COLOSSIANS 1:3-23
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace. 7 You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.
Prayer for Spiritual Growth
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. 14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Centrality of Christ
15 He is the image of the invisible God,the firstborn over all creation.
16 For everything was created by him,in heaven and on earth,the visible and the invisible,whether thrones or dominionsor rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him.
17 He is before all things,and by him all things hold together.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church;he is the beginning,the firstborn from the dead,so that he might come to havefirst place in everything.
19 For God was pleased to haveall his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcileeverything to himself,whether things on earth or things in heaven,by making peacethrough his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. 22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death,to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— 23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
HEAR:
Colossians 1 is a picture of the preeminence of Christ and his desire to reconcile to himself people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Paul’s prayer is one for the strength of patience and endurance to proclaim the gospel to all creation.
Use this time to listen to the Holy Spirit and pray. Specifically think about:
How often are you interceding on behalf of others? (v.9). Pray for a fresh revelation of intercession.
Do you rightly see the preeminence of Christ? Ask for fresh eyes to see that he is a king and there is a kingdom (v.15).
How often do you appreciate God’s grace (v.6) and the peace that has been made through his shed blood on the cross (v.20)?
RESPOND:
Paul is showing us that the gospel is unbounded and global in scope. There is an eternal relevance of the word of truth for all creation under heaven and we see Jesus’s heart to reconcile all things to himself.
Use this time to pray quietly to yourself or to pray for the whole room:
Intercede on behalf of the nations, that gospel may bear fruit and grow all throughout the world, and that the knowledge of God’s grace would increase (v.6).
Pray that God’s people may be strengthened with power through Christ’s in-dwelling Spirit (v.11)
Pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and the grace to do it (vv.9-10).
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