Col 1:12-16 | KingComments | STEP | . With this verse we come to the heart of the letter. The point is to walk worthy of the Lord. This is not said to a select group of super Christians, but to all Christians. It is not a concept that leads to the formation of trained preachers who are able to convey their knowledge to large groups of people. No, it is an order to which every believer should give the highest priority. Here you are called to a walk that is in accordance with the worthiness of the Lord. Therefore you must indeed know the worthiness of the Lord, which is brought before you extensively from onward. That He is called ‘Lord’ brings you to a relationship with the position the Lord Jesus now occupies, a position He received from God ( ). Besides the knowledge of His worthiness, it is also important that you recognize His rights as Lord in every area of your life. Knowing His worthiness and the acknowledgment of His lordship will result in your whole walk being a pleasure for God. God will recognize the image of His Son in such a walk. He rejoices in it. Now you should see the other unique effects of such a walk. First it is about every good work. You can take it as a species of rich fruit; every good work is a certain fruit. The fruit, the good work, is the result of your connection to the Lord Jesus Christ as the true vine ( ). Sometimes one is happy when he does a good work once. But God is not pleased with that. He has provided you with all the necessary means so that you can do nothing else than good works. You can use these means if you take the preceding and the following verses and let them work in your life. When God endows you with such rich resources, you should not be satisfied with doing something good now and then. As mentioned in , fruit bearing is followed by growth. By fruit bearing , people think more about the enjoyment of the one for whom the fruit is determined. That is why it is given the first place. By growth is meant the life that develops itself, the process of increase and maturity. This is about the believer. It is not about growth in the knowledge of God but growth through the knowledge of God. If we use in our lives what we know of Him we will grow. The argument that knowledge is not important but that it is all about practical Christian life doesn’t make sense. Without knowledge it is impossible to grow in faith and put Christian life into practice. Incidentally it is a mistake to assume that you can do something practical without you knowing how it works. This applies to social life as well as to spiritual life. . In society you also see that people who speak knowledgeably radiate power. Your strength to walk worthy of the Lord is in the knowledge of God; the more you know of God the less prone you are to resistance and to all kinds of errors. You are "strengthened with all power”; there is the power to overcome every form of resistance. This is not a power from an earthly, human source. This would give no guarantee of victory. No, your power comes from the heavenly glory, the glory of God, the glory of the Lord Jesus. That is the source with which you are brought into contact and nothing can work against it. This power is not only resistant to fierce attacks but also to long lasting attacks. As long as you are on the earth there will be resistance. The greatness of this power is that you can bear all. And while you persevere you remain patient and you are even happy. You do not experience this with people who do not know Christ. Perhaps they have an enormous capacity to stick it out and can put away a lot of attacks. Their patience however will come to an end sometime, not to mention the absence of joy. The Christian who is focused on Christ is able to endure suffering with patience and even with joy instead of yearning to be delivered from suffering ( ). That is the wonder of real power and not the accomplishments of heroic deeds in the forms of signs and miracles as healings, exorcisms and raising the dead. You will be strengthened with all power – the standard for this is Christ in glory – to be patient and forbearing in a world where you are going through pain and suffering in your life with God. There is no clearer proof of the power than this life-style. . A walk in this life-style gives joy. This joy is directed to the Father and expresses itself in thanksgiving to Him. Thus you are lifted above your circumstances. Your thoughts are focused on what the Father has done for you and what He has given you. Then you see that you cannot but thank Him. He has already enabled you together with all the saints who belong to the church, to enjoy the inheritance in the light of God’s presence. That really is something great, isn’t it? It does not say here that He will enable you sometime; neither does it say that you are indeed able but that you must continue to grow further. That is all not the case at all. Your capability is an established fact. You have received this by your new nature. You are born of God and you have received God’s nature, and therefore you can be in the light of God. However the inheritance lies in the future. Peter also speaks about it ( ). The inheritance is what the Lord Jesus will possess when He reigns over all things. Then you will also reign with Him. You inherit from God as His child ( ) and that means that your inheritance is from your Father. The Father Who gave you the rights over His inheritance has prepared you to receive it and to enjoy it. . However, something must have happened in you, by which you became enabled to share in His inheritance. To begin with, you did not belong to the light at all, but on the contrary to darkness, lacking even the smallest ray of light. You were in its power, the darkness holding you prisoner. Satan, the prince of darkness, was your master. Those who sit in darkness lack even the smallest ray of light. There was absolutely no orientation as to where you were or where you were going. How terrible the darkness was, was found when the Lord Jesus came as the light. But the darkness did remain ( ) because people loved darkness rather than light ( ). The power of darkness held people captives – this was shown at its height when people caught the Lord Jesus and killed Him ( ). The grace of God however is greater. The Lord Jesus conquered the power of darkness. He rose from the dead. As a result the One Who said “light shall shine out of darkness” has shone in your heart and saved you from this power ( ). But that was not the end. After He saved you, you have not landed in a kind of no-man’s-land; neither has the Father transferred you back to a restored paradise. It is much more glorious. He transferred you to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In this kingdom the Son is the Center. The atmosphere of this kingdom is the love of the Father to His Son. When you think of a kingdom, you think of domination and subjection. It is so here also, but everything is embedded in the love of the Father to the Son. So it is not just an atmosphere, but it is all about Divine Persons. You have already been brought into contact with the Father and the Son, and their love already surrounds you. I do not know if you can come up with anything greater. Now read Colossians 1:10-13 again. Reflection: Examine the blessings Paul lists here. Thank the Father for every blessing.

