I. In the 2022 NFL draft, the Seattle Seahawks took a cornerback in the fourth round who has an interesting name: Coby Bryant. I say his name is interesting because he was named after the professional basketball player, Kobe Bryant.
After the draft, he was asked by a reporter whether there was any pressure in being named after one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He responded, “Not really pressure—more of a privilege, honestly. It just means I have to work twice as hard to live up that name and set a name for myself as well, too, and most importantly, represent him as well as I can.” He knew that his parents had been great fans of the basketball player and had so named him in his honor, and was determined to live up to that name.
A. Walt Disney’s children also had to contend with wearing a famous name. When Charles Lindbergh’s son was kidnapped, Walt realized that celebrity’s families were at risk, so he completely shielded his daughters from publicity and never took them to big Disney events. In so doing, he protected them, but also kept them ignorant of the family legacy. When his daughter Dianne was six, a friend at school excitedly asked, “Is your father really Walt Disney?” Later that night, when Walt was reading the paper, Dianne exclaimed in exasperation, “Daddy, you never told me you were Walt Disney!”
B. As Christians, we too wear a great name. Unlike Dianne Disney, we know exactly who our namesake is. Like Coby, we are challenged with living up to the name that we wear. How often have we looked at a young man or woman on the verge of making their own way in the world and said, “He/she is going to be just like his/her father/mother?” Rom 8:28-29 speaks of our becoming like Christ. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” [NKJV]
This passage tells us that God’s plan for those who love Him is that they be “conformed to the image of His Son.” We wear Christ’s name; we need to do so in a manner that honors that great name. People need to look at us and say, “He/she is just like his Heavenly Father.”
C. Paul urged the Philippian brethren to consider that in Phil 1:27. “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Paul laid out in the surrounding verses three particular ways in which they needed to conduct themselves worthily of Christ in the face of the coming persecution: stand fast, be united, and not let the world’s opposition deter them. This is not the only place where Paul counsels Christians to walk worthily. Let’s look at what else Paul has to say on this topic.
II. Turn to 1 Thes 2:10-12. “You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”
Paul speaks of how he behaved when with the Thessalonians. Like a father toward his children, he exhorted (or encouraged) and comforted them. In particular, like a father toward his children he gave them a solemn charge to walk worthily of God. He is saying, “Live in such a way that you bring honor to your Father in heaven.”
III. In Col 1:9-12, Paul again describes how to walk worthily. “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”
A. In verse 9, Paul says “for this reason we also, since the day we heard it.” Obviously, we began reading here in the middle of a thought. It refers back to verse 4, where he speaks of having heard of their faith and acts of love. Recognizing their love for God, Paul now prays in verses 9-12 that they might in all ways conduct themselves worthily of the Lord in order to fully please him. Paul tells us much here about how to do that, expanding still further upon his comments to the Philippians that we looked at previously.
B. Firstly, in verse 9, Paul prays that the Colossian brethren “may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord.” He tells us that being filled with knowledge of God’s will is a necessary precondition of a walk worthy of the Lord. This makes sense. How can we live up to our Father’s legacy if we don’t even know Him?
1. Psalm 1:1-2 tells us that the blessed man, as opposed to the ungodly of verse 4, delights in God’s law and thinks upon it continuously. “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.”
Obviously, we cannot study all day and night every day. But daily reading and study can give food for thought that our mind can continue to think upon as we go about our daily business. How do we measure up against this standard: “In His law he meditates day and night?”
2. But Paul’s prayer wasn’t for knowledge alone, but knowledge “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” To walk worthily, we need spiritual wisdom as well as knowledge. Thus Paul warned in 1 Cor 8:1 that “knowledge puffs up” and in 1 Cor 13:2 that knowledge without love is nothing. Where knowledge is the accumulation of information, wisdom is the ability to apply that knowledge to the situations we encounter in our daily lives. We need both.
Thus Paul tells Timothy in 2 Tim 2:15 that he needs to take care that he learns to “rightly divide the word of truth,” or as the ESV puts it, “rightly handling the word of truth.” That’s not just learning Bible facts and stories, but learning how to handle them, use them, apply them.
3. There is an oft-told story (probably apocryphal) of a prince of Granada who was imprisoned in the old prison at the Place of the Skulls in Madrid to keep him from aspiring to the throne. He was kept in solitary confinement for 33 years and given only a Bible with which to occupy his mind. When finally released, his gleanings from the Bible were found to have been scratched into the walls of his cell. He had made many discoveries, such as:
•The word Lord is found 1,853 times in the Bible.
•Psalm 117:8 is the middle verse of the Bible.
•Esther 8:9 is the longest verse.
•The longest word in the Bible has 6 syllables.
Given 33 years of Bible study, he had learned only trivia.
4. How do we acquire wisdom? James 1:5 says to pray for it, just as we saw earlier that Paul did for the Colossians. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
We also acquire wisdom by studying with an eye to application. This suggests a theme for the meditation the Psalmist says we should engage in after reading: “What does this passage mean for my own life and conduct?”
