“For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.” (NRSV)
The apostle Paul’s prayer in this passage can be outlined as follows:
Yesterday I introduced this prayer from the apostle Paul and gave some some personal reflections. There was a time when I don’t think I could have talked about the ongoing stages of the Christian journey without reference to the power of the Holy Spirit. And, that would be the way I would still speak of it today. But, in Colossians Paul uses terminology that is more focused on Christ than on the Holy Spirit.
So, as I was saying, this section of the letter displays another common feature in Paul’s letters to the churches. He generally assures the Churches to whom he writes that he is praying for them. Churches should know that their pastors and leaders are praying for them.
As is generally the case with Paul’s letters, he begins by letting the church know he is praying for them. He really believed in the vital importance of prayer. Prayer is at the foundation of all church renewal.
We are regularly encouraged to pray. “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18 NRSV). We are given the examples of Jesus and Paul, who made prayer and intercession priorities in their lives and ministries. Before we need new ideas and quick fix solutions, we need prayer. Prayer is at the heart of Christian ministry and at the heart of the life of the Church.
This part of the letter is very important, and it’s going to take me a while to fully discuss this. I need to begin by pointing out something about this prayer that seems odd at first. So, first some brief introductory remarks, and then some personal reflections.
People sometimes get idyllic notions of what the early Church was like. It is imagined that the early Church was more Spirit-filled, more unified, free from many of the problems the Church has today. It’s just part of that instinctive yearning people have for “the good old days.” I don’t know why people believe in this notion. It seems to be intuitive: sometime, way back when, people didn’t have the problems we have today. But, a careful reading of the letters of the apostle Paul in our New Testament will quickly disprove this notion.
The letters of Paul were often written to correct false teachings and false practices that had arisen in the churches to which he wrote. We owe much of the New Testament to the problems in the early Church.
Some of the unique features of Paul’s letter to the Colossians can be explained by the fact that the apostle Paul is replying to a type of false teaching (or false teachings) that were circulating in the Colossian church. This concern comes to the surface, for example here:
It was characteristic of Paul to begin his letters with words of encouragement and congratulation. As we read further in this letter we will discover that he wrote it to correct false ideas that were current in the congregation. He was certainly concerned about the false teaching at Collosae — but, it did not approach his anger and outrage over the false teaching at Galatia. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he leaves the encouragement paragraph out altogether and launches immediately into his angry words of correction. But, here he wants his readers to hear a good word first. He takes time to give them encouragement and praise.
In the simple, stock opening with which this letter begins, we already gain insight into Paul’s sense of calling and vocation. We see his conception of who he is, and what he knows his task in life to be. As he turns to the next part of his greeting — again nothing unusual here at all — he expresses his view of who the Colossian Christians are.
“…to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (NASB).
They are: “saints (who are) in Colossae” and “faithful brothers in Christ.” The New Testament refers to Christian believers as “saints” (ἁγίοις).
At this point English terminology is sometimes confusing, because we have two different roots here. The family of Greek words that express the idea of “holiness” are sometimes translated “holy”, “holiness” using the “hol-” root and sometimes “saint”, “sanctify” using words derived from the Latin sanctus. So, “holy” is the adjective, but “sanctify” is the verb. It’s a bit confusing. In the Greek language these are closely related, all beginning with the same root: ἅγιος (holy), ἁγιάζω (sanctify), and so forth. I just mention this because the close relationship between these words is generally lost in translation. Sanctify means holy-fy: to make holy. Holiness and Sanctification are almost synonyms.
Those to whom Paul writes are identified as being God’s people: saints. They are identified as a people belonging to God.
The word “holy” speaks of God’s essential nature. People or things designated as “holy” have a relationship to God. These things/people are devoted to God. This corresponds to the Old Testament conception of the “chosen people”: those people who are especially related to God, and whose lives are to bring glory and honor to God. Though Paul writes this letter (we discover as we go along) to correct false teachings in this church, he does not hesitate to call them the “saints that are in Colossae.”
This also goes for the other letters Paul writes to troubled or confused congregations. They may be in need of correction in their thinking, but he still dares to call them the “saints.” So, the title “saint” is not necessarily reserved only for the doctrinally correct or even morally perfect Christians. Ordinary, fallible, even sometimes mistaken, Christians are included among the saints.
The point here, is that these people have numbered themselves among the people of God. The faith that brings justification (i.e., initial relationship with God) also brings initial sanctification. Faith holy-fies. Faith sets us on the road of transformation and Christlikeness. Faith makes it possible for our lives to glorify God.