‏ Colossians 1:12-16

Walk Worthy of the Lord

Col 1:10. With this verse we come to the heart of the letter. The point is to walk worthy of the Lord. This is not said to a select group of super Christians, but to all Christians. It is not a concept that leads to the formation of trained preachers who are able to convey their knowledge to large groups of people. No, it is an order to which every believer should give the highest priority. Here you are called to a walk that is in accordance with the worthiness of the Lord. Therefore you must indeed know the worthiness of the Lord, which is brought before you extensively from Col 1:16 onward.

That He is called ‘Lord’ brings you to a relationship with the position the Lord Jesus now occupies, a position He received from God (Acts 2:36). Besides the knowledge of His worthiness, it is also important that you recognize His rights as Lord in every area of your life. Knowing His worthiness and the acknowledgment of His lordship will result in your whole walk being a pleasure for God. God will recognize the image of His Son in such a walk. He rejoices in it.

Now you should see the other unique effects of such a walk. First it is about every good work. You can take it as a species of rich fruit; every good work is a certain fruit. The fruit, the good work, is the result of your connection to the Lord Jesus Christ as the true vine (Jn 15:1).

Sometimes one is happy when he does a good work once. But God is not pleased with that. He has provided you with all the necessary means so that you can do nothing else than good works. You can use these means if you take the preceding and the following verses and let them work in your life. When God endows you with such rich resources, you should not be satisfied with doing something good now and then.

As mentioned in Col 1:6, fruit bearing is followed by growth. By fruit bearing, people think more about the enjoyment of the one for whom the fruit is determined. That is why it is given the first place. By growth is meant the life that develops itself, the process of increase and maturity. This is about the believer.

It is not about growth in the knowledge of God but growth through the knowledge of God. If we use in our lives what we know of Him we will grow. The argument that knowledge is not important but that it is all about practical Christian life doesn’t make sense. Without knowledge it is impossible to grow in faith and put Christian life into practice. Incidentally it is a mistake to assume that you can do something practical without you knowing how it works. This applies to social life as well as to spiritual life.

Col 1:11. In society you also see that people who speak knowledgeably radiate power. Your strength to walk worthy of the Lord is in the knowledge of God; the more you know of God the less prone you are to resistance and to all kinds of errors. You are "strengthened with all power”; there is the power to overcome every form of resistance.

This is not a power from an earthly, human source. This would give no guarantee of victory. No, your power comes from the heavenly glory, the glory of God, the glory of the Lord Jesus. That is the source with which you are brought into contact and nothing can work against it.

This power is not only resistant to fierce attacks but also to long lasting attacks. As long as you are on the earth there will be resistance. The greatness of this power is that you can bear all. And while you persevere you remain patient and you are even happy. You do not experience this with people who do not know Christ. Perhaps they have an enormous capacity to stick it out and can put away a lot of attacks. Their patience however will come to an end sometime, not to mention the absence of joy.

The Christian who is focused on Christ is able to endure suffering with patience and even with joy instead of yearning to be delivered from suffering (1Pet 1:6-9). That is the wonder of real power and not the accomplishments of heroic deeds in the forms of signs and miracles as healings, exorcisms and raising the dead. You will be strengthened with all power – the standard for this is Christ in glory – to be patient and forbearing in a world where you are going through pain and suffering in your life with God. There is no clearer proof of the power than this life-style.

