walking worthy

Colossians 1

words 1387
Time to read: 7 minutes

The Word of truth comes to us so that we might be perfect.

Christ’s work is to complete you and I. This is the overarching theme in the first chapter of Colossians. It was John who wrote ‘ the word became flesh and dwelt among us and from that point on who could ever read again “the Word of God” without hearing “Christ Jesus the seed.”

Paul begins his letter by telling the Colossian church- he is praying for them since he first heard of their faith in Christ and their love for the saints. Discipleship is valuable to Paul’s mission because discipleship is essentially the principle of the seed, multiplication, reproduction and growth. Discipleship is all about raising up the younger believers to become the mature believers, perfection is the goal. Without disciples the word of God would not be spread. Disciples become vessels through which God’s word travels. This was also at the heart of Christ’s mission to teach and make disciples to multiply and reproduce.

Paul reminds the Colossian church that the word of truth the gospel has come to you, and it has borne the fruit of love and faith in Christ. Just as God promised, ” his word does not return to him void without accomplishing what he has sent it to accomplish. Isaiah 55:11.” Like Christ coming down out of heaven, the word of God comes to us. We do not go to it; we do not choose it. The bible says God first loved us, he first sought us, he chose us, he revealed himself to us, he pursued Adam and mankind when he left his throne and came down to us. So too the word of Truth, Christ, the Gospel, came to us and in the coming bore fruit, faith and love. when matured, faith and love spread’s the seed, Christ, the word of Truth, this is the nature of life, of the seed and certainly of the word of truth, the gospel. God is a maker of fruit bearers., He produces reproducers. In Luke 13:18 Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed and the leaven, which are like the kingdom of heaven, growing and increasing in size, multiplying and bearing fruit. Paul monopolizes on this concept reminding the new Colossian believers that they heard the word that came to them, and they understood grace and bore fruit. The seed accomplished in them God’s good intention and design. As soon as Paul heard and recognized these believers were bearing the fruit of the word, he begins to pray for them:

that they be filled with the real knowledge of God’s will in spiritual wisdom (not worldly wisdom) and understanding.

Why did the apostle pray this prayer? Those who do not believe in God and who do know Christ are filled with the knowledge of the world and then bear the fruit of the world which is sin and death. They continue to partake freely from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil reaping the consequences of sin and death again and again. this is not to say that everything in the world is wicked, God’s children are in the world, God’s word is in the world, there is love and grace and truth and beauty in the world, but there is also a prince of the power of the air who seeks to deceive and kill and destroy. those who believe in Christ must learn to discern the will of satan who rules in the world and the will of God who is supreme over all the universe and time and in every heaven. Worldly knowledge leads to death, just as the tree of knowledge did, in contrast knowing God’s will and bearing the fruit of his word can be likened to eating from the tree of life. This knowledge is critical to growing up for a new believer, so that they are be able to walk in a manner worthy of God to please him in all things and to bear fruit in every good work. Knowledge and understanding the will of God is crucial to walking worthy before God and pleasing him. the Colossians needed to be filled with real knowledge of God’s will and spiritual wisdom, not the knowledge of good and evil, not the wisdom of the world, not the knowledge that puffs up and leads to ungodly power and disobedience. Paul was not asking nor instructing these new believers to be perfect but to walk worthy and pleasing to God. How can we know what pleases God if we do not know his will. so his first prayer, Lord fills them with Knowledge of your will. God gave his word so men might be filled with the knowledge of his will, his plan of redemption, deliverance and the inheritance of the saints.

Paul goes on to describe that inheritance, in verses 13 and 14 which includes deliverance, adoption, redemption and forgiveness and Christ. Paul takes the next several verses describing our great deliverer, His equality with God, how he accomplished the fathers will and why he accomplished the fathers will in verse 21-22. a simple roadmap to guide them and keep them on track. Paul tells the Colossian believers in a nutshell, this is what has happened to you, this is who you can thank for it, this is how it happened, and this is why it happened. Perfection is a theme that replays itself again and again in the new covenant scriptures. Perfection and completion is the why it happened, it is the goal, but perfection is not our work it is Christ’s.

Satan works day and night to prevent that work of maturity, perfection and completion. we know that Jesus has overcome and defeated Satan, but Satan still has a hand in the world and his greatest weapon is to get man on his own accord to rebel against God and walk into the prison of sin and death. Jesus longs to free us he has the power the means the authority the love and the desire to do so. He longs to restore his children to the perfect state we were created to live in, which is what redemption is all about, not only are we reconciled to the Father but to all his good pleasure for us. Satan awaits with great eager anticipation to prevent that from happening. He waits an opportune time when he can steal kill and destroy that tiny seed of God’s word planted in human hearts. He longs to rip it up choke it out singe it with, worries and rootless faith. he waits to deceive us into partaking of the knowledge of his will. He fills the world with temptations and illusions that will deceive us and enslave us. Which is why Paul prays for the new believers who are vulnerable and weak to be filled with the real knowledge of God’s will and to be strengthened. we must stand against the schemes of the devil, but we must pray too and walk worthy and please God and resist Satan. and then Pray for those coming up behind and around us as Paul prays for the Colossian peoples to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, strengthened with his might, steadfast, patient and made mature and complete. a well-established firmly rooted mature tree is much harder to tear up or knock down. Truth comes to us, so that we might be made perfect by that truth , it falls upon us by God’s will and good pleasure like seed falls on fertile ground. It is not our work; it is Christ’s work in us, the word of Truth radiating and filling us and transforming us in his time, in his might, and by his will. Our role is to worship, obey and please God, continuing in the faith, moving toward hope not away from it; that is a worthy walk. Paul wants so badly to instill these new believers with the understanding that they have only to hold fast and walk worthy. Christ has done the work, God does the work, and the holy spirit is doing the work.