'As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in Him, rooted and builded up in
Him.'--COL. ii. 6, 7 (R.V.).
It is characteristic of Paul that he should here use three figures
incongruous with each other to express the same idea, the figures of
walking, being rooted, and built up. They, however, have in common that
they all suggest an initial act by which we are brought into connection
with Christ, and a subsequent process flowing from and following on it.
Receiving Christ, being rooted in Him, being founded on Him, stand for
the first; walking in Him, growing up from the root in Him, being built
up on Him as foundation, stand for the second. Fully expressed then, the
text would run, 'As ye have received Christ, so walk in Him; as ye have
been rooted in Him, so grow up in Him; as ye have been founded on Him,
so be builded up.' These three clauses present the one idea in slightly
different forms. The first expresses Christian progress as the
manifestation before the world of an inward possession, the exhibition
in the outward life of a treasure hid in the heart. The second expresses
the same progress as the development by its own vital energy of the life
of Christ in the soul. The third expresses the progress as the addition,
by conscious efforts, of portion after portion to the character, which
is manifestly incomplete until the headstone crowns the structure. We
may then take the passage before us as exhibiting the principles of
Christian progress.