Giving Thanks to God

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:9-14 ESV)

Now this is addressed here to those of genuine walks of faith and obedience to our Lord Jesus who are faithful in service to him. It doesn’t mean that everyone among us is of such faith, but that the words expressed here were written to those who have died with Christ to sin and who are now living to God and to his righteousness in obedience to the Lord and to his commands, in practice. We are those in Christ Jesus who love others with the love of Christ, who are bearing spiritual fruit for Christ in keeping with repentance.

We who make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives are to be living the life in Christ which we profess with our lips. We need to be students of the Scriptures who study them IN CONTEXT, who are listening to what our Lord is saying to us, and who are walking in obedience to his commands. For this is the way in which we are filled with the knowledge of God’s will for our lives in all spiritual understanding and wisdom, but under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit of God. 

And we need this wisdom and understanding, which comes from God, so that we, as Christ’s followers, will walk (in conduct, in practice) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. And “worthy” means “fitting, proper, suitable.” Our walks of faith must be fitting to our Lord and to who he was and is, and to the life that he lived, and to the life to which he has called us to live, which requires that we deny self, die daily to sin and to self, and walk (in conduct) in obedience to his commands in holy living.

But many people these days are twisting the Scriptures and the words of our Lord to make them more acceptable and appealing to human flesh and to the ungodly of this world. And so they will teach only that God makes us worthy and that we have no part in that process, and that we are already pleasing to God since we professed faith in him, and so we don’t have to do anything to be pleasing to the Lord. That is a lie. In the power of God we must do what God says we must do to be worthy of and pleasing to him.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 10:37-38; Matt 22:8; Lu 9:23-26,62; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 15:58; 2 Co 5:9; 2 Co 9:8; Gal 5:6; Gal 6:8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:1; Eph 5:10; Php 1:27; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:9-14; 1 Thes 2:4,12; 1 Thes 4:1; 2 Thess 1:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:4,21; Tit 2:11-14; Tit 3:8; Heb 11:6; Heb 13:6; Jas 2:17; 1 Jn 3:22] 

So, making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior must be followed with self-denial, dying to sin daily, by the Spirit, and walks of obedience to his commands in holy living, by the Spirit, and empowered by God. For our salvation is progressive sanctification, not a one-time deal and now “we are in”, done deal. We must be those who are maturing in our walks of faith and in obedience to our Lord under the guidance and direction of the Scriptures (in context) and the Holy Spirit, producing good works.

But that is not what largely is being taught today. So much of what is called “faith” and “believing in Jesus” and “the gospel” is human-produced and not the gospel according to Christ and to the Scriptures. So much is being taken out of context and is being made to say what it does not say if taught in context. And many people are believing the lies and not the truth, and so they have a false faith and a false hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God, which is the goal of this false gospel message.

So many are teaching that all we have to do is just to verbalize “Jesus is Lord,” and claim that we believe in his bodily death and resurrection, and now we are saved for eternity, done deal. But that is out of context. For Jesus and his NT apostles taught a gospel of salvation which requires that, by the grace of God, we die with Christ to sin and we now walk (in conduct) in obedience to his commands. For if sin is our practice, and not obedience, we do not have salvation from sin nor the hope of eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

For, by faith in Jesus Christ, which comes from God, and is not of our own doing, our Lord delivers us from the domain (control) of darkness (sin), and he transfers (relocates) us to the kingdom of Christ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. For Jesus, in his death on that cross, bought us back for God (redeemed us) out of our lives of slavery to sin so that we can now, in his power, live holy lives pleasing to God in walks of obedience to his commands and in self-denial and dying to sin daily.

Paradise Valley

Lyrics by Noah White, Music by Virgil Stamps (1935).

As I travel thru life, with its trouble and strife, 

I’ve a glorious hope to give cheer on the way; 

Soon my toils will be o’er and I’ll rest on that shore, 

Where the night has been turned into day.

As I roam the hillside, or I list to the tide, 

As I pluck the sweet flowers that grow in the dale; 

A faint picture is there of a land bright and fair, 

Where perennial flowers ne’er fail.

Tho’ your garden is rare, it is naught to compare 

With the flowers that bloom in the garden above, 

In the midst of it grows, Sharon’s perfect sweet Rose; 

‘Tis the wonderful Flower we love.

Up in paradise valley By the side of the river of life, 

Up in paradise valley, We’ll be free from all pain and all strife; 

There we’ll live in the garden, ‘Neath the shade of the evergreen tree, 

How I long for the paradise valley, Where the beauty of heaven I’ll see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcfpFmzHqos

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