I was pleased to discover that this term at church group we’re going to be studying the book of Colossians… pleased on a number of levels… it’s fun to study God’s word, especially with others and also it’s started to refresh memories of the summer and time studying the book at CB3.
Tonight we looked at Colossians 1:1-14, of course the best part of this is the great truth contained in verse 13 (the first memory verse at CB3), “for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us in to the Kingdom of the Son he loves”. One of the issues that arose from this study was what it means to be “filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”, verse 9.
The question is, what is the ‘knowledge of his will’, and how is the knowledge imparted to us – what is ‘spiritual wisdom and understanding’?
The implication of verse 10 is that the ‘knowledge of his will’ is not a specific guiding will, but rather a general will as to how we as God’s people can live to please and glorify him. A true knowledge of God’s will is when our will and our desires are inline with His, in fact the whole purpose of the Christian life is to be moulded into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29), who is the perfect example of a man whose will is lined up with the Father’s – “not my will, but yours” (Luke 22:42).
This knowledge of how to live a life holy and pleasing to God our Maker is given to us by ‘spiritual wisdom’ and ‘understanding’. Both wisdom and understanding come from the Holy Spirit, and Colossians 2 starts by stating that these things are found in Christ – ‘..which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ This makes perfect sense when we read that the work of the Holy Spirit is to declare truth about Jesus, thus glorifying Him ( John 16:12-15).
So.. how does the Spirit let us know about the wisdom and knowledge that is found in Christ? The Bible has to be our focus here – two reasons; the Spirit wrote the Bible (2 Tim 3:16 – breathed out by God), and the Bible is all about Jesus (Luke 24:44) who is the source of all wisdom and understanding. Is that it? Is the Bible all we have??
- Can God speak outside of the Bible? – yes, God can do what he wants.
- Does God speak outside the Bible? – yes, 1 Cor 12 speaks of the gifts of knowledge and of wisdom… the role of the preacher is to bring prophecy, to apply God’s word… Christians may have dreams, visions etc. that are given by God.
- Does God always speak outside the Bible, to every Christian? – No. In the past God spoke in loads of ways, but now he speaks to us in Jesus (Heb 1:1), the testimony of Jesus is recorded in the Bible… God is merciful and sometimes may speak directly to believers, directly into situations… we should be open to God’s voice, but not demand or expect him to speak… he’s already spoken, 66 different books!!
- Can words from God contradict the Bible? – No. The Bible is authored by a perfect, eternal, unchanging God.
There’s always a danger, particularly for those from a more “Charismaniac” persuasion of moving on from the Bible, being more attracted by the “fresh” or “direct” words… and maybe the more “Conservative” position is in danger of wanting a quick fix to the question of guidance…? Often I find myself just wishing that I could pray and God would reveal everything I need to know in a crystal-clear vision… that would be nice, but in reality I’m just being lazy, I’m too impatient to wait on God, and too stubborn to spend time searching the scriptures and wrestling in prayer.
All mysteries are in Christ, one day I shall see him face to face, there will be no more mysteries, just perfect relationship with my Maker.
