Col. 1:6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth [b]fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
1:6 This word resonates within you and its appeal is prevailing in the whole world. The harvest is evident everywhere and gaining ground; as also witnessed in your own experience from the moment you heard and understood the true implication and the relevance of his grace. (My greatest joy is to realize that your faith is announced throughout the entire world. The total cosmos is our audience!” [Rom 1:8] Paul always sees the larger audience when he addresses the individual.) Mirror
1:6 which exists in you and also in all the world. We are fertile with Good Fruit, even to increase strong in Spirit, as you, in the same manner, also was in the day you listened with intelligence and became fully acquainted with Holy Breath of our Father Creator in yourself, and became at perfect rest with the unconcealed Word of Truth. RERichmond Tree of Life Bible
In Colossians 1:6, by allusion Paul takes us back to Genesis 1:26–28.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
WE ARE HIS IMAGE BEARERS!
Here is God the creator at work, and the apex of his activity is the creation of humanity in the divine image and likeness. To the newly minted man and woman, he gives two tasks (the tasks are given to both the male and the female): they are to be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth they are then to subdue or govern. Paul picks up the language of Genesis 1 in Colossians 1:6, giving thanks to God that the gospel is pro¬gressing in their midst, bearing fruit and growing as it goes out into the entire world. He then repeats this in 1:10—the Colossians are to bear fruit and grow in their understanding of God and in their work on his behalf. Whether the tasks are the work of parenting, the multifaceted work of subduing the earth and governing it, or the work of ministry, in our work they and we are image-bearers of God who works. We were created as workers in the beginning, and Christ redeems us as workers.
Col. 1:7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,
1:7 Your experience is consistent with the teaching you received from our dear co-worker Epafras. He is passionate about your well-being in Christ. Mirror
1:7 In the same manner you learned from Epaphras, one of my beloved co- ministers, who is trustworthy, to help you interpenetrate Truth in yourself, as an anointed teacher; 8 he also made clear to us, of your passionate Spirit (Holy Breath) you Breathe on others. . RERichmond Tree of Life Bible
Epaphras [Ĕp’aphrăs]—charming or foamy. A fellow laborer of Paul and in some sense his fellow-prisoner (Col. 1:7; 4:12; Philem. 23.
This Colossian is described in many ways. He was Paul’s fellow-servant and servant, his fellow-prisoner, and a faithful minister. He was also Paul’s representative at Colossae where he had founded the church (Col. 1:7), and sought under Paul’s advice to combat prevalent heresies there. The apostle had affection for Epaphras, who ministered unto his need and the need of others.
It is in his prayer-ministry, however, that Epaphras is conspicuous. This giant in prayer knew how to lay all before the Lord, and laboring in secret, made the saints to be perfect and complete in their standing through his kneeling. He “strove earnestly in his prayers” for the Colossians. He wrestled in prayer that they might be perfect in the perfection of Christ, and fully assured in all the will of God. Paul also testified to the perseverance as well as the prayers of Epaphras. He knew how to toil on behalf of the saints of God. He was practical as well as prayerful. His prayers for the stability and maturity of others were numerous, continuous and strenuous. Epaphras brought to Paul at Rome a report of the Colossian Church where he had ministered in Paul’s stead, an account that cheered his heart and resulted in the writing of the Colossian Epistle which Epaphras took back with him to his flock. Can we say that we are true successors of the devoted servant of God? Like him, do we know how to wrestle in agony of prayer? (Rom. 15:30). Epaphras also manifested great zeal or properly great labor of anxiety for those under his care. Too few of us are concerned about the spiritual welfare of others.
