filling with knowledge of God’s will, so that we walk in a manner worthy of Him by: being fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in our knowledge of God.
Strengthening
Paul’s second petition is for strengthening. “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might…” You don’t eat just to feel full; you eat to gain strength. Without food the body can’t repair itself, can’t walk, can’t work, can’t produce anything or be pleasing to anyone. God doesn’t just want full children; He wants strong children. Just as spiritual filling comes through knowing God’s will through the wise Spirit, so also spiritual strength comes from God through the powerful Spirit. And what does this strength produce? Look at the end of v. 11: “endurance and patience with joy.” Without God’s strength we’ll never endure the pain of the marathon known as the Christian life. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run with endurance (perseverance) the race marked out for us.” The length of our races may vary, but God wants to do a glorious work of endurance in our lives; He wants us to persevere and be purified through trials. Trials and testings require and produce spiritual strength—but not our strength! In fact they so weaken us that we have to rely on God’s strength, as Jesus says to Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.”
So don’t resist the frustration of obstacles, or the fire of opposition! And don’t forget to pray—as Paul did—for the strengthening of your fellow believers. Believe what the Bible says: joy is the companion of endurance and perseverance!
And accompanying endurance and patience with joy we again find thankfulness: “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Paul describes God’s saving work as complete: “He has qualified us…has delivered us…[has] transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we [NOW] (presently) have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” He isn’t laying out requirements for salvation. Paul doesn’t pray for the Colossians to be filled and strengthened so that they can get saved. He petitions God for their filling and strengthening so that they can demonstrate to the world what saved people look like and live like! And saved people look and live like their Savior, who constantly mediates a new covenant between God and man, whose blood constantly pleads for our forgiveness and redemption. As Christians (i.e., ‘little Christs’), do we do that for each other through prayer?
Constancy
Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is part thanksgiving and part petition. But today I want to close by noting the unifying feature of Paul’s prayer: constancy. He says at the beginning of the thanksgiving portion, in v. 3, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…” That’s one aspect of constancy: when we pray for you, we always thank God. We don’t just ask God to do things for you; we thank Him for what He’s done! And he says at the beginning of the petition portion, in v. 9, “We have not ceased to pray for you…” Paul has not been praying 24/7/365 for the Colossians—that’s not possible. By “we have not ceased to pray” he means that he hasn’t ceased to pray regularly. In other words, he doesn’t occasionally pray for the Colossians; rather, prayer for the Colossians is for him a regular occasion—there’s a ceaselessly constant regularity to his praying on their behalf.