Colossians 1:9-10. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing…
In studying Paul’s prayer for the Colossians, it’s important to understand this: he was not praying that they would become worthy of the Lord. No! He was praying that they would walk worthy of Him. There’s a big difference between being worthy and walking worthy!
“Walking” is a term that the Apostle Paul uses to refer to the believer’s manner of life; to how he lives or conducts himself. He never uses that term to refer to the believer’s state of being.
Your manner of life, no matter how exemplary, does not make you worthy! If it did, you wouldn’t need a Savior. If you could make yourself worthy, you could be saved by your own works. But Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works, lest any man should boast.
One thing and one thing only makes us worthy: the gift of righteousness that comes to us through the precious blood of Jesus!
Your righteousness in Christ is the foundation upon which you pray this prayer. “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand!” You are worthy because Jesus is worthy, and the scripture says that “as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17).
Being filled with the knowledge of God’s will as revealed in His holy, precious, written Word is what causes you to rise up and live your life in a manner worthy of who you really are in Christ!