Col. 1:8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
1:8 He told us how much you love us in the spirit; Mirror
1:8 he also made clear to us, of your passionate Spirit (Holy Breath) you Breathe on others. RERichmond Tree of Life Bible
Love in the Spirit–It is this same love that the apostle Paul refers to in Col. 1:4, when he writes, after we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and [your] love that is for all the saints. The apostle Paul describes the love as in the Spirit (ἐν πνεύματι) because (Rom. 5:5) God’s love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. Indeed, love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:5), the vinculum of perfectness (Col. 3:14), and the greatest Christian virtue (1 Cor. 13:13). Since the Spirit is spelled with a capital S, he’s referring to the Holy Spirit, so I’d say it means to love others as the Spirit (God) loves others, i.e. agape-style. Unconditionally.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 -a translation from Rick Renner
Love is patient & passionately bears with others for as long as patience is needed & does not easily give up or blow up.
Love doesn’t demand that others be like itself, rather it is so focused on the needs of others that it bends over backwards to become what others need them to be.
Love is not Ambitious, self-centered, or so consumed with itself that it never thinks of the needs or desires that others possess.
Love doesn’t go around talking about itself all the time, constantly exaggerating & embellishing the facts to make it look more important in the sight of others.
Love does not behave in a prideful, arrogant, haughty superior, snooty, snobbish, or clannish manner.
Love is not rude or discourteous. It is not careless or thoughtless nor does it carry on in a fashion that is insensitive to others.
Love does not manipulate situations or scheme & devise methods that will twist situations to its own advantage.
Love does not deliberately keep record of wrongs or past mistakes.
Love does not deliberately engage in actions or speak words that are sharp, that cause an ugly or violent response.
Love does not feel overjoyed when it sees an injustice done to someone else but is elated, thrilled, ecstatic & overjoyed with the truth.
Love protects, shields, guards, covers, conceals & safeguards people from exposure.
Love strains forward with all of its might to believe the very best in every situation.
Love always expects & anticipates the best in others & the best for others.
Love never quits, never surrenders, never gives up & never disappoints, never fails and never lets anyone down.
Colossians 1st prayer
Col. 1:9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
1:9 and so we have become inseparably linked to you. Our constant desire for you is that you might be overwhelmed with the knowledge of God’s dream for your lives. We pray that the pattern of his wisdom and thoughts will fall into place for you in all spiritual understanding. (The word, sunieimi, means a joining together like that of two streams; a fusion of thought.) Mirror
1:9 For this also, from the day we heard of your disposition of Spirit, we have not ceased to speak over you and desire that you be abounding in the recognition of Holy Breath in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, which is divinely supernatural. RERichmond Tree of Life Bible
Do Not Cease to Pray for You:
Related Scriptures:
Romans 1:9-10 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
Ephesians 1:16 I do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day,
Colossians 1:3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
1 Thessalonians 1:2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers;
Philemon 1:4 I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,
1 Thessalonians 3:10 as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?
Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
Co-knowing with God- Paul prayed in Col. 1:9: For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; This means a joining together like that of two streams; a fusion of thought. His thoughts being our thoughts. But we have been taught that our thoughts are not his thoughts. Although the Word says: Is. 55:7-9 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Yes, His thoughts are higher but verse 7 says let the evil an forsake his thoughts. So, can we co-know together. Yes, we can! Yes, we are!
Filled with the Knowledge of His Will in All Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding:
Knowledge- Cognate: 1108 gnṓsis (a feminine noun derived from 1097 /ginṓskō, “experientially know”) – functional (working) knowledge gleaned from first-hand (personal) experience, connecting theory to application; application-knowledge, gained in (by) a direct relationship. See 1097 (ginōskō). 1108/gnṓsis (applied-knowledge) is only as accurate (reliable) as the relationship it derives from. For example, the Gnostics boasted of their applied knowledge gained by their personal spiritual experiences – and it was (is) disastrous!
Spiritual Understanding: Divinely Supernatural
Understanding is a spiritual birth, a revelation of God within the heart of man. Jesus touched the root of the matter when, after having asked the apostles a question that was answered variously, according to the intellectual perception of the men, he asked another question to which Peter gave a reply not based on external reasoning, but on intuition. He said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Matt. 16:17).
Notice these two go together.
We will continue with Les.1 next week.
The blessings of the Lord are upon you whether by blood, adoption/sonship or assignment. The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. Prov. 10:22
