Once again, may the Lord help
and bless us as we turn to this first epistle of the Colossians
in the first chapter and this evening we'll read verses 7,
8 and 9 so verses 7, 8 and 9 in the first chapter of the epistle
of Paul to the Colossians As ye also learned of Epiphras,
our dear fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Well, as the Apostle Paul writes
to the Colossians, he speaks of God's servant and the fellow
labourer of the Apostle Paul, Epaphras. And he says, as you
also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for
you a faithful minister of Christ. So we understand that the Apostle
Paul had never actually gone to Colossae when this was written,
but very clearly he had been told of that which Epaphras had
preached to them. and he also understood that they
learned that they learned from him and what a blessing it is
first of all to have servants of God who do teach the church
of God and then also that there clearly is also that conversation
between one and another because The Apostle Paul had been told,
obviously, of what the Colossians had learned as Epiphras had preached
unto them. And he's spoken of as a dear
fellow servant. Well, it's a wonderful thing,
isn't it, when we can consider the Church of God, the brethren,
the brothers and sisters in Christ as dear. And here to Paul was
another preacher, and he calls him the dear fellow-servant. And he goes on to say, who also
declared unto us your love in the Spirit. We have there the
evidence that this work was a spiritual work. And what a blessing it
is when the preaching of the Gospel is a spiritual word so
that it comes to the people and touches their heart and as we
read here also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Well it would seem that Epiphras
had communicated with the Apostle Paul and had told him of their
love, their spiritual love and of course it's a great mercy
and a great blessing and it's a sign of the life of God in
our souls because the Word of God tells us we know that we
have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren
there's that union and there's that communion one with another
which centres of course in Christ And it is spiritual conversation. And it is a good thing when the
Church of God do edify one another with spiritual conversation. It is so easy to become sidetracked,
I might say, perhaps taken up with the things of life. We all have to, of course, deal
with the things in our life, and it's not wrong to converse
one with another about the things of life. But clearly it's more
blessed to be able to converse one with another about the love
of God, that spiritual love, to us and to others, so that
the name of the Lord might be lifted up and honoured and glorified. And now the Apostle then tells
them the effect that it had on him and those with him. And he tells us this, for this
cause, that's the good news that they'd heard, which made them
rejoice. For this cause, we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. Again, it's
a great blessing, isn't it? To pray for the brethren. one
or another, especially those who we're not in contact with.
It's good to pray, obviously, for those that we are in contact
with. but those who we are not in contact with. We can bring
them to the throne of grace, we can pray for their spiritual
life, and we can pray that they may know above all things the
love of Christ which passes knowledge. And so this is a good example,
these words here, of how the true Church of God should operate. For this cause we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. We should just
ponder that, because it's not just the odd occasion when we
suddenly remember to pray for some, or one here, or one there. But here was these people, clearly
not known physically to the apostle, but known spiritually, And therefore
already they are in his heart because of the things that he
heard about them. Good news from a far country,
really. And so he says, since the day
we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. And he goes on. And to desire that ye might be
filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom. and spiritual understanding. We might say, really, that can
be summed up very simply, that they might know the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, and that they might grow in grace
and in the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. So, His desire those that he
was with, their desire, their prayer, that ye might, the Church
of Colossae, might be filled, not just a little bit, but filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Surely this is the life of the
true Christian. Surely this is being spiritually
minded. Surely this comes down to feeding
and drinking the body of our blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, might be filled with the knowledge of His will, His
will toward us in what we should do, how we should act, what we
should say, And surely that's a good desire, isn't it? For
everyone to be filled with the knowledge of God's will toward
us, and to be concerned to know what that will is. And so here
it is, spoken of, the desire the apostle had for these Colossians,
that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in
all wisdom, natural wisdom, spiritual wisdom, and spiritual understanding. There are many things to learn,
and it would seem that these Christians at Colossae were young
Christians, young in the faith, and they had much need to be
taught, much need to be established in the truth of God, and therefore
his desire is that this might be so, that they might be filled
with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And of course, spiritual understanding
would be to lead them to the knowledge of their Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and understand the wonderful truth of the gospel,
the glory of salvation, the wonder of what was accomplished at Calvary,
what room there was to preach the Gospel, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. and how clearly the Apostle's
desire was that these Colossians might truly benefit from the
Word of God and be blessed with that love and union in Christ
continually. Well, may we have and take to
heart the example set before us in His honour and glory and
for our soul's good.