Colossians 1:3-12, An All and Everything Prayer (3)

There are a lot of important words in this prayer, words like His “will,” “wisdom and understanding,” “worthy,” “good works,” “patience and longsuffering,” and “giving thanks.”  But for me, the key words in this prayer are what I call the “all and everything” words. 

·       v9: “filled” (5 times in Col.), “knowledge” (which has the prefix we have noted also in Ephesians, that means “full-knowledge;” used 4 times in Col.), “all” (used 35 times in Col.) wisdom and spiritual knowledge.

·       v10: “fully” pleasing, or literally “in all things pleasing;” “every” good work; the “full-knowledge” of God.

·       v11: “all” might; “all” patience and longsuffering.

This is not a prayer about “balance” or “tolerance” or “moderation.”  These things have their place.  But this prayer is about “all and everything.”  This entire letter to the Colossians is like this.  Many would consider 2:9-10 the key passage in the letter: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Building our structure of this prayer around the “all” words here is my understanding of what Paul is praying for.  Examine this, connecting it with what we shared in the previous post.