Heb 5:13-14 reads, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Paul chastised them as unable to handle digesting the solid food of the word (difficult things, as opposed to the milk, or basic principles). He tells us how we mature to the point of being able to take difficult scripture and properly discern from it what is good and what is evil:
•“By reason of use”
•“Exercised”
•ESV reads, “by constant practice”
We get better at applying the scripture, we gain spiritual wisdom, by constantly practicing applying it to our own lives. Always study with an eye to application.
C. Returning to Col 1:10, Paul tells us that in order to “walk worthy of the Lord” we must also be “fruitful in every good work.”
1. Our heavenly Father has set a pretty high standard for us to emulate as His children. James 1:17 tells us that everything that is good in this world comes as a gift from God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
2 Pet 1:3-4 says that everything we need in this life and the next has been given to us by God, with the expectation that we take upon ourselves His nature. “… as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
•Everything we need in life.
•“Exceedingly great and precious promises” of eternal life.
He has given us so much, and we are to become giving like Him, partaking of His divine nature.
2. Heb 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” The writer enjoins us to stir up one another to love and to good works. How better could we do that than through our own acts of love, our own good works?
3. I can’t help but think of the example of Tabitha in Acts 9:36-39. “At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did. But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them.”
Her good works that are described for us were not great life-changing tasks, but simple acts that said that she cared. But what love they stirred up. I wonder what other good works were done due to her example? I wonder if she had children. What a legacy to try to live up to, to be said to be worthy of her name. We are God’s children, wearing Christ’s name. What an even greater legacy to live up to in terms of our good works!
4. Mt 5:13-16 shows that in addition to stirring up love and further good works, our good works are our greatest tool for evangelism. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
D. Returning again to Col 1:10, Paul says that to walk worthily of the Lord we must be “increasing in the knowledge of God.” We already spoke of the importance of studying God’s word. We will take time here only to take note that we need to continue to increase in knowledge. We should never come to a point where we feel we know enough and can be content. The blessed child of God continues to dwell upon the law of the Lord day and night.
2 Pet 3:17-18 tells us that growing in knowledge protects us from forgetting and from failing to live by what we have already learned. “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
I looked back recently at some technical things I had written during my career and was surprised that I could not even understand much of it anymore. What we don’t use we lose very quickly. We cannot let that happen with our spiritual knowledge.
E. As we look for the next thing that Paul tells us is necessary if we are to walk worthily of the Lord, he says in Col 1:11, “strengthened with all might.”
As our heavenly Father is immeasurably strong and is never intimidated by anything the world can muster against Him, so we are to be strong as we face the world. As Paul wrote in Phil 1:28 with respect to conducting ourselves worthily of the Lord, we are not to be “in any way terrified by your adversaries.” The world is scary. So how do we do that? Paul tells us in the next phrase in Col 1:11: “according to His glorious power.” We become strong when we quit fretting over the fact that we cannot overcome the world’s obstacles ourselves and begin focusing instead upon God’s power to do so for us.
Consider Eph 1:15-21. “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
Paul’s prayer is that their eyes might be opened to really know, really understand, really appreciate just how great God’s power is “toward us who believe” (vs 19). This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, that seated Jesus on His throne in heaven in spite of the opposition of the devil and his minions, that God wields on behalf of “us who believe.” We need to let go of our pride in self and lean wholly upon God’s power with confidence.
F. Paul says next in our text for this morning, in Col 1:11, “for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” Our family legacy is one of loving patience and longsuffering with one another. Psalm 103:8 describes God as “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.” That phrase is used at least 7 other times in the scriptures to describe God. What hope would we have if He was not patient with us, if He wrote us off when we sinned egregiously? If we are to wear Christ’s name, are to walk worthily of that name, we, too, must be patient with one another. So Paul went on in the third chapter of his letter to the Colossians, in verse 13, to remind them that they needed to be “bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
G. Finally, in Col 1:12, Paul tells us that part of walking worthily is “giving thanks to the Father.” We can’t walk worthily of His name without being thankful for what He has done for us.
•1:12 made us qualified (when we were not) to partake of His inheritance
•1:13 delivered us from the power of Satan
•1:13 made us part of the kingdom of His loving Son
•1:14 redeemed us, at the expense of His Son’s blood, from the guilt of our sins.
To walk worthily, we must be constantly thankful.
IV. So here in Colossians we have a second summation of what it means to walk worthily of the Lord, expanding upon that in Philippians.
When a young soldier was hauled into Alexander the Great’s tent to answer for charges of cowardice and desertion, he was terrified. Alexander asked him if he was guilty of the charges, and the soldier confessed. Alexander then asked his name, and the soldier said, “My name is Alexander, sir.” Alexander the Great leapt to his feet, grabbed the soldier by the collar, and shouted, “Either you change your life, or you change your name!”
We are wearing the name of Christ. We need to ensure that we are conducting our lives worthily of that great name.
