A Worthy Walk: Colossians 1:1-2, 7-11, especially vss. 9, 10: "...we...do not cease to pray for you....that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him." Today we begin a series of readings through St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. In this letter, as the Orthodox Study Bible states, the Apostle's aim was "to combat a form of gnosticism that was taking hold in the Colossian church." Throughout the letter, St. Paul dwells on the "truth of the Gospel" to counter the false gnostic separation of truth from action. In today's reading, for instance, the Apostle speaks of a "walk worthy of the Lord," meaning a mode of living true to the Gospel (vs. 10).
When people hear "the word of the truth of the Gospel" (Col. 1:5) and know "the grace of God in truth" (Col. 1:6), they naturally "love in the Spirit" (Col. 1:8). Loving becomes visible in and through their living and speaking. They "walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him" (vs. 10). Truth translates into loving acts. When Epaphras reported that the Colossians "love in the Spirit" (vs. 8), the Apostle was prompted to pray ceaselessly (vs. 9) that the congregation might be "fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (vs. 10).
While "love in the Spirit" is tantamount to a "worthy walk," yet each of the Faithful in Christ should realize that "love in the Spirit" exceeds ordinary human love, which is why the Apostle qualifies his command to "love" with the additional phrase, "in the Spirit." Such love is beyond human capacity apart from the strengthening and illumination of the Holy Spirit.
To love in the Spirit of God is to love as the Lord Himself loves, is to be "kind to the unthankful and evil," to love even one's enemies. Love in the Spirit describes the Lord's own "walk" among us, His example to us and for us. He "suffers long and is kind...does not envy, does not parade,...is not puffed up,...does not behave rudely, does not seek [His] own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, [and] never fails" (1 Cor. 13:4-8).
A worthy walk, one which visibly loves in the power of the Holy Spirit, being a love "higher" than common human love, requires that God fill us "with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Col. 1:9). To this end, in the Mystery of Christ, we were sealed in the Spirit of our God "unto the healing of body and soul...that we [might] walk in the way of [God's] commandments." It is the Spirit of God within us Who actively helps us to put to death those sins that weigh us down and inhibit our capacity for godly love. Thus, a walk worthy of the Lord Jesus can be manifested in our living and speaking. How does this happen?
The living Lord working within us, by the power of the Spirit, strengthens us with all might according to His glorious power (vs. 11). The indwelling of the Spirit of God in our hearts makes possible both knowing God and applying His will directly and immediately in decisions and actions. Beloved, let us pray with Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, "In every hour of the day, reveal Thy will to us."
When God reveals His will, He also gives us grace for "all might according to His glorious power" (vs. 11). God Himself makes it possible for us to live truly and to increase "in the knowledge of God" (vs. 10). Consider this overwhelming call of the Lord upon us, sinners that we are: He asks us to love our "enemies, [and do] good, and [lend], hoping for nothing in return," to walk worthily before Him. How impossible apart from "the grace of God in truth" (vs. 6)! Nevertheless, rejoice, for His Apostle does "not cease to pray for [us]" even now (vs. 9).
O Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, come and dwell in us and cleanse us of every stain of sin and save us, O Good One.