‘For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and to make request for you that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.'
Their first prayer was that the Holy Spirit might bring home to them (and to us) the true knowledge of His will. ‘That you might be filled with the knowledge of His will.' There is nothing more important for us than that we should have an understanding of the will of God filling our hearts and minds Many teachers of all kinds tried to catch their ears claiming to impart a special ‘knowledge' (gnosis) about God. So it was vital that through it all they should have the true knowledge (epignosis) of the will of God. And that could only be by being enlightened by the Spirit.
‘In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.' He prays that they might have spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is understanding and wisdom imparted by the Spirit of God, something that should be our constant desire and prayer. And we know that to Paul the true wisdom was found in the cross (1 Corinthians 1:17-24 compare Colossians 1:13-14), and in the crucified One Who was Himself the Wisdom from God (1 Corinthians 1:30). He also knew that this could only be brought home to the spiritual man by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:11-15).
As he says later, in Christ Himself ‘are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Colossians 2:3). Thus he is praying that they might have a full understanding of Jesus Christ as the crucified Saviour (Colossians 2:13-14), Who was made unto them wisdom from God revealed in righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). A wisdom that would lead them in the way and walk of humility (Philippians 2:5-11). For truly, ‘The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding' (Job 28:28; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10). Wisdom signifies a true awareness of God and of all that He is, knowledge refers to an understanding of His ways.