Colossians 1:10 - 11 “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (11) Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;”
Serving God is the Christians most important service in
life. There is nothing more powerful or satisfying to a Christian than to serve
God in truth and in spirit which is called “walking worthy”. When you are a
teacher or a pastor your walk is an example to those around you and those of
the household of faith called the church of Jesus Christ. I was taught as a
young minister to always remember, “as goes the pastor so goes the church”.
This means that our walk is an example to lead the faith and walk of the church
membership. Sometimes teachers and preachers claim to have God’s wisdom, but
they lack love and kindness which are essential to being called a worthy
walking Christian or leader. Four characteristics needed to serve God, these characteristics
are, knowledge, conduct, service, and character. We
must remember that in the Christian life, knowledge and obedience go together
or else our walk is unworthy. We must always live and learn, not only are these
two a must, but they must go together. As Pastors and Teachers, we are not just
biblical educators but continuous students, building strength to be better servants
and teachers. Always aware that others are following our walk-in life and
learning from our walk. These four characteristics should be our goal in our
walk and leadership. While none of us is perfectly balanced in these four characteristics,
we ought to strive for that balance for the rest of our life. We all serve by
God’s authority and within God’s power, God gives us everything we need in life
both as teachers and as Christians to walk worthy. Four tools God mentions here
that is needed for every Christian but especially for every teacher and pastor,
these are patience, longsuffering, joyfulness, and thanksgiving. But our
Christian walk always begins with love, love is the greatest of all because
love is how God elected us to begin with. God used the word “patience” which
means cheerful or endurance, endurance when circumstances are difficult. Because
serving God is sometimes difficult, it is not easy because we are continually
fighting the old fleshly nature but also sinfulness in the world around us. However,
in the most stressing times we need love, and patience because troubles in life
builds patience. “…knowing that tribulation worketh patience;” Romans 5:3b
That’s tribulations in your life builds character and patience if our Christian
walk is correct. God went on to say in verse 4 these words, “And patience,
experience; and experience, hope:” So the more tribulation, the more patience,
the more experience, the more hope we have in God. We must understand that it
is impossible to have longsuffering, joyfulness, or thanksgiving without the endurance
of patience.
Knowledge – is patiently walking everyday as though we know
nothing seeking to learn more to make us better to walk worthy of the Lord.
Conduct – is behaving ourselves in the Lord or the word.
Properly studying to show ourselves approved of God every day. Everything done
in love, because love gives us much needed endurance. Understanding that God is
controlling everything for a reason and purpose known only to Himself.
Service – Remembering we serve the Lord God; our walk is our
service. Everything we do in our life is to bring honor and glory to God. If
our service and walk is not bringing glory to God then we need to fix our
staggering walk.
And character – What do people see when they look at you? While
you are not to walk to please people, people reflect who you are by your character.
We should care what our church membership and other Christians think about us. By
looking at us, they should see the characteristics of our loving Lord and God.
Beloved, a Christians is never complete as they can be, we
always need to grow. We need to be loving and patient in our walk for the Lord
and in dealing with other’s. Remembering that we all belong to the Lord. And if
it wasn’t for the power and Grace of God I could never walk one step in God’s glorious
pleasure.
