“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 have a 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” Colossians 1:9-11.

Colossians 1:9 was published on 2-4-20, we will now pick up at verse 10. Verse 9 has been added above for context.

As new Christians we have a love and a fervor for Christ, but because we have not quite cast off the old nature (which we spent a lifetime learning), we clumsily step on a lot of toes. With knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual understanding, we, in time, show Christ to the world by our wise actions.

Having “…a walk worthy of the Lord” is an outward sign to the world of the inward change in us; “…fully pleasing Him” is something unseen, between us and the God who sees our heart.

The result of this then is that we become “…fruitful in every good work”. Folks often think that we have to work to be fruitful for Christ; which is true to an extent, to be fruitful, we have to be available and “…increasing in the knowledge of God”, but we do not have to work to produce fruit anymore than a tree does; it is Christ who produces the fruit.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5.

What is the Christian? He is a branch. Snap the branch off of the vine, and the branch dies because the root of the vine feeds it. So fruit is not produced by the work of the branch, it is the vine that enables it to bear and produce the fruit.

Is this a true statement? Jesus seems to think so.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5.

“…without Me you can do nothing” is a pretty strong statement, yet Christians go out every day without Him, and then wonder why they cannot seem to produce any fruit on their own.

“Abide in Me,” means to maintain a close relationship with Christ, spending time alone with Him, reading, praying, and quietly listening to His Spirit speak in your heart. At the same time it is imperative that the Christian maintain a relationship with other Christians in church for mutual support and in worship.

“…and increasing in the knowledge of God” verse 10 last phrase. When a Christian reaches this point in their life, the desire to increase in the knowledge of God becomes quite strong because they realize that the more they learn of Him, the more can be seen of how little is known of Him.

However, it is still possible for even the mature Christian to fall away if they neglect good habits in their relationship with Christ. Vigilance and diligence is always a requirement in the Christian life, because Satan can rob someone in a blink of an eye.

“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:12.

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Romans 12:3.

“…strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy…” Colossians 1:11.

God’s glory is who He is, and His power which is beyond comprehension can only be described as glorious.

We live in the natural world and have gotten used to thunder, lightning, hurricanes; clouds, trees, even the grass that grows beneath our feet has a commonness that we take for granted.

Part of this is because God has set in motion within nature the ability to grow, procreate, die and continue the cycle with little or no interference on His part, which makes us tend to forget that all life is in His hands.

“The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” Psalm 145:14-16.

Even the distant galaxies are just dots of light in the sky for most, yet the sizes and distances are inexpressible, the power generated by the least of the stars is still beyond normal comprehension.

Let us not forget their heat, and the pull of gravity that holds everything together. Yet instead of chaos, we have an earth and universe that run like a fine watch, better and more accurately actually. All of this was created from nothing and synchronized by an infinite God.

“He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.” Job 26:7.

Still we do not recognize the glorious power of God, simply because like seemingly infinite space, it is just too hard to comprehend.

“Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” Job 26:14.

Yet, we become partakers of it when we are “strengthened with all might” in Christ for patience in our lives on this earth, given endurance in long-suffering as we encounter various trials and tribulations in life, and empowered to find joy in Christ and our security in Him.

“…giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” Colossians 1:12.

The best explanation for the term “qualified” would be that it is a reference to the Christian’s adoption as a child of God. This is one who by birthright can be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints. An unsaved person cannot inherit because they have not been adopted into the family of God.

“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:11-13.

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Romans 8:16-17.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 1 John 3:1-3.

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14.

The Father has delivered us from the power. Think of that, there is power to keep us in the darkness of sin, and evil, which is Satan’s kingdom that flows into the permanent darkness of hell.

This is a place that we are helpless to escape, because we were dead in trespasses and sin, and even if we wanted to escape, we would not have had the price to pay to leave.

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:1-7.

It is by the power of the omnipotent God who broke the power of Satan and translated us (transferred us) from darkness into the light of the Son of His love.

Like moving a chess piece from one place to another our destinies have been changed once and forever. If God moved us into the kingdom of light, how can we (having no power of our own) move ourselves back into the kingdom of darkness?

This unchanging move is called eternal security. The Christian cannot lose their salvation.

We have this eternal security by the power of the blood of Christ Jesus God’s Son, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:14.

To say that we can lose that redemption is to cheapen the value of the shed blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:10-14 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 11-25-13, updated on 2-7-20.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.