Life in Christ: Secure and Dynamic in Divine Beauty (Colossians 2:6-7).

Class Outline:

Thursday November 12, 2026

 

Intro: 

 

“As you have received” [Him] - by grace through faith. 

 

Him: “the Messiah, Jesus the Lord”

 

Points us back to the opening: COL 1:3-2:5. Who is He?

 

2CO 4:5

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord

 

Need of both together in one Person:

 

Savior only: antinomian (no life [Corinthians]). 

Lord only: legalism (no grace, no agape for others)

 

Part 1: So walk 

 

“Walk” (peripateo, present active imperative): to conduct one’s life, comport [behave in the manner of Christ] oneself, behave, live.

 

In Pauline usage it is the standard figurative term for the manner, pattern, and direction of a person’s life.

 

The aorist indicative: you received - is followed by a present imperative: continue to live your lives in Him. 

 

Why? He is the one and only Savior and the one and only Lord, and now, by faith through grace, He is yours.

 

So walk: 

In Him as your Savior: rest in eternal life. 

In Him as your Lord: pursue eternal life. 

 

Both are in grace. They are passive actions, meaning that God’s work in necessary in both.

 

Part 2: The four participles that are typical characteristics of walking in Him. 

 

Rooted, built up, established, and abounding. 

 

The first two are compliments, the third a sort of summary of them and the fourth holding its own connected but unique. We’ll look only at the first two today.

 

“Having been rooted” (rizoo; perfect passive): be/become firmly rooted or fixed. (only used in EPH 3:17 and COL 2:7)

 

Paradox: walk like a rooted tree. 

 

Paul begins to describe “walk” with an agricultural metaphor.

 

The perfect: you have been rooted in the past and you still are.

 

Consider the image of rooted forever in Christ in contrast the falsehood of religion that never promises eternal security in the absolute sense.

 

The passive voice means that God rooted you in Christ. He did it.

 

Living with that rest and confidence and peace is a characteristic of walking in Him (Savior and Lord).

 

“In Him” refers to both [rooted in Him, growing up in Him - never alone or without Him].

 

“Being built up” (epoikodomeo; present passive): to engage in a building process of personal and corporate development, edify, build up/on. 

 

1PE 2:5 oikodomeo - You as living stones are built up as a spiritual house. 

 

The church is the body, the building, the temple of God. \

 

s the root draws nourishment and stability from Christ, we grow and flourish and bear fruit. 

 

PSA 1:3

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers. 

 

Yet, in this introduction to the entire Book of Psalms, the rooted tree does not just exist. 

 

PSA 1:1-2

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night. 

 

It is unfortunate, but a necessary result of volition: the wicked are here, in Colossae, and all around you.

 

You have received Jesus as the Lord. You are rooted in Him. He is the stream that nourishes you. Does He?

 

There is no other soil to grow in and no other stream to drink from.

 

COL 2:2-3

that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself,  3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

 

Living with rest and confidence and peace, and also, growing up spiritually is a characteristic of walking in Him (Savior and Lord).

 

Conclusion: 

 

Paul suffered and toiled and withstood great struggles in his life so that this would be true in the church (it has to be super important).

 

So many people are seeking blindly trying to feel through all the barrenness of the world for something into which to plunge their roots so that they may be nourished and firm. Only one can do it. We must show them. We must tell them. 

 

PSA 1:4

The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 

 

The building up is a daily work of architecture. God does the building, but we have to listen, believe, and do what our Lord would have us do.

 

Christians do not merely grow. Faith in efforts, patient study, and labor; all by faith. 

 

Your mission field is the one you are walking on. Walk in Him.

 

Two more participles to come…