Colossians 1:9-14
A Life Worth Living
Do you ever wonder if your life has amounted to much? Do you ever rehearse a lifetime of regrets, and wish you had one big do-over, to go back and live life differently? What kind of life should we live if we really want a life worth living? My intent today is not to shame anyone or make us feel bad for the times we waste our lives. Instead, I hope to lead us to cooperate more with the Holy Spirit in bringing about any adjustments each of us might need to live a life worth living.
Today’s scripture is actually part of a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to a young church of believers in a small town called Colossae. This group needed strengthening; it needed encouraging. Today we’re going to zero in on verses 9-12, because there Paul describes what we might call a “life worth living.” He says in verse 9b, “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way” (Colossians 1:9-10a). Wow! Can you imagine living a life like that? Now that’s a life worth living!
Over the next couple of verses, Paul describes four aspects, four characteristics of such a life. First, he says,
A life worth living is...
1. Productive in things that count
In the very next phrase of verse 10, Paul describes this kind of life as “bearing fruit in every good work.” A believer who is living a life worthy of the Lord is going to be doing great things, not by their own power, but by God’s power within them. In fact, they are going to be producing spiritual fruit in everything they do. Remember the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These things are produced by the Spirit at work in our lives. And so we discover that we are productive in the things that really matter.
No one went to their death bed saying, “I just wish I had spent more time at the office!” No, this kind of person knows they are majoring on the majors, not the minors. They are focused on what matters: loving God and loving people. And their success rate in God’s eyes is 100 percent! They are the farmer that Jesus spoke of who brings a 30, 60, or even 100 fold return. They are the servant who turns three talents into six, or five into ten. Everything they touch prospers, not necessarily as we think of prospering, but prospering in the advancement of God’s kingdom. They are productive in things that matter. And #2, they are...
2. Growing ever closer to God
The next phrase in verse 10 speaks of “Growing in the knowledge of God.” When we think of knowledge, we think of going back to school. Yet, this is talking about a different kind of knowledge: a growing intimacy or awareness of who God is. A person with a life worth living is growing ever closer to God.
Back when Paul wrote this letter, there were some folks who valued knowledge very much. In fact, their group was named after the Greek word for “knowledge.” They were called “Gnostics.” They thought they were smarter than anyone else, that they had received a special word right from heaven that the average person just didn’t have. No, Paul said, what you really need to know is a person: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is relational knowledge. This is like a husband and wife getting to know each other over a lifetime. At some point, they can complete each other’s sentences. Well, God wants to build a relationship like that with you, to where you know God better and better, and it seems God knows you better and better (although he already knows you completely). What could be more exciting than getting to know the God who made the universe? Ray Steadman said, “He is an exciting, captivating being filled with fresh ideas, concepts and possibilities of which you never could have dreamed.” Grow ever closer to the God who desires nothing more than a relationship with you.
The next manifestation of a life worth living is being...
3. Able to handle the unexpected with grace
Those are my words. I’m trying to describe the person who just doesn’t let things or people get to them. They are even-keeled. They are patient. They are mature. Paul describes it like this in verse 11: “Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.”
The word in the Greek for “endurance” refers to trying situations, or difficult problems. The word is “hupemeno,” which literally translates “to stay under.” Have you ever had to wait for something to work itself out, to stay under a problem until you finally got it solved? This kind of person stays the course; they don’t give up. Charles Spurgeon once said, “By perseverance and patience the snail reached the ark.”
The second word is “patience.” The Greek is “macrothumia,”which literally translates, “longggggg suffering.” This word describes putting up with trying people. I’m sure you’ve never had to do this. We all have! Rick Warren calls these kinds of people, “EGRs,” or “Extra Grace Required.” If you are long-suffering, that means you are slow to turn red; your angermometer dials up very slowly instead of going from zero to 100 in six seconds.
The person with a life worth living is able to handle the unexpected with grace. Things don’t always go the way we expect. People don’t always act the way we think they should. But as the Holy Spirit strengthens us, and we accept what he is doing in our lives, then we have more endurance and more patience.
And lastly, we are...
4. Thankful to God
In verse 12, Paul says we are “giving joyful thanks to the Father.” God has qualified us to receive this great inheritance: abundant, eternal life. The truth is, though, I’m grateful on some days and not so grateful on others. What about you? Do you ever take for granted what God has done for you?
Paul helps us here by reminding us of some specific things to be thankful for. First, we can be thankful for rescue. God has rescued us. Verse 13, “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness.” God brought us out of a very dark, sinful lifestyle.
But he didn’t just leave us then. The next phrase of verse 13 says, God has “brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” He didn’t just rescue us to fend on our own. No, he plucked us from the kingdom of the evil one, and put us into the kingdom of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. God saved us. That’s what the name “Jesus” means: “God saves.” We are thankful for our salvation.
And lastly, we are thankful for the forgiveness that makes salvation possible. Verse 14 describes Jesus as the one, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus’ death on a cross redeemed us, or bought us back. Jesus paid the sin penalty for us, so that God could forgive our sins past, present, and future. The slate is wiped clean. We are white as snow. Our sin is as far from us as the East is from the West. God throws our transgressions into the deepest ocean, choosing to remember them no more.
A life worth living is a life built on thankfulness. This kind of person never forgets how far God has brought them. This person is so thankful, for their rescue, for their salvation, for their forgiveness.
I heard about a kindergarten graduation ceremony, when all the parents had come to support their kids. One parent had a huge helium balloon emblazoned with a single word: “Done!” We certainly hope that that six-year-old was not done with his education. The balloon is a somewhat funny indictment of our culture where everyone has to receive affirmation.
The Christian life is such that we are never really done, not on this side of eternity. It is a daily walk with God, sometimes easy, sometimes difficult. Yet, Paul reminds us it is worth it. As we walk with God, his Holy Spirit brings about these attributes we discussed today: we are more tuned into the things that truly matter; we find ourselves growing in intimacy with our God; we are able to handle the unexpected with grace; and we are thankful. Let it be so in each of our lives. Let’s pray:
Father, you are an amazing God! We forget so often how much you have done for us. You rescued us from the path to hell. You placed us in the kingdom of your son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. You give us an inheritance in glory that we can only barely comprehend. And through it all, you forgive every sin we ever committed, all possible through the death and resurrection of your son. Help us to allow the Holy Spirit to increase our daily gratitude, to handle interruptions with greater grace, to grow ever closer to you, and to be productive in the things that really count: loving you and loving people. We ask this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
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For welcome time:
THE SENILITY PRAYER :
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do,
and the eyesight to tell the difference.
Colossians 1:9-14
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
