In this, the opening verses of his letter, Paul praises the Colossians for the good that is in their church, and by encouraging them in verse 10 to “live a life worthy of Christ.”
“Live a life worthy of Christ…” -- Easier said than done.
In the movie, Saving Private Ryan, actor Tom Hanks plays an army captain who is among those American soldiers who took part in the D-Day Invasion of World War II. Shortly after the invasion, this captain is put in charge of a special mission -- save Private Ryan. Ryan’s brothers have all been killed in different battles during a short period of time. Only he survives among his siblings. The military decides Private Ryan must be located and returned safely home to his family.
But the search is not easy. Many of the men in the group are shot and killed along the way. The cost is incredibly high. At one point, the character played by Tom Hanks talks to his men and in frustration says, “This Ryan had better be worth it. He’d better be a genius or something. He’d better live a long life and do something like invent a longer lasting light bulb or something.”
Finally, they find Private Ryan. But before returning to safety, the captain is shot. Mortally wounded, he looks up at Private Ryan and with his last breath, says, “Earn this.”
It is a touching moment.
The captain died for this private, and the private had better live up to that honor.
Christ died for us, and we’d better live up to that honor.
Our lives should reflect that the sacrifice made by Christ was worth His life.
It is a tall order -- live a life worthy of Christ. In the movie, Saving Private Ryan, we get a glimpse of this. A man is about to die. He orders the soldier for whom he has given his life to live up to his sacrifice and to earn it. No one would want to sacrifice his or her life for nothing. We would want it to count for something. We would want the person for whom we died to live a life worthy of the life we were giving up.
So -- Christ died for you. Your life, therefore, had better be worth that sacrifice.
How do we do that?
Paul wrote his letter in the Greek language and what we read in English as a phrase is actually a single word. “Live a life” is the single word that actually means “walk.”
In fact, some English translations render it this way. The King James Version, for example, says, “Walk worthy of the Lord.”
Now how does one live -- or walk -- in a manner that is worthy of the Lord?
Well, if you take a look at how one literally walks, we do it with two legs -- at least, if we are born healthy and keep our health
St. Paul tells us that we live worthy, or walk worthy, by using two spiritual legs.
Take a look at what he says in his letter, in verse 10: “We pray that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God.”
One leg is bearing good fruit and the other is knowledge of God.
One leg is action, the other education.
Think about education. Time and again, the Bible affirms the value of knowledge and understanding.
Psalm 119, verse 66 has a prayer in which the psalmist begs God, “Teach me knowledge and good judgment.”
Proverbs 1, verse 7, says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”
One of the things that has always been a part of the Presbyterian Church is that we have valued education, knowledge and understanding.
Years ago I served a church in Tennessee. That church had been established in 1779 and is the oldest Presbyterian Church in Tennessee. The Session of that church is the oldest continuing governing body of any sort in the state of Tennessee. Shortly after that church was organized, the pastor and elders opened the first school in the community. A short time after that, the pastor opened the first college in the area.
That’s the way it was all over this country. Many of the first schools were started by Presbyterian ministers and churches.
This tradition continues today. Presbyterians value education and knowledge.
Our denomination supports and maintains 66 colleges and universities.
We believe that knowledge is important. When we learn about Calculus, we are not just studying numbers -- we are learning about the principles by which God operates the universe. When we study astronomy, we are learning about the universe God created.
St. Paul once told his student St. Timothy, “Study to show yourself approved unto God.” (II Tim 2:15, King James)
I’m sure that in some community somewhere there is a Presbyterian Church that does not offer a Bible Study or Sunday School – but I’ve never found such a church. Presbyterians are people who love to study the Bible and who struggle with applying what they learn with how they live.
You want to live -- or walk -- in a manner worthy of Christ?
Use your mind.
Study.
Learn.
Grow in knowledge and understanding.
Learn all you can about God’s world, and God’s Word.
But don’t be a one-legged walker. It takes more than knowledge to walk in a manner worthy of Christ.
The other leg we need for our spiritual walk is “action” -- taking what you learn from God and putting it into the actions of your day to day living.
In the words of Jesus and the Apostles, this was called “bearing fruit.”
You can grow a good plant of some sort, but if you are a farmer, you expect that plant to produce some decent fruit of some sort. Otherwise it is worthless. God has planted us. He expects us to produce decent fruit in our lives.
Much of my life has been spent in South Carolina, and most people in that area take advantage of the wonderful soil and climate and plant these wonderful gardens. I would plant corn and peanuts and potatoes and okra and squash, and all sorts of things. And they would grow. They would produce great crops. “Bear fruit” as the Bible would say. Once in a while, I would plant something that failed -- and that failed miserably.
Green beans for example.
One year I planted lots of green beans. But between my somewhat brown thumb (as opposed to a green thumb), the unusually dry weather, and all the deer that would come into the yard, I harvested one green bean.
