“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;” Colossians 1:9-10
Paul’s prayer for the first-century saints at Colosse echoes the heart of God for all believers down through the decades—that we would live in a way that reflects our personal knowledge of the Lord, a “walk” that aspires to be worthy of the designation we have received as sons and daughters of God.
The last couple of weeks we have written of the importance of not allowing anything to come before our personal relationship with the Lord and of our charge to live in a way that is “worthy of the vocation wherewith” we are called. We mentioned that the latter point, living in a way worthy of the Lord’s call on our lives, is one that many modern Christians seem to believe is no longer a practical part of our theology. It’s beyond their current tolerance of morality to imagine Christ has a standard that he desires us to live up to. But you know he does. Right?
As much as the Lord loves us and supplies forgiveness for our failings, there is a way that he desires us to live; there are absolutes and definitive “rights” and “wrongs.”
We left off last week saying that so many wrongly assume that Christianity is just about acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God and asking him to forgive us of our sins. That’s the key to eternal life, no doubt, but being a believer in Jesus is designed to be more! It is designed to be a metamorphosis, a complete change—spirit, soul and body (progressively perhaps, but completely eventually). Once we commit to Christ, our walk is supposed to change!
Brothers and sisters, we are supposed to live a lifestyle that is worthy, suitable, or appropriate for one who is a member of the Body of Christ. Jesus expects a certain standard of living from us. It’s his Father’s standard—not ours, not our culture’s, not our country’s and not the world’s. It’s not “whatever feels good” or “however you see it,” and it’s definitely not “anything goes.”
With that said, what does “walking worthy” of the Lord look like Biblically? What kind of lifestyle are we living when we walk worthy of the Lord? Well, to put it simply, when we are “walking worthy of the Lord,” we are living a life that follows the principles of Jesus, a life that is guided by how he thinks, speaks and acts.
How does he think, speak and act?
You’ve read the Gospels. Right? There you go. We can most definitely know how the Lord would handle all of life’s situations by reading and thinking about how he responded to the events and people he interacted with during his time on this planet. Answering WWJD in an honest and Scriptural way is the guide to walking worthy in this life.
Friends, it’s increasingly important in our increasingly anti-Christ culture that we live in a way that is fitting for a follower of the Lord Jesus. We should strive to walk in his path by following his principles. The more we can do this, the more we will please our Father, and the greater our testimony will be that Christ is real and really living on the inside of all who will trust in him for their eternal salvation.
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.