"Working On Your Walk” Series

Last time, we made saw how Paul wrote to the Colossians to counter an error promoted by false teachers who denied the deity of Jesus. Paul describes Jesus with some of the loftiest language used in the New

Testament, emphasizing His preeminence in all things. Because He is Lord over all, the life of the Christian is to be a life of submission to Jesus. Our relationship with Christ should impact our life and our daily walk. Paul commended the Colossians on their walk with the Lord and offered counsel on how to continue to “work on their walk.”

One thing should be made clear: One can’t walk with Christ and stay where they are. If we’re walking with Christ, there will be life change. My thinking will change, feelings will change, choices will change, and actions will change. If I say I walk with Christ and nothing is changing, something’s wrong. Walking with Christ is all about life change.

Let’s look to see what Paul says about the life change we should be experiencing on as we work on our daily walk with Christ.

1. The basis of life change - vs. 3-8

The basis of experiencing genuine life change as we walk with Christ is the Gospel. This is why, if we are walking with Christ daily, we’ll be in His Word and in prayer. Through His Word, we learn Gospel truths and through prayer, we’re guided in applying them to our daily lives.

Truths like my sinfulness, God’s holiness, God’s forgiveness, God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s power, God’s love, God’s justice, etc. All these truths are found in the Gospel message, which tells how God came as a man to die in our place, paying the price for our sin, so we might be forgiven and have a personal relationship with Him, who not only paid sin’s penalty for us but was raised from the dead to prove it; and now welcomes us into an eternal love relationship with Himself, through faith in Christ. A Christian will never outgrow the Gospel!

All of God’s Word centers on the Gospel message: the Old Testament foreshadows it; the four Gospels describe it; and the rest of the New Testament, explains it.

Paul mentions three virtues that were true of the Colossians because of the impact the Gospel was having in their lives - faith, love and hope. Each of these speaks of how the Gospel impacts our life experience:

A. The Gospel message impacts my past - faith.

The Christian’s walk with Christ begins by placing his faith in Him as His Savior as a result of hearing the Gospel and heeding its invitation.

B. The Gospel message impacts my present - love.

The Christian’s walk with Christ continues as he learns to love God supremely and others selfishly as a he learns how to apply Gospel truths to his life, which are illustrated, taught, and clarified in Scripture.

C. The Gospel message impacts my future - hope.

Because of the Gospel, and our receiving Christ as Savior, we have an eternal love relationship with God; and we look forward to an eternity spent in His presence, learning more and more and more and more.

2. The look of life change - vs. 9-12

Carey Nieuwhof, pastor of Conexus Church in Ontario, Canada, writes about misconceptions among Christians today about maturity. Some end up criticizing others for not being ‘deep’ They apparently have maturity figured out, while the rest of us don’t. Yet often, what is called spiritual maturity, isn’t. Here are 5 things that often pass for spiritual maturity in our culture that probably show you lack it.

1) Pride in how much Bible you know.

Some strut their biblical knowledge and make others feel less worthy for not knowing what they do. That’s not maturity, that’s arrogance.

2) Truth without grace.

Some feel it’s okay to land on only one side of the equation. I’m a truth person, we tell people how it is. No, maybe you’re just a jerk.

3) Grace without truth.

The opposite is also true. Just as truth isn’t truth without grace, grace isn’t grace when separated from truth. Some avoid the truth side of the equation as though love floats with no backbone. Grace without truth isn’t maturity any more than truth without grace is truth.

4) Harshness toward outsiders while cutting insiders slack.

Many love to talk about how awful the world is. We rail against the world’s sins as though it shouldn’t be sinning while cutting ourselves tons of slack on our moral failures. We should expect unbelievers to live like unbelievers, and expect believers to act like believers.

What if the church started to take its own sin more seriously than we take the world’s sin? That’s what we’re supposed to do (1 Corinthians 5:12). If God so loved the world, who decided we shouldn’t? Very few people get judged into life change. Many get loved into it.