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Series Theme: Meditations in Colossians 1
Series Contents:

CHAPTER 1: Part 3: A Vision of Purpose (v.9-14)

  

Meditations in Colossians: 15. A Filled People

 

Col 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

 

Simple words, profound meaning. Have you ever poured someone a cup of tea or made them a cup of coffee and for whatever reason didn't fill it very full and got the ribald comment, “So, I'm only getting a half a cup then?” We want a full cup and feel deprived if we get a partial one. Watch children in a sweet shop going to the Pick ‘n Mix counter and they take a cup, and one thing you can be sure of, they will fill that cup right up; they want to get every bit they can.

 

These pictures from everyday life simply say that a full cup is what we want because we like the contents and want as much of it as we can get in the cup. How we take Paul's writing for granted! I wonder how many times we have read this verse above with little thought of the meaning of this phrase we are focusing on today. What is the alternative to what Paul says? We're asking God to give you a little glimpse of the knowledge of his will. Which bit? How would that help us? We'll come to look at the knowledge of his will in the next meditation but the apostle's intent is not that we just get by with a minimum of knowledge. No, he wants us to be filled up with this knowledge. Just like those cups, he wants us to get every bit we can.

 

This presents a challenge. Is that how we view the knowledge of God's will? Are we a bit indifferent to it? Well, I expect if I study the Bible long enough I might catch a bit of the stuff that is on God's heart, sufficient perhaps to keep me happy, sufficient to reassure me, but just sufficient…… That is a minimalist approach to faith. It's a bit like the person who says, “Yes, I'll have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed.” (Mt 17:20) Well, yes, according to Jesus you can move a mountain but why think in tiny bits. Jesus was deriding the disciples for their lack of faith. He wants us to have lots of faith, not just a tiny bit!

 

To the church in Ephesus the apostle Paul wrote, And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God .” (Eph 3:17-19) That is staggering! There he speaks about having knowledge and love as much as God can give, and the picture is of a never-ending resource. You can never get to the end of God! Paul wants abundance, no, super-abundance of knowledge and love for us. Later in that same letter, he said to them, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph 5:18) The world says wine is good for it lightens the heart (Psa 104:15) and makes merry, but the apostle says being filled with the Spirit does it so much better.

 

How we take that expression for granted – being filled with the Spirit. Let's not worry whether it happens for every believer at conversion or is a separate experience but let's note that it's always “filled”. Paul didn't say, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, have a little bit of the Spirit, just sufficient to lift you up without becoming an embarrassment!” When it comes to descriptions of the ‘amount' of the Spirit, it is always ‘filled' and make no mistake that means filled right up. It means have a lot, have all you can take.

 

Look at another of Paul's prayers: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.” (Phil 1:9-11) He doesn't say, “I hope you will have a little bit of righteousness,” he says he wants us filled up with righteousness so there is no space for anything else.

 

The apostle Peter used this ‘abundance-type language' as well: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pet 1:8,9) In other words, may you be blessed up to the hilt with the shear wonder of this salvation we have.

 

How do you get all these ‘fillings'? Jesus said it so simply : “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled .” (Mt 5:6) You want to be like Jesus? Watch this: “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.” (Mk 1:30-42) You don't touch a leper with just a glimmer of compassion. To be Jesus we need to yearn for all that Jesus has, and if that includes compassion to touch lepers, let's have it in abundance!

So when we read on and consider the verses that follow on here in Colossians, will you read with a hungry and thirsty heart, a heart that says I want it all, I want everything God can pour into me, His word and His Spirit; they are both so wonderful that I want this cup filled to overflowing! Now there's a good word to meditate upon – overflowing! Not just a bit, not just filled to the brim, but overflowing! That's what the Lord wants us to aspire to. Go for nothing less!

 

Just one more thought: when believers were ‘filled with the Spirit' it was always to overflowing so on the Day of Pentecost they overflowed with languages that praised God, when the disciples were filled they spoke the word of God boldly (Acts 4:31) and when Paul prayed over the Corinthians, they poured out tongues and prophecy (Acts 19:6). Rather like the love and faith we considered before, when the Spirit is poured in to overflowing, it is visible, it is in abundance. Accept nothing less. Hunger and thirst!

   

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

 

Meditations in Colossians: 16. The Knowledge of His Will

 

Col 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

 

Now we looked at the subject of the will of God in the very first meditation in this series because Paul opened this letter with, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” (v.1) He was able to say of himself that he was an apostle because that was God's will and God had brought it about. So now it's like he says to the Colossians, “I want you to have this same assurance about knowing God's will for your lives.”

In that first meditation we considered some general aspects of the will of God and said that, at least, in Scripture there is a strong sense of God knowing and God going ahead of our lives, plotting them out for u, to make them the best that they can be. We also noted that it appears that He wants my cooperation in brining about His will in my life; it's not just something He will force into my life. We also said that He points us in the right direction by His Holy Spirit when we surrender to Him, a direction that He knows will be the very best for us, the individual, and a direction that will be most fruitful and bring most blessing to His people.

 

What we did NOT do in that first study was outline specific things that are the will of God for ME. Yes, this has to become personal; this is not about generalizations, this is about how this specifically works for me as an individual Christian. We will look at what it means in the next study, when he speaks about spiritual wisdom and understanding but for the moment let's consider three areas of my life as a Christian today. We will consider me as a person, the relationships I have, and then the activity that He might lead me into.

 

First of all, me as a person . God's will is that He wants me to know who I am and what He has done for me. God's specific will for me is that I will no longer be a wanderer who is unsure of themselves but that everything I think, say and do in the future comes out of the assurance that I am a redeemed child of God, adopted by the Father through the work of Jesus on the Cross. I am washed, cleansed, forgiven, righteous and holy, and am indwelt by His Holy Spirit. I do not have space here to justify all of these statements but they ARE true as the New Testament testifies. This is God's will for you. The starting question: are YOU sure of these facts, so that you are secure in who you are, as God has made you?

 

Second, me as I relate to others . None of us live in isolation. I recently saw a TV program about a family that had relocated on an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean . The couple had three young sons, one of whom was now reaching adolescence and wanted something more, and so they decided to send him to boarding school back in the UK . What stood out from that situation was how that isolated life is so alien and how this young man was going to have to adapt when he came back to a country full of people. No, we live in a community, whether you consider it to be the church or the local town, village etc. and there we have to relate to other people.

