Putting Jesus First: Five Days in ColossiansSample

Filled with Even More Fruit

The Christian life is a call to walk obediently with Christ and increasingly bear good fruit from the inside out. And if you’re wondering what good fruit looks like, in another letter to a different church, Paul describes it as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). Bearing fruit is Paul’s call to the Colossians as they face persecution of various kinds and false teaching. This is also the call for you and me as followers of Jesus.

As we walk forward, some days this sanctification process of growth may feel like a stride. Some days it may feel like a trudge, and that’s okay too. The work of growing doesn’t always feel good (like gardening, fruitfulness requires clipping and pruning and hot rays of sun), but it is always for our good that God continues to work in us, continues to show us our sin, continues to convict our hearts, and continues to change our sinful desires to fruitful desires that please and glorify God. Even on the days that feel more like a trudge, may we remember who is at work in us even through our growing pains in our faith and that, in Christ, God is the one who fills us with good fruit and gives us the power to joyfully walk in obedience with Him, even when sanctification feels hard or slow. God calls us all to maturity in Christ, even when it’s hard or slow, and by His grace, we can, we do, and we will grow in spiritual maturity as believers. As Paul reminds us in another one of his letters: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Phil. 1:6, emphasis mine). Praise God!

And friend, don’t miss how this section of Colossians closes: The Father Himself has qualified you to participate in all of this growth through His Son’s work. You didn’t qualify yourself to come into the blessings of God’s family, where He helps His children grow in obedience and fruitfulness. Jesus’s work brought you in. You’re qualified because of Him, and you’ll grow because of Him. What good news! This is just another beautiful truth that proves Jesus really is highest and best—something Paul refers to as Jesus’s “preeminence,” as we’ll see in just a few short verses from now. You’re qualified through Christ, and He’s made it possible for you to grow by the power of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit! What a strong and beautiful reason to put Him first in our lives, friend.

If you are bearing fruit today in Christ, if you’re walking forward, uphill or down, celebrate this! And then, like Paul, ask God to fill you with even more fruit and all the obedience you need to take another step!