Walking
Worthy. Colossians 1:9-10
That
when your children go forth the way they behave and conduct themselves says an
awful lot about the family and about parents. Even today, if you are an adult,
how you live your life reflects upon your parents and on your family. Sometimes
we don’t like that and say I can live my life my own say, and sure we can, but
it still reflects something the way you were reared, it says something about
your family background, something about our parents. If we have been trained well
by our parents then that shows. If we haven’t then that also shows. If we are
rebellious then that also says something not only about us but
something about parenting. The point is, how we live doesn’t just reflect upon
who we are, it reflects upon the family out of which we come, the family to
which we belong.
The
same thing is true in the spiritual life because at the time that we believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ a number of different things a number of different
things happened. They weren’t things we experienced but nevertheless they were
real. We received the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, which is the basis
for our salvation, and so God the Father could declare us to be just, not
because of what we have done but because of who Christ is and what He has done
and because of His righteousness. We were regenerated; we became a new creature
in Christ. We were given a new life so that we are now spiritual infants, and
we are also adopted into God’s royal family so that we have a new identity along
with that new position and we are part of a new family. And in God’s family
there is a code of conduct: protocols, ways in which we should live as
believers that reflect upon that new family.
Understanding
that is important to understanding many things that are said in Scripture, some
of the difficult passages that some people will go to try to prove that you can
lose your salvation, or not really that at all, there are passages that are
basically saying if you are a member of God’s family this is how you are going
to live. That doesn’t mean that if you live differently, if you violate that
code of conduct, those standards of behaviour, then you are not a member not
God’s family; it is just that you are a rebellious, poor example of God’s
family. It is just like if we are disobedient and don’t go along with what our
parents have said we bring shame and dishonour upon our human family, it
doesn’t mean they are still not our parents. We can never change that, it is a
reality, nobody can take away your parents or your birthday; those are set
forever and so you are still a member of that family.
The
same thing is true in the Scripture: we are members of God’s family. Sometimes
we act like we are stepchildren, sometimes we act like we have been kicked out
of the family, disinherited, but nevertheless we are still members of God’s
family. We can never have that salvation, that adoption into God’s family
because God does not do that; He does not go back in His Word. Think of all the
different things that God does for every person at the minute of salvation and
you just can’t imagine what would reverse all of that. It is not just a matter
of getting eternal life and having it taken away from you. Think about
justification, reconciliation, redemption, adoption, reception of all the
ministries of God the Holy Spirit, all of the changes that take place in just
an instant of time when we trust in Christ as savior, and that those are all
irreversible. He has given us so much that with that comes a certain obligation
to live as a member of His family. That doesn’t mean that if we don’t live that
we lose our salvation; it does mean that if we don’t live that way we do come
under divine discipline. As Hebrews 12 states, whom the Lord loves He chastens.
As
a member of God’s family what is it that God expects us to do? How do we learn
this code of conduct, this code of behaviour, this way of thinking that is to
characterize our new position and our new family responsibilities? That comes
from a study of God’s Word primarily but as we look at different passages and
as we study this opening section of Colossians one of the things we see is how
the apostle Paul prays for these believers in this church in Colosse. He has
never been there, he has only heard about them through the man who pastored
them for many years, a man by the name of Epaphras. Epaphras has told Paul
about all of the many different things that characterize these new believers in
Colosse and how they have grown and that that their faith is becoming known far
beyond their geographical vicinity, that they have a love for all the saints,
and that this is motivated by their hope, their confident expectation of future
rewards and their future destiny in heaven.
So
as Paul has received that message we then come to Colossians 1:9 NASB “For
this reason…” That refers back in a general sense to what he has received in
this report from Epaphras. Because of all that he has heard he is going to give
them additional information. Also remember that in each of these epistles Paul
is addressing, usually, more than one problem or situation in one congregation.
Think about that, because what usually motivates us to go anywhere in the
spiritual life, even to get saved, is that we have some problem in life. It
brings us to this position where we realise that we are not sufficient to
handle life on our own; we need someone else, we need God, whatever it may be.
There is always this sort of a problem.
In
Colosse the problem is that they are getting sucked into some false teaching.
