Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Into the Text
As Christians, we are to continue to live our lives in Christ, continue just the same way we received Him. How did we receive Christ? By faith. How do we continue in Him? By faith. We have to trust Him not only for our salvation but for living the Christian life.
The Colossians were in danger of reducing their Christianity to a dead religion, which they would try and follow by their own efforts. However, God does not want us to depend on our own efforts to live the Christian life. He wants us to live every day and every moment by faith in Jesus and the divine resources He offers to us.
When we live in dependence on Christ, we will be rooted in Him. There will be growth in our lives. This growth will lead us into a deeper relationship with Him, just like the roots of a tree grow deeper into the soil as the tree matures.
When we trust in our own efforts to live the Christian life, we will end up with either pride or despair. But when we trust the work of Jesus in us, we will become thankful people. We are thankful because we know that anything good we accomplish is the outflowing of the powerful life of Jesus in us.
If God says that we have been filled in Christ (2:9), we better believe it. We may not feel like it. We may struggle to understand what it means in our everyday life. But the first step is to believe it, thank Him for it, and to keep on living by faith, looking only to Jesus, moment by moment.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for giving me all the resources I need to live the Christian life of obedience. Amen.