 

And there, when we became a Christian and started reading our Bible, we came to realise there was a tremendous amount about relating to other people. At the heart of it is that you have received God's love through the work of Jesus, and through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit and, as we have noted previously, if “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16) then love is the primary characteristic of His Spirit within us, and all He wants to express through us is an expression of love. That takes us back to meditation number 8 about ‘visible love'. We have a lifetime to study what the New Testament means when it instructs us to ‘love one another' and a lifetime to work it out in practical everyday terms. This is God's will for you. Question number 2: are you consciously working on that aspect of your life? Remember, it is God's will for you.

 

Third, God's activity through me . We might call this service or ministry but as we go on we'll see Paul's reminder that God wants us to be fruitful. We've already noted in this series a verse that always stands out to me as of major significance for us: “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10) The outworking of our salvation is not that we just sit back and wile away every day until we get to heaven, but that we receive His guidance and His gifting to enable us to do the “good deeds” (Mt 5:16), which are simply the things He gifts us to be able to do to bless the church, bless others and bless Him.

 

Just a reminder of what we said in the previous meditation and quoted above, that whatever He leads us into will be the direction that He knows will be the very best for us. We will feel most fulfilled when we are doing the things He leads us into. We will be most blessed when we are working out these things in and though our lives. This is God's will for you. So, question number 3: have you opened your heart in full availability to Him and said, ‘Lord, please take me and use me to bless others'?

 

And to come back into context, remember that Paul says he wants the Lord to fill is with the knowledge of these things which, we saw in the previous meditation is all about abundance that overflows. May that be so for each of us.

  

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

 

Meditations in Colossians: 17. Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding

 

Col 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding .

 

Commentators and translators appear to struggle a little with the word before our highlighted words. Our NIV says ‘through', some others say ‘in'. I mention this because ‘through' seems to suggest ‘comes via the means of' while ‘in' suggests that ‘His will is found in the midst of all spiritual wisdom . The latter makes wisdom etc. the starting place in which God's will is found, while the former makes it simply a channel for comprehending God's will. Perhaps it is a moot point and maybe we'll consider both.

 

Let's take the former first. Paul wants them to come to know God's will and they will do that as they comprehend spiritual wisdom and understanding. When they work with spiritual wisdom and understanding they will come to see God's will. In the latter approach, when they comprehend God's will, they will see that it is full of spiritual wisdom and understanding. In the former it is a means of arriving at God's will; in the later it is a description of God's will. As we said, it may be a moot point and whichever it is, it makes us realise the importance of spiritual wisdom and understanding as far as God's will is concerned. So let's examine the phrase.

 

‘Spiritual' immediately puts us in to the realm of God. Spiritual says this is not human wisdom and understanding; this is not what you or I could dream up. Wisdom means the knowledge of ‘how to do' and spiritual wisdom is all about how God works, how things work in the kingdom of God , how things work pertaining to our salvation, how things work in the spiritual world. Understanding means insightful appreciation of the meaning of things so we go beyond the surface appreciation of bare facts, beyond how to do things, on to why things work as they do.

 

Remember Paul has been saying, “ we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding .” i.e. we want you to come to the full knowledge of God's will for you as you learn how all these things work and the Holy Spirit applies specific things to you. Putting it like that, imagine a great pool of knowledge, wisdom and understanding that encompasses everything we suggested in the above paragraph, and as we come to see it, realise what we are seeing, and come to appreciate it, it is as if the Holy Spirit shines on parts of it and applies it specifically to us, so we come to realise how He wants to change us, in what specific ways He wants us to become like Jesus, and what sort of activity He wants to lead us into to serve Him and minister to the body of Christ, the Church, and to the world.

 

I think that picture brings together the two possibilities we considered first of all. The understanding of His will for us comes via the means of us considering this pool of knowledge, wisdom and understanding (revealed through His word by His Holy Spirit) and as we see the contents of the pool so He applies parts of it to us. The moment we put it like that we find we are into the second understanding, we find His will in the midst of the pool of spiritual wisdom; they are in reality the same.

 

You may feel this has been a somewhat convoluted argument but I hope behind it all the basics shine through:

1. God wants us to come to realise His will for us.

2. As we (and He in us) work to understand how He generally works – the facts, the ways and the reasons for His activity – we find He also applies parts of it to us for our specific lives.

3. Out of His ‘general will' (how He works generally) emerges His ‘specific will' for us.

For instance we come to learn about spiritual gifts, what they are and how they work and why He uses them, and then we find the Spirit emphasises some particular gift in us, which He not only emphasises but increases in us, and we find we ‘have' a particular gift which may develop into a particular ministry.

 

To take a completely different aspect of God's heart, we may learn that He has compassion for the poor, the weak and needy. That is His ‘general will' but then we find almost a burden building within us about these things and we realise His care and compassion is growing within us that prompts us to reach out to those who are poor and needy ad before we know it, that is the main thrust of our service, which may develop into a full blown ministry of caring for the under-privileged.

 

Spiritual wisdom becomes the beginning, the means and the end, to us perceiving His will for us, and entering into it. We don't merely ‘know about' this particular facet of His will, but we ‘know it' in as far as we have taken hold of the facts about it, we have been taken on to see how they work, and we have been moved to realise how it all works together. The final phase is when we enter into it by doing the things we have seen. We are then living and working in His will and to His glory. Hallelujah!

  

CONTENTS of Ch.1

   

Meditations in Colossians: 18. A Worthy Life

 

Col 1:10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:

 

The phrase before us now scares me. I can be worthy of the Lord? John the Baptist declared, After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” (Mk 1:7) He was saying, I'm not even in the same category as Jesus, I'm not good enough even to be his humble servant or slave. Wow! That puts Jesus in perspective. But then in Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son we find the son, after he comes to himself and decides to return to his father, determining to declare, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” (Lk 15:19) When he is met by his father, again he declares, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (Lk 15:21) That is what he felt but his father took him back and honoured him.

 

We find Paul bringing this same teaching elsewhere: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received,” (Eph 4:1) and “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,” (Phil 1:27) and “we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory,” (1 Thess 2:11,12) so it is not an uncommon teaching. Basically it says live up to who you are!

 

When we look at members of the Royal family we expect them to live up to their role. Indeed there has been some dispute whether it was right for Prince Charles to write to various government departments making comment and suggestions about things that others consider the area of politics. We do not expect the Royal Family to get involved in politics; they are to be above that. But then we come across Members of Parliament who have either purportedly sworn at policemen, or taken bribes or lied under oath. This is not acceptable behaviour of people in such positions, this behaviour is not worthy of such people. We might say the same things about members of the police, or any other public servants. There are levels of expectation of people in their position and they have to live or work with lives that are worthy of the position, and when they fail to do that they are held to account.

