Day by Day

February 27, 2024

Lent 2024

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I have raised four boys. Their idea of a great gift was one that they could take apart in order to find out how it worked. Sometimes, they wouldn’t put the toy back together. I would stand back and wonder why they would do such a thing, why they acted the way they did. Fortunately for us, God’s Word is complete, giving us the “what’s,” and “how’s” and “why’s” and all we need.

In today’s passage, Paul tells us to “continue to live in Him” (v. 6). The important word here is “continue,” as an old Christian song says, “day by day.” We are to become “rooted” in Christ, not just to believe in the fact of who He is (v. 7). Paul doesn’t leave us with the command to continue to live in Him, as if to say, “because I said so.” In this passage, he gives us “why’s.”

The first reason is to have such complete knowledge of the teachings and identity of Christ that we do not mix them with “hollow and deceptive philosophies” (v. 8). The Message calls these philosophies “high sounding nonsense,” and they are still present and active in the world, especially in our country of free speech, even in universities. Other beliefs that people hold true are done so only because they have been believed for so long and are really nothing more than “human tradition” (v. 8).

Another, more profound, reason for continuing to live with Christ is that “in Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (v. 9). WOW! He is God in the flesh! Although in human form, He can subdue evil (He is “over every power and authority”) and He can change us into His image by helping us “put off our sinful nature” by being “buried (submerged) in baptism” and “raised through faith” (v. 11, 12). Best of all, He does this out of love because God first loved Him (John 15:9). Why wouldn’t a person want to abide in Christ day by day especially because “He first loved us” (I John 4:19)?

For reflection: