STRONG IN CHRIST
Colossians 2:5-7 NKJV
5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Here’s a new one for you. Paul said he was absent from the church in Colosse in the flesh. He was not physically present. Yet he says he is with them in spirit. A more accurate reading is that Paul said I am with you in the Spirit. This latter rendering bears out in other translations. This also makes sense when Paul said he was rejoicing to see their good order and steadfastness of their faith in Christ. There is much regarding the spiritual realm that we simply do not know. But Paul indicates that he was aware of their well-regulated, orderly lives and the solidness of their faith in Christ. He prayed for these believers consistently, so God must have given him glimpses of what was going on. He said he was with them and could see. With God, all things are possible.
Paul encourages the church to continue with their solid faith in Christ. They received Christ Jesus as their Lord, so now they were to walk in Him. In other words, they were to live their lives connected and in union with Him. Jesus spoke about this union to His disciples in the 15th chapter of John when He declared that He, Jesus, was the vine and His disciples were the branches. That word was not limited to the 12 apostles. Paul is saying to the believers in Colosse, and his words apply to us today: live your lives in union with Christ.
This emphasis on living in union with Christ as a branch of The Vine is what Biblical scholars have referred to as the Pauline revelation. Most of the New Testament books are written by Paul. God gave him an understanding of what happens in the lives of those who put their faith in Christ. So Paul spends a good portion of his letters sharing what God revealed to him. And then sharing how believers are to live because they are connected to Christ. So when you see the words in Him, in whom, and in Christ, you are seeing what God revealed to Paul about who we believers are as new creations in Christ.
In verse seven, Paul encourages the church to be rooted and built up in Christ. This is a strong position. We have our roots in who we are as new creations in Christ. We are now rooted in Him as opposed to being rooted in our past, our background, our upbringing, or our former identity. Paul spoke of being a man who strongly identified as a Pharisee. But when Paul came to Christ, he abandoned his Pharisee connection and identified with his union with Jesus.
In Christ is where we establish our roots. And this is where we are built up and become strong. By consistently looking at and establishing our new identity and our union with Christ, we become stronger and stronger in Him. Paul would later write Timothy and tell him to be strong in the grace that is in Christ. Paul wrote the Ephesian church to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. This is not being built up in our personality or trying to be strong in ourselves. This is not an identity theft but rather an identity swap.
All this is carried out by faith—by receiving what God has said in His Word and choosing to believe and act accordingly. One of the greatest actions of faith is giving thanks. Paul said, abounding in thanksgiving. Being thankful acknowledges what God has done for us in Christ and also strengthens our faith. Thanksgiving is a win-win activity.
APPLICATION
One of the best ways to act on this passage is to thank God today that you are in union with Christ. You are a branch in The Vine. And thank God that you are becoming rooted and built up in Him. Do this by faith, not by feelings. We live this way!