 

Remember Paul has just said that his apostolic team (“we”) prayed for the Colossians, “asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will….. in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord.” (v.9,10) Do you see the one thing leads on to the other. Thus a life being lived that is “worthy of the Lord” is one that knows and lives out the will of God.

 

When we came to Christ we were born again and we left our old life behind. Paul summarized that old life when he said to the Ephesians, “you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts,” (Ph 2:2,3) and we know from other parts of his teaching that we are to die to such things. That description shows a self-centred and godless life. Our new lives are Christ-centred and godly (God-focused).

 

So a change in outlook and behaviour is expected but there is a significant reason for that: “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” (Jn 1:12,13) We are now children of God. Remember the royalty comparison. Even young princes and princesses have expectations laid upon them to live lives worthy of who they are. John reiterated this in his first letter: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 Jn 3:1)

 

This matter of expectation is important. So often you find the people of the world commenting about a fallen Christian, “Well I wouldn't have expected that of them!” There have been lamentable failures of Christians in public roles whether it be American evangelists caught committing adultery, or priests abusing children. Both were an abuse of position and role. We do not expect such behaviour of such people. We, as Christians, have expectations on us. People will have feelings about God that are partly, at least, formed by the way they see we, the believing community, living. Tragically the history of the church after the first two centuries revealed a Church that some have characterized as a split church, the Pious Church and the Power Church, the latter being much greater than the former, as the roles of church leadership we so often filled by aristocracy with little or no spiritual concerns.

 

When Paul instructed Titus how to raise up the young church on Crete he said, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us .” (Titus 2:7,8). When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane about the future church he asked, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17:21) Again, behaviour brings revelation to the world. Again he prayed, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn 17:23) This is just one reason we need to lead lives worthy of Him. The primary reason, which is so simple, is that children should honour their father and we, now as children of God, have a Father in heaven. May He be honoured and glorified by us, by the way we live, by the way we reveal Him, may we be found to be living lives worthy of Him. Amen? Amen!

       

CONTENTS of Ch.1

  

Meditations in Colossians: 19. Pleasing God

 

Col 1:10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way :

 

The idea that we can please God is, I believe, alien to many people. We are more conscious of failure than success and of guilt, blame and possible judgment that of forgiveness, cleansing and blessing. So is pleasing God a possible reality?

 

Jesus said, I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” (Jn 5:30). This was Jesus' intent in respect of all that he did, but then we find something strange happening BEFORE Jesus started his ministry: “And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love ; with him I am well pleased .” (Mt 3:17) Admittedly he was about thirty years old at that point and therefore the Father's words could seem to be approval of how he had lived so far, but there appears something more than that, especially we you put it alongside the Father's words on the Mount of Transfiguration: “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love ; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (Mt 17:5)

 

In both those instances the approval word, ‘pleased', comes after a declaration of love. In both cases the Father speaks of His Son, “whom I love.” The sense of being pleased with His Son is more simply, “I am pleased with him because He is my Son”. He is pleased with Jesus' existence, his presence as the Son, and that before he does anything in terms of ministry. I have two sons (and a daughter and it apples to her too) and when they were both young, I would look at them and, although I did not look at them in this way, I realise that it was true – I was pleased that they were my sons, even though they were childish, even though they sometimes said and did things wrong. When I see them today, I am always pleased to see them – before they even have a chance to say or do anything in my direction; I am simply pleased that they are first and foremost, my sons!

 

Now the New Testament tells us that we are sons of God, children of God (see Rom 8:14,19,23) It is all very clear: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” (Gal 3:26 – see also 4:5,6. Heb 12:5-7) First and foremost God is pleased with us because we ARE His sons. That is the starting place. We please God by who we now are.

 

Of course it wasn't always like that. In the writings of the New Testament there are various warnings but they also remind us what we were once like, for example, “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God .” (Rom 8:8) That's what we were once like, controlled by the sinful nature, but no more! Then Paul makes it even more clear: “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Gal 6:8) Moreover, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb 11:6)

 

But all that has now changed, when we came to Him and were born again, it all changed. We are no longer those controlled by the old nature, but those controlled by His Spirit and His word. We now live to please Him and as we are led by the Spirit, we are people of faith. Like the apostle Paul we are able to say, “So we make it our goal to please him'” (2 Cor 5:9) and, “We are not trying to please men but God,” (1 Thess 2:4) Now our desire to please Him comes not from some craven fear of a scary God, but from Spirit-filled hearts that love their heavenly Father and want to bless Him.

 

Listen to what Paul said to the Thessalonians: “we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living.” (1 Thess 4:1) Yes, the way we live pleases God. He is blessed that we have returned to Him like the prodigal son, He is blessed that we have joined His family and He is blessed as He watches us, as He sees we seek to conform to His will and His word, and live out these new lives, led and inspired and empowered by His Spirit. When the Thessalonians turned to the Lord and were born again, Paul instructed them as to the sort of lives they were now free to live, lives that would indeed please the Father, not only because they were simply His Sons, but also lives that were showing the fruits of being those sons, and that blessed him. So now when Paul writes to them, he reminds them of that early teaching and is blessed that they are now following it through.

 

So here now to the Colossians he prays, “that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way.” We've also seen the motivation of seeking to be ‘worthy of the Lord' and now he adds this further motivation of pleasing God “in every way”. We don't aim to please Him just on Sunday mornings, or at the prayer meeting or at the Bible study. No, we are sons of God all the time! Let's live as His sons (and daughters), let's bless Him, not just by being, but also in our doing.

 

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

  

Meditations in Colossians: 20. Bearing Fruit

 

Col 1:10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work

 

We have already seen ‘fruit bearing' language a little earlier in this chapter but there it was in connection with the Gospel that was growing and spreading all over the world, but now this is ‘fruit bearing' in respect of us as individuals. Now to start of somewhat legalistically we might suggest that God expects fruit from our lives. Isaiah pictured Israel in the form of a vineyard and said, Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.” (Isa 5:2) The primary role of a vineyard is to grow vines to produce grapes. In his picture when this vineyard failed to bear good fruit, God removed the vineyard. What a warning!

