Col

Col. 1:9-14

“Walk in a Manner Worthy of the Lord-1”

Disappointment. It is a painful but common reality in our life. Especially painful is the disappointment caused by others, especially by those that we love and respect. This kind of disappointment borders on a sense of betrayal. Have you been disappointed, betrayed, by someone? But why the disappointment? There is no disappointment if there is no expectation. Some expectations are unfair and foolish, creations of our fantasy or wishful thinking or blind faith. Other expectations are legitimate and fully warranted. It is not unreasonable to expect love from your own family: children count on their parents to care for them and protect them; parents expect obedience and respect from their children. Friends should be loyal to one another, not just in good times but also in bad times as well. Those in positions of authority and leadership should exemplify what their positions represent. When people do not, when they conduct themselves in a manner not worthy of their positions or of our love and trust, we are deeply disappointed and even enraged. We have all experienced Jimmy Bakkers and Ted Haggards in our lives.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that we ourselves have behaved unbecomingly and thereby deeply disappointed and wounded others on countless occasions, knowingly and unknowingly. Yet we go on with our lives, quite unaffected--in fact, still managing to hold on to a good opinion of ourselves still in tact. To our sinful mind, our mistakes and sins against others do not seem as bad as other people’s sins against us. But we should let the bitter taste of being disappointed and betrayed by others shed light on the gravity of our offenses against others. Do you remember how you used to get so upset by the hypocrisy of the adults in your life? Could it be that we have become those adults to our children? So then, we should humble ourselves and take stock of the way we deal with others--whether we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of our positions and titles.

Paul prays that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Before we consider all that are required of us to do, we must pause and think about the amazing reality that this prayer presupposes! Paul’s prayer would be awfully presumptuous if there were no intimate bond between the Lord and us. It does not matter to us that someone is humiliating himself in front of many people--that is, if he has no relation to us. His foolish actions bring neither shame nor glory to us. But it would be a completely different story if he happened to be our son. Our family name and honor depend on the behavior of our children. Therefore, it is incumbent on them, we hope, to walk in a manner worthy of what our family represents.

That we ought to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord implies, gloriously, that there is a close bond between the Lord and us. This is a special bond that goes beyond the Creator-creature relationship: everyone and everything is related to God in this way because we are all God’s creation. But the bond we have, Paul says, is with the Lord. In Pauline corpus (in Paul’s writings), the title “the Lord” refers particularly to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, who died and rose again and now is seated at the right hand of God in heaven. This bond that exists between the Lord and us, then, is a special bond formed by Christ’s redeeming work: only those who have placed their faith in Christ as their Savior and Lord have this special bond with Him. This special, redemptive bond is the covenant of grace.

Paul is declaring to us that we are related to God in a special way! God does not deal with us merely as creatures. Yes, even creatures benefit from God’s common grace. But God deals with us in a special way, as His beloved children. He adopted us in His Son Jesus Christ. He pledges His love to us and the love He has for us is a fatherly love--yea, He loves us with the essence and fullness of all that a father’s love ought to be, only His love flows out of His divine generosity, out of His infinite capacity to love. Now a family bond exists between Him and us. We bear the family name of God. Whatever we do, wherever we go, we carry the name of God with us. God has so uniquely and intimately identified Himself with us by adopting us as His children and giving us His family name. So much so that, in the eyes of the world, we are the only thing that shows them of Christ. As far as the perception of the world is concerned, our Lord’s very reputation and honor depend almost solely on us. And this was the risk that our Lord was willing to take on us. Thus, “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.”

This is a lot of pressure, isn’t it? If we take this seriously, as we ought, this pressure is enough to crush us under its weight. How can we ever walk in a manner worthy of the Lord?

That is why, first, we must remember that this burden exists only because we are in a special relationship with the Lord. We complain a lot because of all the things that we must do. But many of the things we must do are related to the privileges we enjoy. Students have to study. Employees have to finish their tasks and projects. Executives have their own burden of leadership. And our President carries the enormous burden of protecting and governing and leading our nation. And when times get tough and the work gets difficult, we may complain. But I have never heard of a President, who wished that he had lost the election because there was too much to do. And would any employee rather be without his job? Simply remembering our privileged position can correct our bad attitude and renew our strength to carry out our responsibilities.

