Colossians 1:9–14
Believers grow by knowing God’s will, walking worthily, and remembering they have been rescued into Christ’s kingdom.
9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,
11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy,
12 giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,
13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
Believers grow by knowing God’s will, walking worthily, and remembering they have been rescued into Christ’s kingdom.
To define authentic spiritual maturity as Spirit-given knowledge of God’s will resulting in worthy conduct, endurance, gratitude, and conscious awareness of redemptive rescue into Christ’s kingdom.
After thanking God for the Colossians’ faith, love, hope, and gospel fruitfulness in Colossians 1:3-8, Paul turns to intercession. His prayer shows what gospel growth should become: fuller knowledge of God’s will, worthy conduct, fruitful obedience, endurance, gratitude, and assurance rooted in the Father’s saving rescue through the Son.
The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel of Reconciliation
Because Christ is supreme over creation, head of the church, and reconciler through his blood, the church must remain rooted in the gospel and pursue maturity in him.