As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.

Colossians 1:18-2:7 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, ²⁰ and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

²¹ And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, ²² yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. ²⁵ Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, ²⁶ that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, ²⁷ to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. ²⁹ For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, ² that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴ I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. ⁵ For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.

⁶ Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

At the end of today’s text it says:  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Previously in the text it said:  Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.    To walk in Christ, we must remain firmly established and steadfast, we must not be moved from the hope of the gospel. The hope of the gospel is that as it says:  Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.    We who were alienated, separated from and even hostile toward God because of sin, are now reconciled to Him because of Christ and the blood of His cross. So, having received Christ and reconciliation, we are to walk in Him. We are to walk as redeemed. We are to walk as those who are not alienated, separated from or hostile toward God. If the hope of the gospel is redemption and reconciliation, we cannot remain steadfast, firmly established in faith, if we choose to continue to walk in the things which cause us to be alienated and separated from God.

So, how do we walk in Christ?  In John 14:15, Jesus says:   “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”     If only we would be able to keep His commandments, we could walk in Christ. If though people were able, on their own, to keep the commandments of God and Christ, Jesus would not have needed to die for our sins; our redemption and reconciliation. But neither our love for Christ nor the fear of separation from God is able to cause us to be steadfast to Him. Because of that Jesus continues in verses 16-27, saying:   “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him… If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”      In Matthew 6:24 Jesus says:  “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”    He said this regarding God or selfish material wealth. Which will be our master? Who or what will we serve?  The same though is true of all of our selfish and self satisfying desires. We can only serve one master. We are unable, on our own to remain fully steadfast to faith and righteousness in Christ. We have though been given the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. We have God and Christ with us and in us through the Helper, the Spirit of Truth. We must choose who will be our master. Will we be ruled by and serve ourselves, leading again to alienation? Or, will we yield to, be ruled by and serve the Holy Spirit?

James 1:13 says:  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.    Hebrews 4:15 says:   We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.   On our own we cannot remain steadfast. We will be tempted to serve ourselves. If we will walk in Christ, yielding to and serving the Holy Spirit, then we will have Christ in us, the hope of glory. We will be complete in Christ.  as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. You are my Father, my Lord and my Master. I have been reconciled through the blood of the cross. I choose to yield to and serve You, to walk in Christ by the indwelling power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.