But that does not completely solve the problem, does it? Maybe the work is too much for us, beyond our capacity. And people do crumble under the weight of their responsibilities and quit their job or school. This is why it is so important for us to remember the redemptive nature of the bond that exists between the Lord and us. The Lord is related to us as our Redeemer. We needed a Redeemer because we could not save ourselves. And Christ is our Redeemer because He is able to redeem us and because He does redeem us, from beginning to end. In this relationship we are not like some average kids whose parents are both geniuses, constantly urging their children to be better and constantly disappointed that their children are dumb. We should have all the more reason to feel worse about ourselves because God’s standard is incomparably higher than that of genius parents. But we called to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. He is our Redeemer, not a taskmaster who beats us with a big stick to be better and better, only making us paralyzed in the process. No, He is our Redeemer who fully recognizes our weakness; our Redeemer who came to save us because of our helplessness, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves!

You see, on the other side of our call to be worthy of Him is the worthiness of our Lord to make it happen. Oh, what a wonderful Redeemer we have in Jesus Christ! We need to keep that in mind, as we take a look at Paul’s description of what it means to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

In Greek, there are three participles (ing-verbs, in this case) that describe the manner of life worthy of the Lord: “bearing fruit in every good work” (v. 10); “increasing in the knowledge of God” (v. 10); and “being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might” (v. 11). We will take a look at each of them but we will deal only with the first today.

First, to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord is to bear fruit in every good work. Paul uses an agricultural imagery here. This reminds us of Jesus’ words in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” To be worthy of the Lord is to bear fruit, much fruit. Why? This is why it is important to see the other side of our call. To be worthy of the Lord is to bear much fruit because Jesus is the True Vine, full of life and life-giving power. It is He, who created all things out of nothing: “by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him” (v. 16). Just imagine how powerful He must be to create something out of nothing!

We often speak of human potential as unlimited. Man has demonstrated some amazing ingenuity to make some incredible things. And there is no doubt that he will be able to make things that are even more incredible. But this we cannot deny: man may invent but he can never create. There is a world of difference between invention and creation, between making something new out of other things and making something out of absolute nothing. The difference is a difference of infinite degree, an unbridgeable chasm between divine omnipotence and creaturely ingenuity. Even the highest pinnacle of human invention can never reach into the divine sphere of creation ex nihilo beyond the stratosphere of invention.

He who possesses this divine power of creation is the True Vine and we are His branches. He is the True Vine that Israel failed to be. Think about all the grievances that God had against the nation of Israel for the lack of fruit in their lives. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes” (Isa. 5:3, 4)! But Christ is the True Vine that bears fruit with which God is well pleased. He is the Grain that falls into the earth and dies and bears much fruit. He is the resurrection and the life, who can bring life out of death--yea, who brings eternal life out of eternal damnation.

How can we not bear fruit when we are grafted into this Vine? We were brought to life by being grafted into Christ--we, who were once dead branches, dry and lifeless, ready to be thrown into the fiery lake of hell. The power of Christ was able to impart life to the dry, dead branches that we were. If that power was able to impart to us life when we were dead, imagine how much more it is able to do now that we are made alive and living! How abundant our fruit-bearing can and ought to be if that power is operating in us, as it is indeed!

As we can see, our union with Christ and our fruit-bearing are inseparable--so much so that Jesus says, “Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit [God] takes away…. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:2, 6). Does this mean that we can lose our salvation, that our salvation is dependent on our fruit-bearing? No! We bear fruit because we abide in Christ, not because we must bear fruit in order to abide in Christ. It is not fruit-bearing that grafts us into Christ--how is it possible for a branch to bear fruit apart from the vine? Fruit-bearing flows out of first abiding in Christ, first being saved by Him! He who does not abide in Christ, who is not saved, cannot bear fruit. If one does not bear fruit--showing not much desire, let alone putting any efforts, to do so--it may be that he has never really belonged to Christ in the first place despite his external membership in the church.

