“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7; NKJV)
Receiving Christ Jesus as the Lord of your life is the beginning. It is the beginning of life here. It is the beginning of a journey from here to eternity. It is the beginning of a journey that is made with Him.
We are to walk in Christ the same way we received Christ – by faith. The sense of “the faith” here is objective, referring to the truth revealed by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual maturity develops upward from the foundation of truth as revealed by the Spirit, taught and recorded by the Apostles. This rooting, building, and establishing is in sound doctrine.
The Spirit uses the images of a tree (rooted) and a building (built up) to remind them of their firm foundation in what they have already been taught. Just as trees draw nourishment from the soil through their roots, so we draw our life-giving strength from Christ. “Rooted” is perfect participle, implying an abiding fact. “Built up” is in the present tense of a continued process. Christ is the ground for the roots below, and the foundation for the building above.
Thanksgiving is characteristic of those walking in Him. As we receive Him our hearts fill with gratitude. As we come to know Him more fully our hearts fill with gratitude. As we are built up in Him and established more fully in the faith our hearts fill with gratitude.
To walk in Christ is to live a life patterned after His. It is to think His thoughts. It is to speak His word. It is to model His behavior.
In 2009 we considered our walk in Him. In 2010 we will consider where we are going. We are going to Heaven: “For our citizenship is in Heaven” (Philippians 3:20; NKJV). While we make our journey from Earth to Heaven we “eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21; NKJV). We look “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2; NKJV). We look for “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10; NKJV). We long to “see His face” (Revelation 22:4; NKJV).
Walk with Him in 2010. Look for the city of God. Long to see His face.
