Colossians 1:10

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:10 .)

The Apostle returns to the practical line of his desire and exhortation. He has been continuing in prayer that the Colossians might be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, but the end of that prayer was to be a firmer and steadier walking in the way of righteousness and good-doing. Paul would have his followers walk worthily. He sets up no meaner standard. Herein he repeats the doctrine of Jesus Christ: "Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." However much the mind might be enriched by spiritual understanding, the life was to be fruitful in every good work. Notice the inclusiveness of this desire. The Apostle would not be content with an occasional excellence, or with some incidental development of good morals; he would that the Colossians should be "fruitful in every good work" a whole, complete, symmetrical and most useful character. These continual references to practical experience give us confidence in the wisdom and solidity of the Apostle's doctrinal teaching. He does not desire that anything should be in the mind that cannot be directly transferred to the life. However anxious he may be about creed, the creed with him will go for nothing, unless it be balanced and exemplified by conduct. Con-currently with this fruitfulness the Apostle desires that the Colossians might increase in the knowledge of God; by this he does not exhort to speculative thinking or even encourage the habit of pious meditation; his mind is still steadfastly bent on Christian activity, spiritual culture, a clear and steady outworking of all the moral impulses of the Cross. But how was all this miracle of development to be accomplished? Was it so easy that it simply required an apostolic exhortation to set it in motion and give it almost a security of success? The reply to this will be found in the eleventh verse: