You Received Him. Now Walk in Him.

Most of us are great at starting. The read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. The treadmill that now holds laundry. I bought a guitar during COVID, and I still can’t play it. Starting is easy. Keeping going is the hard part.

On Sunday we looked at Colossians 1:28-2:7. Paul was writing to a young church he had never visited, and he told them what all his work was for: “that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (1:28). Then he told them how to get there: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (2:6).

Here are the three things we saw.

Everyone mature in Him. Paul says “everyone” three times in one verse. Jesus’s church has one class of Christian, and every one of us is meant to grow up. The power behind that growth belongs to God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Everything we need in Him. In Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). Anything that offers you more than Christ is offering you less. And we reach those riches together, “knit together in love” (2:2).

Every step in Him. You grow up the same way you came in. You came to Jesus with empty hands, trusting what He did for you on the cross, and you keep walking the same way. Paul says we are “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith” (2:7). The rooting happens once. The building never stops.

At First Baptist, that walk looks like four steps: baptism, membership, Sunday School and a small group, and a deacon who knows your family. Every one of them is a way to walk in Him, and the One you walk in is Jesus.

This week

• Take the one you haven’t taken. Pick the step you’ve been putting off and make one contact about it before next Sunday.
• Read the passage every day. Colossians 1:28-2:7 takes about a minute to read. Read it each morning and ask which line God is pressing on you.
• Count your thank-yous. Paul ends with “abounding in thanksgiving.” For one week, notice how often you complain and how often you give thanks.
  
  

Everybody’s good at starting. Paul wants you walking.