Fruit & Wisdom
Fruit and Wisdom
Colossians 1:9–12 (CSB) “For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.”
When Paul wrote down what he prayed for the Colossian saints, he gave us a treasure trove of truth. Let’s explore it together.
Paul asked Father to fill the saints with the knowledge of His will and to do so with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
There are numerous statements in the Bible about the will of God.
It’s His will that all should change their minds about Him and about sin and thus be saved. (see 2 Peter 3:9)
The will of God is that which is good and perfect. (see Romans 12:2)
The will of God is that we be set apart, or sanctified. (see 1 Thessalonians 4:3)
It's His will that we give thanks in everything (see 1 Thessalonians 5:18)
And the list goes on.
We chase after Father’s will; sometimes with too much gusto. Think about it. When you’re going somewhere isn’t every fiber of your being focused on the fastest or most efficient way to travel? Isn’t your mind on arrival? As a recovering Pharisee, I think Paul knew that and that’s why he added the part about all wisdom and understanding. Notice that the sentence continues in adding “so that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to Him.
It’s all about faith. It’s all about trust. It’s never by works, so we can’t brag. Wisdom and understanding help us see the truth that working harder isn’t the route to godliness. Wisdom and understanding help us connect verses that say things like “without faith it is impossible to please God”, and “what matters is faith working itself out in love.”
The sentence continues. Notice that walking worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, entails bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.
From Galatians 5 we learn that the fruit is “of the Spirit.” It’s not the fruit of you or me. It’s God’s fruit produced by Holy Spirit who lives in you and me. Our job isn’t producing fruit. The harder we work on that the less value the fruit has. It is stunted, dry, and tasteless. Our job is bearing the fruit.
We all want to bear fruit but sometimes we may be unsure how that happens. In this passage, Paul helped us with that. He wrote, “growing in the knowledge of God.” Peter said the same thing in 2 Peter 3:18 (CSB) he said, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Earlier (in chapter one) Peter wrote that we should do our best to cultivate spiritual fruit. But he added that if we don’t see the fruit increasing it is because we have forgotten that we’ve been forgiven.
There is a strong causal relationship between knowing God well and godly attitudes and actions characterizing our lives. The fruit Holy Spirit is producing is at its best when we are living by faith and allowing Him to do what only He can do—produce genuine fruit.
But, you know; we’re weak. In his comments to the Colossians Paul addresses that by saying that he has prayed that the saints will be “strengthened with all power according to His glorious might.” I’m here to tell you, that’s some awe-inspiring power right there. Do you see it? “It is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13 (CSB)
The reason Paul gives for relying on the incredible power of God for all this is so that the saints would have endurance and patience. And there you have it. Rest.
Like children, we wish we were grown-ups and like children, there is nothing we can do to accelerate the process. Father knows what we can understand and exactly how fast we can absorb truth. He knows that if He revealed everything to us at once, we could not possibly contain it. It would ruin us.
So, we need endurance because we live in the valley of the shadow of death and things here are mixed up, upside down, and sometimes just plain awful. And we need patience because like grape vines and fruit trees, it’s simply impossible for us to mature instantly.
I bet you can see how this results in us “joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.” He’s doing the work. He is filling us “with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that [we] may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that [we] may have great endurance and patience.
That is sure something we can be thankful for. It’s the easy yoke and light burden so typical of our lovely Lord Jesus.