But it is not just the sort of academic this like do you believe in this
philosophy or that philosophy, this religion or that religion; the reason they
are motivated and moved to believe in one thing or another is because somehow
they or we think it works for us and is going to solve these problems in life.
Fundamentally they were being attracted to it because they thought that it
offered them something that somehow they weren’t getting in Christianity. What that
indicates is that they had an anaemic view of Christ, an anaemic view of what
God provided for them, and an anaemic view of the Christian life. So in this
opening section of the epistle as the apostle Paul goes through these prayers
what we see is his focus is on what really ultimately matters in any of our
lives in terms of our spiritual growth. We look at what Paul is thankful for
and what he is praying for in relation to these believers in Colosse and it
tells us where the real priorities should be in our own thinking and in our own
spiritual life.
“For
this reason…” They’ve already grown. Paul is very positive, very thankful as he
has expressed already for the spiritual growth they have attained already. But
that is just the beginning; they haven’t arrived. We never really arrive in
this life in terms of our spiritual growth and development.
“…also, since the day we heard {of it,} we have not ceased to
pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” The main idea here is, “we do not
stop, do not cease to pray for you and to ask.” So the main thing in this set
of verses is his prayer. Whenever we are looking at the prayers of any of the
saints in Scripture, whether it is David in the Old Testament or Paul in the
New Testament, the first thing we should understand in terms of application is
what is being prayed for. Because it is in Scripture this gives us God’s view
of what is important, where the priorities should be in terms of what we go to
God for in terms of prayer. The verb that we find there for cessation is the
Greek sword pauo which is a very
similar verb form to what we have in 1 Corinthians 13:8, that tongues will
cease. It is a middle voice which indicates more of a
dynamic sense that this is something that is certain that is going on, so Paul
uses this in a middle voice to emphasize in this verb that he doesn’t stop
praying. The principle here that we see in terms of prayer is that we are not
to consider prayer just something tacked on to the Christian life; that we are
to make prayer a priority. It should be structured, habitual, not just one time
a day. We may have one time a day when we might have a more disciplined prayer
time but prayer should be something that goes on and on throughout the day. 1
Thessalonians 5:17 NASB “pray without ceasing.” The verb there
emphasizes that this something that characterizes our life all throughout the
day. As things come up you can just shoot little bullet prayers to God, and at
other times take a little more time in prayer. But it is not just a life of
bullet prayers; there also should be times of significant, disciplined, focused
prayer. It is something that is not optional but is central to our spiritual
life.
Paul
says they do not cease to pray and to ask. In English that is translated as if
it is two infinitives, to pray and to ask, and that is not how it is structured
in the Greek. In the Greek there are two participles—a participle is an
“ing” word—“praying and interceding.” The “ing” ending emphasizes that
this is an ongoing action, and that is exactly what he is saying: “We don’t
cease praying and interceding on your behalf.” The first word for prayer there,
proseuchomai, is the normal word
for prayer and it has to do with addressing requests to a deity. The second
word translated “ask” is the primary meaning of aiteo,
but words need to be translated in terms of their usage within the context and
when we are asking God on behalf of somebody else a more precise term is
intercession, or interceding for somebody. So this should be translated as “We
do not cease praying and interceding for you [or, on your behalf].” “For you”
is the same phrase in the Greek that we see in the phrase “Christ died for you,
Christ died as a substitute for you.” That is the idea of intercession. We are
going to God on behalf of somebody else in their place
and asking for certain things. So we are to pray for others.
So
Paul says, “We are praying and interceding on behalf of you” for a particular
purpose: “ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding.” That is a loaded clause. It gives us the
purpose, the focus of the prayer request. The word “filled” is the Greek word pleroo which is sometimes used in the
sense of fulfilment of an Old Testament prophecy and it is the same verb that
is used in Ephesians 5:18 where we have the command to be filled by means of
the Spirit, rather than being drunk with wine in the first part of the verse.
The command is to be filled with the Spirit; it has to do with filling us with
something. The something isn’t the Holy Spirit. Greek grammar is very precise
in certain areas and if we are talking about filling something up with something.
