9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

God’s grace is ever connected with (ἐν) what is truth and nothing but truth and never is it connected with anything that is of a different quality.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

(1): the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association

(2): acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique

b (1): the fact or condition of being aware of something

(2): the range of one’s information or understanding 〈answered to the best of my knowledge〉

c: the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning: COGNITION

d: the fact or condition of having information or of being learned 〈a person of unusual knowledge〉

Knowledge is achieved by inspection from without. Its object is thought of as something present and open to the scrutiny of the observer. The observer is himself there, and his knowledge is thus objective; any participation in what is known is limited to seeing.

Thus knowledge has an element of acknowledgment. But it also has an element of emotion, or better, of movement of will, so that ignorance means guilt as well as error. Linguistically this is expressed primarily in the fact that knowledge, as a grasping of the significance and claim of what is known, can have the connotation of an anxious concern about something, whether in relation to God or man. Above all, however, ידע is used for acknowledgment of the acts of God

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

“The end of all knowledge is conduct” (Lightfoot).

man should not be led by the spirit of perversity to travel that path; rather, he should be led by the spirit of truth (1 QS III, 18f) that he “may live perfectly before him in accordance with all that has been revealed” (1 QS I, 8f; cf. also II, 2; III, 9, 20f; etc.). When he does this he will be “walking in the way of His delight” (1 QS V, 10 והת[ה]לך ברצונו). Thus, as one who has freely pledged himself, he will “cling to all His commandments according to His will” (1 QS V, 1 צוה לרצונו), “to do the will of God” (1 QS IX, 13 לעשות את רצון אל). Consequently he will no longer act according to what seems to be good to him (CD III, 12 לעשות איש את רצונו); rather, nothing will be pleasing to him except what is also pleasing to God (1 QS IX, 24 וזולת רצון אל לו[א] יחפוץ).

The phrase “worthy of the Lord” (ἀξίως τοῦ κυρίου) does not only demand behavior that is worthy and suitable; it binds the conduct of the Christian to undivided obedience to the Kyrios

He is the Lord over all powers and principalities, he has received dominion over all things, and he is the Lord over his own, so that they can conduct themselves “worthy of the Lord” only if they follow the summons given in 2:6*, “as therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so conduct yourselves in him” (ὡς οὖν παρελάβετε τὸν Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν κύριον, ἐν αὐτῷ περιπατεῖτε).

The Christian should not only bear the fruit of good works in his life; he should at the same time experience personal spiritual enlargement. This idea is expressed in the words “growing in the knowledge of God.” “Growing” (auxanomenoi), like “bearing fruit,” represents a present tense and puts emphasis on habitual action.

When rendered like this, the text affirms that the knowledge of God is the means by which the Christian grows. What rain and sunshine are to the nurture of plants, the knowledge of God is to the growth and maturing of the spiritual life.