Colossians 1:9
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Since hearing of them, Paul prays without ceasing that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God's will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
What Does Colossians 1:9 Mean?
Paul now turns from thanksgiving to petition. His prayer is specific and lofty: not merely that they would do well, but that they would be filled -- saturated -- with the knowledge of what God wants.
This request meets the Colossians' deepest need. False teachers were offering a higher knowledge, a secret wisdom; Paul prays instead that the church would know God's will through wisdom and spiritual understanding that God supplies. True knowing, for Paul, is not abstract information but insight that shapes how a person lives. He asks God to fill them, because such understanding is finally a gift, not an achievement. The answer to counterfeit wisdom is not ignorance but the real thing -- a deep, Spirit-given grasp of God's purpose that no clever argument can dislodge.
In the Original Language
Epignosis (ἐπίγνωσις), 'knowledge' -- a full, recognizing knowledge that engages the whole person, deeper than bare information.