These words of our Lord show how it is unthinkable for the true Christian not to bear fruit. There may be varying degrees of fruitfulness and even intermittent periods dryness. And these dry periods can be so dangerous because they drag us into the pit of spiritual indifference and complacency, spiritual lethargy and idleness. But those who truly belong to Christ are “never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty” (WCF 18:4). If that seed of God is in us, can we lead a fruitless life to God and still go about our own business blithely without a care in the world? No, we will find no rest for our souls until we are restored and revived to bear fruit for God in Christ.

It is easy for us to be overwhelmed by the disappointing and depressing reality of our weakness. This is especially why we must not lose sight of the power of the True Vine that is at work in us. Notice: Paul does not simply pray that we bear fruit; he prays that we bear fruit in every good work. The power of Christ, the life-force of the True Vine, is able to produce “every good work” through us.

What is a “good work”? We often think of a good work only in terms of the final product: we say a work is good when it is excellent in its quality or morally respectable. But God does not just see the final outcome; He also sees the process and the inner motives of our heart. In fact, the final result is not so important to God since it is He who determines the result. A good work, according to the Biblical perspective, must satisfy at least three criteria:

a work cannot be good unless it is for the proper goal of glorifying God, not glorifying oneself or any other cause or people;

a work cannot be good unless it conforms to the proper standard of the Word of God, not one’s own opinions or of others;

a work cannot be good unless it stems from the proper motive--out of love and gratitude toward God, not merely out of duty or fear of punishment.

And these three criteria must be fulfilled all together.

It is easy to see how impossible it is for the unsaved, natural man to fulfill these criteria. As natural men, fallen in sin, corrupt to the core, we seek to glorify ourselves, not God. Even if some manage to live and die for others selflessly, as many have done in history, they have not glorified God; rather, they have only insulted God with their idolatry: they exchanged the glory of God for the glory of others, who are but creatures.

Who can do any good work that is acceptable to God? No one, who is not saved by Christ, not regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Even the Christian’s good work is not perfect: it cannot stand before God alone; it must be covered with the perfect righteousness of Christ. Though never perfect on this side of the grave, however, we are not devoid of the desire to glorify God according to His Word out of our love for Him. Such is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

Saints of God, how are we doing? Are we bearing the fruit of good works for our Lord? Do we think, speak and act for the glory of God, in a manner worthy of Him? As God’s people we cannot be content to do things just for the sake of doing them, just to get it over with. We live by a higher standard. We are to do all things “not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord” (3:22). We should not think that, just because we are Christian, whatever we do automatically glorifies God. Peter, speaking to servants, says, “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God” (1 Pet. 2:20). We can walk in a manner unworthy of the Lord or worthy of Him. We cannot deny how easy it is for us to just cruise through life, spiritually unmindful. But we also know how much our attitude and the quality of our work can be radically changed when we have the glory of God in mind. We must always aspire to do good works with the confidence that our strength to do so comes from the perfect righteousness of Christ! It may be hard at the beginning, so our need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2). But God promises that our mind can be renewed and our every thought can be made captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). Let us start now to do good works--for the glory of God, according to God’s Word and out of love and gratitude to God, consciously an deliberately.

Furthermore, Paul prays that we bear fruit in every good work. This is both a great challenge and encouragement. It is a great challenge because the good works God calls us to do are not confined to a few compartments of our life. We are to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord in every sphere of our life. No aspect of our life is exempt from His sovereignty. God is our sovereign Lord not only over our external actions and words but also over our inner thoughts. We are to do good works in every area of our life and all our works in all areas of our life must be good, worthy of the Lord.

It is not enough that we do good works at church; we are to do good works also when we are at work and at home. We are to show respect not only to the powerful and the influential but also to the weak and the neglected. We are to be kind and gentle not only with those that love us but also with those that oppose us. We are to show generosity not only to those who can pay back but especially to those who have no resources to pay us back with anything. We are to do good works not just when we are in public under the watchful eyes of others but also when we are in private with no one watching us except ourselves and God. For when we do good works only when others are around, we do them not for the glory of God but for our own reputation.

