Paul prays that they may be filled with the knowledge of the will of God, a knowledge that consists of wisdom and understanding of all kinds, at the spiritual level. How else will they withstand the pressures of their surrounding pagan culture, pressures that are as subtle as they are endemic? How else will they think Christianly, and genuinely bring their minds and hearts and conduct into conformity with God’s will?
Is there anything that our own generation more urgently needs than this? Some of us have chased every fad, scrambled aboard every bandwagon, adopted every gimmick, pursued every encounter with the media. Others of us have rigidly cherished every tradition, determined to change as little as possible, worshipped what is aged simply because it is aged. But where are the men and women whose knowledge of God is as fresh as it is profound, whose delight in thinking God’s thoughts after him ensures that their study of Scripture is never merely intellectual and self-distancing, whose desire to please God easily outstrips residual and corrupting desires to shine in public?
DA Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p.107
