12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Colossians is one of the most Christ-centered books of the Bible.
In it, Paul stresses the supremacy of the person of Christ and the completeness of the salvation He provides in order to combat a growing heresy in the church at Colossae.
NLT: always thanking the Father, who has enabled you to share the inheritance that belongs to God’s holy people, who live in the light.
THE CROWN OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER
IS A THANKFUL HEART
Thankfulness should mingle with all our thoughts and feelings, like the fragrance of some perfume penetrating through the common scentless air. It should embrace all events. It should be an operating motive in all actions.
We should be clear sighted and believing enough to be thankful for pain and disappointment and loss.
GOD’S GIVING
DESERVES
OUR THANKSGIVING
thankful, grateful, well-pleasing – Indicates the obligation of being thankful to someone for a favor done
Grateful is related to Old English “grace-ful,” and thus means to be thankful for grace.
Thanksgiving expresses what ought never to be absent from any of our devotions.
When a Christian finds himself in a difficult situation, he should immediately give thanks to the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, to keep his heart from complaining and fretting. The devil moves in when a Christian starts to complain, but thanksgiving in the Spirit defeats the devil and glorifies the Lord.”
When we become ungrateful, we begin to complain and look at people and circumstances with a critical spirit.
Paul said it even better exhorting us to “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Th 5:18-note).
Note that Paul is not exhorting us to give thanks for everything but in everything.
For example, Job could give thanks even after losing all his possessions and even his children (Job 1:20, 21, 22).
Empowered by the Spirit we can all and should all seek to manifest an attitude similar to that of Habakkuk who (after working through “issues” with God’s sovereignty in Hab 1-2) was able to declare
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. (Hab 3:17, 18
It ought to be as habitual to us to thank as to ask. – C. H. Spurgeon
Thank and think also come from the same root word. If we would think more about all we have to be thankful for, we would all be a lot more likely to thank more.
In context as we think about the fact that the Father has “qualified us” for entry into His presence eternally, that truth should motivate us to an attitude of continual gratitude.
The tragic story is told about a young a ministerial student, Edward Spencer, who personally saved 17 persons on September 8, 1860, when a passenger boat floundered on the lake. The exertion permanently damaged Spencer’s health and he was unable to continue his pursuit of the ministry. At his death some years later, it was noted that not one of the 17 persons he had saved ever came to thank him. We all think “How horrible!” but how many times have we all forgotten to “in everything give thanks” to our heavenly Father for so great a salvation! Unfortunately we all have a tendency to be eager to ask but slow to appreciate our heavenly Father’s continual bestowal of undeserved benevolence.
WHO HAS QUALIFIED US:to hikanosanti (AAPMSD) humas:
We should continually give thanks to the Father Himself because He qualified believers making them competent to partake of the inheritance of the saints by placing them in Christ, in Whom they enjoy a standing which makes them the objects of God’s grace, today and forevermore! That calls for thanksgiving.
QUALIFIED – To render fit. Make capable. To reach the place of sufficiency and hence be made qualified, able, competent.
In 2Cor 3:6 the idea is to equip one with adequate power to perform the duties as servants of the New Covenant.
There is simply no other way to share in the inheritance unless God qualifies us.
This truth should make us humble and thankful, for there is simply nothing we could have done to make ourselves meet, fit, adequate, qualified or worthy to enter into the kingdom of God.
“When God saves someone, He instantly bestows on that person fitness for heaven. That fitness is Christ.
Qualified as a bride – Bride to be
TO SHARE IN THE INHERITANCE: eis ten merida tou klerou:
“The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18).
In the OT, God’s people had an earthly inheritance, the land of Canaan, and each tribe received its portion of the lot. Christians have a spiritual inheritance in Christ
What Is the Inheritance?
Throughout the New Testament, a striking promise for believers is simply “the inheritance” (Acts 20:32; 26:18; Eph 1:14-note, Ep 1:18-note; Col 3:24-note).
Generally, the promise refers to the possession of salvation (Heb 1:14-note). The believer’s inheritance is described more specifically as eternal and joyful existence with God.
Jesus said in Mt 19:29, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, shall receive many times as much, and shall inherit eternal life.
Eternal life is not only an endless existence in “eternity future” but describes a quality of life which is available now — Christ’s life lived out in the believer in “eternity present” (Gal 2:20). In this sense believers can begin to share in their “spiritual inheritance” even now.
OF THE SAINTS IN LIGHT: ton hagion en to photi:
Looking at this verse from a future perspective, the inheritance is in the light because He who is the Light dwells there and fills heaven with His marvelous light.
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son
Lightfoot: Yes, by a strong arm he rescued us from the lawless tyranny of darkness, removed us from the land of our bondage, and settled us as free citizens in our new and glorious home, where his Son, the offspring and the representative of his love, is King;
Phillips: For we must never forget that he rescued us from the power of darkness, and re-established us in the kingdom of his beloved Son, that is, in the kingdom of light. (Phillips: Touchstone)
FOR HE DELIVERED US: os errhusato (3SAMI) hemas:
RESCUE
God drew or snatched us to Himself out of danger and away from the clutches of our mortal evil enemy, Satan and his minions, who rule in the “domain of darkness”. Rhuomai emphasizes the greatness of peril from which deliverance is given by a mighty act of p
FROM THE DOMAIN OF DARKNESS: ek (out from) tes (the specific) exousias tou skotous:
TENANT OF THE TUNNEL COLOSSIANS 1:13
For 16 years, John Kovacs was a “tenant of the tunnel.” Along with a few others, John lived underground in an abandoned railroad tunnel in New York City. When Amtrak bought the tunnel and prepared to reopen it, John was forced to look for a place to live above ground.
According to The New York Times, Mr. Kovacs became the first person chosen for a new program designed to “transform the homeless into homesteaders.” After spending a third of his life in a railroad tunnel, he left his underground existence to become an organic farmer in upstate New York. He was quoted as saying, “The air will be better up there. I’m not going to miss anything. I’m not coming back.”
If we could see ourselves as our Lord does, we would realize that every child of God has had a similar experience. We too have been chosen to leave a dark, filthy existence for the dignity of a new life and work. If only we could see our former life as clearly as John Kovacs saw his, we too would know that there is nothing worthwhile in the dark, and no reason to go back.
Lord, help us to remember how needy we were when You found us. Forgive us for sometimes wanting to go back to the tunnel. —Mart De Haan
Life Application Study Bible – The Colossians feared the unseen forces of darkness, but Paul says that true believers have been transferred from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom, from guilt to forgiveness, and from the power of Satan to the power of God. We have been rescued from a rebel kingdom to serve the rightful King. Our conduct should reflect our new allegiance.
The second ground of thankfulness is, the change of king and country. God “delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”
To reiterate the Kingdom of His beloved Son in context refers to more than the future millennial kingdom, when Jesus will reign on earth for 1000 years.