Four Ways to Walk in a Manner Worthy of the Lord              (Col. 1:10-12)

To walk in a manner worthy of the Lord in order to please Him in every area of one’s life, this does not mean to walk so that one becomes worthy of the Lord or His salvation, but to walk in a manner that is consistent with and conforms to what God has done for us in Christ.

St.Paul describes four directions to a worthy walk that pleases the Lord. Certainly, there are other Christ-like qualities every Christian should manifest, but these four illustrate the kind of character that should be found in a Spirit filled, Word filled Christian.

1. Bearing fruit in every good deed,

2. Growing in (or by) the knowledge of God,

3. Being strengthened with all power, and

4. Giving thanks to the Father.

Let’s note that “bearing fruit” is a continuous present. This not only reminds us that our lives are to be perennial or constant sources of fruit for the Lord, but the continuous present calls to mind the ongoing work of the Father as our spiritual vine keeper.

Fruitfulness in the Christian life certainly includes the following three areas:

The cultivation of our own spiritual lives in such Christian virtues as self-control, meekness, patience, and faithfulness.

The cultivation of worship—confession, praise, prayer, thanksgiving, and the adoration of God in song, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord.

The cultivation of loving ministry or service for others—witnessing, teaching, encouraging one another, helping through deeds of kindness and compassion, giving, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice, hospitality, etc.

Being fruitful in every good work is not only a call for us to be balanced and productive in several areas of good works, but it should also be seen as a reminder that we can be engaged in good works, but without genuine fruitfulness. It is sad but true that our good works can be dead works—the works of the flesh—works done in our own energy and from wrong motives. Works that are the products of wrong motives (to please self, to impress others, to outdo others, etc.) do not please God because He is neither the source nor the energy behind the works produced.

We are probably not surprised by the responsibility to bear fruit in every good deed or by the need to grow by the knowledge of God, but the concept of being strengthened for the display of steadfastness and longsuffering might be somewhat surprising. But why? If we are typical of many Christians, we may be surprised because the goal of steadfastness and longsuffering is so different from the typical reasons people generally have for desiring God’s strength. We want healing from our diseases, miracle cures in our relationships, sudden deliverances from our life-dominating patterns, but above all, we simply want God to remove our problems with the pain they bring. And when do we want this? Well, NOW, of course! In fact, yesterday would have been better!! Unfortunately, as Christians we are often indifferent to the purposes that God has in suffering both in us and in those around us.

The power of God is one of the great themes and propositions. Through Christ, God promises us power and strength for every situation of life, yet our tendency is to trust in ourselves as though we were sufficient, which we are not (see 2 Cor. 2:14-16 with 3:5). We may trust in ourselves because we each have, by God’s grace, our own abilities and talents, our gifts, our money, our education, our experience and background, or whatever human resources we think we have; so we are ever-prone turn to these to bail ourselves out of life’s difficulties. Or we fail to look to God for strength because our faith is simply too small. Our faith is more theoretical than it is actual. Or we fail to look to God for strength because we are afraid of the conflict; we know that if we are going to trust the Lord, we must sometimes crawl out on a limb or be exposed to significant pain.

God’s power is evidenced in our lives not only in our patience and longsuffering, but also in our joyfulness. When circumstances are difficult, we should exhibit joyful patience; and when people are hard to live with, we should reveal joyful longsuffering. Happiness often depends on happenings. If circumstances are encouraging and people are kind, we are happy. But joy is independent of both circumstances and people.

Josephine  D’Souza

Lector