Col 1:12. A walk in this life-style gives joy. This joy is directed to the Father and expresses itself in thanksgiving to Him. Thus you are lifted above your circumstances. Your thoughts are focused on what the Father has done for you and what He has given you. Then you see that you cannot but thank Him.

He has already enabled you together with all the saints who belong to the church, to enjoy the inheritance in the light of God’s presence. That really is something great, isn’t it? It does not say here that He will enable you sometime; neither does it say that you are indeed able but that you must continue to grow further. That is all not the case at all. Your capability is an established fact. You have received this by your new nature. You are born of God and you have received God’s nature, and therefore you can be in the light of God.

However the inheritance lies in the future. Peter also speaks about it (1Pet 1:4). The inheritance is what the Lord Jesus will possess when He reigns over all things. Then you will also reign with Him. You inherit from God as His child (Rom 8:17) and that means that your inheritance is from your Father. The Father Who gave you the rights over His inheritance has prepared you to receive it and to enjoy it.

Col 1:13. However, something must have happened in you, by which you became enabled to share in His inheritance. To begin with, you did not belong to the light at all, but on the contrary to darkness, lacking even the smallest ray of light. You were in its power, the darkness holding you prisoner. Satan, the prince of darkness, was your master. Those who sit in darkness lack even the smallest ray of light. There was absolutely no orientation as to where you were or where you were going.

How terrible the darkness was, was found when the Lord Jesus came as the light. But the darkness did remain (Jn 1:5) because people loved darkness rather than light (Jn 3:19). The power of darkness held people captives – this was shown at its height when people caught the Lord Jesus and killed Him (Lk 22:53). The grace of God however is greater. The Lord Jesus conquered the power of darkness. He rose from the dead. As a result the One Who said “light shall shine out of darkness” has shone in your heart and saved you from this power (2Cor 4:6).

But that was not the end. After He saved you, you have not landed in a kind of no-man’s-land; neither has the Father transferred you back to a restored paradise. It is much more glorious. He transferred you to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In this kingdom the Son is the Center. The atmosphere of this kingdom is the love of the Father to His Son.

When you think of a kingdom, you think of domination and subjection. It is so here also, but everything is embedded in the love of the Father to the Son. So it is not just an atmosphere, but it is all about Divine Persons. You have already been brought into contact with the Father and the Son, and their love already surrounds you. I do not know if you can come up with anything greater.

Now read Colossians 1:10-13 again.

Reflection: Examine the blessings Paul lists here. Thank the Father for every blessing.

The Glory of the Son

Col 1:14. All previous blessings have become possible through the Lord Jesus Christ. You are delivered from the domain of darkness only by salvation. Salvation is not only a mighty act, but it happened also by paying a ransom. The Lord Jesus paid this ransom on the cross with His blood (1Pet 1:18). He gave His life (Mt 20:28). Thus you are His property now (1Cor 6:20). So if we do things for the benefit of our own selves, then we actually rob Him because we belong to Him entirely.

Another magnificent result of the price He paid is that all your sins are forgiven. I wonder if you ever realized this. If not, that’s a pity, because, though you are free, the burden of sin could sometimes weigh heavily down on you; and you might be going about with remorse in your heart. But cheer up. The blood of Jesus Christ has solved the problem already. Your sins are forgiven; they are gone and they have disappeared from the sight of God. He no longer sees them or thinks of them. Do you doubt this? Then listen to what the Scripture testifies: “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1Jn 1:7).

Redemption and forgiveness are granted by God and caused by Christ. Any annoying question that is shot at you or demands an answer can now be dealt with adequately. I am thinking of the people who make your right to the inheritance a matter of dispute. Sometimes you might feel that you are incapable of enjoying the relevant blessings. Then you should say – certainly with humility, but with joy and assurance – that you are saved and have received the forgiveness of sins.

Now your relationship is fully with the beloved Son. If you thank the Father you spontaneously talk of the Son (Jn 5:23). If the Father is the source of every blessing, then the Son is the channel through Whom all the blessings come to you. The Son has executed all the plans of the Father at His own expense. Now it is all about worship. Thank the Father Who is the source of every blessing! Thank His beloved Son Who is the channel through Whom all blessings have become accessible to you.

Col 1:15. Who is this beloved Son Who has made these blessings available to us? Here the apostle presents the Lord Jesus not only to refresh your heart, but also to fill it so that there is no room for anything else. He recounts successively:

1. Who Christ is in Himself;

2. what He is in the works that He accomplished;

3. what He is in His own.

