Greetings from Paul 1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace. We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. —Colossians 1:1-5

This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace. You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you. —Colossians 1:6-8

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. —Colossians 1:9-10

It seems that our lives, our deeds, our good fruit is the product of knowledge and understanding.

How might we have pursued those things in the past which didn’t actually produce “every kind of good fruit”, but maybe other things?

What are some negative fruits produced by the pursuit of knowledge and understanding?

Pride: Knowledge puffs up. Selfrighteouseness. Judgmentalism

How might those negative fruits be a detriment to the “love for others” that Paul was praising the believers in Colossae for?

What knowledge did Paul say specifically would spur our Growth?
How has this proven true in your own life?

What might you need to do beginning today to pursue a deeper knowledge and understanding of God?

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always, the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God.” —A.W. Tozer

There is no way for our lives to rise above our understanding of God. If we misunderstand him, our lives will produce the fruit of that misunderstanding.