Illustration: A coffee mug is filled with coffee. Never use a Greek preposition
en [e)n] to describe
the contents of that mug. A genitive construction would be used to describe the
contents but we don’t have that in Ephesians 5:18, we have an instrumental
clause. So it is not the Holy Spirit we are being filled up with but it is the
Holy Spirit who is filling us with something else. So what is the content of
that filling? It is what we see here in Colossians 1:9, “that you may be filled
with the knowledge of His will.”
The
way we translate these things in English loses some of the significance of the
original Greek. Because when it is translated “be filled with the knowledge of”
something, that could indicate the content; it could also indicate means, and
it is neither a genitive here nor is it an instrumental dative; it is an
accusative and should be understood as an accusative of reference, which means
that it is limiting the focus of the verb with reference to something specific.
So what Paul is saying here is, “so that you may be filled with reference to
the knowledge of God’s will.” In the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit
there are similarities between the results of Ephesians 5:18, “… giving thanks
to God for all things, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making
melody in your heart to the Lord and several other consequences. Then of we go
to Colossians 3:16 we have an almost identical list of the consequences of a
different command: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” That is
the same kind of thing that Paul is saying here in saying that “you may be
filled with the knowledge of His will.” The content that we are filled
with—what is supposed to dwell in our minds—is the Word of God. It
is the content of God’s Word, what He has revealed to us that our soul is to be
filled with, so that as we learn more and more of God’s Word it is not just an
academic knowledge but it is knowledge that under the filling ministry of God
the Holy Spirit and His revealing the Word to us that it becomes more and more
clear to us how to apply these things. And the more that we learn, the more we
learn to think how God thinks, and then things begin to come together and we
see how to apply His Word in many different areas of life. It all starts with
knowledge.
The
knowledge that is mentioned here is the verb epignosis.
gnosis is the root noun for
knowledge and when the prefix epi
is added it intensifies it and in many cases that word epignosis has to do with a full or experiential knowledge of
something. It has gone from just being academic knowledge to something where
you are learning the practical applicational value of something. It is one
thing to learn how to add and subtract through a column of numbers; it is another
thing to do it when you are filling out your tax return and the stakes are a
little higher than just getting an A or a B and it has to do with your pocket
book. But if you learn at school how to add a column of numbers and how to
subtract and all of your basic mathematic functions, then later on in life when
you have to do these other things all of that academic knowledge that you had
in a math class now becomes practical knowledge. Now it has moved from the
realm of gnosis to epognosis and therefore there is value
to it. And if you learn to do
other things with numbers mathematically then that allows you to use that in
many other areas, and that develops skill with math. The concept of skill with
something is what the Old Testament writers referred chokmah (wisdom). So when we get into
the New Testament, even though it is written in Greek, the wisdom that is
usually referred to as part of the spiritual life isn’t the sort of abstract
wisdom that one would get in Greek culture from understanding Greek thought, it
is still that Old Testament concept of skill. The writers were all Jewish
writers; their frame of reference is all the Old Testament. So when they talk
about wisdom as a positive spiritual virtue in the New Testament they are
talking about that same idea of a practical and skilful application of God’s
Word that is found in the Old Testament.
So
what Paul says here is, I’m praying constantly for you and what I am praying
for is that you are filled first with epignosis,
with this full knowledge that you get from God’s Word. The difference between epignosis and gnosis is that there are many people who are Christians who
have an academic knowledge of God’s Word but they don’t really believe it. They
can tell you many things about what the Bible says. They have studied the Bible
as human literature; they haven’t studied it as the Word of God that is
supposed to change their life. There is a distinction: gnosis emphasizes more of just an academic understanding
whereas epignosis emphasizes the
knowledge that comes because you believe it to be true and that you have made
it a part of your thinking as a result of the filling ministry of God the Holy
Spirit.
So
Paul is praying that this is what would be true, that it wouldn’t just be
academic knowledge but it would be full spiritual knowledge of God’s will.
Often what God expresses to us is His will. What Paul is talking about is that
we have the mind of Christ and therefore understand God’s thinking through
studying His Word—all of the mandates, do this, do that, think this
way—that is understanding how God wants us to think and how to live. So
we are to be filled with the knowledge of His will and that comes from studying
God’s Word. We don’t get it any other way.
