2016-09-02
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As promised last week, today I’m led to continue discussing COL 1: 9-14, which contains concepts of great importance to believers in Jesus Christ and serves as competition to the Colossian Hersey (which grew into Gnosticism). An increase in one’s knowledge of and belief in God and His will for our lives is a mark of forwarded spiritual maturation. It is acquired in one way by studying God’s word (the Bible). Improving prayer life is another way. Increasing maturation is seen in a greater will to serve God in the many ways opportunity for this is presented in one’s life. Paul understood this and wanted Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea to receive his epistle, as his fellow servant of Christ, Epaphras, would deliver and present it.
An observer of the practice of true Christianity will see fruit produced from the heartfelt and accurate belief in Christ’s teaching. We’ll look at the meaning of key words-- fruit being one of them-- ahead in this study. Basically, this notion goes back to EPH 2: 10, “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Fruit, as used here, is those good works, and they take many forms. The production of fruit pleases God. An example is enduring our own trials in patience, being thankful and joyful, qualifying a believer for a share of God’s inheritance. The true believer can be thought of as a family member, who is in line to inherit what his parents have. We are adopted members of God’s family [RO 8: 14-17].
Christ rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into His Kingdom. This notion is very basic to a life in Christ. One is “made alive in Christ and dies to sin.” Sin is what separates us from God. Before Christ suffered and physically died on the cross for us, we had no escape from spiritual death (conscious and eternal torment from which there is no escape-hell). However, with Christ’s Atonement and our repentance and faith in Him, we are saved from certain spiritual death and are able to gain eternal life (salvation), eternal forgiveness for our sins, and justification (acceptance in God’s sight) [JN 3: 16: RO 3: 24-25; RO 4: 3; 1JN 1: 9)]. The impact of this on our lives is huge! Please spend some time this week considering how Christ’s faithful obedience to the Father has benefitted your life.
A key part of Paul’s prayer for the people of these three towns comes in 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.”
Prayer is powerful, and as James wrote, in JAS 5: 16, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” History shows us that Paul and his associates were indeed righteous men. In a common context, knowledge is data acquired through experience, understanding is ability to arrange that data to show relationships, and wisdom is the discernment sufficient to apply what is learned in a godly manner-acting righteously. But, it’s necessary for us to see the Greek definition of some key words used by the human authors of the Bible, who were inspired by God.
I’m led to use Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Nelson’s Bible Dictionary, and biblos.com as references in compiling the following word studies. The word, knowledge, as used in COL 1: 9-10, has a Strong’s no. of 1922, and in Greek is epignosin, pronounced ep-ig’-no’-sis. It’s meaning is intuition, recognition, perception, discernment, acknowledgement. In Greek, it is a noun in the feminine gender. Nelson’s defines it as information acquired through thought or experience, which can’t be gained through unaided human reason. It’s use in JOB 1: 7 and RO 11: 33 serve as examples. The suggestion is that knowledge of truth is only acquired as God reveals Himself to His people. This can be done by observing nature, through one’s conscience [the Holy Spirit], or by observing history and providence. PS 19: 8-14 and RO 1: 19-20 are given as examples. More on the subject of knowledge and other key word studies will be shared next week.
PRAYER: O Lord, we acknowledge Your supremacy and sovereignty over our lives. Through the righteous use of Your power and the loving kindness of Your heart, You have chosen to sacrifice the physical life of Your Son on the cross. Through our faith in Him and willingness to reveal and repent of our sins, we are saved, eternally forgiven, and forever justified before You. What a generous and wonderful thing this is, so that we have an escape from spiritual death! Through Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection, He is victorious over death and evil [1COR 15: 54-56]. Moreover, You have revealed the long-secret mystery that is Christ in us, who believe. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, You have made Him our conscience, our counselor who teaches us Your ways, and our Motivator to do the good deeds You prepared for us to do in advance. We are given increasing knowledge of You, as we mature in the faith and obey Your will. Your agenda and Your will for us matters greatly. We ask You to continue to spiritually mature us and give us Your wisdom through Your Spirit. These things we say and ask of You in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As mentioned above, I have been commanded to continue with key word studies next week. These allow us to better understand what the God-inspired apostle, Paul, meant in this short, but important letter to Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea. We are charged with the task of reviewing our individual lives, revealing, genuinely confessing, and expunging sins from our lives. Sanctification is that on-going process where we confess and stop sins before God, and He provides us with forgiveness and the benefits of the Holy Spirit. It’s powerful to pray directly to the Holy Spirit. This is called Theophrastic prayer, honoring Theophrastos (372 BC-287 BC) from Eresos in Lesbos, who was the successor to Aristotle. Theophrastos taught at the Lyceum in Athens, Greece. This man had a wide range of interests and believed happiness depends on external influences and virtue, not on wisdom. Theophrastic prayer is often employed when praying for healing. How can we miss realizing the importance of the Holy Spirit to what we learn about God and the expression of our faith? Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2016. All Rights Reserved.
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