 

Jeremiah used a ‘fruit bearing' picture to indicate blessedness: “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." (Jer 17:7,8) This is the person who “trusts in the Lord” – that's you and me! That is very similar to Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man….. (whose) delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” ( Psa 1:1-3) Fruitfulness and prosperity comes to the one whose heart is set on the will and word of God.

 

John the Baptist's teaching was very basic: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Mt 3:8) If you repent, you change – that's if you really repent. Jesus similarly used the fruit analogy but in a different way: “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” (Mt 7:16-20) i.e. the fruit reveals the state of the tree! It doesn't matter what you say or call yourself, if you are bearing ‘bad' fruit, you are still a bad tree. Later on he added to this: “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” (Mt 12:33) How do you make a bad tree good? It is to born again!

 

Even later he uses the vine analogy: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful . You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing . (Jn 15:1-5)

 

The psalmist saw this and pointed out that it is not a matter of age, for, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree… They will still bear fruit in old age , they will stay fresh and green.” (Psa 92:12,14) With God's word we are designed to keep on being fruitful.

 

Fruit is clearly part of the ‘salvation package', if I may put it like that, that Jesus has for us. Indeed if we go to my most quoted verse in Ephesians, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” (Eph 2:10) we see that the ‘fruit' we bear, as now indicated in our verse above, is the fruit of ‘works' and they are works that God has on His heart for us. Because each one of us is unique, and we are different members of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27), we will have different ‘works' from one another, as we are led by His Spirit.

But note Paul says, “in every good work”. Success or fruitfulness is the guarantee of everything that we do that is good and inspired by God's Spirit within us. As we abide, or stay close to Jesus, he will guide his Spirit to guide, inspire and empower us and the things we do, will have his blessing and because of that will flourish. As believers, as we allow him to lead us, so we may expect his blessing on what we do and that will be seen in success and even more fruitfulness. It is not something that we have to work at so much as receive. Fruit is the natural growth and development of a healthy plant. As we live our lives, “in Christ”, trusting in him, trusting in his word, being led by his Spirit, so we expect good things to come from our lives: goodness, love, righteousness etc. May it be so.

   

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

Meditations in Colossians: 21. Growing in the Knowledge of God

 

Col 1:10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God

 

If the translators were right when they put a colon after the word ‘way', we are now working through a list of things that we can do to please God. Being a fruit bearer was the first thing in Paul's list and now “growing in the knowledge of God” is the second thing in this list of things that will please God. The Lord wants us to know Him more and more.

 

The amazing thing about existence is that we do actually exist. When you consider what the Bible tells us of the big picture, it is a wonder we exist at all. When the Godhead considered creating the world that we know, even before they made it they knew that giving man free will would result in wrong choices being made and sin entering the world. They knew that mankind would make the wrong choice and live self-centred, godless lives so that justice would demand action, and they knew that the Son would have to come to die on behalf of mankind to pay the price for sin and yet, despite all this, they created the world. Why? They existed as three persons in one, communicating with each other, but maybe because He is love, that love wanted to express itself to others. That appears almost the only reason on my horizon that I can see for God to create mankind – because He wanted to express His love to us.

 

To do that we have to know Him. First of all, He would have to reveal Himself to us and we see this in the story of Adam and Eve (Gen 3), briefly with Cain (Gen 4), and briefly with Enoch (Gen 5:22,23), and briefly with Noah (Gen 6:9) but it wasn't until Abram (Gen 12) that we really start to see a long-term relationship and long-term revelation coming into being. Yes, to know God, we had first to receive His revelation of Himself. Indeed the whole Bible is about God revealing Himself to us.

 

One of the privileges of a disciple, Jesus said, was that The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” (Mt 13:11) To the questioning disciple, Philip, Jesus responded, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (Jn 14:9) The Son came to reveal the Father. Jesus role was clearly twofold: to reveal the Father through his life and ministry and then to die for the sins of the world. For three years he ministered the Father's love. This was a time of pure revelation.

 

One of Paul's condemnatory statements in Romans 1 has an intriguing element to it: “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God , he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (Rom 1:28) The folly of sin was that in turning away, mankind lost the ‘knowledge of God'. Prior to that Paul had said, “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” (Rom 1:19,20) For those with eyes to see, the start of the knowledge of God is in observing Creation. That should set our minds wondering. But then the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us of our ‘loneliness', our lack of knowledge of God, and when we repent and turn to the Lord through Jesus, the Holy Spirit indwells us and teaches us. Part of His work is to reveal the Father to us, more and more.

 

Note therefore, that in our verse at the beginning it speaks of growing in the knowledge of God”. To keep it short and simple, I would suggest that ‘knowing' here means ‘knowing about' (i.e. pure information) and ‘knowing personally' (i.e. knowing by experience). Now what will be the source of these two sorts of knowing?

 

The first knowing – knowing about – comes through reading and studying His word. As we are privileged to have the Bible (remember people like Job or Abram had nothing) we would do well to read it regularly and study and take it in, to feed on it, and to be informed by it. Without the revelation we find there, we will be blind to who He is and come up with weird and wonderful idea about Him that are incorrect, as those religions without the Bible tend to do. But we are not called to ‘fly blind' for we have this revelation which is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work .” (2 Tim 3:16,17) Does that not ring bells? In the preceding verse we read about how to “please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work .” His word will inspire, direct and guide us in these ‘good works'.

 

The second knowing – knowing personally – comes through the work of the Holy Spirit. He it is who speaks to us, either through His word, or directly. As He speaks and we respond and obey, so we experience more and more of Him. As we respond to Him so He provides for us and equips us. We experience His grace and goodness and gifting. These are very real things that we literally experience and we grow through them.

 

Do you see, these two things – knowing about and knowing personally – are directly expressions of interacting with the word and the Spirit respectively. So, the big question must be, are you growing? Do you know more of Him – through word and Spirit – today than you did say a year ago? Are you ‘growing in the knowledge of God'? If you haven't, you are stagnating, failing to reach towards maturity. There is this wonder – knowing God – just waiting there to be received. Who else in this world has this privilege? Make sure you don't squander it.

