Walking in Faith
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Colossians 2:6-8
God’s holy word describes Christ Jesus as the founder and perfecter of our faith (see Hebrews 12:2). Faith starts with God. Salvation starts with God. Sanctification is through God’s holy grace. We cause none of it. It all begins with God and leads to God glorified. Praise be to God!
Paul encourages believers in the Colossian church to continue allowing God to do the work in them that He started and has been doing, carrying them on the path toward sanctification. The short passage is packed with meaning. To begin understanding what Paul is saying, we should consider a few questions. What is happening, to whom, by whom, and when? Let’s step through the passage with the questions in mind.
“As you received Christ Jesus the Lord….” In the same way that you received Christ Jesus, walk in Him. How do people receive Christ Jesus? We receive Him by God’s holy grace through Christ Jesus by faith (see Romans 3:24). But before we start thinking that we caused it to happen, that we triggered it all by our faith, and it was our doing, we must realize that faith is a gift from God (see Ephesians 2:8). When people receive Christ Jesus, God is the initiator and actor. God is doing the work. We merely receive His holy grace. We are passive and our job is to simply not block it or prevent it from happening.
We receive Christ Jesus by God’s holy grace by faith and Paul calls us to walk in Christ Jesus in the same way. He calls us to walk in Christ Jesus by faith. Again, faith is a gift from God, it is a matter of God’s holy grace. Just as God is the initiator and actor of our salvation, He is also the primary actor in our walk in Christ Jesus.
We might try to convince ourselves that the walk is ours and if we somehow walk perfectly enough God is somehow obligated to bestow His holy grace upon us. We think that if we do such and such, we will somehow earn an extra portion of God’s favor and love, but that is simply not how the system works. God loves us, but we must simply avail ourselves to Him so we are able to experience Him and the influence of His love in our lives. Availing ourselves to Him means not blocking Him.
The thought that we might block His influence on our lives is like Paul’s warning to the church in Thessalonica. As he concludes the letter, Paul writes,
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
Of course, we are unable to quench or extinguish the Holy Spirit in the sense of altering His existence – He is the all-powerful Creator of the universe, and we have no power over Him. However, we can limit the influence of His Holy Presence on us by rejecting His love, withdrawing from Him, neglecting our relationship with Him, focusing on things contrary to His holy Presence, pursuing immorality, and the like, simply because He chooses not to force Himself on anyone. He has all power and authority over everything everywhere and He could force Himself on us if He so chose, but that is not how He chooses to operate.
The thought is also like Paul’s warning to the church in Ephesus when he urges them not to grieve the Holy Spirit (see Ephesians 4:30). We put up barriers in our lives revealing our opposition to Him, and this hinders our ability to receive Him. It also hinders the effectiveness of God’s ongoing activity that Paul mentions in the next phrases. Paul continues writing,
“[S]o walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith….” Colossians 2:7-8
The verbs translated as rooted, built up and established are perfect tense verbs reflecting an on-going process that God is doing in, to and through us. It might be better to say being rooted, being built up, being established, sort of like a tree. When its root grows deeper who is the actor? Does the root change because of the tree’s doing or God’s? When the plant matures from a sapling to a mighty oak, is that the tree’s doing or God’s? Ideally, we are passive subjects of a continuous process that started even before we came to believe, when by God’s holy grace we felt His stirring in our hearts that led to faith – the process of being rooted, being built up and being established, continues today and, God willing, He will continue working on us tomorrow and the next day and the next. We must simply allow Him to work in our lives.
With respect to everything so far, God is the actor, and we are the passive recipients of His actions, but what about the notion of walking in Him? Paul writes, “So walk in him.” Walking sounds like an action verb and the person who walks is the actor; however, here the word is used figuratively. The original Greek uses a word that means carry yourself, lead your life, follow, etc. It is a present tense active verb referring the conduct of life. It is an order, but it does not involve physical movement. The NIV translates this as “continue to live your lives in him.”
The word translated here as walk is the same word John uses when he writes,
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7; and
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 1 John 2:4-6
Walking with Christ Jesus, walking in light or darkness, and walking in the same way that Jesus walked are ways of referring to a general conduct of life. What sort of life are we living? Are we seeking to embody His Spirit, His holiness, Him? Does our conduct promote His flourishing within us?
Paul concludes the sentence saying, “abounding in thanksgiving.” This is the glorious result.
Faith is a gift from God, salvation is a gift from God; and sanctification is a gift from God. We do not cause any of it to happen. We merely receive the gifts and avoid things that would prevent God from working in us and through us. It is all about faith and not blocking God’s work in our lives and responding to His holy transformative work, and this is where it gets a little confusing because our response may give an appearance suggesting doing things to earn God’s favor, but it’s not. Its possibly a little like a child on Christmas morning. Did the child earn gifts by awaking that morning, shuffling to the tree and unwrapping them? Absolutely not; however, perhaps she availed herself to the gift givers by simply avoiding the naughty list. We can never earn God’s grace, yet we must continually guard against that thought.
In the next sentence Paul discusses a few things that might block God from working His holy transformation in our lives, but before we consider that, let’s consider some paths that enhance God’s influence in our lives. John Wesley and many others refer to these pathways, avenues through which God’s holy grace freely flows, as means of grace. Prayer, studying God’s holy word, singing songs of praise, worshiping alone and with others, and activities of the sort open our hearts to allow God’s holy grace in. We should strive to make those activities part of our daily lives so we will not prevent Him from doing His holy transformative work within us.
As you do so, as you live your life focusing on Him through prayer and studying His holy word and worshiping, as you walk in Him, walk in the light, walk as Christ Jesus walked, please avoid the temptation of thinking you are somehow earning His grace. We can never earn His holy grace. It is a gift we must simply receive, and by opening ourselves up to Him increasingly more, we receive increasingly more of Him, which is the most glorious reward possible. But it’s not because we have earned it – we can never earn His holy grace – it is merely because we availed ourselves to Him.
So what hinders the influence of His holy grace in our lives? In the next sentence Paul writes,
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8
The world is filled with systems of thought based on human intelligence that are contrary to God’s holy word. The word translated as philosophy refers to the love of intelligence that elevates human intelligence to a loftier position than it deserves. God created us in His image, and He created us as intelligent beings, so intelligence is good and we should use the intelligence we have for His glory. However, we humans have a knack for misusing God’s gifts. We do not need to look very far to see evidence of a belief that human wisdom is superior to God’s wisdom. In the world around us we see those who ridicule and mock God’s holy word and deem humans supreme, and as a result, the world’s systems veer toward utter chaos.
The word translated as deceit suggests a motivation to mislead, trick or cheat, something akin to fraud. The word translated as elemental spirits, stoicheia, is used in four different ways in Greco-Roman literature. In places it refers to religious teaching, elemental building blocks of the physical world, astrological deities, or spiritual beings in general.[i] By using stoicheia, Paul indicates that both human and spiritual influences lead people astray and prevent God’s holy transformation from taking place.
Worldly distractions trip us up on our walk with Christ. They get us off track and mislead us. They block God’s holy influence on our lives and, as a result, they hinder our ability to walk in Christ Jesus. We walk in Christ Jesus the same we that we received Him, by God’s holy grace through Christ Jesus by faith. And our faith is by God’s holy grace.
Christ Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. It all begins with God and ends with God glorified. Our purpose is to glorify God. May you continuously avail yourself to God through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[i] Heiser, Michael, The Unseen Realm; Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Lexham Press, 2015, p327.