By faith we are “in Christ” ( ἐν Χριστῷ). That is to say, we are in relationship with Christ.
They are also called: πιστοῖς (“faithful” ). We immediately recognize πιστοῖς as a word related to all the other New Testament words for “faith” or “belief” or “trust.” As such, it could be translated “faithful’ or “believing” — and probably suggests both ideas: they have set out, by faith, to follow Jesus Christ. They are continuing in that faith: obedient and trustworthy.
The word implies both “faith” in the sense of personal belief and faithfulness in the sense of actively following after Christ. It is the shame of contemporary evangelicalism that these ideas have been torn asunder. What you believe is what you live by! The evidence of faith is faithfulness.
The New Testament knows no separation between faith and obedience — they are part of the same reality. Faith is the basis of what we do. It is far more than simply what we (sometimes) say.
They are faithful ἀδελφοῖς (“brothers”). Of course, this term assumes that only the men of the church are reading or hearing this letter. That was the cultural reality of the time. The NRSV says “brothers and sisters” because our cultural reality is (thankfully) quite different. This is not a literal translation. But,on the other hand, it’s a helpful recognition that times have changed.
The important thing about this word (the same word, ἀδελφὸς used in verse 1 to speak of Timothy) is that it stresses relationship. Long ago when I was a young man (and a new Christian), I was part of a conservative Holiness-influenced congregation where people spoke of one another as “Brother” and “Sister.” I think they were on to something, to tell you the truth. The earliest Christians thought of themselves as belonging to a family together: brothers and sisters in Christ.
In Christ (ἐν Χριστῷ) we are related to one another! In Mark 3:35 Jesus says: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (NRSV). In this light, it’s all the more interesting that Paul introduces his companion Timothy as “the brother” (Τιμόθεος ὁ ἀδελφὸς). He needs no other credentials. He could have said leader or preacher or given him some title. But, “brother” is the word he chooses for a recommendation.
To these saints and faithful brothers & sisters in Colossae, Paul pronounces his usual blessing (compare Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Titus 1:4, Philemon 3). But, for some unknown reason, he leaves off his usual “and the Lord Jesus Christ” phrase.
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (NRSV)
χάρις (“grace“). This word speaks of God’s favor and good will toward us. Thus, it refers to everything in our lives that is the result of God’s favor.
We also come to speak of grace as God’s unmerited favor to us in Jesus Christ. At this point the word enters the Church’s own distinctive vocabulary: and becomes a catch-all term for all the good things God wants to communicate to us through Christ.
In its root, it signifies “that which brings joy.” It is closely related to the words χαίρω (“to rejoice“) and χαρά (“joy“).
Since grace brings joy, it implies that two persons are involved. Someone has something good to give. Someone else is in a position to receive it. Grace is kindness or mercy given without expectation of return. it is kindness and mercy for its own sake. A child looks at a bicycle he could never afford. An unknown benefactor buys it for him. It’s grace. Jesus hears two blind men by the side of the road, calling out for mercy (Matthew 20:30f). Jesus touches their eyes and they see (Matthew 20:34). It’s grace. God looks down on the foolish and wayward human race, watching the ways in which we bring pain and suffering into our own lives and the lives of those around us. Yet, instead of anger, God acts our of compassion. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NASB). It’s grace.
Some people rarely think of grace as “that which brings joy and delight,” but that is an essential part of the meaning of the term. Grace brings delight. God’s will for us is joy and happiness — yes, even in the midst of a sometimes discouraging life. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:11 NASB).
Long, long ago, I was taught this acrostic: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. While this is no definition of the meaning of the word, as such, it is a good expression of the Christian gospel of grace — and easy to remember, besides.
εἰρήνη (“peace”). We fill in the meaning of this Greek term from the richness of it’s Hebrew equivalent שָׁלוֹם. It implies harmony and well-being — far more than the cessation of conflict. According to the Hebrew/Aramaic to English Dictionary and Index to the NIV Old Testament from the Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance (Edward W. Goodrick, John R. Kohlenberger III, and James A. Swanson, editors), the word suggests:
peace, safety, prosperity, well-being; intactness, wholeness; peace can have a focus of security, safety which can bring feelings of satisfaction, well-being, and contentment.
I believe peace is a distinctly Christian state of mind — or possibility. With conflict all around us, we can still be at peace. We have found peace with our Creator and God, the One who is (as Tillich famously said) the Ground of our Being.
John Wesley (1703 –1791)
Grace and peace are the essence of the Christian experience.