   

CONTENTS of Ch.1

Meditations in Colossians: 22. A Strengthened People

 

Col 1:10,11 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might

 

Think about the taps in your bathroom. You turn them on and then get distracted and have to dash out for an hour. When you come back the taps are still running (and fortunately you had not put the plug in the bath!) Or suppose you go away for the weekend and leave a light on in your house. You come back several days later and find the light still on. Now you are probably not surprised that water is still running because you know it comes from a large reservoir and you've hardly lowered the water level by a millimetre! Also you are not surprised at the light being on because you know your electricity comes from the National Grid and there are massive power stations running constantly producing electricity. So why, I wonder, are some of us slow in turning to God to ask for strength and wisdom from the One who has all power, all knowledge, all understanding and all wisdom?

 

Now I came across a commentary that suggested that just KNOWING that you are loved and cared for and directed is strengthening. This commentator said, “when a person grows in the clear knowledge of God, his strength and courage increase.” Now that is exactly right and Paul has just been saying we are to grow in the knowledge of God and we considered that that means knowing about (His word) and knowing personally (His Spirit). Without doubt (and I would be the first to shout it from the rooftops) reading, studying, meditating upon and absorbing God's word does strengthen you and build you; no question of that!

 

However Paul speaks of “all power” and then “according to his glorious might”. The “all power” suggests any sort of power. My dictionary starts out defining power as “ ability to do, act, or produce,” and then goes on, “a specific ability or faculty [ the power of hearing ] ” So if you need strength, stamina, perseverance, patience, goodness, kindness, the ability to hear, the ability to speak, the ability to read His word, the ability to pray, the ability to worship, the ability to witness, the ability to care, the ability to love and so on, then the power to do all of these things is available from Him. Moreover, as we sought to convey in the first paragraph above, there is no limitation to His resources. The only thing that limits them is our unbelief, when we do not think to turn to Him and ask for help and we do not believe that such help can be forthcoming.

 

Now some of us get over spiritual and think that this cannot mean physical things because we are still hung over with that ancient Greek idea that has come down through the ages that there is a division between physical and spiritual and physical is bad and spiritual is good. But who made this physical world? Who gave us all these abilities to enjoy this material world? No, this is “all power” meaning all aspects of our lives – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual; the Lord is concerned for every aspect of our lives and has made provision through Jesus' death on the Cross to provide for us.

 

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul wrote, “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” (Rom 8:11) The ‘Spirit' referred to there is obviously the Holy Spirit who now indwells us. Now most of the references that link Jesus' resurrection to us, are about our eternal life, lived out after we leave this earth, but the context of Romans 8 is all about how we live out our lives NOW. The Holy Spirit is the power who enables us to live out our lives in God's will, now, today, here at this moment. Where are these lives lived out? Through these physical bodies. The Spirit may empower our spirits but the reality or outworking is seen in the way our bodies work.

 

Yes, He imparts knowledge and understanding and wisdom into our minds but it is in our bodies that we live it out. Hence in chapter 12 of Romans Paul said, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind .” (Rom 12:1,2) Do you see the unity there? We make an act of will to give our bodies over to be available for God to use, and so using these physical bodies for Him is an act of spiritual worship, and we do that as He teaches us and in our minds we come to understand His will for us.

 

This takes us back to our earlier verses: “we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord.” (v.9,10) As we come to see what His will is for us (knowledge) as he imparts wisdom and understanding, so we are enabled to live out our lives (physical, mental and spiritual) and be seen to be His children (worthy of Him). That is the framework for our lives which are then able to be lived out according to the power of the Spirit within us, i.e. strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. Hallelujah!

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

 

Meditations in Colossians: 23. Enduring, Patient and Joyful

 

Col 1:10,11 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father,

 

Life is sometimes tough. I recently sat in a church and heard the leader out front speak of three church members who had recently lost their grandmothers and his ‘seeking to be compassionate' comment was, ‘Life sometimes is tough'. I'm sorry but that is not tough. Yes it is sad when we lose someone close to us who we love but these were three elderly ladies who had just gone to heaven. That's not tough; it's a combination of sad and happiness – sad that we've lost them but happy that they are in glory and free from all their elderly infirmities. Tough is when the sky falls on you in the form of a life threatening accident that leaves us disabled, a major life threatening illness, or persecution. That is tough!

 

If I lose my temper and slap someone and they strike me back and break my jaw, that is not tough, that is stupid. When our own folly brings things on us, that is not tough. Tough is when the ways of a fallen world press down on me and make it incredibly difficult to continue. It is tough when these things happen to those closest to us so the burden of their anguish presses down on us in our love for them.

 

When life is tough, the temptation comes from the enemy to give up. It's silly really and irrational because these are the times when we should more than ever seek to stick close to the Lord but when we are feeling low physically, often our emotions also take a nose dive and then we stop thinking rationally and a “I don't care” mentality descends on us. It shouldn't happen, but it does. It's simply the enemy taking the opportunity to have a go at us when we are vulnerable. This is being real for this is what life is like sometimes and the first step to getting through it is to recognise what is happening.

 

Do you remember David went through this: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” (Psa 42:5,11) He knew what the answer was: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (v.5,6) There are times when these sorts of things drag on. How can I hold out? How can I keep going in the face of these things? How long will I have to wait for things to change? There is a brand of evangelicalism that says we must never accept a negative thought and I am saddened when I see such people desperately struggling but refusing to acknowledge that anything is wrong. This is what living in a fallen world is like; sometimes it is tough.

 

So what is the answer? Come back to the verses we are considering. Paul prays that they (we) will know God's will, will bear fruit, will grow in the knowledge of God and be strengthened through God's unlimited strength and power. It is that power of His own indwelling Holy Spirit that we considered in the previous meditation that sees us through. It's not a rational thing, it's a faith thing. He does live in me, He will be my resource, so much so that I will be able to endure, I will hang on, I will not fall away, I will not give up. Part of it is in acknowledging His presence and part of it is turning to Him for help, and part of it is the fact that He is there on my side and purposes to keep me. I won't just endure, I will have “great endurance”. Even more I will not chaff wondering when it will end; I will rest in His love and His provision and I will be patient. Part of it is my awareness of this provision, part of it is His desire to bring it.

 

Many years ago my wife had what was genuinely a life-threatening accident. As she lay in A&E while they failed to stop blood flowing, she suddenly thought of our three young children and cried out to the Lord in prayer for them. In the midst of that crisis a gentle voice came from heaven to her, “Don't you realise that I love them more than you do?” This is the incredible truth, that God is more for us than we are for ourselves. That's why He sent Jesus to die for us, that's why he has given us His Holy Spirit to empower us and strengthen us, not only to generally teach and guide us, but to be here for us as a resource, THE resource when we are going through the tough times when we need endurance and patience.

