Colossians 4:12 – Standing in All the Will of God

12 Greeting you is Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, always struggling for you in prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

Epaphras’ struggle in prayer had a very specific focus: “for you,” the Colossians. After all, he knew what threatened them. Paul had warned them earlier: “Beware that no one shall be despoiling you through philosophy and empty seduction…” (2:8). Against that danger stands Epaphras’ prayer: that they would stand. Not be carried away, but stand their ground.

That “standing” is an important theme in this letter. The Colossians had been rooted and were being built up in Christ and confirmed in the faith (2:7). And already in chapter 1, Paul wrote that they were to remain “grounded and steadfast” (1:23). Epaphras is therefore not praying that they would discover something new, but that they would remain standing in what they had already received in Christ.

And they were to stand “mature and fully assured in all the will of God.” That “will of God” had already appeared at the beginning of the letter. Paul prayed that they would be filled “with a realization of His will” (1:9). This concerns the secret that God wills to make known to His saints (1:27): Christ among the nations, in Whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are concealed (2:3). That is where the Colossians were to stand: not doubting or searching, but fully assured.

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