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Studies in Colossians.
#5.
Pleasing, power and patience (1: 10, 11).
pp. 12 - 19
The central section of this prayer must now engage our attention. As we have seen
already, it is occupied with a series of "means" and "ends" expressed by the words en and
eis. The first pair alternates with the knowledge of the Lord's will and the walk that is
worthy, thus:--
A |
"That ye might be filled with a knowledge of His will."
B
| Means.--"In (en) all wisdom and spiritual understanding."
A |
"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord."
B
| End.--"Unto (eis) all pleasing."
From this opening prayer it is evident that to walk worthy one must have knowledge
of His will, that to be "all pleasing" one must have wisdom and spiritual understanding,
and that the complete end is the worthy walk unto all pleasing.
Enoch seems to be the figure that aptly illustrates this prayer. Not only do we read
that "Enoch walked with God", and that "he pleased God", but like the Colossian
believers, he was "translated":--
"By faith Enoch was translated" (metatithemi, Heb. 11: 5).
"And hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (methistimi, Col. 1: 13).
While the two words "translate" are not identical, they are very close to each other in
meaning, the word in Col. 1: 13 having the meaning "transfer", while the word in
Heb. 11: 5 means "transport".
The likeness to Enoch appears again in Col. 2: 20: "Why as though living in the
world, are ye subject to ordinances?" The wisdom and spiritual understanding for which
the apostle prayed were to enable believers to walk worthy of the Lord.
The meaning of "worthy".
The Greek word translated "worthy" here is axios. The idea of the word is that of
being "comparable", or put into the opposite scale. This is clearly seen in Rom. 8: 18:--
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
It will be seen that the words, "to be compared", are in italic type in the A.V., being
necessary to complete the sense. The R.V. retains the words, but prints them in ordinary
type as being a part of the translation of axios. In Gen. 23: 9 the LXX has argurion
ton axion: "The money it is worth", and in verse 16 we see that this silver was