 

As we remind ourselves of these things, we realise afresh the wonder of them, the wonder of His love and provision for us and as we do that we find a joy welling up within us that produces thankfulness. “Joyfully giving thanks to the Father” is an outworking of all of this, a sign that we have come to know God's will for us and realise that His power is there within us and He purposes blessing and success for us. Sometimes (and often He waits until we do see these things) He delivers us out of the situation and sometimes He delivers us through the situation. Sometimes He steers us clear of upheavals and at other times He allows us to walk through the upheaval, but whichever it is, He promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb 13:5)

 

It was knowing His will and knowing His presence and power that enabled the prophet to declare, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Hab 3:17,18) Why? He knew the circumstances were within God's will and that they were temporary – and that God was there for him.

 

It was going through tough times that enabled the apostle Paul to write, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Cor 9:8) That is amazing. It says that not only will we endure, and not only will we find patience in such times, (because of His grace which comes in those forms) but we will be able to be fruitful even such times. Glory be to God, not to the enemy!

  

CONTENTS of Ch.1

Meditations in Colossians: 24. Qualified

 

Col 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

 

Many years ago I took exams to qualify me as a certain sort of professional person. A number of years later I changed profession and went through a process that ended up in me being qualified as a further education teacher. Now my dictionary tells me that the word ‘qualified' means having met conditions or requirements set, having the necessary or desirable qualities.” To obtain my qualifications I had to study hard while at the same time getting some approved practical experience. I met the conditions or requirements set by the professional bodies so that at the end of the process they knew and I knew, and other people knew, that I had sufficient knowledge and experience to practice in certain areas of life. That's how it works in the world.

 

When it comes to being a Christian it is different: God qualifies us! You don't have to study for exams and you don't have to have certain experiences. If you listen to some people as long as you go to church regularly (experiences) and continue to be a nice or good person (quality) and generally believe in God, that is enough to call yourself a Christian, but of course when you read the Bible you realise that that is completely wrong. None of those things count for anything! Let's consider various aspects of this:

 

Who it is who does the Qualifying: The two most important things about this is what we have said already but really does need emphasizing: first, we cannot work to become a Christian and, second, it is God who qualifies us. But before we look at that more closely we perhaps should ask, qualified for what? Well Paul says in our verse above, “ to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light” so what do these various words mean?

 

The Inheritance to be received : ‘Saints' are Christian believers and the ‘kingdom of light' is simply God's kingdom overseen by Jesus, that Paul will refer to again shortly. In this kingdom are a whole lot of blessings from God – forgiveness of sins, cleansings from past sins, freedom from the power of present Sin, adoption as sons, a God-given plan and purpose for our lives (the way we live them and what we are to achieve) here today and tomorrow, the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit to teach, guide, direct and equip us, and an eternity with God in heaven. That is the inheritance of Christians.

 

False Qualifications : Now Paul says God has ‘qualified' us to share in all of this. It is reasonable to consider the various ways people come up with that they suggest is enough to qualify them to be called Christians. For some it is to have Christian parents. For others it is to be a churchgoer. For others it is to work to be good, to join in community affairs and to look out for others. Some might even suggest to be well educated. If you go to a Hindu website for instance, you will find things to believe and a process of joining, and it is all what YOU do. A self-help mentality likes to think we can do things to become good but when it comes to becoming a Christian you see it is what God has done that qualifies us.

 

The problems overcome: The biggest problem that we face is that of our Sin and our guilt. We couldn't break free from either because we were conscious like Paul that, “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do .” (Rom 7:15) Then when we fail we feel bad, and feeling bad (like Adam and Eve Gen 3:8) we hide from God. Fear is no basis for a loving relationship. So the Godhead saw that we were helpless and so they planned and sent Jesus to die in our place to take our guilt and shame, to take the punishment due to us. THIS and this alone is what qualifies us to become children of God. We aren't automatically but as we find ourselves convicted by the Spirit (and it may be conviction of guilt, of failure, of inadequacy, of lack of love – a whole raft of possibilities) we surrender and say, “I can't do it. Please forgive me,” and because of what Jesus has done, the Father transfers all our guilt to him on the Cross, and then welcomes us as those who are open to receive His forgiveness and cleansing, His adoption and empowering.

 

All because of the Cross : But everything we do and everything that happens to us to bring about what the Bible calls ‘new birth' or ‘being born again' (Jn 3:3), or ‘converted' (Acts 15:3, Rom 16:15, 1 Cor 16:15, 1 Tim 3:6), everything that takes place to bring us into sonship, children of God (Jn 1:12,13) takes place because first of all Jesus has ‘passed our exams for us' or ‘taken our conviction and punishment' so that whoever will come to him and receive what he has done for them, will find that they have ‘passed the exam' or ‘been pronounced not-guilty' because of Jesus' actions on the Cross. HE has qualified us and it was all planned by the Godhead before the foundation of the world. You cannot add to it; you can only receive it and enjoy it, and everything else follows. How wonderful!

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

 

Meditations in Colossians: 25. Kingdom Inheritance

 

Col 1:12,13 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

 

There is a sense whereby in the previous meditation we covered the matter of our inheritance which we said included forgiveness of sins, cleansings from past sins, freedom from the power of present Sin, adoption as sons, a God-given plan and purpose for our lives (the way we live them and what we are to achieve) here today and tomorrow, the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit to teach, guide, direct and equip us, and an eternity with God in heaven. However there are a couple of other aspects to this phrase above that we have not yet touched upon.

 

In the previous meditation we did say that ‘saints' are Christian believers and the ‘kingdom of light' is simply God's kingdom overseen by Jesus, that Paul will refer to again shortly. But perhaps we take this word ‘saints' for granted. Certain parts of the church still declare special people ‘saints' as if the rest of us are not, which is a real demotion of the word. Paul spoke of, “all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” (Rom 1:7) The word behind the Greek for this word is holiness or being set apart, but Paul spoke to “all in Rome ,” i.e. all the believers there. He uses that word six more time in that letter to Rome . In his letters to the Corinthians he uses it eight times, four times in Ephesians, three times in Colossians, once to Timothy and Jude and twice to Philemon. Every time he does so he refers to believers in general. So all believers are saints, all believers are holy, set apart by God.

