Colossians
1:10b
"…being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing (day by day,
moment by moment) in the knowledge
of (to
be acquainted with) God:"
Listen,
every believer starts at the same level in his Christian walk toward
Eternal Life. Whether we are 8 or 80. Every believer starts at
that same level and what is it? A babe in Christ! We all begin as
babes in Christ. But, just like in the physical realm, is there
anything more pitiful than someone who is 40, 50 or 80 years old and
still has the mentality or the physical attributes of a 5 year old?
And our hearts go out to them. We can not think of anything worse and
yet this is just the situation of most Christians. They’ve never
gotten away from their infancy of spiritually, they remain in the
corral under the tutor and under the Law, as the Law was Israel's
tutor so is it the babes. And the Corinthians were that way. Let’s
go back. It has been a long time since we’ve been in Corinthians
and we’ve got a lot of new readers coming every day, and so for
those of you who have read all this before, bear with us because
we're doing this for the sake of new folks. Go back to 1Corinthians
3, starting at verse 1.
1Corinthians
3:1
"And
I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ."
They
were believers. Paul by the Spirit is not using the word "carnal"
here as denoting the lost person or the unbeliever. Though as babes a
new born has not progressed to a level of acceptability and is
therefore still under a tutor. These were Christians, who were
believers, but they were still infants spiritually. They were still
on milk as most church people are to this day. Why? Because they have
not progressed to the point of accepting the strong meat of the word.
Many will attempt to partake of it but like banies will vomit it out
as being distasteful. And by so doing will choose to remain on safe
ground even though this safe ground is not always safe to their
spiritual growth, in the true knowledge of God and Christ Jesus. I
know personally of people who have reached well into their 70's and
80's who have never progressed past childhood. And remember a young
child is at some 3 or 4 years in mans age. In the spirit this would
equate to being a new born. Keep this in mind as we read on.
1Corinthians
3:2
"I
have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not
able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."
That’s
not the only sad part, they still were not able to handle meat,
however long Paul had been dealing with them. So you see, if Paul
could look at our situation today, he’d probably smile and say, "I
know. I went through it. It’s no different." It is so hard
to get people off of the milk of the Word and into the meat. But
listen, once you get a taste of the T-bone steak (of the lamb and His
bread) you don’t ever want to go back to the baby bottle. It
is the same way here. My, once you get a taste of how thrilling this
is, and how it all fits from Genesis through Revelation, you can’t
get enough of it. This is the way it is supposed to be. The more
Light we acquire the more Light we But you see, that’s not most
Christians. Most professing Christians are just satisfied that
they’re saved, and we sincerely hope they are, and they never
intend to go any further. But that’s the sorry part that they’re
content to remain as babes and on the spiritual milk. That's what
breaks our hearts when we hear and see what they're doing because of
it. Now let’s go back to Colossians chapter 1.
"…being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing (day by day) in
the knowledge of God:’
We're
to grow in the knowledge of Him, that is Christ. Because every thing
now has to do either with Him, through Him or In Him-Christ as the
central point of everything sense the cross and His resurrect and
ascension. The cross of course being the pivotal point as a gate, or
door, for all humanity. And
all things from that point on being spiritual, having passed through
the water and blood of His body. That said, if we are not spiritual we will not grow in the
knowledge and truth of Him. Because these things are only spiritually
discerned. Now when we get down to verses 15-17 we are going to hit
some of those areas that very few people have delved into, with
regard to the true and accurate knowledge of God. But for now, let’s
just move on in Paul’s prayer.
Colossians
1:11
"Strengthened
(spiritually) with all might, according to his glorious
(what’s the word?) power,…"
You
see none of these things that we teach and share can be accomplished
without the power of God. It is utterly and virtually impossible to
receive in any other way. We cannot become a student of the Word,
without the power of God. We cannot become a child of God or a
God-child without the power of God. And so it is the intrinsic word
that means exactly what it says. That it has to have the power of God
that will bring us to where God wants us all to be. In other words, we
should have pointed out that this is another one of those instances
where Paul has seven things. You can pick them out yourself. Paul
didn’t sit there and rack his brain and think, now how can I get
seven statements in here. But over and over, throughout his Epistles
he comes out with 7 full statements. And each relates to the other,
in the seven seals (like the tape the police put up around a crime
scene) from the small book of Daniel and Revelation not to mention
the prophets. This is of divine inspiration, because that is God’s
perfect number, aside from the number 8 which equates to completion.
So here again, he has 7 statements and now he goes on to verse 12
where he is giving thanks to the Father. Remember also Deuteronomy
chapter 29 verse 29, which states that when we have learned these
secrets they become ours and our children's to the second generation,
no but forever. Jesus liken this to the rooms or suites that become
ours when He said “in My Fathers House there are many mansions”
(John 14:2 paraphrased).
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