So Paul, as he continues his thought in chapter two, begins to write what is often called the thesis statement of the Book of Colossians. Look at verse number six with me as we dive into our text. The Bible says this:
"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." — Colossians 2:6
I love that. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Here's what I want us to learn first of all tonight: How you received Christ is how you must live in Christ.
The Colossian believers had received Christ in simplicity, and Paul reminded them that continuing in that simplicity was the key to their spiritual growth. There's a couple words in there that I want to point out to you. The first is this idea of receiving. They had received the message of the gospel, again, from Epaphras. And so having received that, Paul calls them to walk a new way or to walk in Jesus Christ, which is just another illustration to say your manner of life.
And here's what we have to understand about these false teachers: false teachers always complicate what God has made simple. They add rituals. They add rules. They add signs and knowledge. But God's call is simple. And again, if you've never heard this before, I am glad to preach it to you tonight, that receiving Christ is as simple as repenting of your sin, believing in Him to save you, and accepting Him as your Savior. That's how it begins.
But sometimes we get this idea that, "Oh, that was simple, and now we've got to begin to live the Christian life in our own power. We have to begin to live things out in our own lives."
I remember the day that I got saved. I had grown up in church most of my life, but I didn't get saved until I was 14. And I remember it so vividly because we were at a youth camp and the pastor was preaching. He was yelling at us, and I remember being under such conviction. I had this internal monologue in my mind saying, "No, I grew up in church. I know all this stuff. This is not the first time I'm hearing this. I know that Jesus Christ died for my sins, that I'm a sinner, and that I need a Savior." I knew all this stuff, but it didn't click until that night that I hadn't made a personal decision to follow Jesus. So that night, I went forward, I accepted Jesus Christ, and my life has never been the same.
But then I had to learn something later on, probably about 10 years after that. Because after I got saved, I began to think, "Okay, now is my turn to live this Christian life. I've got to get up and read my Bible, I've got to be a good Christian young man, and I've got to do all these things." And I began to make the Christian life a list of rules and rituals rather than a relationship.
And it wasn't until later on in life that God taught me, "You have never been able to earn My acceptance. You were never able to earn your salvation. Therefore, the reason why you live the way you live in righteousness is because you love Me, not because you're trying to make Me happy." And it changed my life.
So the question for us tonight is, how did we receive Christ? Here's the first way I think we receive Christ: First of all, we receive Christ by faith. Again, you did not save yourself by working harder, becoming better, or figuring it out on your own. So now, as we go forward in our Christian life, we must now walk in Him by faith.
What's that look like? Well, when you face uncertain futures, you trust God even when you cannot see the outcome. It looks like this: maybe you're on your 100th job application and still it just doesn't seem like anything is working out. Maybe you have received a dreaded diagnosis, or somebody in your family has, and you're not really sure what the future looks like. Living by faith is trusting God even when you don't see the future.
When you're struggling with temptation, living by faith says you depend on Christ's strength instead of relying on your own willpower. When you fail, you return to His grace instead of trying to earn your way back into His favor.
"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." — Philippians 1:6
Now, I don't know if you see what I see in that verse, but I don't see us anywhere in that verse. Who begins it? Christ. Who finishes it? Christ. He completes the good work. He will perform it. Jesus does the work.
Here's the second way we follow Jesus: We receive Christ with humility. You came to Christ admitting that you were a sinner who needed to be saved. Therefore, now you are to walk in Him with humility. That means admitting when you're wrong. It means receiving correction without becoming defensive. It means asking for help when you're struggling and refusing to act as though you're spiritually superior to others.
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." — James 4:10
I think the third way we receive Christ, and now walk in Him, is we receive Christ in truth. You were saved because you believed the truth of the gospel, not by following your feelings, not by following people's opinions, not by following the ideas of this world. And so now as you live your Christian life, you must continue to walk in that truth.
When culture says happiness is found in doing whatever feels right, you follow the scripture. When your emotions tell you that God has abandoned you or your friends have abandoned you, your Christian brothers and sisters have left you alone, you believe the promises found in His Word that says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
When a popular teaching sounds spiritual or intellectual, but contradicts the Bible, you reject it.
