“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.”
(Colossians 2:6–7 ESV)
Paul is writing to the church, Christians, reminding them of the gospel and encouraging them. As you are Christians – then WALK in Him. Biblically speaking, to “walk” is to “live.” So then, as Schaeffer said – How then shall we live?
First way is “rooted and built up in Him.” This means to be a Christian, our hope, our lives, our purpose, our mission is centered around Jesus. We are to be “rooted” in Jesus, like a tree’s roots go deep into the soil, so the roots of our lives should go deep into Jesus getting our nourishment from him.
This world tempts us to sink our roots into other soil – We must be careful to see what sold our roots are actually in.
That brings us to the second way – we are to walk “established in the faith”. We are to live as those who are confirmed, sustained, strong in the faith. Note we also see that this is “just as we were taught.” It’s the faith that we were taught. We learn this in His word, the Bible.
These two things, living rooted and built up in him; walking established in the faith as you were taught – should then result in something.
So what’s the result? Thankfulness. Not mere thankfulness – overflowing, abundant thankfulness. This is something that is ours to do, ours to recognize.
We can live in abundant thankfulness because of what Christ has done in our lives.
We were dead in sin, unable to save ourselves, alienated from God, objects of His wrath, broken and needing healing and we can’t fix ourselves. God in his mercy and grace, gave us Jesus. We then live transformed lives and we then abound in thanksgiving.
This gospel-based thanksgiving can transcend circumstances because it’s based on what Christ has done. This Thanksgiving, let’s abound in thankfulness for what Jesus has done.