“He is the image of … God” and that means He is the representative of God. Only He can be this because He is by nature God. This nature comprises the complete equality of the Son with the Father in His essence, in His nature and in His existence as the eternal One (Jn 14:9 ; Jn 1:18). Only through Him we can know God.

He is also the “first born of all creation” (cf. Rom 8:29; Heb 1:6; Rev 1:5). This does not mean that He was the first created being. It describes the preeminence of the Son Who is exalted above everything. This refers to the ranking. You see this also with Solomon. He was not the first born son of David (1Chr 3:1); nevertheless he was called the firstborn (Psa 89:27).

The Lord Jesus is not a created being but He is over all created things and beings. He is the Creator indeed. He is the Firstborn because He created all things. When the Creator by being born as a Man enters into His own creation, He cannot be anyone other than the Firstborn. He is the Lord of all creation.

Col 1:16. Although there are three Persons in the Godhead, creation is attributed to the Son (Jn 1:3; Heb 1:1-2). Everything in heaven and on the earth, so in the whole universe, both in its visible and invisible forms, owes its existence to Him.

The thrones, dominions, principalities and powers appear to be references to various angelic powers (Eph 6:12; 1Pet 3:22). However impressive the angelic world may be, the glory of the Son Who created them is infinitely greater. The whole angelic world is called to worship Him and is created to serve Him (Heb 1:6-7).

He created them in His own strength, “by Him”. He did it personally, “through Him”, and He did it for His own glory, “for Him”. He is the Origin, the Executor and the Purpose of creation. This excludes the worship of anything or anyone else.

Col 1:17. The words ”He is before all things” expresses that He is the eternal Son, the eternal Being; He was there before creation. He has an eternal pre-existence. He stands outside of creation; He does not belong to it; He Himself is not a creature. This He also shows by the fact that He upholds all things by His own power (Heb 1:3). He not only called everything into existence, but also the present existence is due to Him. Planets traverse their prescribed courses only because He guides them and upholds them. Should He withdraw His hand for a moment, this would simply mean the end of the world.

Col 1:18. After speaking of His glory as the Head over all creation, Paul says that the Lord Jesus is Head from another point of view. One can say that as He is the Head over the first or old creation, He also is the Head over the new creation. Head symbolizes authority and dominion as well as life and growth. This also applies to the new creation, the church, which owes its existence to Him. He is the church’s beginning and its origin (Rev 3:14). In the absolute sense He is the beginning of everything, while and because He Himself is without beginning.

However there is a big difference in the way the first creation originated and the way the second creation came into being. The first was created by the Word of His power (Gen 1:3 ; 6 ; 9 ; 11 ; 14 ; 20 ; 24; Psa 33:6 ; 9). In order to become the Head of the new creation He had to become Man and go through death to rise from it.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was the new beginning for God. Thus the church, called here the body, emerged. We can compare it with how Eve was built from Adam. God put Adam in a sleep of death. During this sleep of death God took a rib from his body and formed it into a woman. When Adam saw her he said: “This is now the bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:21-23). Paul applies this to Christ and the church (Eph 5:30). The church is the body of Christ and Christ is the Head. He directs His body and gives it what it needs.

The Lord Jesus has the first place not only in the first or the old creation, but He also is the Head and the Firstborn in the new creation. In the new creation He is the “firstborn from the dead”. This does not mean that He was the first to rise from the dead. People had risen from the dead earlier. But even here He is the Firstborn because He has the priority over any other who has risen from the dead or shall rise.

He is the First because by His resurrection He is alive for all eternity (Rev 1:18). By His resurrection He entered into another world which is now open for others. All who believe in Him will follow His resurrection. The special feature of this position is that by His resurrection He takes the first place in all things as Man.

As God He has the glory of the Creator. But He became Man in order to pass through death as Man. As Man He is risen from the dead and as Man He has ascended into heaven. He became Man in order to remain so forever. That does not lessen His glory but makes it greater.

Col 1:19. This is evident in the words “for it was the [Father’s] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Col 1:19). In the Lord Jesus – He is meant by “in Him” – dwells the triune God with joy. This was so when He came to earth, when He did the work of God and when He returned afterward to heaven. God is revealed in all His fullness without limitation, in the Person of Christ. In Him the triune God is involved with the new beginning. How great is His glory!

Now read Colossians 1:14-19 again.

Reflection: What are the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ you have discovered in this passage?