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It Is Written

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Eric Flickinger

Clinton Wahlen

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

06 Confidence Only in Christ

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

03 Life and Death

04 Unity Through Humility

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

07 A Heavenly Citizenship

08 The Preeminence of Christ

09 Reconciliation and Hope

10 Complete in Christ

11 Living With Christ

12 Living with Each Other

13 Standing in All the Will of God

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

So we are bringing to a conclusion our time together as we've looked at the books of Philippians and Colossians, how God wants to unite heaven and earth.

We've seen beautiful pictures of how Christ is in the center of both of these books and today, lesson number 13, Standing in All the Will of God.

Father we thank you for drawing us together once again as we study the books of Philippians and Colossians and learn more about Christ and his plan for our lives.

We ask that you would bless us with a clearer understanding today and help us to see how we can live out your will in our lives, not for our own glory, but for yours.

We're glad you're here with us, but we are also glad to have the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson with us for 1 final time, at least for now.

Clinton Walleen, thank you once again for being with us, for joining us, and leading us through this study in the amazing books of Philippians and Colossians.

It's been a real pleasure, Eric, to be here.

We have just a little less than half an hour to pull this off and tie together all these things.

We're looking at standing in all the will of God and We're spending time now in chapter 4 of Colossians, just kind of bringing it all together.

Paul had a plan for the spread of the gospel.

And we get to see a clearer picture of that here in chapter 4.

What was his strategy for taking the gospel to all the world?

Well, Eric, first of all, I think it's important for us to recognize that Paul used time very wisely.

He, even already in Colossians 4, verse 5, he encourages us, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time, making the best use of the time.

We can't call back from the past things we've done that's past, but we can redeem time by making the best use of the time that remains.

And so he focused strategically on those major centers of the Roman Empire that would have the most influence and impact for the gospel.

Now, we've already mentioned the cities, for example, of Philippi, a very important Roman city.

He's writing from Rome, another, you know, the most important city.

Ephesus, which was really, after Rome and Alexandria, the third most important city of the Roman Empire.

And it was probably from Ephesus that people were trained and coworkers were established to go into these other places, like Epaphras, which he mentions here.

There were 3 cities in the Tychus Valley that were close, fairly close to each other, Colossae, Laodicea, and Herapolis.

These are all mentioned together by Paul where he refers in verse 13, for I bear him witness, talking about Epaphras, that he has a great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Herapolis.

So, you know, the Colossae and Laodicea and Herapolis, these cities were cities that Epiphras, who was no doubt trained by Paul, how to be an effective evangelist, raised up churches in these cities and maintained this connectivity with Paul and among these cities.

We've already mentioned, but it's good to mention it again, verse 16.

Now when this epistle, Colossians, is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

Now some readers might say, well now wait a minute, I haven't found in my Bible Paul's epistle to the Laodiceans.

This is not an epistle of Paul that has been preserved for us in history.

There is from a later time, you know, a forgery that was an epistle of the latest scenes but it's This we know was not from Paul, it came later.

So this is lost to us unless in some of the sands of Egypt someday we would unearth such an epistle.

It's not been preserved in any of our Bibles.

But he clearly meant that his writings would be circulated among these churches, not just Laodicea and Colossae, but Philippi and many other places.

There were collections, very early collections, of Paul's epistles that were brought together and they circulated together as a corpus, the Pauline corpus.

And in fact, if we look at the Pauline corpus that is addressed to churches specifically, It's very interesting.

So Romans is first because it's the longest.

Second Corinthians is the third longest and so on, all the way down to Philemon, which is the shortest of Paul's epistles.

So this collection was gathered at some point very early and circulated, but even before the entire corpus was brought together, he had his letters circulated between and among the churches.

So he utilized these workers, and he mentioned several of them.

And he utilized his epistles, circulated them, and he chose specifically where he was personally present, very strategically.

So you've already touched on some of this, but I want to make sure we don't miss anything.

Paul encourages connectivity between the churches.

He's sending letters between the churches and they're circulating those in, as you mentioned, a corpus, a group of letters together.

He has workers who go to the different churches.

What are other ways that he encouraged connectivity between the churches?

Anything else that he was doing to kind of make sure that the churches stayed hopefully in 1 accord going in 1 direction, hopefully the right direction?

Well he sent, as you mentioned, co-workers, Timothy, Epiphras, others, you know, where he also visited the churches and we mentioned this before, he would periodically in his travels he would visit churches that he had raised up and so that encouraged connectivity.

Also, just the references to the scriptures encouraged them to study the Old Testament scriptures.

In his epistles, he's quoting scriptures as well.

And so that encouraged the foundation of it is written, that that is the foundation of our faith, that Christ, the living word, and the Bible, the written word, helping us to know better God's will for us and His plan for our lives.

And so this all fits together to encourage connectivity, connectivity with Scripture, with each other, and with the churches.

In this week's lesson you also refer to the prayer of Epiphras.

What is the prayer of Epiphras and why is it significant to what we're looking at here in Lesson 13, standing in all the will of God?

Well, it's interesting if we come to verse, beginning with verse 12, which where he's mentioned, "'Epiphras, who is 1 of you, ' that is, he seems to be from Colossia, "'a bondservant of Christ.'" and that's also when we talk about slavery, you know, we're all slaves of Christ, first of all.

And Paul even, you know, he begins his epistle sometimes that way.

We notice Philippians 1, verse 1, Paul and Timothy bond servants or slaves of Jesus Christ.

So he reminds us that regardless of our earthly relationships, our primary relationship is with Christ.

So a bond servant of Christ greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers.

And now notice this prayer, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

And that's of course where we get the title for this week's lesson, Standing in All the Will of God.

Not some of God's will, but all of what God has said.

You know, Jesus in Matthew 4, verse 4, in reply to the devil who was tempting him, said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And he was quoting from Deuteronomy where that same thought is mentioned.

And so, you know, that emphasizes actually the scriptural quality of God's word.

It's not just written, but it's what God has spoken.

It's something like in creation, when he breathed into Adam the breath of life, and when he spoke the word and things came into existence at creation, the living word of God can create new life in us.

And so we need to study the word to understand all of his will.

Interestingly, if we would turn to Acts chapter 20, We find a very similar reference that Paul has.

Remember he, as I mentioned, was in Ephesus for 3 years and this is during 1 of his travels.

He met with them at Miletus, which is on the coast where his ship was stationed for a while.

And as part of his meeting, Notice what he says in Acts 20, verse 27, I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

I have not shunned or avoided declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

So he taught everything that was important for them to know, all through the scriptures, the teachings of the Bible.

And that's why it's important, you know, we have a system of beliefs or doctrines that bind us together.

And so standing in all the will of God involves believing and keeping faithful to all those teachings of the Bible.

That's what keeps us together, and that's what helps us to remain faithful to the Lord.

So this is more than just learning about what the Bible says, but it's an active accepting and living in and letting it live through us.

So it's a whole embodiment of the teachings of scripture.

Clinton, you've written a companion book to this quarter Sabbath school lesson, and we've been sharing a little bit from it each week.

Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

13 Standing in All the Will of God

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

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Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2026: Growing in a Relationship With God

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Sound Doctrine