Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20070506.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Colossians: Maturing Over False Beliefs By Christ's Supreme All-Sufficiency
Part II: Valuing The Comprehensive Spiritual Rewards Of Adhering To Christ's Supreme All-Sufficiency
(Colossians 1:9-12)
  1. Introduction
    1. For reasons they often can not readily identify, believers in Christ can suffer debilitating uncertainty about God's will for their lives, spiritual barrenness, weakness, unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
    2. In the context of the theme of his Epistle to the Colossians, Paul revealed that each of these problems are overcome by the believer's adhering to Christ's Supreme All-Sufficiency that counter errant beliefs:
  2. Valuing The Comprehensive Spiritual Rewards Of Adhering To Christ's Supreme All-Sufficiency.
    1. The Epistle to the Colossians has as its theme "the supremacy and all-sufficiency of Christ" that Paul promoted to equip his readers to mature over errors they faced that hindered them from trusting in Christ's supremacy and all-sufficiency, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., p. 1690, "The Colossian Heresy."
    2. Thus, having heard of their conversion to Christ (Colossians 1:9a with 1:3-8 in our last lesson in this series), Paul noted he had not ceased remembering the Colossian believers in prayer, Colossians 1:9b.
    3. Now, Paul's prayer for them had the goal of their finding overall blessing based on coming to adhere to Christ's supremacy and all-sufficiency versus holding to legalistic and cultic doctrines, Col. 1:9b-12:
      1. In the context of this epistle, Paul prayed that the Colossian Christians might adhere to Christ's supreme all-sufficiency to be filled with the practical knowledge of God's will, Colossians 1:9b,c.
        1. The word "wisdom" is translated from sophia, "practical know-how which comes from God (James 1:5; 3:15)" and "understanding" is rendered from sunesei, meaning "clear analysis and decision-making in applying this knowledge to various problems," Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 671. These are vastly superior insights to "the false teachers" who "offered only an appearance of wisdom' (sophia; 2:23), which captivated their minds and lives in legalistic regulations." (Ibid.)
        2. Thus, by coming to trust and live in line with Christ's supreme all-sufficiency in their lives, Paul knew his readers would be liberated from not only the false, legalistic regulations of false [and cultic, cf. Col. 2:8] teachers, but gain a "practical" capacity to make sure, confident decisions in life!
      2. This practical, clear insight would equip them to walk worthy of and be pleasing to God, Col. 1:10a.
      3. Such insight would lead to an ongoing growth in the knowledge of God, a blessed sense of a growing confidence in one's relationship with the Lord, cf. Colossians 1:10b NIV, ESV.
      4. With this growth and resulting confidence in one's relationship with God would come a strengthening of the inner man versus the insecure, unstable results of heeding false beliefs, Col. 1:11a,b versus 2:23:
        1. The verb "strengthened" is from the Greek word dunamoumenoi, "power" (NIV, ESV, or "might" KJV) is from dunamei and "might" (NIV, ESV, or "power" KJV) is from kratos, a word used only of God in the New Testament by which He produces "great endurance and patience," Ibid.; 1:11a,b.
        2. Hence, God would work in the believer with such insight and growing knowledge that he might be able to function with inner strength amid spiritual trials to the contrary versus the (implied) drain that adhering to confusing, abusive, false legalistic rules and errant cultic beliefs would produce!
      5. The result of God's work in the believer who thus adhered to Christ's supreme all-sufficiency versus errant beliefs and their rules would be joy and thanksgiving for his inheritance in Christ, Col. 1:11c, 12.
    4. Paul then prayed that his readers would gain such practical insight about Christ's supreme all-sufficiency that they might resist the debilitating legalistic and cultic error they faced, Col. 1:9a. Having thus prayed, Paul began to write about such victory, trusting God to lead his readers to apply the information, 1:13ff!
Lesson: Aware of the debilitating effects of the false legalistic and cultic teachings his Colossian Christians readers faced, Paul PRAYED and so TAUGHT them of Christ's supreme all-sufficiency to give them comprehensive victory in terms of practical insight that led to confident obedience to God's will, growth, strengthening of the inner man and resulting joy and thankfulness to the Lord!

Application: May we prayerfully heed Paul's Colossians teachings for comprehensive victory over the debilitating effects of legalistic and cultic teachings that restrict, confuse, weaken and sadden us!