WEDNESDAY November 20, 2024

Reach Maturity

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7

Paul gave believers an exhortation. Walk like a child of God. Walk like Christ, like you belong to Him. Your walk should follow the same pattern of Christ. Now that you are saved, walk as a saved person, in holiness, with a blameless conduct. Do not walk as a non-believer––in sin.

Christ will transform your life. There has to be a change. Pray and ask God to help you by His Spirit to overcome your inconsistencies. People do not want to hear what you have become in Christ as much as seeing who you are in Christ by your conduct. They will say, “Show me. Demonstrate your Christianity to me by the way you live your life.” Your walk has to match your talk!

What is the key to having a victorious Christian walk? After all, it is demoralizing to suffer the consequences of constant defeat. The believer must be rooted and built up in Christ, and that comes from the daily discipline of being in God’s Word. This has amazing results! Believers become established in the faith. In the Greek language, the word established means “confirmed.” It becomes evident that Christ is the foundation of their Christian faith. The fruitfulness of being well-taught in the Scriptures is an abounding faith with thanksgiving.

In the life of the believer, there is also a need for discipleship. As you are discipled and equipped by those who teach God’s Word, you are enabled to disciple others in Christ. If you do not grow in Christ, you will remain immature. Lacking maturity, you may become an easy target for false doctrine. The odds of becoming deceived increases.

This was why Paul was so adamant about warning the Colossians against Gnostics and Judaizers who were preying on the immature. In wisdom, he wanted all believers to be established in the faith, so that they could never be persuaded or moved away from Christ.

I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible.
~D. L. Moody~

For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!