Lesson for August 2, 2015
The Book of Colossians
Chapter 1:9-14
Verse 9-10
“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
The same Greek word is used in this passage that is used for the filling of the Holy Spirit, “pleroo.” The meaning of the word is the same, but here is refers to being filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Remember the four meanings of “pleroo” are to fill a deficiency, to be filled with a certain quality, to be fully possessed and to be fully influenced. All of these meanings apply here. Knowledge of God comes in one way only, Bible doctrine in the soul. Deficiency of knowing God and His will can become sufficient only by means of doctrine. Doctrine is the certain quality that we must be filled with in order to really know the will of God. If we are being fully possessed by Bible doctrine, it means we are advancing to spiritual maturity where the plan of God will be fulfilled in our life. Finally, it is imperative that the advancing believer be fully influenced by Bible doctrine in every area of his or her life.
God’s sovereign purpose and design for the believer is revealed always and inevitably through Bible doctrine. There is no other way to discover the will of God. God speaks through His Word, and it is up to you as a believer to find God’s plan, God’s purpose, and God’s will for your life through the intake and application of Bible doctrine. Spiritual wisdom is the application of Bible doctrine. Spiritual understanding is knowledge of Bible doctrine (epignosis doctrine) resulting in divine viewpoint thinking. Together spiritual wisdom and understanding result in the proper execution of the Christian Way of Life (a worthy walk). Walking always depicts some function in the Christian life. The worthy walk of a believer is pleasing to God. It is this worthy walk that God wants for all His children. This worthy walk brings glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian walk is one that aligns with who we are as believers, positionally.
The Greek word for bearing fruit is “karpoforeo,” which means to produce or to bear fruit. For the advancing believer it means producing divine good. When you get into the habit of being filled with the Holy Spirit and Rebounding when necessary, once you start to take in Bible doctrine, and begin to erect an edification complex in your soul, and then you begin to apply what you’ve learned, you are going to produce divine good. And God will provide for you everything necessary for divine production. The doctrine of divine good is based upon the Greek word “agathos” meaning good of intrinsic or eternal value.
Increasing in the knowledge of God means spiritual growth. The true function of the believer-priest’s spiritual life is the development of a relationship with God. This relationship is your unseen, private life with God. You and you alone know what that relationship is like. The spiritual life is not what you do for God, the church or other people. The true spiritual life is your invisible relationship with God based on your intake and application of Bible doctrine.
Verse 11
“Strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.”
Divine Viewpoint Thinking is the key to having the power and might to overcome the power of the sin nature. When we begin to think the way God thinks, we will be able to recognize overt and mental attitude sins in our lives. Once these sins are recognized, we can acknowledge, isolate and forget them. This, of course, can eventually break the power that certain sins have over us. However, we must constantly be on guard.
Divine Viewpoint Thinking can be developed only through the consistent study and application of Bible doctrine. Just knowing Bible doctrine is not enough. Victory over certain sins comes as we use (apply) the doctrine that we have learned. Therefore, it is imperative that the believer has more than mere academic knowledge of God’s Word. Academic knowledge (gnosis) must be converted to spiritual knowledge (epignosis) by faith (understanding and believing) which should lead to accurate application (wisdom).
As Divine Viewpoint Thinking permeates your thinking, Bible doctrine becomes your scale of values, your norms and standards begin to align with God’s, and even your conscience is influenced in a positive way. Thinking divine viewpoint sets up “a standard” by which you can evaluate everything that enters your mind, including temptation to commit personal sin. You have only two choices as a believer when it comes to thinking: Divine Viewpoint or Human Viewpoint. Steadfastness means stability in the midst of suffering. All patience means to remain faithful under pressure, etc.
Verse 12
“Joyously giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”
Inheritance implies a family relationship and eternal is a permanent, everlasting relationship. This is certainly the case for every Christian and should be a source of thanksgiving. At salvation, every believer becomes a child of God. One of the amazing things is that, as children of God, we also become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. This means that we share in Christ’s inheritance. The Bible declares that it has not even entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for him. (Galatians 3:26; 4:26; Romans 8:17)
In eternity past, when God was designing a plan for your life, He included as part of His plan an inheritance. Yes, God was thinking of you in eternity past and predesigned a magnificent plan for your life on earth (therefore you could not have worked for it, earned it or deserved it). He has also designed a plan for you for the eternal state (also, you cannot work for it, earn it or deserve it). God’s plans are always a matter of His grace. (Ephesians 1:11)
For the believer in Christ, God has become your father, not merely your creator. This family relationship is entered into by faith in Christ at salvation. Therefore, it is not something for which we have worked, nor is it something that we deserved. In other words, this family relationship is based on the grace of God. Therefore, our inheritance also is based on God’s grace. As our Father, God desires only the best for His children. It is a divine decree from our heavenly Father that we have an inheritance and His decrees must be carried out. (Galatians 4:4-7)
Inheritance implies a family relationship even in the case of Jesus Christ. As the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus is the Son of God. It is this family relationship that Jesus has with God the Father that guarantees that He will have an inheritance. As a matter of fact, Christ is the inheritor of all things according to Hebrews 1:2. It is this inheritance that the believer, as a child of God, shares with Christ since he is in union with Him. In all eternity we are going to have something that is absolutely perfect, something that cannot be changed, something that is “exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think.”
