II.

St. Paul's Prayer for the Colossians.

"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing."-COLOSSIANS i. 9, 10.

THE

HE Apostle, having paused to express his thanksgiving for the Colossians, now proceeds to record his prayer on their behalf. The exciting motive to this prayer lay in their spiritual condition and prospect. They believed in Christ, they loved Christ's disciples, they hoped for glory with Christ hereafter. St. Paul was thankful on their account, and desired for them still higher spiritual blessings, that they might grow in grace, and advance onward to moral perfection. Nor was this a mere passing impulse, ending in a momentary wish; it was a deep and abiding interest in their religious welfare, which led to daily prayer for them. "For this cause we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you." Since he had heard of their conversion to Christ, and of some of the distinctive evidences of it, he had not ceased to pray for them. His faith in the power of prayer was strong and clear. He had neither question nor doubt about it. If he could benefit them in no other way, he believed that blessing could reach them by means of prayer on their behalf. Nothing more clearly shows the Apostle's estimate of the power of prayer, than his frequent reference

to intercessory supplication. The idea of many in our day seems to be that all the advantage of prayer is its reflex influence on the individual who prays--lifting up his thoughts, spiritualizing his mind, and purifying his heart; but they do not think it can really have any influence with God, whose purposes and plans cannot be altered or modified through human supplication. How utterly false and groundless is this idea, when considered in the light of intercessory prayer. How can our prayers bring blessings on others, except as God hears and answers them? Paul, taking God at His word, did not hesitate heartily to pray for the Colossians, and to ask for higher spiritual blessings on their account. He uses two words to express his meaning-" We do not cease to pray for you, and to desire." He remembered them in his devotions at the throne of grace, and supplicated for them special spiritual blessing.

I. His prayer-the special blessing which, he here tells us, he asked for is, "that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will." It was knowledge, an increase of knowledge, that he requested on their behalf. The object of this knowledge was the will of God, that will generally in its aspect towards mankind, and specially in its bearing on their own souls and circumstances, their own duties and dangers. In relation to us, it comprehends all that God wishes us to be, believe, and do. The will of God is not only the supreme, but also the only safe, rule to guide us in this world in all matters of religion and morals. It is perfect and unerring, and surely the highest object of knowledge for us. There is nothing so sacred, important, and personal, so needful and so good for us to know. We may know much besides that it is useful, elevating, and desirable to know; but the knowledge of God's works in nature around us is not so essential to our true life and happiness as the knowledge of His will concerning us as dependent and degenerate creatures. Without any

knowledge of the stars, or of the geological strata of the earth, or of the arcana of the depths of the sea, interesting and important as such knowledge may be, man can become a child of God and an heir of glory; but the child should know the Father's will as it bears on himself, his duty, and his destiny. To reach this knowledge is the cry of every soul "born from above," as it was the cry of Paul from the moment of his conversion: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" In the knowledge of the Divine will, then, all of us ought to be adepts, and earnestly to grow. The original word* indicates more clearly the character or quality of the knowledge desired; a full, thorough, living knowledge; not a dead, theoretical, or mere intellectual knowledge. You may know a man's character or position by report, and may have the surest ground for believing the report; but if you are brought into personal contact with him, and have frequent opportunities of meeting him, and so learn his character from personal intercourse and fellowship, how much higher, fuller, and richer becomes your actual knowledge of him. Such knowledge of the Divine will Paul asks for the Colossians. As Christians, they necessarily had, of course, some knowledge of that will; but he prayed that it might be still higher, clearer, and more influential. It is a knowledge that we can never exhaust, so that we may be daily growing in our attainment of it. The measure of it which the Apostle asked was indeed large. He desired that they might be filled with it—a somewhat remarkable expression. It was a knowledge to pervade the soul, not information to lie dead and dormant in the mind as a barren intellectual attainment, but a knowledge to pervade the whole spiritual being, lighting up the understanding, controlling the heart, and directing the

* ἐπίγνωσιν, “ id est γνώσις επι γνώσιν cumulata et plena cognitio.” (Bp. Davenant, Erpos. Epist. ad Coloss. in loc.)

will. Hence it must also possess the soul. The Christian is not only to possess it; it is to possess him—a very different thing and a much higher attainment. The widow who has just lost the husband of her love, and the partner of her days, not only knows the fact of her loss, but the knowledge possesses her, and fills her with sadness and sorrow. It is ever with her-her first thought in the morning, her last thought at night, and her burden throughout the day. So the knowledge that one has gained the esteem, confidence, and love of some highly valued and influential friend, is not only a possession, but a power that will help to mould his character and influence his course day by day. This kind and measure of knowledge St. Paul prayed for on behalf of the Colossians, and this is the true measure of the Divine knowledge for us. It only aggravates guilt and augments condemnation to have this knowledge as an intellectual attainment, a possession in which we may pride ourselves as the Jews did in their possession of the law and oracles of God. This knowledge must be in us, filling our whole spiritual being, and making it energetic with life. The bee instinctively gathers honey from the flowers that yield it, and builds her cell on the truest mathematical principles. The knowledge is a part of her being, an essential element of her insect life. So the knowledge of the will of God should be in us, occupying our whole inner, spiritual nature, and instinctively leading us into the ways of truth. and holiness. This is the fullest triumph of the gospel in the soul of man, the highest attainment of a moral being, the fulfilment of God's significant promise to the sinful creature, "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts," and " I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people."* Many possess God's word, the revelation of

* Jer. xxxi. 33; Heb. viii. 10.

His will to man, and profess to believe it too, who, alas! do not possess this higher personal knowledge of it, so as to make it the rule of their life.

Wisdom relates

II. The Apostle next states the mode of realizing or reaching this blessing-" in all wisdom and spiritual understanding:" "the mode in which, or the concomitant influences under which," the filling with knowledge was to take place. Not the word understanding only is qualified by the term spiritual, but wisdom also-in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. It is confessedly somewhat difficult to mark out the clear distinction between these two words, yet that there is a distinction there can be no doubt. The one is more general, the other more particular or special. to the whole compass of the soul, with the illumination pervading it in regard to Divine and eternal realities; while understanding refers rather to the practical power of using the light, and applying it in any particular case, or in relation to any particular truth or fact in God's revelation of His may will. This distinction is real and important. A man have a large store of knowledge, may have read much, and amassed extensive information, and yet he may be so deficient in tact, acuteness, and practical sagacity, as not to be able to bring his knowledge to bear for his help and guidance in any particular case. The wisdom here spoken of is the general illumination of the soul regarding the will of God as revealed in His word and providence, and the understanding spoken of is a spiritual insight by which the wisdom may be brought practically to bear on special circumstances or difficulties in daily life-the power wisely to use the spiritual enlightenment received. The one is therefore the practical evidence and particular application of the other. Hence, if we are to be filled with the know

Bp. Ellicott's Crit. and Gram. Comment. in loc.