“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him:” (Colossians 2:6).
We never think of Timothy as an author in the New Testament. But Timothy was co-author with Paul in writing Colossians. Many refute that Colossians was written by Paul because of the style of writing, the theology and the language used. Since they collaborated in this letter, most likely it was Paul’s recommendations and points written and argued in the letter by Timothy since we know that Paul dictated his letter many times.
In our Scripture of study, it says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord...” How have we received Christ Jesus the Lord? It was by faith. We believe the Gospel, what Jesus said and Who Jesus is. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” (Ephesians 2:8). It was God’s grace, something we had no hand in. His grace is His favor and kindness toward us in offering us this marvelous gift, not because of anything we did or deserved. And we believed and received it through faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) We cannot receive anything from the Lord without faith.
Some may be asking, “How do we get this faith?” “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) The Word of God gives us this faith. It is alive and powerful and able to change hearts. (Hebrews 4:12) But a person who hasn’t come to Jesus hasn’t read the Bible and doesn’t know any Scripture. How does he get faith to believe in Jesus? I know that those who want to share Jesus struggle with the fact that they may forget Scripture when sharing. But the Lord works all that out. We give our testimony. We are living proof to the unbeliever of the power of God to change our lives. Then we can share who Jesus is. That is the Gospel of God’s great love and mercy found in His grace toward us. We all know John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17) That is the Gospel in one Scripture. Explain it. Allow the power of the Word of God to enlighten their eyes. Verse 17 which follows is also great to share because many unbelievers see God as this supreme ready to punish them. You don’t have to bombard a non-believer with tons of Scripture. Use your own words to explain God’s love, mercy and grace. But explain also God’s righteousness and justice. He must punish sin. But Jesus took that punishment and death due to our sin so that we could live free of it forever and eternally. And even if they don’t turn to Jesus right then and there, they have the seed of the Gospel. Maybe they already had that seed, and you watered it. At God’s appointed time that seed will sprout. (Isaiah 44:3-4)
The second part of our Scripture of study says, “...so walk ye in Him...” And just as we surrendered to Jesus when we first believed, we surrender daily all we are and all we have to His will and to His purpose for us. We do this not in our own effort but yield to the Holy Spirit. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” (Psalms 19:14) We can pretend to act righteously, but our thoughts and words betray us. We must yield all we are, our thoughts and words also to the Lord. There has to be a daily dying of self because although we are saved, born again of God and have the Holy Spirit indwelling, we forget. We forget what we promised the Lord and before we know it, we’re doing our own thing.
So, as we have received Jesus by faith, let’s continue in faith, allowing the Lord to dictate the course of our lives. We need to make it a point of prayer daily of surrendering the day, our work, our words, our thoughts, our actions and goals and desires to Him. It helps to remind ourselves daily what we’ve promised the Lord and demonstrate to Him that we have faith in Him to steer our lives.
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