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Paul’s greeting in last week’s post set the stage for us to learn something which, if understood, has the power to reshape the trajectory of the Christian faith. That’s not an overstatement. On a personal level, Paul’s message should inspire every believer to compare the beliefs they hold against those of the church in Colossae.

In this post I’ll show how Paul skillfully uses the Greek language to draw out spiritual truths which are easily lost on modern minds. I’ve stated that most commentaries assume Paul is warning Colossae about the heresy of Gnosticism, yet Paul’s pen might tell another story. Before we get there, we’ll unpack today Paul’s next big run-on sentence in verses 9-12.

Paul’s sentence structure can be challenging. It might help to think of these verses as a simple sentence (the trunk of a tree) with modifiers (branches) stemming off of it. It’s my opinion that this writing style isn’t about teaching, but attesting to what the audience already knew. It’s a compact summary, unlike the structures in Romans, Ephesians, or Corinthians in which he teaches.

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,  fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the the inheritance of the saints in light. (Colossians 1:9-12)

No one could blame us if all these themes blurred together in our mind and we lost his key point. The simple sentence is this: Paul and Timothy are praying God will complete and fill them with knowledge. What is really interesting here is that Paul twice uses the term epignosis-which literally means ‘over-knowledge‘ or super-knowledge. For example, Jesus used epignosis, referring to special knowledge when he said:

“…no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son… (Matthew 11:27)

Why has church history insisted Paul is rebutting Gnosticism? First, Gnosticism didn’t fully exist until the second century. Second, Gnosticism means to possess a secret spiritual knowledge that saves us, and yet the term epignosis, by definition, means exactly that. Further, Paul uses the term pneumatikoi which tells us this super-knowledge is supernatural, spiritual in nature. Is Paul then praying that Colossae will become gnostics? Textually yes, but functionally, no. I’m convinced the negative “gnostic assumption” has crippled the church’s understanding of this letter, and has resulted in the canon of scripture rejecting the Nag Hammadi texts, known as the Gnostic Gospels, found in northern Egypt. So back to my question: why?

To understand Paul’s message, we return to the “branches off the tree trunk” which comprise the rest of the sentence. In Greek, these read like adding multiple prepositional phrases which modify the main part of “making complete regarding super-knowlege”. Read each one as a modifier to obtaining “super-knowledge.”

We are praying you receive super-knowledge….

1. “by all wisdom (sophia) and spiritual insight (pneumatikoi–supernatural, spiritual nature)
2. “to live (peripateo–to walk around, to trample around, crush underfoot) worthy (àzios-comparable, worthily) of the Lord” (literally: to trample around in a comparable fashion as the Lord)
3. “unto everything which pleases” God…
4. “by every good deed (karpophorountes)-causing results”
5. “by way of power (dunámei) being empowered (dunamoúnenoi)
6. “according to the miraculous power (krátos) of His (dóza– glory, amazing might, honor)”
7. “unto all endurance and patience”
8. “with joy giving thanks to the Father, the one having made you (ìkanów-sufficient, adequate, qualified)
9. “for the share (merit–portion, part) of the possession of (àgios-God’s people, the holy) in the light”

These modifiers are necessary qualifiers for what Paul is saying. All nine qualifying phrases are echoes of theological truth of which this community would have “experiential knowledge” not just head knowledge. These represent the flow of transformation which is their shared salvation.

Paul’s soteriology is NOT conversion to religion, but completion into Christ.

Last week we saw how the word of truth...the gospel was heard and produced a faith which produced results. In the next breath Paul writes this sentence which seems to underscore how this “super-knowledge” will complete them. Paul is essentially providing the path of the gospel’s salvation: “Lean into the “pneumatikoi” (spiritual awareness) so that this epignosis “super-knowledge” will produce wisdom and thus guide them to trample around like the Lord, causing more results, being empowered, which itself is a miracle work of God, and thus give them patience to endure all things in joy, giving all thanks to God for the whole thing, and in the end, that part of them will be as the holy ones in light.“

Compare that to a modern presentation of the Gospel. Instead of substitutionary atonement, and subscribing to religion, Paul’s salvation comes from people trusting the spiritual super-knowledge within them, which gives them power to produce results and to grow in completion as the holy people of God.

It strikes me that these modifying phrases clearly draw the audience to focus on the internal work of God as the reliable Source of authority and direction. Paul’s letter wasn’t their Bible, inner experience was, specifically the shared inner experience of all those who possessed this inner faith and work of God.

In the coming weeks, we’ll see Paul bring a very strong admonishment, which is built upon the inner reliability of the this spiritual super-knowledge, to steer clear of those who would try and bring this community back into religious subjugation, by way of asceticism, rule keeping, and other power plays which were circulating in the marketplace of ideas. Paul was not redirecting them to some new alternative religion that Jesus inaugurated and he is championing, he is taking Jesus’ message, the gospel, which freed people from religion, and admonishing this congregation to never get sucked into religion again.

What would the modern church look like today if for the last two-thousand years we had learned how to lean deeply into the inner experience of spiritual super-knowledge, rather than the dogma and power plays of another institutional religion? I see a correlation betwen the rise of institutional religious power, and the loss of what Paul just called dunemai and doza (miraculous power). It’s my assumption that the return of such power to the àgios of today, will also correlate to our freedom from our religions, and our identification with Christ who dwells spiritually within all of us.

The question is: Are we brave enough to test it? If we had to pick a source for our spiritual direction, would we trust our awakened spirit within, or our pastors and church leaders? Perhaps we can start by reading the gnostic gospel of Thomas, and see where it takes us.