Living with the God We Know (Colossians 1:11-12

This sermon was preached on 24/10/2010

We noticed in our previous study that one consequence of living to please the Lord Jesus is an increase in the knowledge of God. The question that arises from that wonderful reality is, ‘What happens next?’ Knowing God is so important that it must have effects and Paul, as he continues his prayer for the Colossians, mentions two such features. They are (1) the bestowal of strength from God and (2) the giving of thanks to God. So one effect concerns what God does and the other effect concerns what we should do.

The bestowal of power

Paul mentions three terms connected to capacity designed to produce a guaranteed result. The three terms are strength, all power and glorious might, and the outcome is joyful endurance and patience. We might have expected Paul to pray that the Colossians would receive this divine power in order to work miracles or to receive exciting answers to prayer. Paul had different priorities, and his mentioning of endurance and patience tells us two basic facts: (1) endurance is difficult and (2) some may give up because of the difficulties. We can also note that Paul did not assume that the Colossians would automatically persevere in the faith. Instead he realised that intercessory prayer for others was an essential element in the overall package of maintaining people in the faith. No doubt Paul prayed in this way because he loved the Colossians, but he also prayed in this manner because he had seen some give up, or perhaps he himself had been so tempted.

This petition reminds us that the personal strengths of a person are not adequate for persevering in the Christian pathway. It is possible for an individual to persist because he has gritted his teeth and maintained a stoical attitude in a difficult situation, but that hardly fits Paul’s description of joyful endurance. Sometimes we admire tenacity, but we should not assume it is what Paul was praying for here. Or again we are often likely to assume that there is safety in numbers and that an outlook of shared intentions will get us through. But such camaraderie is not what Paul knew was needed. Gifts of character and camaraderie are useful, but we need something above human resources. Paul’s prayer reminds us that we need God’s power.

What are the strong barriers to our progress that requires the ongoing help of divine power? They can be summarised in the well-known evil trilogy of the world, the flesh and the devil. The world includes a wide range of temptations and allurements, the flesh is our own inner tendency to go off in sinful directions, and the devil has marshalled his ingenious methods in order to defeat us. We don’t keep on going by making resolutions, but by continually praying for and then experiencing God’s power.

But is it possible to rejoice in such difficult situations? The answer is yes. Recall Paul’s own experience of divine power given to him in connection to his thorn in the flesh. When he was informed by God, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,’ Paul responded, ‘Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Cor. 12:9-10). In a situation in which we might have expected complaints, Paul instead showed joy at experiencing the Lord’s strength.

Or we can look at Peter’s description of Christians who lived not very far away from the Colossians: ‘by God’s power [they] are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’ What attitude accompanies this power? ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ Indeed their joy was ‘inexpressible and filled with glory’ (1 Pet. 1:5-8).

Of course, what made them joyful was their knowledge of what they would experience as an outcome of perseverance. Paul knew he would have more of Christ and Peter’s readers were anticipating the glory to come. Paul knew that, through his prayers, that the Colossians would receive divine power that would result in joyful appreciation of spiritual blessings, no matter the difficulty. Now we should be able to see why it was a priority for Paul.

Giving of thanks to the Father

It has often been said that the effect of divine grace in a sinner’s heart will be gratitude to the God of grace. Of course, thanksgiving should be offered for a wide range of divinely-given blessings. Here Paul wants them to be thankful for something the Father did for them when they were converted (‘who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light’). A lot of different blessings are bestowed on conversion and sometimes we focus on a few of them, such as pardon and adoption into God’s family, and ignore the others.

What does Paul have in mind in this description? We need to break it down into its different phrases. To begin with, who are ‘the saints in light’? I suspect our initial response will be to regard them as the inhabitants of heaven who are now, as far as their souls are concerned, made perfect in holiness. Light is the domain that is the opposite of the kingdom of darkness, so ‘in light’ can mean the location in which Christians live.

Next, who are ‘the saints’? Normally, the term means all Christians, but here I think it refers to believing Jews. Most of the Colossian believers were Gentiles. If my suggestion is correct, then Paul was informing them that they had an equal share with Jewish believers in the God-given inheritance.

This leads us to consider ‘sharers in the inheritance’. It could mean the eternal inheritance that will be given to God’s people in the future. Obviously we are to thank God for such a prospect. Or Paul could mean that already we have access to some of the heavenly treasures to which we are heirs now. After all, the Holy Spirit is described in Ephesians 1:14 as the earnest of the inheritance. He gives us foretastes of God’s presence, of his peace, love and joy.

The Father has qualified his people for this marvellous privilege. Since the privilege is an inheritance, it is likely that the method of qualification is membership of God’s family. They were adopted by him when they believed in Jesus and since then have been qualified for their inheritance. The doctrine of adoption is the most marvellous aspect of what it means to be a Christian.

God the Father did all this freely. None of his people were able to purchase it. God gave it to them as family, which is a reminder that he has no favouritism among his people. And God did this for ever, which means it is impossible for any of his people to lose their share in the inheritance.

Therefore Christians have to thank God continually for this great privilege, one which all the honours of earth cannot compare. Because it is a family blessing, Christians must thank God communally, that is they should express their gratitude when they are together. Further, they should thank God confidently because he will always keep his promises.

Of course, the question comes to us, ‘How much of God’s power have we received and how much gratitude have we shown?’ Perhaps there is a connection between them, one that is almost like an ongoing reciprocal exchange. He gives power, we give thanks, he gives power, we give thanks, all the way until we partake of the inheritance in its fullness. Then we will see God’s power with greater insight and we will thank the Father with more fulsome gratitude.