“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” – Colossians 1:9-14

In the first installment, we covered two of the four major characteristics of a life that is pleasing to God (bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God).

Let’s jump right in and cover the remaining characteristics.

Being Strengthened – This phrase conjures up lots of different mental pictures for me. But, the one I immediately think of first is the weight room in my old high school football fieldhouse. I spent many hours there strengthening my body in order to go out and do battle on football fields scattered across North Texas. Many hours were spent in that hot (and sometimes stinky) fieldhouse with the rest of my team pumping iron. In retrospect, it was a pretty awesome place to be – in a room full of weight lifting equipment with my teammates who shared a similar goal. We were unified in our determination to be the strongest, most intimidating football team in our division. That common goal drove us to be strengthened and to drive each other to higher weight lifting goals. On the walls of our fieldhouse, we had “clubs” for weight lifting classes. We had the 1000 pound club, 1500 pound club, and the 2000 pound club. These represented the combination of one’s bench press, leg press, and squat maximums. We were all driven to have our names listed in the top club. I think about those days, think about those guys, and the encouragement and drive we instilled in each other over a game – just a game.

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“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” – Colossians 1:9-14

The Apostle Paul give us some ideas on what a life that pleases God looks like throughout many of his books. We’re going to focus on four characteristics found in verses 10-12 that constitute a life pleasing to the Lord. They are: “bearing fruit”; “growing in the knowledge of God”; “being strengthened”; and “giving joyful thanks”. Let’s look at them more closely, reflect on our personal situations, and do some assessment.

Bearing Fruit – What does “bearing fruit” mean? Most of us immediately think of a fruit tree – perhaps an apple or peach tree. It’s an accurate picture for what we’re discussing. If a tree that’s designed to bear fruit doesn’t – what use is it? I suppose you could cut it up and use it for firewood. Christ is speaking about our role in bearing spiritual fruit for His kingdom. Christ actually chose us specifically for this task, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit” John 15:16. At this point, many folks tend to narrow their focus to simply saving souls, or doing something that leads to saving souls (such as preaching the gospel). We cannot save anyone – Christ alone saves. I believe that it’s a two-fold process. We’re called to bear the fruit of the Spirit, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” Gal. 5:22-23. In pursuing those qualities, which manifest themselves more and more as we dive deeper into relationship with God, the lives we lead, the actions we display to others, and the words we speak will present us with opportunities to introduce the people around us to Jesus Christ and give us the ability to fulfill the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20. Is the fruit of the Spirit visible through you?

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