Sunday, May 1, 2022

The Necessity of Paul's Prayer in the 21st Century

 

When you pray for other believers, what do you pray? What is your heart’s desire for them? On Sunday evenings, a group of moms from our church is studying Colossians together. Paul wrote this letter from prison. We can piece together his connection to this church by looking at several verses in Acts and Colossians. It seems that while Paul was preaching and living in Ephesus during his third missionary journey, a man from Colossae named Epaphras heard and received the gospel and took it back to his hometown. Thus, a church was started in Colossae. Most likely, Paul never met these Colossian believers, but he heard about them from Epaphras who kept him informed about how the church was doing. And even despite not knowing them personally, they were on his heart. His letter to them is filled with words that contain deep emotion. Feel Paul’s care and concern in these verses from chapter 2:1-3: “I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to…” To what, Paul? What is your great desire for them? What do you want their hearts to be encouraged towards? Let’s read on…  “to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Let’s put this in our own words: Paul wants these believers’ hearts to be encouraged by the full assurance they can have in Christ and by believing that all knowledge is found in Him. Nothing outside of Him is needed. And the knowledge and wisdom that is bound up in Him can be a source of great treasure and riches in their lives. You see, there were many voices speaking into the Colossian believers’ ears. Paul spends significant time in this letter warning them not to listen to these false teachers who were telling them they could find wisdom and acceptance with God through means other than Christ. These men spoke of the necessity of keeping festivals and special days, visions, the worship of angels, and abstaining from certain foods and drink (2:16-21). In contrast, Paul drives home again and again the sufficiency of Christ for salvation and for wisdom (2:1-15; 3:1-4). He wants them to be wise – wise in the doctrine they know which he lays out in the first two chapters, and also wise in the way they live as a result of what they know, seen in especially practical ways in the last two chapters. The words wisdom, knowledge, and understanding show up a combined thirteen times throughout this four-chapter epistle.

Don’t we need this same wisdom today? Never before in history have there been so many platforms for people to let their voices be heard. Podcasts, cable news channels, social media posts, Twitter feeds, YouTube videos, and more. Everyone is wise in his or her own eyes. The problem is that wisdom does not originate in man; no one is wise in and of himself (or herself). The only one who is truly all-wise is God, and all wisdom must find its source in Him, or it is not wisdom (Romans 11:33; 16:27). We may feel that as believers we aren’t swayed by false teachers in our beliefs of salvation and major doctrines, but we must not deceive ourselves. Lies can easily creep into the church, and wisdom is needed to discern truth and error, especially when the error sounds good. God has given us truth in His Word; we must weigh everything we hear against what the Lord says. It is our responsibility as followers of God to study the Word, put ourselves under sound teaching of the Word, and to pray for wisdom which God promises to give (James 1:5). And thus, our hearts are encouraged to stand strong. We are not duped by the latest “Christian” teaching that sounds good but isn’t biblical. We are not like the double-minded woman who is tossed by the wind (or by the latest social media post or the angry voice on cable news), who is unstable in all her ways (James 1:6-8). No, our hearts are at rest and encouraged for we know where life-giving wisdom is found: in the One in whom our very lives are hidden, the One who is our life, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Col. 3:3-4). May we join Paul in this prayer for a full assurance of Christ’s sufficiency and the wisdom found in Him, not only for ourselves, but also for our brothers and sisters in the family of God.

--Amy O'Rear

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