 

Now I emphasise and pause over this because the other idea that Paul brings forth here is the ‘kingdom of light' which next he distinguishes from the ‘dominion of darkness' (v.13). Imagine two countries next door to each other. One is called ‘the kingdom of light' and the other is called ‘the dominion of darkness'. What the two names tell us, first of all, is that they are under different governance. A kingdom is directly ruled over by a king. Kings feature largely in the Bible; the word occurs over 2300 times. But the psalms and the prophets declare God as the king over all kings, the supreme ruler. Now when you turn to the other ‘country' we note the word ‘dominion'. Now dominion is also about rule but it is by a sub-ruler, a governor, if you like. We used to refer to Canada as the Dominion of Canada in that it was self governing but under the Queen of England as part of the British Empire and then British Commonwealth . God is the supreme ruler over ALL the world; there is nothing outside His overall control, and yet He has given secondary control to Satan.

 

The apostle John in his first letter says, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 Jn 5:19) There he makes the same distinction: there are the believers who are children of God and there is everyone else who, John says, are under the control of authority of Satan. Indeed John emphasises it in the previous verse when he says, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.” (1 Jn 5:18) Those under God's rule do not continue sinning as a practice (we may occasionally stumble – see 1 Jn 2:1) and we are under God's protection.

 

I have sometimes used the analogy of two houses next door to each other and Satan lives next door to you. He is not allowed on to your property but he can shout over the fence. Our calling is to ignore his words and thus stand on our ground (see the idea of ‘standing' or holding our ground' in Eph 6:11,13,14) The thing that keeps on coming over in these analogies is that there are TWO places, a kingdom and a dominion, and those in the kingdom are distinct, holy, called to be separate and different.

 

Now Paul has spoken of God's overall rule handed over to Jesus to administer (see 1 Cor 15:24) as the kingdom of light. Light and darkness are used by the apostle John in his Gospel to distinguish between good and evil. (he uses it over 20 times). We ARE in the kingdom of light and we have been called to live as ‘sons of light' (Jesus in Jn 12:36 and Paul in 1 Thess 5:5) We are to be different, distinct, holy. How? Well I believe there are three primary characteristics that should distinguish us from the world, and they are characteristics of Jesus: love and goodness and truth. If these things are not obvious manifestations of Jesus in our lives, we have some work to do! If there are things we tolerate in our speaking or behaviour that reveal an absence of love, or cannot be considered ‘good', or which are clearly not truth, then we have work to do.

 

In the first paragraph we reiterated the ‘inheritance package' which included, “a God-given plan and purpose for our lives (the way we live them and what we are to achieve) here today and tomorrow.” Within that expression ‘the way we live them' is to be righteousness, right living according to God's word. The apostle John called it obedience and said, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands,” (1 Jn 2:3) and, “if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him,” (1 Jn 3:21,22) and, “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” (1 Jn 5:3). Being receivers of this inheritance in the kingdom of light means we are people who do what the Father says – all of what He says! Amen.

   

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

 

Meditations in Colossians: 26. Rescued

 

Col 1:13,14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption (through his blood) the forgiveness of sins.

 

If you have followed this series of studies thus far, you will have gathered that as I have gone through this first chapter of Colossians I have found myself anchored or pulled up by words or phrases. Many of them have been very familiar but, as they say, familiarity breeds contempt, and so I have paused over even the familiar and pondered afresh on what they mean. The same is true of two words in our two verses above – rescued and redeemed. Rescue is something we might think we are very familiar within ordinary life but redeemed or redemption rarely comes up. In this mediation we'll deal with ‘rescue' and then ‘redemption' in the next.

 

When we rescue something or someone we free them from danger, restriction or imprisonment. It may be that we rescue a cat stuck up a tree, a boat capsized at sea, or a person burdened by debt. We take them from one place or situation (of danger or threat or anxiety) and transfer them into a place of safety and security and peace. Now Paul says that God in Jesus has rescued us from that dominion of darkness we recently considered. Earlier on we also came across the phrase, joyfully giving thanks to the Father,” and I said we do that when we fully appreciate the wonder of what has happened to us. When we've known the Lord some time, it is so easy to forget what has happened to us and become blasé or complacent about who we are, so let's do a little remembering.

 

It's always good to let Scripture shine its light on us so let's remind ourselves again of how Paul described how we had been in this ‘dominion of darkness': “you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” (Eph 2:1-3). Look at all the things it says about our old life.

 

First, we “were dead” – spiritually dead. A dead person cannot make themselves alive, in fact it is impossible without God, so God came and changed us so that we were no longer spiritually dead to Him.

 

Second, it was in our “transgressions and sins” in which we used to live. Transgressions are (accidental) wandering off the path, while sins are willful acts of wrong. We used to be a law unto ourselves and disregarded God's design for us. We knew no better and wandered, lost and confused and making a mess of our lives. We needed God to come and save us and give us a new way, focused upon Him and His design for our good.

 

Third, we “followed the ways of this world.” The ways of this world are pride, arrogance and self-centredness – “don't you tell me what to do!” We were not open to God's teaching or direction; it needed a crisis to bring us to our senses so He could bring us into a better way.

 

Fourth, we “followed the ways of…the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” We didn't realise it but Satan led us by the nose and we followed his suggestions as to disobeying God and getting deeper and deeper into the mire. We were part of his dominion and it needed a rescuer to come into that dominion and get us out. That was Jesus.

 

Fifth, our lifestyle was based upon gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts which meant we were driven by wanting things or experiences, to create a sense of fulfilment and achievement, and when we fell short we were frustrated. Indeed much of our life was based upon covetousness, wanting what others had. Possibly it was also based upon wanting more and more, i.e. greed. Indeed this desiring things or experiences which came from a lack of contentment, was entirely self-centred and godless. We gave little thought to others because life revolved around ‘me'.

 

Now it is possible that some of us may have come to Christ when we were young and so we are unable to identify so clearly with these things – but they are nevertheless true. Let it be said that those of us who came to Christ later in life, were probably so wrapped up with ourselves that we didn't realise any of this at the time, only as the Holy Spirit started convicting us, or as later on in our Christian lives we came to this revelation. Yet nevertheless, regardless of our awareness of it, this is how all life is outside Christ. This is not being unkind to my non-Christians friends or family members. It is just stating the truth of how it actually is, as God sees it.

