4 June 2023 PM – Colossians 2:6-7– Col23 – Scott Childs
Introduction: When we were on holiday, I noticed in the paddock beside our cabin that the sheep had clearly worn paths where they had repeatedly walked. Though we do not think about it, we too have spiritual paths that we follow day after day. We should each have clear paths worn by our daily Bible reading and prayer time, by prayer before meals, by family Bible time, by meditating on God’s Word, by witnessing for the Lord, by faithful church attendance, by tithing and giving offerings, etc.
In our text this evening, the Apostle Paul says that we are to walk in Christ. What does that mean?
Transition: Colossians 2:6-7 reveals three ways that we ought to walk as Christians.
1. We ought to walk reflectively (v.6-7a).
Look at the verses.
a. Reflect on WHOM we received at salvation.
1) Reflect on His titles. Paul used three of them.
a) Christ (Messiah). Turn to John 4:29, 42.
b) Jesus (the incarnate God/Man, the Saviour). Turn to Matthew 1:21.
c) Lord (the sovereign of the universe). Turn to Revelation 17:24.
2) Reflect on His Person
a) Joseph Benson reminds us in his commentary that Jesus Christ was “a divinely-commissioned Teacher, Mediator, Saviour, and Lawgiver; yea, the great Prophet, Priest, and King of his church, and therefore your sovereign Lord, and the final Judge of men and angels.”
b) If we are going to walk correctly as Christians, we must know Jesus Christ the Lord very well.
b. Reflect on WHAT Christ did for us at salvation (v.7a).
1) We have been rooted in Christ. This took place ONE time, the moment of salvation.
a) When you plant a corn seed in the ground, before the corn sprout comes out of the ground, its roots have pushed into the earth where it finds nourishment.
b) When you trusted Christ, your new life was rooted in Christ. He is your source of spiritual nourishment.
c) Any religious person, who has not been rooted in Christ, is lost and heading for hell.
2) We are being built up in Christ.
a) He is our foundation. He is the soil that feeds and firms us. At salvation, God began building us up in Christ.
b) Being built up is both present tense and passive voice. We are being built up in Christ by the influence of another. The Holy Spirit is building us up in Christ. The Word of God is building us up in Christ. Biblical preaching is building us up in Christ. See Acts 20:32.
First, we ought to walk reflectively.
2. We ought to walk biblically (v.7b)
a. We must allow ourselves to be stablished in the faith.
1) The word stablished means to make firm, to confirm, to establish, or to make steadfast.
2) When you establish your footing on slippery ground, you take a firm stand.
3) The other day, I put a post in my garden to hold up a new grapevine. I stablished the post by wetting and packing the soil in the hole around the post to make it solid.
4) For our Christian walk to be strong, we must allow ourselves to be stablished in the faith. “The Faith” is the doctrines of Christianity. Solid Christians allow their faith to be built on Bible doctrine.
b. We must allow ourselves to be established in the faith, in a particular way.
1) Verse 7, finish the next phrase, Stablished in the faith … __ From what are we taught about the faith? __ The Bible!
2) The Bible is the Christian’s spiritual textbook. It is our doctrinal manual. It is our godliness pattern. It is our theological instruction. It is our directive map. It is our ultimate authority.
3) Walking the Christian life without the Bible is like sailing the ocean without a compass.
4) The Bible taught the Colossian believers (and us) truths that confirm one’s faith. These are the many instructions in the Bible regarding how to walk as a Christian to glorify God (e.g., the need for sanctification, separation, purity, love, sacrifice, witnessing, marriage roles, parenting principles, etc.)
5) How does the Bible teach us these truths?
a) It teaches us through daily reading it. Do you read God’s Word every day? Do you find principles in it to confirm your faith?
b) It teaches us when we meditate on what we read. Look at Psalm 1:2; Psalm 119:97; 119:148; 1Timothy 4:15.
c) It teaches us when we hear it taught.
d) Listening to biblical preaching teaches us. That is why God commands preachers to preach. See 2Timothy 4:2.
6) Without biblical teaching, Christians are unstable.
First, we ought to walk reflectively. Second, we ought to walk biblically.
3. We ought to walk appreciatively (v.7c).
a. We ought to be thankful for all Christ has done for us.
1) God is telling us here that we ought to be thankful for Christ Jesus the Lord, for being rooted in him at salvation, for being built up in him as a child of God and for all that we have been taught that has established our faith.
2) It is so easy to take these things for granted. Yet, without these blessings, we would all be heading for hell.
3) Turn over to Colossians 4:2. God again urges us to be thankful.
b. We ought to abound in this thanksgiving.
1) The Spirit of God inspired Paul to add the word abounding.
2) This word describes something that is running over or overflowing. When something overflows, its contents are so full that it cannot contain them all, and they spill over the sides. God desires that much of thankfulness from us.
Conclusion: We have found three ways that we ought to walk as Christians – reflectively, biblically, and appreciatively. We are to reflect on our Saviour and our salvation. We are to allow ourselves to be made firm in the faith, as we have learned through biblical teaching. We are to show abundant appreciation to God for all of these things. Will you work this week to flesh-out your Christian walk in these three ways?
