Sanam Doctrinam

Prayer can influence the spiritual lives of others. I don’t know all the whys and wherefores, but Scripture is clear that beseeching God on behalf of other people’s sanctification activates the work of God on their behalf. We see this in Paul’s prayer for the believers at Colosse in Colossians 1:9-12. Today, I’d like us to consider his next four petitions on their behalf.
 
First, Paul asked that the Colossians would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. If you’re like me, when you read that, your first reaction is, "Wow, that’s a tall order!" It staggers the mind to consider how we could ever possibly walk (conduct ourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord. While we may never fully fulfill this text’s injunction to live in a way that befits a servant of the King of the ages, by allowing the Spirit of our God to work the character of Christ into our daily reality, we can accurately represent our Lord. I think the best way to explain the idea of walking in a manner worthy of Christ is living in a way that mirrors His character. Although it will always be a faint replica, our lifestyle is to be one that reflects the attributes we see in the Savior. We’re called to be giving since He is giving; holy, since He is holy; faithful, since He is faithful; kind, since He is kind—and on we could go. Imagine what the church of Jesus Christ would be like if every one of us lived out just this first part of the prayer. Hypocrisy would disappear and the world would accurately see the Savior reproduced in His church. That we would walk worthy of our Lord is a prayer worth praying!
 
Second, Paul said his prayer for the saints at Colosse involved him asking that they please God in all respects. Each of us has things that are particularly pleasing to us. It may be a certain author, a type of chocolate candy, a favorite place to visit, or a hobby. Although we may not have thought about it in these terms, God also has things that particularly please Him. Thankfully, we’re not left to speculation on what these things are. Our Lord has revealed them to us in His word. Our Creator has told us those things in which He delights. We could go any number of places in Scripture to find things that God says please Him, but an explicit statement to that effect is Micah 6:8: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Is pleasing God with our lives our primary motivation in our life decisions? It should be. I think many of us had an inborn desire as children to please our parents. We wanted their approval, with what we had done. So it is to be in our relationship with God. The Spirit of God motivates the children of the Father to do the things please Him. It’s a privilege to please God and a joy for His children.
 
Third, the apostle prayed that the Colossian believers bear fruit in every good work. I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life where I have undertaken some sort of project and realized it was an entirely fruitless endeavor. Whatever aim I had, I either gave up, or ran into so many obstacles I realized I couldn’t accomplish it. That’s not so big a problem when it comes to personal projects, but it’s truly tragic when a life is fruitless. Some believers in Christ seemingly live their lives without an objective. Normally, that happens when we become absorbed with the pursuit of selfish ends as the point of our existence. The problem with pursuing such ends is that we wind up satisfying ourselves for the short term, but at the conclusion of our life we have a handful of ashes. Paul wanted the Colossians to bear fruit for God. He wanted their lives to count for something. Only as we invest ourselves in the things that God has said really matter will we find meaningfulness in our lives. God has said that such fruit is a major end in His ongoing work of rescuing people from the penalty of sin. We read in Ephesians 2:8-10, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." We are God’s workmanship, Paul writes, designed to bear the sort of fruit God desires. This is done as we remain in vital union with Christ Himself (John 15:5). Fruitfulness is the privilege of a Christian who walks closely with Christ.
 
The final (and fourth) element of Paul’s prayer for the church at Colosse was that they would increase in the knowledge of God. In some ways, I think knowledge has fallen on hard times. Sometimes, Christians tend to knock knowledge. Among those who do so, 1 Corinthians 8:1 is dog-eared from overuse: "Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies." Or, in the catchier rendering of another version, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." Seldom is this verse addressed in context. Paul was writing to people who were using their knowledge of right and wrong to steamroll weaker believers regarding their practice eating certain types of foods. The knowledge of which Paul wrote was not knowledge of God in general, but rather an arrogant insistence of a strong Christian’s perspective on a weaker one’s conscience. Paul would have recoiled in disgust at the idea of Christians denigrating the pursuit of knowing God in His word. Knowledge must always be wedded with genuine concern for others in the Christian life, but we are called to increase in both as we live our lives in Christ. I praise God (as should all of us) that there are those gifted men and women who have devoted their lives to an understanding of God as He has revealed Himself in His holy book. Paul wanted the Colossians to grow in this area. So should we.
 
These four petitions from the apostle’s pen are enough for us to muse on for this week. Next week we’ll continue our look at Paul’s prayer. May I suggest that we seek these things in our life this week, as we pray them for someone else?

I’ve been spending some time in the four brief Pauline epistles of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians the past week or so. I came across Paul’s prayer for the Colossian believers and thought it might be something I would share with you. What struck me about Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is that in it Paul reveals great objectives for every Christian’s life. If nothing else, Colossians 1:9-12 provides us with some aspects of God’s revealed will for us as His children.

Today I’d like to deal with verse 9. At the outset, I would say that it is worth noting that the bulk of Colossians 1:9-12 constitutes the contents of Paul’s prayer for the Colossians. It is instructive for us to notice the sort of things Paul prayed on behalf of the believers at Colosse. Everything he asked for pertained to their spiritual lives. I’ve observed that often in our Christian assemblies, our prayers quickly become "organ recitals." Minette Drumwright has made the sage observation, "We spend more time praying to keep sick saints out of heaven than we do praying lost people into heaven." All this to say, there is nothing wrong with praying for the sick, but Paul’s prayers were focused on the spiritual lives of the subjects of his prayer.