But true religion, or a heart right toward God and man, implies happiness as well as holiness. For it is not only ‘righteousness,’ but also ‘peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ What peace? ‘The peace of God,’ which God only can give, and the world cannot take away; the peace which ‘passeth all understanding,’ all barely rational conception; being a supernatural sensation, a divine taste, of ‘the powers of the world to come;’ such as the natural man knoweth not, how wise soever in the things of this world; nor, indeed, can he know it, in his present state, ‘because it is spiritually discerned.’ It is a peace that banishes all doubt, all painful uncertainty; the Spirit of God bearing witness with the spirit of a Christian, that he is ‘a child of God.’ And it banishes fear, all such fear as hath torment; the fear of the wrath of God; the fear of hell; the fear of the devil; and, in particular, the fear of death: he that hath the peace of God, desiring, if it were the will of God, ‘to depart, and to be with Christ.’
With this peace of God, wherever it is fixed in the soul, there is also ‘joy in the Holy Ghost;’ joy wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost, by the ever-blessed Spirit of God. He it is that worketh in us that calm, humble rejoicing in God, through Christ Jesus, ‘by whom we have now received the atonement,’ ??????????, the reconciliation with God; and that enables us boldly to confirm the truth of the royal Psalmist’s declaration, ‘Blessed is the man’ (or rather, happy) ‘whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.’ He it is that inspires the Christian soul with that even, solid joy, which arises from the testimony of the Spirit that he is a child of God; and that gives him to ‘rejoice with joy unspeakable, in hope of the glory of God;’ hope both of the glorious image of God, which is in part and shall be fully ‘revealed in him;’ and of that crown of glory which fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for him.
This holiness and happiness, joined in one, are sometimes styled, in the inspired writings, ‘the kingdom of God,’ (as by our Lord in the text,) and sometimes, ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ It is termed ‘the kingdom of God,’ because it is the immediate fruit of God’s reigning in the soul. So soon as ever he takes unto himself his mighty power, and sets up his throne in our hearts, they are instantly filled with this ‘righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ It is called ‘the kingdom of heaven’ because it is (in a degree) heaven opened in the soul.
ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν (“from God our Father‘). Here is the true source of all good, all harmony, all peace, all grace, all lasting joy and happiness. In 2 Corinthians 1:3 there is a wonderful phrase, where Paul calls God: ὁ πατὴρ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν καὶ θεὸς πάσης παρακλήσεως — “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.” (NIV).
We need grace and peace in our world today. We need grace and peace in our churches. We need grace and peace in our families. We have lots of people who think they have right opinions. Grace and peace flow to us from God — and they are the evidence we are “in Christ.”
The apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians begins in a routine and standard manner. The opening greeting and salutation mirrors what we find in his other letters, especially Philippians and Ephesians. Nevertheless, even this brief, “stock” greeting is worth consideration. It is loaded with meaning, actually. These words tell us about a lot about Paul, and a lot about his wishes for the church.
These verses are our first glimpse, in this letter, of the author and his message.
I’m not sure how I first got interested in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, but it is a part of the Scriptures to which I keep returning. When I began my Christian life as a young man, I set myself to reading the Scriptures. No one taught me how to begin. No one gave me any advice. I don’t know whether that is good or bad, since I probably would not have taken anyone’s advice anyway. But, there were many parts of the Bible that surprised me. There were many parts that bored and confused me. And, there were many parts that fascinated and spoke to me. I was enthralled, for example, by the prophecies of Ezekiel. When I got to the Song of Solomon, I was surprised to find a book erotic love poetry (odd-sounding though it was) in the Bible. On the other hand, the voice of Jesus in the Gospels called me again and again to re-examine my life.
And, for some reason, Paul’s letter to the Colossians was one of the books that spoke to me and intrigued me. It still does. Part of the fascination is the strong Pauline polemic against legalism. Part of it was the polemic against “philosophy.” Part of it is the fact that Paul discusses holy living — what I had come to refer to as “Spirit-filled living” — without much of any explicit reference to the Holy Spirit. The book has a strong Christological emphasis. And, the call to holy living found in Chapter 3 is a call to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts….”
Christians look to the Bible as an inspired source and norm for their beliefs. It is no accident that Christians —along with Jews — were long ago designated as “people of the Book.” In a very special sense the Bible has a shaping influence on Christian beliefs, and moral ideals, and conduct. The United Methodist Church, for example, says: “…Scripture is the primary source and criterion for Christian doctrine.” The original Articles of Religion of the United Methodist Church — drawn from the Anglican Articles of Religion as edited by John Wesley — states:The Holy Scriptures containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NIV 2011.)