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." — 1 John 4:1
Here's what I believe Paul is trying to communicate in verse number six: Following Jesus is simple. Now, no one said it was easy. No one said it was going to be smooth sailing after you get saved, but it is simple.
I feel like sometimes—and I think the pastors would back me up on this—sometimes you feel like you're a broken record: Read your Bible, come to church, be a part of a loving church family, pray. And sometimes we say, "Is it really that simple?" Well, done with a genuine heart and desire to grow close to God, it is that simple. That's how we grow.
Now, although the Colossian believers were wavering in what they had been taught—again, this is the whole purpose of the letter being written—Paul's desire was for them to be stable and grounded in their faith. Which leads us to the second thing I want us to learn from verse number seven: A stable faith is a growing faith.
So again, we get the command in verse number six, as ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Here's what that looks like:
"Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." — Colossians 2:7
The picture that Paul paints is clear. God's will is that every Christian be established and keep growing. There are these two ideas: that you would be rooted, planted, unmovable, but also still growing in your faith.
So here's what that means. If you're a young Christian, a new believer, this means that God wants you to mature to a place of stability where you're anchored in your faith. You're no longer relying on other spiritual leaders to get you to church or to read your Bible; your faith is truly your faith. But then, for maybe more mature Christians, people who have been saved a longer time, this means God wants you to continue growing and not become stagnant, complacent, or just going through the motions.
Paul used several illustrations to describe what walking in Jesus looks like. The first one is "rooted," which describes a tree with a deep and sprawling root system.
Now, back in 2020, my wife had just gotten a job working as a salon manager, and then they shut down the salons. We were in need of some funds, and we had this random interest in houseplants. My mom had grown up putting plants all over the house, so my wife picked it up. One day we decided to start reselling houseplants, which sounds super weird, but we decided to do it because everybody was home and wanted to decorate their homes. What started out as a little Facebook Marketplace side gig grew into going places and doing shows. We ended up building a relationship with a guy we called the plant guru, whose name was Greg. Greg passed away from cancer in 2022. We tried witnessing to him for a long time, and he was such a great guy and a great influence on us. I wish he would have believed the truth we're talking about tonight. He taught us a lot about plants. He grew up in the golden era of indoor plants back in the '70s and would take trips to tropical nations, get seeds, bring them back, and plant them. At his height, he was doing over $5 million in houseplants every year. One of the things Greg taught us was that you can tell a lot about a plant's health by looking at the roots. You could inspect them and know it was a healthy plant based on the thickness of the roots and how they spiraled and interwove with one another. Another thing he taught us was that what the plant was planted in made almost as much of a difference in its growth as anything else.
It reminded me of this idea of being rooted: it matters what you plant roots into. Philosophies, people, or anything else are not stable enough to plant your roots in. That's why Paul wanted the Colossians to be rooted in Jesus Christ. Because He's unmovable. He doesn't change. He doesn't waver with the times and the way culture moves. He is something that we can root into, and that's our command: we are to be rooted in Jesus Christ.
The second illustration he uses is "built up," which means a building under construction built on a firm foundation.
I was scrolling through the news a couple weeks ago and saw an article about a partial collapse of a building in New York City that was formerly the Pfizer building. A beam started to buckle, so they evacuated the whole building. As I read the article, developers did not account for the structure's weight capacity when building a 10-story horizontal expansion for residential units. The weight was not correctly transferred to the foundation, which caused the beams to buckle under load. In other words, they were building, but with an improper understanding of the foundation. They were trying to do something with their lives, but because that weight was not transferred to the foundation, it was about to crumble.
The Colossians were in danger of doing the same. They were trying to build their faith and grow, but they were not using the proper foundation, which was Jesus Christ.
The specific word that Paul uses here when he says "built up" is not the word commonly used to describe initial stages of construction. It means to build upon or to finish the structure of which the foundation was already laid.