But this also greatly encourages us as well. We don’t have to be a preacher or an evangelist to do good works that count in the kingdom of God. We don’t have to be a politician who has the power to make difference in the world. We don’t have to be a billionaire who can donate millions and millions of dollars to a cause in the midst of all the media attention. We can be small and insignificant in the eyes of the world. But we can be significant and precious in the eyes of God, who sees in secret. It doesn’t matter whether we are a billionaire or a minimum wage worker; whether we are an influential politician or a homemaker. Because God sees in secret, because He sees our heart, a charismatic evangelist can end up in hell while a janitor somewhere in Africa can find a place close to the throne of God in heaven. God has given us different degrees and measures of gifts. All that He requires of us is that we be faithful in our stewardship of all His gifts.

What is more, the Lord has provided us with everything we need to bear fruit for Him in every good work! Wherever you may be, whatever temptation or hindrance you may face in doing good, Christ the Immanuel is there with you. “[W]e do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:5). No affliction of yours, no trouble of your life, escapes His notice. There is not a tear that you shed that has not flown down the cheeks of your Savior first. There is no sigh of yours that has not gripped His heart first. He was born in a manger. He died on a cross. Foxes have holes and birds have nests but, when He walked on this earth, He had no place to lay down His head. He was betrayed by His disciples. He was humiliated and tortured by His creatures. He was abandoned by His heavenly Father. His pain was infinitely greater than any of ours because He was innocent, unlike us; because His was the infinite honor of God, fully deserving of honor and worship, not mockery and torture, betrayal and abandonment. No trouble of yours is outside of His redeeming grace, outside of His ever-present help--not only to deliver us from the temptation but also to make us bear fruit in every situation.

We have all seen the bumper sticker that says, “We are not perfect; we are just forgiven.” True--we are not perfect and we will never be perfect on this side of the grave. But it is not true that we are just forgiven. I know that the bumper sticker is trying to emphasize the grace aspect of our redemption, to emphasize that it is not by our good works but by God’s grace and grace alone.

But the bumper sticker does not do justice to the amazing grace of God. It is amazing that the holy and righteous God should grant forgiveness to unforgivable people like us. But surely, God’s grace does far more than that, doesn’t it? The grace of God is amazing because it goes far beyond granting forgiveness to unforgivable people like us. God’s amazing grace does not leave us as forgiven sinners; it transforms unforgivable sinners and even forgiven sinners--into forgiving saints. It transforms liars and gossipers into truth-speakers and truth-defenders, who keep their word to their own hurt. It transforms thieves into diligent workers and generous sharers. It transforms contentious and divisive people into peacemakers. It turns irritable people into patient people. It turns cowards into bold, joyful martyrs. You see, we are not just forgiven. God’s grace also grants us new birth from above and makes us holy more and more until we are perfected on the day of resurrection.

Paul prays that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Our Lord is someone who will not disappoint us or betray us, ever! We may experience our earthly hopes dashed to pieces, our earthly treasures lost. But anything that can be destroyed and lost is not worthy of our inheritance. God will never take away from us anything that is truly valuable in the kingdom of God. This God, worthy of our trust, worship and devotion, has entered into an unbreakable covenant with us in Jesus Christ, not as a cruel taskmaster but as our loving and able Redeemer. Shouldn’t we walk worthily of Him? We are to do so by bearing fruit in every good work, by bearing the peaceful fruit of righteousness in everything, in everything that we do! Even when we eat or drink, we are to do it for the glory of God so that every time you move, every time you speak, every time you do something, the sweet fragrance of Christ is wafted from you for those around you to smell it and notice it; so that the people around you can experience the warmth, the gentleness, the humility, the compassion of Jesus Christ. What a glorious call! Yet we don’t have to be a billionaire to do this! We don’t have to have a Ph.D., We don’t have to hold a public office, to do this, do we? We can be a poorest man, a small child or a housewife and still do this--something truly significant in the eyes of our Lord! So then, let us strive to do all things unto the glory of God, according to His Word, out of love and gratitude to God--until that day when we shall stand in the presence of God and hear from Him, “Well done! Well done, my good and faithful servants! Enter into the joy of your Master!” Amen.