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[9] And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

[10] so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Everyone, it seems, is interested in knowing God’s will. Who wouldn’t want to know God’s will? After all, God knows everything and, if I always knew his will, I could have a perfect life. Besides, going against God’s will seems like a very bad idea, indeed. Best to stay out of hot water with God, yes?

Of course, if I want to know God’s will, then he needs to tell me what it is. Hmm… there must be a better option because I don’t know many Christians who hear directly from God very often. Plenty of people appear to have an inside track on God’s will. Conducting a search for “God’s will” on Amazon.com, I found about 300 authors who are more than willing, for the price of their book of course, to help me discover God’s will. Maybe somewhere in one of those books I will find some tidbit that will unlock the secret of finding God’s will, because the Sunday school class on “Finding God’s Will” didn’t seem to help all that much.

Sigh. Knowing God’s will seems to be fraught with obstacles and problems, both theoretical and practical. Maybe it’s hopeless.

The fact that reflecting on the common experience with “finding God’s will” results in little more than deep and persistent frustration indicates that we have a really big problem and, surprisingly, the problem is not that we can’t ever seem to know what God’s will is.

When I read Colossians 1:9, I thought, “Hmm. That’s really odd. Paul is asking God, not that the Colossians would just know God’s will, but that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will.” The “ask” is not for direction in the midst of specific situations like “Should I marry Flavia?” or “Should I take this job or wait for another opportunity?” If Paul had such specifics in mind, he would not be asking for the Colossians to be completely filled. Furthermore, Paul is asking God for this gift as if he believes that God is quite capable, and willing, to deliver. And that seems to run contrary to common experience. Do you see why I thought, “That’s really odd”?

The fact that Paul is asking at all implies that being filled with the knowledge of God’s will is not automatic. Unlike the general experience with “discovering God’s will” these days, fraught with disappointment, it appears that Paul is barking up an entirely different tree. And maybe that tree is far more important than finding the answer to questions like “Lord, should I run for City Council or not?”

Besides asking that the Colossians be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, there is another clue that our initial knee-jerk understanding is faulty. If Paul were praying that God would make his will clear in the specific circumstances of their lives, he would have written something like, “…asking that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will always know exactly what God wants you to do in any given circumstance.” While that is what many modern day Christians desperately want, that is not what Paul delivered.

Instead, Paul wrote, “…so that you might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” We need to think carefully about the sequence of phrases Paul uses in Colossians 1:9-10 because in them is more than a hint that we need to change the way we think about who we are, who God is, our relationship to God, and how we know what God expects of us: his will. (I know! That’s a lot for just two verses!)

We tend to put statements about God’s will into one of two categories:

      1. Generally applicable Biblical commands
      2. Specific direction for my particular life

For the first category, I am thinking about New Testament passages such as:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

These verses are crystal clear. If you want to know what God’s will is, well… here it is in black and white. It even says, “this is God’s will” and, lest there be any question, it is God’s will “for you.” Let’s face it, if you are not willing to do God’s will when it is spelled out in such precise terms, then don’t bother reading the rest of this essay. It won’t do you a bit of good.

The second category is more difficult because we each live a different life. Something like 300 people are selling books on Amazon to help me figure out how I am supposed to go about discerning God’s will, when it seems like exactly one book should to the trick. Most of those books will fail and here is why. Dallas Willard wrote, “I fear that many people seek to hear God solely as a device for securing their own safety, comfort and righteousness. For those who busy themselves to know the will of God, however, it is still true that ‘those who want to save their life will lose it’ (Matt 16:25). My extreme preoccupation with knowing God’s will for me may only indicate, contrary to what is often thought, that I am over-concerned with myself, not a Christ-like interest in the well-being of others or in the glory of God.”1 (my emphasis) Too many Christians are “seeking God’s will” when their first priority should be seeking God, himself. They want to know God’s will, but they are not necessarily interested in knowing God, himself. That’s a really big problem.

The two categories listed above are widely appreciated. There exists a third category to God’s will, though, that is often missed by Christians. Here, we can think of God’s will at the 10,000 foot level. From this vantage point, individual commands are still present but we are so high that we can’t make them out. What we do see is the planning2 and execution of God’s will over millennia, beginning with Genesis and ending in the book of Revelation. Some people refer to this as a thread. More technical words would include story or metanarrative. The Biblical metanarrative is the answer to the question, “What in the world is God doing on this planet?” Or, in the current context, we could phrase the same question as, “What is God’s will for us and the world, in the big picture?” More importantly and more personal, “How do I fit into that metanarrative?”

From this perspective, we see God’s will not as specific commands or directives but as “the good that God wills for us.”3 Or, if we want to make it more personal, we could say, “what is in God’s heart that he wants for me and has prepared for me.” Regarding Paul’s use of the phrase “filled with the knowledge of his will”, Douglas Moo’s comment is consistent with these statements: “What Paul has in mind is not some particular or special direction for one’s life (as we often use the phrase God’s will), but a deep and abiding understanding of the revelation of Christ and all that he means for the universe and for the Colossians.”4

Wait. What?

What does “a deep and abiding understanding of the revelation of Christ” mean and what does that have to do with knowledge of the will of God? Undoubtedly, Moo’s phrase “the revelation of Christ” refers to the Word of God, the Bible. This is the revelation that Jesus fleshed out with the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)

There is more to “a deep and abiding understanding” than being able to recount the Biblical story, even in its intricate details, though. The Pharisees had a superb understanding of the Scriptures, being able to quote large portions, if not the entire Old Testament, from memory. It did not do them much good, though. Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” (John 5:39) If knowing the Scriptures backwards and forwards were sufficient for knowing God’s will, then why did these Jews want to kill their own Messiah (John 5:18)?

