“that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”
Paul’s purpose in this passage is that the Colossians would consistently live a life that pleases God.
“that you may walk “
“Walk” means to live a course of life as a philosophy of life (Co. 2:6; 3:7; 4:5). We must not divorce our position in Christ from our daily course of life. The standing of the believer must relate to the state of his life. The first two chapters of Colossians set forth our status quo before God; it is perfect in Christ. Although our position is right before God, we must apply the changes in our walk if our position will be effective on a daily basis. If we live a carnal life, it will not affect the status of our standing before God. However, God is interested in our walk.
Paul holds up a high ideal that we “walk worthy of the Lord.” Paul never separated doctrine from life or theology from experience. The word “walk” unites what we believe with how we live. H.C.G. Moule says we are to “beware of an untheological devotion.” That kind of devotion will ultimately evaporate and disintegrate. The Christian life cannot function without truth.
Paul is concerned that an alien philosophy will invade Christian truth. He wants the Colossians both to know both what they believe and live out their convictions. Many people believe that they can live a healthy spiritual life with a minimum of Bible teaching. However warm and fuzzy this thinking may be, it is dangerous to the very foundation of Christianity. There is no “last” to it. Fashions of thought and attractive personalities cannot sustain the Christian life.
“worthy of the Lord”
The word “worthy” means of equal value. The adverb “worthy” means suitably, in a becoming manner, in a manner of equal value with the thing (in our case —a person) referred to. We are to walk according to the equal value of the Lord. Our lives are to be commensurate with who our Lord is. Our lives should reflect the person we know so intimately. The way we live should mirror our Lord and what he did for us. Is our life consistent with the character of Christ (Compare 1 Th 2:12; Ro 16:2; Eph 4:1; Phil 1:27)? Creed and conduct are inseparable.
None of us are worthy. Our goal is to walk so that it will reflect on the Lord of glory positively.
Principle:
Walking worthy of the Lord presupposes that we know who and what the Lord is and has done so that we can match our life with his provision for us.
Application:
Are we praying for each other in these days of doctrinal erosion? Is your life suited or fitted for the Lord you serve? Do you have a case of arrested spiritual development? Are you eating right spiritually? Maybe spiritual paralysis has set in? You may not be totally paralyzed, just immobilized. We may be impotent in the Christian life. Are we operating at 50% of our peak potential? We could be 50% better Christian if we “walked worthy” of the Lord.
Our walk is our testimony. The Christian’s testimony (2 Cor. 1:12) is like a young woman’s reputation. It takes a long time to build but a very short time to lose it. Once we lose our testimony, it takes a long time to build confidence in us again. The attitude of many people is, “They did it once, they’ll do it again. They will revert to type.”
Excellent teaching and teacher.
Thank you.
this is very awesome to me. thank god for giving you a revelation to relate to those of us who is concern about our walk in this life that it may be pleasing to our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. may god continue to increase you in wisdom and knowledge of him.
continuing the works,
mary
Thank you, Mary.
I just love your phrasing such as ‘these days of spiritual erosion’ and ‘arrested spiritual development.’ I see you wrote the above in 1996–when the Internet was just getting going. Now, 20 years later, we can almost pine for the cultural condition of 1996.
How I thank our Lord that we believers who actually want to grow and apply our life in Christ to the real world can feel secure in gleaning spiritual growth from counting you among those we can look to for ‘rightly handling’ the Word!
Steve, you expressed it perfectly.
Steve, I am in Indonesia right now so I do not have a lot of time to go into this, however, my book Certainty, a Place to Stand was written as a critique of post-concervative evangelicalism. The book is tight, philosophical, and argued with close logic so it is not a popular book. However, I did not write it for the average believer or even the average pastor because I wanted to answer post-conservative arguments. Post-conservatism arose out of the principle of accommodation to culture. The culture has overwhelmed evangelicals so that they have lost their message. The post-modern, post-conservative movement began in ernest about the time I started writing on the Internet in the early 90s. This movement has caused a serious blunting of hunger for the Word because it places a pall on the Word itself. There is no truth for certain; everything has a dimension of skepticism.
Thanks much for this, Grant. I read it earlier, pondered on it, am going to order your book–but I never thanked you for it. It seems that the ‘hungering’ or lack thereof to by-the-Book believers at times, is indeed a the result of a blunting of even a need for spiritual hunger.
I was going over a critique of the various manifestations of the Textus Receptus with my pastor the other day. And I noticed that the 19th century, while a blossoming of spiritual giants (Moody, et al), it was also the period of the birth of many anti-Christian cults and religions.
I’m thinking that this blunting might be the culture’s go-along-to-get-along disease that has spilled onto the Christian church. There are many manifestations for it–easy-believism, the name-it-and-claim-it Gospel and so forth. I get very heartsick when I’m sharing the Gospel with someone and they tell me garbage like, ‘Steve, thank you, but that’s YOUR truth…’
Much prayer is needed for I do feel the Lord is at hand and we must work for the night is truly coming… (I won’t sing! Ha!)
Thanks again for your ministry. I will keep telling others about it.
I do trust Indonesia is/was a time of rewarding for you, Grant.
Good morning, Grant (at least from here in the Washington, DC area)
As your ‘contact’ form has been disabled, I’m trying to reach you about a linking issue. If you are reading this today (March 30, 2016), when I went to click on Matt 7:12, I’m taken to Titus. You have another similar comment on that exegetical portion dated October of 2015. I believe it would be a simple thing for your webmaster to straighten out.
Again, only in eternity will you know the breadth and depth of your ministry and how you are such a blessing to those who ‘feed on His word’ daily. I feel as though I am invited up into a chariot by the driver ‘Do you know what you are reading?…” as you explain and expand the Word before me.
Our Lord’s richest blessing to you, Grant.
Steve, thank you for alerting me to this. I will send you my contact information separately.