By Elliot Ritzema
There’s a cartoon from illustrator and writer Randall Munroe that makes the rounds on social media with some regularity. Titled “Duty Calls,” it shows a stick figure typing at a computer. Out of the frame comes a question: “Are you coming to bed?” The typing character responds, “I can’t. This is important.”
Then, the voice speaking out of frame says, “What?”
The response? “Someone is wrong on the internet.”
I find humor in and resonate with this comic because it captures (and shows the folly of) an impulse that so many of us have. When we see that someone is wrong, we want to set about immediately demolishing their faulty opinions.
We see a different approach from Paul in Colossians 1:3–14. It’s clear from the whole of the letter that there were some bad ideas circulating in the church at Colossae, but Paul didn’t start by explaining why they were wrong. Instead, Paul’s first impulse was to pray. Praying and instruction went hand in hand, of course. But prayer came first. By the time he got to instructing them, they knew that he loved them and prayed for them continually.
Starting in verse 9, Paul prayed that the Colossians would be given wisdom to know God’s will so that they may “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (v.10). There are four ways he prayed they will live worthy lives: by bearing fruit, by growing in the knowledge of God, by being strengthened with all power to endure and be patient, and by giving thanks to the Father.
This knowledge of God’s will focused on His past actions, which Paul laid out in verses 12–13: He had enabled them to be heirs, He had rescued them from darkness, and He had transferred them to the kingdom of His beloved Son.
Paul made it abundantly clear from the start that he was motivated by love for the Colossians and a desire for them to gain an ever greater awareness of the glory and grace of God, especially in his action to redeem and rescue them. He was writing to encourage them in their faith and to urge them to grow.
How different would our churches be, would our interactions with all people be, if our first impulse was to pray for them in this way (including, and perhaps especially, the ones on the internet)? Not in a condescending, “God, show them they’re wrong” kind of way, but in the way that Paul did here—thanking God for them, asking God to fill them with wisdom to live abundantly fruitful lives. If we expressed such warm affection for them, they might just believe any correction we might have to offer comes from a place of love and desire for greater fruitfulness.
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