Wednesday, May 13, 2009

BE FILLED, REALITY VS. APPEARANCE

Col 1:9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

If I take an empty cup and pour water into it until it reaches the top, I am filling that cup. It is a process that progresses from emptiness to fullness. Is this what you think of when you read a verse such as this above? Was Paul asking God to give them more and more knowledge, wisdom, and understanding? If so, they were lacking in it and so it would make sense that they would need more.

Let us look at a couple of things that will help us understand what Paul meant. First, note that he did not pray that they would fill themselves. Of course, that is pretty evident, because Paul is speaking to God about them, not to them about themselves. We therefore can say that this filling takes place from somewhere outside of themselves.

The next thing to note is that Paul does not ask that God fill them. No, he asks that they "be filled." This might seem like a minor difference, or perhaps no difference at all, but I assure you, it makes a big difference; the difference between what APPEARS to be reality, and what ACTUALLY is reality.

Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, while they are naturally attributes, are spiritually a person. This is why Paul said:

that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. (Col 2:2,3)

In asking that they be filled with understanding, wisdom and knowledge, he is asking that they be filled with Christ himself. For it is in him that these are contained. It is in him that they also find expression.

So let me ask you, were these believers filled with Christ? I mean, if he is asking that they be filled, then does that mean that they were lacking somehow and needed more of him? I said earlier that there is a difference between asking for someone to fill something and for someone to be filled. To fill something means that that which is filled is lacking and needs more of what fills it. To be filled however, means to recognize and exist as one already filled in reality.

Did Paul agree with this reality? How did he see these believers? He says this about them:

For in him [Christ] all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power; (Col 2:9,10)

Literally, the verb "made full" says they "have been filled, and exist in that state to the present time." I looked up the word "be" in the dictionary, and this is the first definition I found:

"To exist in actuality"

You see, what Paul was praying for was that the Colossian believers would believe in, and realize that they were filled with Christ, and that by being filled by him, they had true spiritual wisdom and knowledge and understanding. For all that is true is only true according to Christ, whom they learned.

He knew that there were false teachers there trying to use persuasive words to get them to think according to the wisdom of the world. He describes his concern this way:

Col 2:4 Now this I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
Col 2:8 Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
Col 2:16 Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
Col 2:18 Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

These people would try to convince them of things according to the way they appear, in hopes that they would not see themselves as filled, or complete, in Christ alone, but rather, lacking and in need of what would amount to be fleshly means, "Do not touch, Do not taste, Do not handle," and things such as these. Yes, outwardly, those doing such things 'indeed appear like wisdom' (Col 2:23) but it denies the reality.

We are filled. We need not pray that God give us more of himself, or of his Christ. We need only ask that he open our eyes to see that truth always, and never be swayed away in our minds from the reality to only what appears to be so. Spiritual reality has nothing whatsoever to do with fleshly perceptions.

To be filled, or to "be" anything that scripture admonishes us to be, simply means we are already what we are to be, so the encouragement is to simply believe it. It is still true, whether we believe it or not, but how much sweeter life is when we do believe.

Ron

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