I don’t mean I had one plant filled with good green beans. I mean I had one single green string bean.
You have to be on a pretty strict diet for a single bean to be worth anything.
God expects us to produce some decent fruit in our life. He expects us to do great things that are worthy. We don’t earn God’s love or salvation that way -- we earn that freely by God’s grace. But having experienced God’s love and salvation, we ought to respond by living, walking, a life worthy of Christ -- we ought to want to produce a life that “bears good fruit.”
Are you producing fruit in your life?
Do you show love to others?
Do you give generously to others?
Do you join in ventures such as the supporting our work in Haiti,
or our youth ministries,
or our Enhancement Campaign?
You don’t have to build a college or hospital in order to bear fruit. Bearing fruit is in the day-to-day way you live your life. It’s in the simple things.
St. Paul tells the Colossians that if they are to face up to the world’s secular influences and live a life worthy of Christ -- walk in a manner worthy of Christ -- then they must use their two legs -- actions and knowledge. Or as he says in verse 10: “bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.”
Now, sometimes, in our physical lives, we find we need some help in walking. Two legs are not always enough. We need canes, walkers, wheelchairs, or even artificial legs.
The same is true in the spiritual realm. And Paul tells us in Colossians about three things that can assist us in our spiritual walk. There are many other aids to our spiritual walk, but Paul mentions these three in this particular passage. They are three simple gifts God offers us that can enhance our spiritual walk and help us to “live in a manner worthy of Christ.”
“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have
great endurance
and patience,
and joyfully giving thanks to the Father…” (Col 1:10-12)
Endurance, patience, and gratitude. Three gifts from God that will strengthen you in your walk with God.
Endurance – most of us would prefer escape rather than endurance. Many times we find ourselves in situations that are uncomfortable, or even frightening. We pray for escape. We want OUT. We want to move from being in a bad situation, to being in a good situation.
We want out of having cancer.
We want out of dealing with an elderly and sick parent.
We want out of being in a difficult job.
But often times, God doesn’t offer escape. He offers endurance – the ability to cope with the situation.
St. Paul wrote a letter to the Philippians in which he said (Phil 4:11-12), “ I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
He didn’t say this from his home, writing comfortably in his favorite chair. He wrote this while in prison, with chains around his feet and hands, and a death sentence written on his calendar.
God offers you the gift of endurance. Accept that gift and learn how to use it – it will help you in your spiritual life or walk.
Patience is the second gift to aid us in our walk. Patience and endurance – two things that are pretty close to being the same thing. But there is a slight difference. Endurance helps us deal with situations. Patience helps us deal with people.
It is not easy to deal with people. Others around us are often selfish, mean spirited, unfair to us, and sometimes just downright hateful to us.
Colonel George Washington Goethals was the man who was responsible for the completion of the Panama Canal. It took years to complete and the project was filled with big problems – financial, engineering, weather, labor – everything. But his biggest challenge was the growing criticism back home from those who predicted he’d never finish the project.
Finally, a colleague asked him, "Aren’t you going to answer these critics?"
"In time," answered Goethals.
"When?" his partner asked.
"When the canal is finished."
And a decade later, the canal was finished and the patient Colonel finally had an answer to all the criticism of the people.
Endurance deals with situations. Patience deals with people.
Gratitude is the third gift that helps us in our spiritual walk. While endurance deals with situations and patience deals with people, gratitude deals with God.
Years ago I had a youth director who shared the Gospel story on a very personal level.
James had a little boy named Grady. These two have a great relationship. James was telling our youth about how God gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us because he loved us so much. James went onto say that he loved the youth at the church – loved them a lot and would do almost anything for them. But he did not love them enough to let his son Grady die for them. However, IF for some reason James decided that he would give his son to die so that someone in the youth group could live, then James would expect a tremendous outpouring of gratitude. James put it this way, “You’d better call me every day and say, ‘Thank you.’ You’d better visit me and say, ‘what can I do to show my gratitude?’”
There is no way you can live a life worthy of Christ if you don’t have gratitude in your hearts for what he has done.
At the end of the movie, Saving Private Ryan, the scene jumps out of World War II and suddenly it is 50 years later. Ryan is now an old man visiting the cemetery near the beaches of Normandy.
The war is long over.
The place is no longer violent, but peaceful.
He knells down at the tombstone of the army captain who gave his life so that Ryan might live. He breaks out in tears. His wife is at his side and she reaches out to try to comfort him. Ryan looks at her and asks, “Have I been a good man?”
The question he really is asking is, “have I lived a life worthy of this man’s sacrifice?”
It’s a question for us. Are we living a life worthy of Christ’s sacrifice for us?
Copyright 2001, 2006, The Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
Sermons are available online and can be found by visiting www.Pittendreigh.com
