Being fruitful in every good work

Colossians
{1:1} Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,
{1:2} To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
{1:3} We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
{1:4} Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
{1:5} For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
{1:6} Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew
the grace of God in truth:
{1:7} As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;
{1:8} Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
{1:9} For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding

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{1:10} That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Walk worthy of the Lord
Unto all pleasing
being fruitful in every good work
increasing in the knowledge of God.

Here you are, you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you've repented and asked for forgiveness for doing things that would keep you separated from God and that moment is amazing, it's wonderful, the newly formed relationship with the Lord is beyond words. Yet very few people accept Christ into their lives and then die a moment later so that they don't have to live a life in Christ.

Accepting Christ as your Savior is step one- living in Christ is step two.

Paul in writing to the new believers at Colosse had much to say.

He's telling them this-

'Walk worthy of the Lord.' What does it mean to walk worthy of the Lord?

Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God.

Walk Worthy- be fruitful - how? In every good work. AND increasing in the knowledge of God.

Every good work.

A stumblingblock for so many people who shout- WE'RE NOT SAVE BY WORKS!

I shout back- NO, WE'RE NOT SAVE BY WORKS BUT BY GRACE, BUT GRACE DOESN'T MEAN THERE SHOULD BE NO GOOD WORKS. Good works aren't going to save you and it's a mistake to think they will, but good works are necessary because Christ's entire ministry here on earth had to do with being an example to us and the good works HE did are countless! He didn't sit back and say do nothing just believe. He didn't say believe and do nothing else at all. If our Savior who did all manner of good works in His ministry on earth wants to live in us through His Holy Spirit it stands to reason that we would live a life similar to Christ's- ministering to others in all we do.

Seriously.

Our lives are to be lived- walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work.

Truly I will shout from the rooftops that I am not saved by a single good work, not one! But in the next breath I'll proclaim walking in Christ, walking worthy of the Lord, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.

Do you see? Every action we make after we are forgiven by God and seek a life in Him through the sacrifice of His Son can draw us closer to Him- increasing our knowledge of Him or further away.

Ask yourself what the outcome of your actions are as you're going through the day but be careful when you do so because it's dangerous.

I mean it.

It's dangerous.

Why?

It's dangerous because the revelation of just how much we do that has nothing to do with drawing closer to God, increasing in the knowledge of Him, will tend to lead us to despair and we know where despair leads us, completely away from Christ.

If there is a single thing you do each day that helps you draw closer to God that's wonderful! Truly wonderful. Yet like the Pharisee who claimed didn't I pray every day, ten times a day, didn't I give to the poor, didn't I do this and that- held up against the lowly man who cried out, forgive me Lord, I'm a sinner- we have to remember none of our actions save us only Christ saves us and the actions afterwards become the shared ministry of Christ.

It's like you become a policeman and as soon as you take off your badge and gun after work you go out and live a life full of crime. Instantly we all agree that policeman is corrupt! Like a doctor who hangs up his smock and stethoscope only to go out and get pleasure from inflicting injury and pain on others- corrupt! Like a fireman who turns out to be an arsonist, like a preacher who turns out to be deep in gambling and sex addiction.

We cry corrupt! We shout it out and point our fingers boldly, corrupt!

Yes, we as Christians claim Christ and go and continue on in our sins readily, we claim Christianity but to an outsider watching us through the day they would have no idea we were a Christian, none, not by our actions, not by the way we live our lives. Oh, we smile at them and say, I'm a Christian, and they blink at us in confusion, nod and smile and silently wonder what our idea of Christianity is.

That old bumper sticker, 'Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven', is so misleading! It is. Is there any truth to it? Yes. A whole lot of truth but it's not something any Christian should be proud of in the sense we blame any action others might catch us in that is unseemly for one who claims Christianity and we say, I'm forgiven, don't worry, God understands He knows I’m not perfect.

Is that true? It very well could be true because we cannot judge another's relationship with Christ to the point of judging their eternal life, but we have to have the ability to discern actions whether they are actions Christ would perform or actions He would condemn.

{1:10} That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God

We cannot throw out good works as much as we might want to do so because we don't want to be accountable for our actions.

{1:10} That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

We are Christians. We are followers of Christ. We take on the mantle of a Christian just as a doctor takes an oath to save lives, a policeman takes an oath to serve and protect, we are Christians and our oath is claiming the Salvation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and living a life with Him in us through His Holy Spirit, seeking to forever be closer and closer to God. Our actions should reflect our claims. And our actions like a new doctor who makes a mistake and has to learn the ropes, or like the policeman who makes a bad judgement call as a rookie while they're learning-- might seem far from what we imagine a Christian's actions to be but we are learning and growing in Christ, it's a process and while I don't know where you are along that line of growth in Christ, you don't know where I am, and we have to pray for one another that no matter where we are - in rookie/resident land- or further along- that our walk will be one of constant growth towards furthering our knowledge of God. Christ came to show us the way to the Father and it's Him we all should seek to know fully.

May the Grace of Christ be with us all as we walk in Christ.

Amen.