This chapter is based on the Letters to the Colossians and the Philippians.
Paul acknowledged that he had received many “visions and revelations of the Lord.” His understanding of the gospel was equal to that of “the most eminent apostles.” (2 Corinthians 12:1, 11.) He had clearly understood “the width and length and depth and height” of “the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18, 19). ULe 173.1
Paul could not tell everything that he had seen in vision. Some hearers would have misused his words. But what had been revealed to him molded the messages that in later years he sent to the churches. He gave a message that has brought strength to the church of God ever since. To believers today this message speaks plainly of dangers that will threaten the church. ULe 173.2
The apostle wanted those to whom he addressed his letters to “no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” but to come into “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:14, 13). Christ, who “loved the church and gave Himself for her,” would “present her to Himself ... not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing”—a church “holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25, 27). ULe 173.3
In these messages, written not with human power but with God’s power, we find principles that every church should follow, and the way that leads to eternal life is made plain. ULe 173.4
In his letter to “the saints” at Colosse, written while he was a prisoner in Rome, Paul mentions his joy over their faithfulness: “We also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” ULe 173.5
There is no limit to the blessings that the children of God may receive. They may grow stronger and stronger until they are made “qualified ... to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” ULe 173.6