 

Let's reiterate some of these things: whether it was being spiritually dead, or transgressing God's laws, or actively ignoring them, or motivated by pride, arrogance and self-centredness, or being under Satan's sway, or being controlled by our base, self-centred desires, we were prisoners to them, shackled to them if you like, and could not get free from them. As we said, a dead person cannot make themselves alive. A law-breaker may try hard to reform but without additional motivation or power they will constantly fail. Laying down pride on your own is virtually impossible for humility does not come easy to the person striving for purpose, meaning and self-fulfilment without God. As for breaking free from Satan's domination, forget it! Breaking free from the must-get, must-have mentality that is also seeking to prop up self-esteem and fulfilment-seeking is also a no-go. Whether we like it or not, simply telling people to ‘try harder' is a pointless exercise.

 

It is only when God comes and, because of the work of Jesus on the Cross, is able to adopt us, forgive us, cleanse us and empower us, and thus bring about a new life within us, can we possibly be set free from all those aspects of the ‘old life'. Jesus came on a rescue mission, to establish legal grounds that satisfy justice, to enable all these other things to happen to release us and set us free to live entirely new lives. Jesus earned it, Father decreed it, and the Holy Spirit administers it. We have been rescued! Hallelujah!

  

CONTENTS of Ch.1

 

 

Meditations in Colossians: 27. Redeemed

 

Col 1:13,14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redem ption (through his blood) the forgiveness of sins.

 

In the previous meditation I commented on how in this series I have felt the need to pick up on specific words or phrases to stop and pause afresh over their meaning. We come now to that highly important and significant word ‘redemption'. I ended that previous meditation commenting that Jesus came on a rescue mission, to establish legal grounds that satisfy justice, to enable all these other things to happen to release us and set us free to live entirely new lives. That was in the context of the great rescue but in the midst of that sentence I draw your attention again to the words, ‘to establish legal grounds to satisfy justice.' That, in as few words as possible, sums up Jesus' work on the Cross.

 

Few of us think deeply enough to realise and acknowledge the existence of this concept of ‘justice' in the human experience and then vocabulary. Justice starts out in childhood when one child wails, “It's not fair; you gave more to him than to me!” The child appeals to an idea of fairness. Nobody taught it to him or her but they knew its absence and cried out for a remedy. A dictionary might define it as “behaving according to what is morally right and fair.” Every tribe, people group or nation in history has exhibited this concept. They may exercise it differently but they all have exercised it.

 

In our modern age foolish philosophers and moral thinkers have sought in various ways to do away with guilt and blame, or rather the blame is passed on to others. For example, he stole because he was poor and never had a chance in life to better himself. Or, she gave her body to him because she needed to feel she was loved because throughout her childhood she had lacked love and her father had abandoned her. The terrorists exploded a bomb because they were a repressed people. Or, he shot fifteen people in the shopping mall because he was unloved, and had been abandoned to a solitary life of playing violent computer games.

 

We may go along with the philosophy that excuses people their sins until it affects me personally. When a pair of burglars break into my house and violate my family, I want the police to do something about them – and not just scold them. Justice says in some way they should pay for the wrongs they have done; there needs to be a balancing up; that's what justice demands – that they be stopped but, even more, they be made to suffer as I have suffered. This was essentially what was behind the ear for an ear, or eye for an eye law (Ex 21:24) in the Old Testament primitive Law given through Moses.

 

Now all of these things may contribute to the person's behaviour, but as individual's made in the image of God, they have the ability to choose exactly how they will behave, and God thus holds them accountable. In fact He holds every single one of us accountable for every wrong thought, word or deed. He doesn't look on us as a bunch of children who don't have a clue about life, but He respects us as those who know exactly what we are doing and who thus can be held accountable for what we did.

 

Imagine, if you will, you suffer from amnesia and you can remember nothing about how the human race works. You travel around the world and observe human behaviour through completely new eyes with no preconceived ideas. I am sure that again and again you would see things that would stir a response in you of, “Why doesn't somebody stop that? Why doesn't somebody do something about that?” as you observe a man abusing his daughter, a wife violently beating her husband, men holding up a bank, a man stealing from work, a tribe wiping out another tribe, one religious group warring against others who don't hold the same beliefs. As a human being, even though you have lost everything else, you will still have this sense of ‘justice' that says, this is wrong, someone should stop it and deal with the perpetrators.

 

Now imagine you are outside of time and you confront God at the end of time, as all things are being wound up. You cannot help but ask Him, “God, there is this inherent sense of justice and yet as it has come to an end, all these people, groups and nations have got away with behaviour that is wrong; they should not be allowed to get away with it! Why don't you do something?” He asks gently, “What would you have me to do?” You pause and think and eventually say, “Well all those wrong doers should be punished, justice demands it.” He asks again, “Which wrong doers? Where do you want me to draw the line?” I reply, “I don't know I need help. Can you somehow show the severity of the wrongs up on a big screen so we can get an idea of the magnitude of what they have done?” A big screen appears and it is covered with small red dots, so many as to almost cover the screen. I ask, “Which criminal does this represent?” Instead of giving a direct answer He says, “Well each dot represents every wrong thought, wrong word, or wrong act throughout this person's life. What would you have me do about them as they stand here now before my throne?” I respond boldly, “Well justice demands you punish them. There is so much red altogether it has to be the ultimate punishment, death I presume, exclusion from your presence!” Very quietly He says, “That is your screen.”

 

I am condemned by my own words. I believe in justice. I believe wrong doers should be punished, and yet I find I am a wrong doer and the court of my own mind has condemned me. I pronounced my own sentence as I stood before the throne in heaven. As I stand before God with my head hung down, He makes me an offer. “You may remember the stories of how Richard the lion heart was ransomed from prison. You may have come across pawnbrokers who require money to redeem the articles sold into hock. In each case there was a person or an article that was lost to the world. The only way it could be redeemed was by the giving of money. One of your famous writers, Charles Dickens, wrote a book called a Tale of Two Cities and in it, one man gave his life to ransom or redeem the life of another man. He swapped places. If you will believe it, my Son, Jesus, when he as the eternal Son of God died on that Cross at Calvary , gave his life so that your life could be spared. If you will receive it, I will spare you and adopt you into my family.” I nod dumbly and then whisper, “Yes, please.” And I am redeemed.

 

Of course I pictured this as occurring at the end of the world and there perhaps will be re-enacted what took place, in my case, over forty years ago, for that is essentially what happens before we are born again. Jesus' death earned my redemption. I was lost, guilty, condemned by justice/ I was helpless and hopeless and then this offer was presented to me and I took it and was redeemed. The work was done by Jesus two thousand years ago but it has to be appropriated by each person as an individual. We either accept it, or are left in the hands of justice. What a choice!