Verse 13-14
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, man not only fell spiritually, he also gave up the rulership of this world. The result was that Satan became the new ruler. From eternity past, Satan and his followers (fallen angels) have been attempting to confuse, distract and destroy God’s people. We must never forget that Satan is a much more powerful being than mankind and we therefore must be aware of his cunning devices. We must also remember the tactics Satan uses to get us off track. Satan is not omnipresent, omniscient or omnipotent, but he is a genius and has been observing mankind from the beginning. He uses direct attacks, demon influence and the world system to influence the sin nature to do both human good and evil.
Satan is a real created being, an angel and a cherub. (Ezekiel 28:14) His original name was Lucifer (Son of the Morning), God’s most beautiful creation. (Ezekiel 28:17) He fell through arrogance, which led to rebellion against God. (Isaiah 14:12-15) He was superior to all of the angels. (Ezekiel 28:14) In Revelation 12:9 he is called “the Dragon”, which is “derchomai” in Greek and means “to see clearly;” which is a reference to his superior, evil intellect. We can learn a lot about Satan’s personality and character by an examination of his names, titles and the descriptive words used for him in Scripture: 1) Lucifer – son of the morning (his beauty contributed to his arrogance) 2) Devil – accuser (a legal term used in a court of law referring to his accusations against God and believers) 3) Old Serpent – deceiver (Satan is the master counterfeiter) 4) Satan – adversary (a legal term for opposing counsel in a trial) 5) Dragon – evil intelligence (superior intellect) 6) Beelzebub – prince of demons (a military term which teaches us that he has a vast army of organized demons) 7) Belial – worthless (Satan and his demons cause human good to be produced which has no eternal value) 8) Wicked One – evil one (Satan and his demons cause evil to be produced) 9) Prince of this World – ruler of this world system.
Satan is the ruler of this world today. Unbelievers are said to be sitting in darkness in Luke chapter one. Darkness is the thought pattern of all who are unbelievers or for all believers who are negative toward doctrine and under emotional revolt of the soul. Darkness means confusion. This is the dictatorship of confusion. We have been taken out of this dictatorship. This is why we are commanded to have a new thought pattern, a thought pattern compatible with our new authority. From the standpoint of authority we are in something which is brand new. We are under the authority of God, the authority of grace, the authority of clear thinking. Therefore the intake of Bible doctrine fulfills this principle. As long as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ continues to reject Bible doctrine then they think as though they still live under Satan’s authority.
Only by residing in God’s system can the believer overcome the craftiness and deceit of the Devil. Satan is the great counterfeiter and will do everything in his power to stop the unbeliever from trusting Christ as Savior and to stop the believer from executing God’s plan. Satan uses his power and genius to present himself and his followers as ministers of righteousness, while leading the unsuspecting and duped believer into a life of self-righteous arrogance or lascivious lawlessness. However, no one has an excuse when it comes to Satan’s ploys. We all possess volition and we choose to reside in either God’s system or Satan’s system. (Colossians 1:13)
Even when we do fail and fall into Satan’s trap, we can be delivered from Satan’s power. God in His matchless grace has provided a way back into His system. The believer does not have to spend time in Satan’s cosmic system. The way back into God’s system is the Rebound Technique, which is naming or acknowledging your personal sins directly to God. The believer is then restored to fellowship with God and to the control of God the Holy Spirit (God’s power system). This is why it is so important to keep “short accounts” with God. When you, as a believer, realize that you have sinned, immediately name it to God. This way you will sustain any momentum that you have and will stay in fellowship with God for longer periods of time. No believer, regardless of geographic location, upbringing, I.Q. or any other factor has an excuse for not living within God’s power system.
The Biblical definition of the word “redeemed” is “to be purchased from the slave-market of sin.” There are three Greek words for redemption: “agorazo” meaning “to buy”, “exagorazo” meaning “to buy out of or remove from sale” and “lutroo” meaning “to release on receipt of ransom or payment.” Christ has redeemed us from the slave-market of sin and from the Mosaic Law. (Romans 7:14)
There are several definitions for sin in the Word of God: “falling short of God’s righteousness” (Romans 3:23), “transgression”, which is overstepping God’s law (Psalm 51:1-4), “trespasses”, which is deviation from God’s righteousness (Ephesians 2:1), “disobedience”, which is rebellion against God’s law (I Timothy 1:9-10), and unbelief in Christ as Savior (the only unpardonable sin) (John 8:24). Christ redeemed us from all sin. The believer is also redeemed from the Mosaic Law, which had been distorted into a system of “pseudo-salvation” by religious Jewish leaders. The Law was never designed to provide salvation, but rather it showed people their need for a Savior and pointed them to Jesus Christ.