There
are many churches today where people go to church for what they emphasize as a
“worship time” and they use that phrase “worship” to just relate to the singing
part of the service—which is an abuse of the term. Ultimately the highest
form of worship is when we are studying God’s Word because that is when we
learn to think like God wants us to think and to live like God wants us to
live. We learn His will, and that is the foundation and what the emphasis
should be. If we don’t know the Word then we don’t know God’s will.
A
lot of people will stop there and say: “If we would just apply all that we
know. Our problem is that we don’t know enough and we don’t apply enough. We
need to quit learning all this stuff; we are just getting so filled with all
this knowledge about the Bible that we don’t apply anymore.” The reality is
that in every endeavour of life we know a thousand times more than we ever will
apply, but we never apply more than, say, three per cent of what we know. The
way we increase our application is to know more, not to try to apply a higher
percentage. If we learn, instead of knowing 5000 things we know 50,000 things,
if we still apply the same percentage we will be applying a lot more if we know
more. That is just the way things are in life.
We
are to be filled with a knowledge of His will, and
this results in “in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” The adjective for
spiritual here, which is pneumatikos
(relating to the spirit), should apply to both of these nouns “wisdom” and
“understanding.” So that should be translated “with reference to the knowledge
of His will by means of all (spiritual) wisdom (contained in the Scripture) and
understanding” that is in the Scripture. But it doesn’t stop there. Paul isn’t
just saying I want you to be filled with the knowledge of His Word by means of
all spiritual wisdom and understanding; there is not a period there. There is a
purpose. That is a means to an end, and the end comes up in the next
verse.
Colossians
1:10 NASB “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to
please {Him} in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing
in the knowledge of God.” So the goal of the knowledge, the goal of learning
God’s Word, isn’t just to know it. It isn’t necessarily just to be cognisant of
all the Bible stories and all of the things that go on in the Scripture, but it
is focusing us on a direction in terms of our practical life—that we are
to live in a way that brings honour rather than shame to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are members of His family and therefore are to walk worthy of the Lord.
When
we look at this passage the focus is to walk worthy of the Lord. Then that is
modified by saying “fully pleasing Him.” This isn’t to gain grace; it isn’t to
gain blessing; but it is because we have already received blessing, already
been adopted into His family and have already received grace, and we are now to
walk worthy. It is an expression of gratitude to God for all that He does, and
now that we are His family we want to walk in a manner that brings honour
rather than shame upon the royal family of God.
This
brings us to a summary of the doctrine of walking. What does it mean to walk?
This is a terminology, a picture for us of the Christian life.
1.
Walking isn’t simple. When we get walking broken down to its
basic steps we realize that it is not something that is easy to do. If we have
an injury later in life, especially if it is a traumatic injury where we lose
the ability to walk and have to learn how to do it again, then we realize how
complex it is and how much concentration is called for to make each particular
step. Transferring this over to the Christian life and the fact we have to
learn how to walk as a Christian, it involves that same kind of thought and
concentration and effort to learn it. It is not just going to happen mystically
and magically. When we are going to walk—which is a metaphor for how we
live our life or how we conduct ourselves—it involves doing a number of
things, some things simultaneously and some things in the right order. If we
don’t do them in the right order then we make a misstep and fall down. So there
are procedures here that are part of the Christian life that we have to follow.
The Bible describes all of the mechanics, and even though it is not mechanical
we have to learn all of the mechanics. So walking is a procedure we have to
practice over and over again.
2.
Walking is a metaphor in the Scripture. It is using the
step-by-step that we take with our physical feet as a picture for how a person
lives their life; it is a lifestyle. It includes our norms and standards, our
values, our policies, our habits, our priorities, how we manage our time. In
essence it is everything that we do is included in this concept of walking, so
it expresses a code of conduct. God the Father has a code of conduct, a behaviour standard for everybody who is a member of God’s
royal family. The Scripture uses this metaphor numerous times to express the
dynamics of the Christian life and the standards for the Christian life.
3.
