Paul and company’s constant prayer for their readers/hearers is that they be filled with knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual insight, “To walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him".
This is the first of four Sundays tracing through Paul’s prison epistle where he talks the most about Christ in His person. We use the phrase the “person and work of Jesus Christ” a great deal. But as theologians, I have found we tend to talk most about His work, unless we are in conversation about the economy of the Trinity or some such, especially when dealing with the Pauline epistles. This is because the Apostle is intent through most of Colossians on getting at the salvific work of Christ, what His birth, death, resurrection, and ascension mean, how they are applied to the believer, and how this work of Christ converts, effects salvation, imputes righteousness, and translates to life with neighbor. But Colossians stands as a special letter nearer the end of Paul’s ministry in that, from the beginning, we hear who Christ is in His person, articulated in an early Christ hymn or creed: He is the preeminent Lord over all creation, the firstborn, the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15-16), the head of the body, the Church (1:18), the One in whom all things hold together (1:17), in whom the fullness of God dwells (1:19), and through whom God has reconciled all things and made peace, by the blood of the cross (1:20).
The three-year lectionary in Pentecost season skips the “Christ hymn” bit. We get 1:1-14 this Sunday, and Proper 11 resumes with 1:21-29 (we will have to wait for the final Proper prior to Advent to have the “Christ the image of God” middle bit in Year C). Of course, it is context, so this is important to consider through all of the pericopes which are chosen for these four weeks. We encourage you to keep in mind that Paul’s words all over this epistle have their source in who Christ is.
So, who is the Christ of the epistle’s opening salvo? Notice that the Christ is the one in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (1:14). The immediate intertexts for this include Ephesians 1:3-10 (this is no surprise; recall that Ephesians and Colossians in particular share a lot of language and structure) and Romans 3:21-26, both of which are worth reviewing as you swim in the Pauline waters of ransom language, worthy of study and meditation. The Christ is the One who is the King of a kingdom we have been transferred to by virtue of that ransom (1:13). The Christ is the heir of God’s Kingdom of light, whose person and work have given you a share in that inheritance with the saints of light (1:12), a status in dualistic contrast to the kingdom of darkness in which you once were a denizen prior to ransom (refer to Ephesians 2:1-7).
In light of the ransom metaphor and all it entails, Paul and company’s constant prayer for their readers/hearers is that they be filled with knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual insight (1:9), “To walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him” (1:10). This is worth a little noodling, first because of the grammar (vocabulary and syntax), which is not immediately transparent, and second because of the theological application of the meaning of the sentence, lest the preacher make a misstep in mocking up a message with a pithy moniker like “Walk Worthy!” A decision to take those two words and craft a sermon with lots of examples about how to “walk worthy” of the Lord will do no better than rehash suboptimal Oswald Chambers devotional literature, a waste of pulpit time at best (and jeopardizing your hearers’ salvation at worst).
So, indulge me in a little exegetical work. I suggest your noodling stay open to the valance of the infinitive “peripatēsai” (to walk, to live). It is syntactically “modal” certainly. That is to say, it is grammatically dependent on the prayer that the reader/hearer be filled with the knowledge of God. But in what way is it dependent? In other words, does Paul intend in the prayer that such filling with the knowledge of God will “result” in worthy living? Or does he mean to say that being filled with wisdom has a purposive “goal,” an end, the “telos,” the answer to why God fills you with knowledge? Is it a “this is the consequence,” or is it a “this is a so-that-you”? In highly technical ancient dead language 101 class terms, the astute freshman would put the question thusly: Is this an infinitive of result or an infinitive of purpose? These are likely the two major contenders. Translators of the ESV (English Standard Version) sound slightly more purposive than consequential, but fudge it just enough in the KJV/NKJV (King James and New King James Versions) tradition by saying “so as to walk,” sufficiently ambiguous English to judge the rendering of this verse at least theologically more neutral than the NIV, NRSV, and NASB (New International Version, New Revised Standard Version and New American Standard Bible, respectively), which render it definitely as a purpose clause. The NLT (New Living Translation) and the Good News versions interestingly confess consequence.
I think the reason the majority of standard English translations go telic on this is because translators have an idea that there is a category called “infinitive of purpose” and may be less familiar with “infinitive of result.” In any case, they may simply be enslaved to their sophomore Greek lessons rather than understanding modal language, having some imagination when it comes to epexegetical infinitives, and realizing there may, in fact, even be some ambiguity in Paul’s use of the infinitive here. That previous sentence may also be too generous as well. It is a fact that we read our assumptions into text, and on balance, I think folks running with a human theology tend to consider the ultimate goal, end, “telos,” purpose of the Word of God in Christ is to effect good behavior. When in doubt, we default to ethics.
He sees our problem with ethics and suffers, bleeds, and dies for it.
Thanks be to God in Christ that He does not. He sees our problem with ethics and suffers, bleeds, and dies for it. This is not to say you cannot read “peripatēsai” as purpose, but I interpret it as result, and you should too.
Now, what does this mean for a sermon? First, it blows “my utmost for His highest” out of the water. A “walk worthy” sermon can do no more than turn your hearer back on herself and leave her in no security as to whether or not she has done enough. But a “this is the result of the knowledge of God, a life worthy of God’s Son” puts the onus back on the Lord. The Lord as teacher, the Lord as pioneering model? Yes indeed, no doubt about those, but not so shallow and reductive as an example to follow. Rather, as a fulfillment to trust. Primarily, and over it all, the Lord as savior, the Lord as end, the Lord as the One in whom all things hold together.
So, let us paraphrase the “walk worthy” prayer (Colossians 1:9-11) with these principles in mind:
Since you have heard and acknowledged God’s favor for you truly, as you learned it from Epaphras (who told us straight up your love in the Spirit), we have prayed for you constantly from the day we heard, and here is our prayer:
That you be filled with knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, a filling which has this result, this consequence: You now live and keep on living a life with which the Lord is pleased, that He counts worthwhile. And that life bears fruit in every good work, it increases in the knowledge of God, and here is a further result, too, that you keep on being capable in every capacity according to the power of His glory for this end: Total endurance and patience.
Result language is fruit language, so it is no surprise Paul includes “bearing fruit” as a further result of being filled with the knowledge of God in Colossians 1:10. And fruit language brings us back to the core of the Galatians 5 pericope from a couple of weeks ago: Does fruit get squeezed out by special effort of the tree, or is it a natural consequence? QED[1] on the interpretation of that infinitive, I think. But more important still, thinking in this direction serves as a guide for a sermon on the Christian life which describes what the effects of Christ’s lordship are, rather than unhelpfully setting an unattainable assessment goal to measure my growth in worthiness.
How can this result be realized? The object of Paul and company’s prayer: The knowledge of God. Knowledge of God is the root of the fruit! How to give the Colossians, how to give your contemporary hearer the knowledge of God? Deliver it to them.
Deliver the knowledge of God to them. That is, deliver to them the God who can be known, the Christ, what He does. But not just what He does, who He is, too. He is the Christ of the Colossians Christ hymn (Colossians 1:15-20). Get to know Him. Deliver Him. He is the Christ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (1:14). Christ is the King of a kingdom we have been transferred to because of that redemption, that ransom (1:13). Christ is heir of the Kingdom of light and has given you a share in His Kingdom as well (1:12). That is the God to know, the God Christ whose lordship indeed changes everything. Just look at the results!
Happy preaching this week.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Colossians 1:1-14.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching Colossians 1:1-14.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
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[1] QED stands for “quod erat demonstrandum,” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated.” It is used to indicate the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument in Latin and other ancient texts.
