Works and Knowledge: Like Two Blades of Scissors (Colossians 1:10).Wednesday August 5, 2026
Intro:
The Colossians are facing dangerous false doctrines on top of every other challenge that the Christian life causes in this world.
Are our lives much different?
Col 1:9-12 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father …
Main thought: Brought together: good work with fruit and continual increase of knowledge of God Himself.
Bearing fruit in every good work:
Scriptures revealing our mandate for good works:
Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
1Th 5:15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.
2Th 2:16-17 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, 17 comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.
1Ti 5:9-10 A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, 10 having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work
2Ti 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work
2Ti 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
All Scripture: both testaments, give us the full knowledge of God.
Your resistance to a life of good works is the inner self, or flesh, or sin nature longing for life.
1Ti 1:18-19 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight [fight for the good?], 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.
Good work results in a good conscience.
Good conscience: that part of your inner self that evaluates self and the world around. New and indwelt by the Trinity, it will not call self “good” unless it is true.
1Pe 3:15-16 sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
Increasing in knowledge of God (theology)
We must always be increasing (auxano - to become greater). . Uses: the crop (fruit), lilies, spiritual growth, John B and Jesus, the Word from place to place, the body of Christ.
Mar 4:8 "Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
Don’t get anxious about growing - keep learning. (Mat 6:28; 1Co 3:6-7).
1Co 3:6-7 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
Work and knowledge then become worship. Our lives devoted to goodness and knowledge are all related to an infinitely blessed Person.
Epignosis knowledge of God Scriptures / Knowledge of the Son Scriptures (HS is to lead us into the knowledge of both)
2Pe 1:2-3 [Father] Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
2Pe 1:8 [Son] For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph 1:15-17 [Father] For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Eph 4:13 [Son] until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Not of the Holy Spirit - His role is to reveal to you the Father and the Son.
Joh 16:14-15 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.
That knowledge has to increase / grow: to live worthily you have to be a life-long student of the Word of God.
Growing is the nature of the gospel: Col 1:6.
2Pe 3:17-18 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Phi 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
Col 2:3
Jer 9:23-24 Thus says the Lord, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the Lord.
Conclusion:
Works and knowledge go together. They are like two blades of a pair of scissors.
We learn of the mercy, love, and purity of God and seek to obey Him.
We obey Him and learn deeper knowledge of who He is.
Our scissors cut through a lost and confusing world.
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