From a natural, human point of view, we understand the Scriptures in the same way that the Pharisees did. Consequently, we tend to hold in high esteem those Christians who have an extensive grasp of the Scriptures. But that is no guarantee that such people know Jesus. If knowing the metanarrative is insufficient, then what is missing if we really want to know Jesus and what he wants for us?

First of all, “a deep and abiding understanding” of Jesus and how he is revealed in the Biblical story is not automatic. It is acquired as a grace, a gift, from God: “Then [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:45)

When our minds have been opened by grace, we are in a position where we can be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. We find ourselves solidly within the metanarrative of the Messiah that extends from the garden of Eden until we find him “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.” Having our minds opened to this metanarrative is what Paul is praying when he asks that the Colossians be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will.” Paul is not praying that the Colossians would know the will of God in the sense of “knowing what to do in a particular circumstance” but in the sense of “what God is now doing and what he intends to do in the future” and how the Colossians fit into that metanarrative. Paul does not leave the Colossians at the 10,000 foot level. He puts feet on his lofty request that they be filled with the knowledge of God’s will: “…so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.”

This leads to the second piece that is commonly missing if “a deep and abiding understanding” of Jesus is to be obtained. The gospel metanarrative is not a standalone story destined to be repeated around campfires until the Lord returns. It is a story within which Christians are meant to live. Simply put, it is God’s will for the Christian’s life and Paul is asking that we would be filled with it. If this filling is not going to happen automatically or by an act of spiritual magic, then how?

The Colossians heard, understood, and learned the gospel from Epaphras, a “beloved fellow servant” and “faithful minister of Christ.” All three italicized words are used in Colossians 1. The Greek word translated learned is different from understood, and is akin to the Greek word translated disciple. To understand is one thing; to learn is quite another. Learning involves an apprenticeship in which I figure out, over time, how to live inside the metanarrative of the Bible, as opposed to simply understanding the flow or the details of the story. Learning involves (continually, daily) putting myself in a posture, or a place, where I can receive the grace of being filled. Learning means that I can’t keep living life as usual; I have to reorder or rearrange my life so that I am always learning, or being filled, because what I am learning is more than just facts and concepts. That’s understanding. What I am learning is how to live with God.

The Bible is neither short on details of how this apprenticeship should be undertaken nor is it short on resources. Paul qualifies his prayer, asking that the Colossians be filled with the knowledge of God’s will “in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Here, Paul is making reference to the Scriptures, in general, and especially to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Knowing God’s will in “all spiritual wisdom and understanding” involves learning the truth (Col 1:6), but learning the truth involves more than acquiring the facts and concepts required for building a systematic theology or worldview. Christians typically quote John 8:32, making the claim that Christian theology is “the truth.” However, verse 31 is often conveniently omitted:

[31] So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, [32] and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Abiding, continuing, remaining, stewing in God’s word is a key to learning the truth. Doing so requires more than sitting in a room once a week listening to a 20-minute sermon, though. Joshua told the Israelites, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” (Joshua 1:8) When Paul told the Colossians: “…be filled… so that you might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,” he was invoking a one-thousand-year-old tradition begun by Joshua! Note the sequencing: being filled and meditating are linked inextricably to walking and being careful to do. In the Bible, doing is the key to learning. As Dallas Willard points out, “‘Knowledge’ in biblical language never refers to what we today call ‘head knowledge,’ but always to experiential involvement with what is known— to actual engagement with it.”5 Abiding without doing is nearly worthless. Abide and do; then you will know the truth about reality and you will come to know Jesus.

Practically speaking, what does all this look like? Historically, for millennia, God’s people have engaged in Scripture memorization and meditation. Bible study and prayer, too, are undeniable practices of God’s people. These practices (and more) are not part of a self-help program, but are designed to draw us into the life of God, which is where Adam and Eve lived in the garden, and where we will live in the future (Rev 21:3). Through such practices, we learn how to live heavenly lives now by setting our minds on things above not on things that are on earth (Col 3:2). Through such practices, we position ourselves to be “filled with the knowledge of his will” so that we can live heavenly lives now, so that we can “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.”

In Colossians 1:9-10, Paul echoes the prophet Isaiah:

“O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.” (Isaiah 2:5)

Be filled with his light. Be filled with his will. Be filled with his story. Be filled with his life. There is no greater aspiration, no greater salvation, no greater savior, no better way to live. It is our calling in this life. It is our destiny in the next.

——————–

  1. Willard, Dallas. Hearing God. IVP Books, 1999.

  2. When human beings map out their intentions for a particular project, we call that map a plan. We recognize that the project may or may not unfold as planned. In many cases, our project may deviate a little, or a lot, from the original plan. Sometimes, projects are abandoned altogether. The fact is that, before a project begins, we really do not know how it is going to go. Even a simple project like cooking a pot of spaghetti can be aborted by some emergency. In contrast, God’s plans, regardless of complexity, are characterized by 100% certainty. Consequently, when God reveals a plan, we call it a prediction or a prophesy because we know for certain that it is going to happen. The Bible maps out God’s plan for this world. The description of his plan is so long (thousands of years) and contains so many twists and turns that we are inclined to refer to his plan as a story or a metanarrative.

  3. Dallas Willard defines love as “willing the good of another person.” It seems quite appropriate that the will of God, who is love, comprises “the good that he wills for us.”

  4. Moo, Douglas J. The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Eerdmans, 2008.

  5. Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart. Navpress. Kindle Edition, 2002.