With that brief introduction, let’s take a look at what Paul prayed for the Colossian believers. Specifically, he asked that the Lord would fill them with a knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I find it interesting that Paul began with the Colossians’ minds. He wanted them to comprehend the will and ways of God, that they might know what He wanted for them. Knowing who God is and what He wants are foundational to our spiritual lives. I might add, these things never cease to be foundational to our spiritual lives. The moment a person is declared righteous by God on the basis of faith in His Son, he or she begins the lifelong process of learning more of God.

If Colossians 1:9 teaches us anything, it teaches us that understanding who God is and what He wants are essentials. Knowing Him is a goal worthy of our pursuit and of our prayer for others.

Life is filled with motives. Part of our motivation for working is financial remuneration (unless we’re independently wealthy). We are motivated to eat due to hunger. We are driven to wash dishes because they stack up. Our behaviors are a direct result of motivating factors.
 
We need to consider that toward which Paul was motivated. Specifically, he said he was motivated to "persuade men." Whatever else Paul might have been, he was a persuader. Paul, however, didn’t seek to persuade people to his preferences. The persuading in which Paul engaged was seeking to persuade people to believe in Christ. Acts 28:23-24 tells us as much: "When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening. Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe." Paul’s was very much a ministry of persuasion.
 
So what motivated Paul in his ministry of persuasion? We discover the answer to this question at the beginning of the passage. Specifically, the text says, Paul was motivated by "the fear of the Lord." Paul explained exactly what he meant by this expression in the context. We have a hint as to where to look in the logical connector, "therefore," at the beginning of verse 11. "Therefore" creates a connection between verse 11 and verse 10. There we read: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."
 
In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul is talking about a unique judgment for believers in Jesus Christ, not for unbelieving people. We read about it also in 1 Corinthians 3. Paul’s fear of the Lord in this context was linked to his future expectation of an evaluation at the feet of his Lord. Paul lived his life with his eyes fixed on a coming day when the King of kings would evaluate his life. He let that coming day define the priorities of his days. He held that coming day of judgment in the greatest awe. Consequently, he lived in a fear of the Lord that motivated him to persuade people to believe in the Savior.
 
At this point we should ask ourselves when the last time was that we considered that coming day. An even better question is whether we are allowing that coming day to define the priorities in our lives. If you’re like me, the demands of the day often get your attention more than the concerns of Christ. Perhaps for those of us who have placed our trust in the finished work of Christ, today’s Monday Musings would beckon us back to a reminder of the coming day when our life will be evaluated by the sovereign Judge.
 
Some time ago I came across the poem, "Psalm of Anticipation," written by the late Joseph Bayly. It serves as a powerful reminder of how the judgment seat of Christ ought to define our priorities in the present.
 

 
Amen and amen.

For today’s Monday Musing I might have selected any number of verses similar in content to the one above. It just so happened that this morning as I was reading the Scripture, this is the one I encountered. The refrain in this verse is frequent in the prophetic literature of the Bible: Israel has a future hope in the time when a king in the line of David will reign from Jerusalem, unrivaled, over all the earth. In fact, a few years ago I led a Bible study on the book of Jeremiah, the longest book in the Bible. I was struck with the number of times the only reasonable referent to the prophecies we encountered was the thousand-year reign of Christ. Such texts speak of a future kingdom for Israel that was wonderful nearly beyond description, although not perfect. We read of a future place where death and sin will still linger, but where they will be overshadowed by the reigning Messiah-King.
 
What struck me about today’s verse as I read it this morning was that it was spoken in regard to Moab, a neighbor of Israel that had perennially tense relations with it. Moab would be devastated, Isaiah had written (Isaiah 15:1-9), but there was hope when a future king would take the throne.
 
As I mentioned earlier, today’s verse is no exception. Israel’s prophets were constantly assuaging the bitterness of present distress with the certainty of future deliverance—however distant that deliverance may have been.
 
There is a corollary for us as believers in Jesus Christ, too. Put simply, future hope gets us through present difficulty. No one who accurately represents the word of God would ever say that life is easy. In fact, Jesus said just the opposite when He guaranteed His followers, "In the world you have tribulation" (John 16:33). That’s why we have the hope the word of God offers: It gets us through these hard times, victoriously.
 
Whether we’re a Moabite or not, today’s verse is full of hope. Christ’s throne will be established in lovingkindness. This will be no surly dictator—the kingdom will be characterized by the lovingkindness of the King, Himself. The text tells us that He will not only be a king, but a judge—a faithful, reliable Judge who will make justice His priority. In contrast to the divided interests and faulty judgment of judges with whom we’re familiar, this Judge will administer justice according to His own righteous standards and will be experienced in doing what is right. Things can get desperate, in the world in general, and in our lives in specific. The hope of a coming world ruler who will reign and rule in lovingkindness, faithfulness, and perfect justice gives us a certain hope.
 
Some years ago I heard a story about a janitor who had been listening to a prophecy expert go on and on about the symbols in the book of Revelation and how they relate to Daniel and myriad other intricacies of prophetic truth. After the listeners had left the auditorium, all that was left was this prophecy expert and the janitor, who was going to clean up after the meeting. The prophecy expert, as he exited, asked the janitor what he thought about his talk. The janitor responded with, "I understand the book of Revelation completely." The prophecy expert was startled, and with some doubt in his voice said, "You do?" The janitor replied, "Of course. I can sum it up in two words. Jesus wins!"
 
The janitor was right. Jesus will win. The Victor will reign as sovereign over His people in a future kingdom. In the darkest of days, Scripture does not point us to the dim earthly hope of better days to come, but to future hope, specifically the hope of living in the kingdom of a King with whom all who have believed in Him we will spend eternity.