We cannot allow the argument for the authority and inspiration of the Bible to rest on this one verse alone — of course — but since this verse seems so clear and explicit, it has been cited more than any other. This is certainly a helpful summary of the role the Bible plays in the life of the church — and of the individual Christian. But, how far can this passage be pressed? How much is really entailed by this language?
It is natural for emphasis to fall on the word θεόπνευστος: “inspired” (or as in the NIV) “God-breathed.” At first glance, the derivation of the word seems to give it a clear meaning. It is a compound word: “God” (θεός) + “breathed” (πνευστος). While this is commonly translated “inspired,” the NIV insists on the more literal translation. There is no doubt in my mind that this word is intended to denote the idea of something inspired by God in such a way that it conveys a message from God. In the Theological Lexicon of the New Testament Spicq says:
To express the sacred nature of the Scriptures, their divine origin, and their power to sanctify believers, perhaps St. Paul coined the verbal adjective theopneustos, ‘breathed, inspired by God.’
So, this is apparently not a word picked up from the surrounding culture. This is a term Christians used to describe their confidence in Scripture. It may even be a term coined by the apostle himself as a way of expressing what role Scripture is to play in the Christian community.
There is a parallel idea in 2 Peter 1:21 – “…ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι ἐλάλησαν ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι” (“…carried along by the Holy Spirit, people spoke from God”).
So far, so good. It seems that very high claims are made here about the Bible and its role in the life of faith. True enough. But, what is it here that the apostle says is “inspired”? It is πᾶσα γραφὴ, all Scripture. What is this? This passage comes from a time when the New Testament as we know it had not yet been collected together. The early church depended upon the apostles’ teaching (see Acts 2:42). But, they also looked to the Scriptures — what Christians today would call the Old Testament. Just as in Judaism, the Old Testament scriptures were considered authoritative and inspired — they conveyed a message from God. So, we can be sure this passage refers to the Old Testament as γραφὴ, Scriptures.
Now, let’s consider, what form or edition of the Scriptures (γραφὴ) are they talking about? It seems clear that the Scriptures being discussed here are the Greek translations of the Old Testament — commonly known as the Septuagint (LXX). Why do I think this? Because very few Jews even knew Hebrew well enough to read the Hebrew Bible — the common language of the Jewish people in those times was Aramaic, not Hebrew. The Septuagint was originally written because Hebrew was already dying out long before the days of Jesus and the apostles. The Septuagint essentially replaced the Hebrew Bible in those times. When New Testament authors cite Old Testament passages they cite them from the Septuagint. The New Testament writings were written in Greek — obviously to Greek-speaking people. The form of the Scriptures that these people would have had available to them — and the one they could read and understand — was the Greek translation.
So, yes, high claims to inspiration are being made in 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 and in 2 Peter 1:21. But whatever γραφὴ may be discussed in 2 Timothy — okay, maybe some apostolic writings, maybe the Hebrew Bible — it certainly refers to the Greek translation of the Old Testament — the Bible of the early Church.
But, the Septuagint is often a rather free translation of the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint contains books not in the Hebrew Bible (like Tobit, and The Wisdom of Solomon, etc.). Major additions are made to some Old Testament books in the Septuagint: Esther is longer, and Daniel is longer. (Conservative Protestants who want to make exalted claims for the inspiration of Scripture built on this passage and the meaning of θεόπνευστος, may be inadvertently constructing an argument for the inerrancy of the book of Tobit!)
Furthermore, how much weight should rest on the fact that the compound word θεόπνευστος means “God-breathed”? Many compound words like the English word “chairman” don’t have a meaning that can be determined solely from “chair” + “man”. So, how much of the nature of the Bible’s inspiration can be deduced from 2 Timothy 3:16, 17? Not much, I think.
We have a great affirmation here about the practical usefulness of Scripture: “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness“; but, not too much about the nature of its inspiration. The passage cannot be pressed too far. So, this doesn’t get us as far as some might suppose.
Is there another way of looking at the idea of Biblical inspiration? Is there another approach? What about looking through the Bible for those (rather few) passages where the Biblical authors themselves reflect on what they are doing? This might give us more of an inside story on the nature of Biblical inspiration. We might ask: what view of inspiration and authority of Scripture are implicit in various passages of the Bible itself. How did the earliest Church Fathers view the inspiration and authority of Scripture?
But, over-reliance on 1 Timothy 3:16, 17 is just not going to work.