For example, the Christian’s lifestyle is related to
understanding we have this new life. We have a new life in Christ. This is the
emphasis in the first half dozen verses in Romans chapter six. Because we have
been identified with Christ in His death burial and resurrection we become a
new creature in Christ and are given a new life. Now that we have this new life
we are to live in a way that reflects the standards for that new life. Romans
6:4 NASB “Therefore we have been buried with Him through
baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” So we are to
walk in this new category of life. But we don’t always do that; we often fail.
We often live like we did before we were saved, and that is called living
according to the sin nature, living according to the flesh.
4.
We only have two options in the Scriptures as to how we
walk. We walk either according to the flesh, the sin nature, or we walk
according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3, 4 NASB “For what the Law could
not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God {did:} sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and {as an offering} for sin, He condemned sin in the
flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not
walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” At any given time we
are either conducting our life according to the sin nature or we are conducting
our life according to the Holy Spirit. This is also seen in other passages such
as Romans 13:12-14 where Paul uses the contrast between night and day. NASB
“The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the
deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in
the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and
sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make no provision for the flesh in regard to {its} lusts.” “But put on the Lord
Jesus Christ.” That comes as we learn the Word of God and we learn to think as
Christ thinks and according to divine revelation. Galatians 5:16, 17 has the same contrast.
5.
In walking by the Spirit we walk by faith. That is not in
contrast to reason; that is faith in the Word of God. We have to understand the
Word of God and trust it and believe it to be true, and implement that in our
daily life. 2 Corinthians 5:7 NASB “for we walk by faith, not by
sight.”
6.
When the Scripture says that we are to walk worthy the
emphasis is not on gaining salvation or gaining grace from God or gaining God’s
favour, but because we have it we are now going to live in light of it. We are
going to bring honour to God rather than shame to God. Ephesians 4:1 NASB
“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy
of the calling with which you have been called.” We have already been called,
already been saved; now we should live in a manner
that reflects honour and glory to God. Ephesians 5:2, 3 NASB “ and
walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an
offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any
impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints…
[8] for you were formerly darkness, but now you are
Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light
{consists} in all goodness and righteousness and truth)… [15] Therefore be
careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise.” Where do we get wisdom?
We get it from our study of the Word of God. We first have knowledge and then
as we come to understand it more fully under the ministry of God the Holy
Spirit we develop skill and application, and that is wisdom. The parallel verse
is in Colossians 4:5 NASB “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward
outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.” 1 Thessalonians 4:1 NASB
“Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as
you received from us {instruction} as to how you ought to walk and please God
(just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.” There is a standard
for how we are to walk.
As
we look at Colossians 1:10 it says, NASB “so that you will walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord, to please {Him} in all respects, bearing fruit
[production] in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” The
two phrases, “bearing fruit” and “increasing” are participles that should be
understood as a means. How do we walk worthy? By being fruitful in every good
work and by increasing in the knowledge of God. We are to be fruitful in every
goods work.
Ephesians
2:10 NASB “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” God
saved us so that we would do these good works. This isn’t morality or a kind of
superficial good works, limiting it to Christian serviced or things like that;
this is all of the production that God the Holy Spirit brings to our life as a
result of application of God’s Word. It includes mental attitude changes, our
belief system changes, actions as well. A lot of
people can go out and do good things. If it is done in the energy of the sin
nature it is just human good and has no eternal value. If the same thing is
done walking by the Spirit then it has eternal value. We can read our Bible in
the flesh just as much as we can read our Bible walking by the Spirit. We can
pray out of fellowship, witness out of fellowship, all these things, and it is
just a work of the flesh; but if we are doing it by walking by the Spirit then
it has eternal value. So we see that it is God who produces this in us. The
spiritual life is supernaturally dependent.
Philippians
1:6 NASB “{For I am} confident of this very
thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of
Christ Jesus.” God is the one who is going to be consistently working in our
life so that we grow to maturity. We can rebel against that but that doesn’t
mean He is going to stop working.
2
Timothy 2:21 NASB “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself [1 John
1:9] from these {things,} he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to
the Master, prepared for every good work.” How do we get prepared for every
good work? Study of the Word. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 NASB
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be
adequate, equipped for every good work.”