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." — 1 Corinthians 3:11
Jesus Christ has already laid the foundation. The Colossians were not called to try and build up some new faith or fix something flawed. No, they had been given a solid and sure foundation in Jesus Christ, and they were to build on it. Their job was simply to build upon that foundation.
The last word Paul uses in that verse is "established," which means to make firm, to reinforce, or to confirm. Here's what I get from that: God wants you to have a faith reinforced by truth. It's not a blind faith or a faith with no strength to it. Your faith should be strengthened by truth, which takes discipline, time, reading, discipleship, and coming to church to hear the Word of God preached. That is God's will for your life: that your faith would be reinforced by truth.
There is wisdom in trusting the people who have taught you because they love you. There are so many distracting doctrines out there. The false teachers had no care for the Colossian church; they were self-interested. But Paul was interested in their spiritual growth. Too often, well-meaning believers forget that they have a church and pastors that love them, care for them, and want to help them grow. A YouTube preacher might say the right things, but they don't know you, love you, or sit with you to bear your burdens and pray over your soul.
Stick with what you've been taught. Be thankful for what you've been given in Christ, not desiring some new doctrine or way of thinking. Walking in Jesus always yields gratitude, because believing that Jesus isn't enough implies ingratitude for His sacrifice and love. When we chase after other things like success or financial stability and make them the object—saying, "If I get that, then I'll be complete"—what we're saying is that Jesus is not enough, and that ought not to be.
Is your faith stable? Have you matured to a place of spiritual stability where the storms and temptations of life don't crush you as they once did? When you receive a diagnosis, struggle to find a job, or have a wayward child, do you trust that God has a plan?
Here is what growing in a stable faith looks like: finding your identity, security, and confidence in Christ alone—not from success, approval, money, or circumstances; growing through scripture, prayer, obedience, and fellowship with other believers; becoming harder to shake when doubts, false teachings, or sufferings come your way. As we walk in Him, we grow in Him.
It was important for the Colossians to grow into a stable faith because false teachers wanted to rob something from them. Look at verse number eight:
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." — Colossians 2:8
Man-made philosophy robs you of God-given freedom. The word "spoil" meant to rob, plunder, or take captive through war. These false teachers were actively trying to enslave them with another doctrine. They use philosophy (false wisdom), vain deceit (empty lies), traditions of men (man-made rules), and rudiments of the world (basic elements of little importance).
Whatever you trust in apart from Christ will eventually enslave you and take over your life. Worldly philosophies say lust is just part of human nature, but eventually it controls your life and destroys relationships. Social media promises satisfaction through riches and luxury, but it is empty. False religions promise reverence and tradition, but in the end, it's just another man-made ritual you cannot trust in. Turn from these lies and return to Christ.
What gives us the ability to place our entire faith and trust in Jesus Christ?
"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." — Colossians 2:9-10
Only Christ can make you complete. The phrase "fullness of the Godhead bodily" is a dramatic and airtight declaration of the deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not simply reflect God's glory for a time; He was, is, and will always be fully and completely God. If He is God incarnate, He can make us complete because He is everything we need and desire. You can find completeness and rest for your soul in Jesus Christ.
There was a time in my life when I thought I had lost everything due to a pattern of selfish and sinful living, and it crushed me. After spending time with my pastor at the time, Pastor John Waterloo, I realized why it crushed me: I had chosen to place my identity in all these other things rather than in Jesus Christ. It wasn't until I spent a week with my pastor building a fence in his backyard that he showed me Jesus Christ was who I had been searching for in all those other things. He needed to be the center of my life.
During that time, I read A.W. Tozer, who wrote:
"The man who has God for his treasure has all things in one. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go one after another, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the source of all things, he has in one all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose, he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in one, and he has it purely, legitimately, and forever."
My plea to you tonight is that you would lay down the burden of trying to find completeness apart from Christ. Friends will fail you, but Jesus won't. Jobs come and go, the economy changes, but Jesus stays the same. Focus on Christ, who is fully God and who makes us complete in Him.