What does it mean to be established in the faith (Colossians 2:7)?

Verses 6 and 7 indicate that the best preventive against evil is progress in the right direction. Having received Christ as their Lord, they were to "walk in Him," that is, to put into practice what they knew of Him and of His will. Having been rooted in Him they were to be built up in Him, and thus established so firmly in the true faith that they were like vessels filled up to the brim with it, and overflowing with praise and thanksgiving. Let us all take note that it is when our knowledge of the truth comes out in our practice on the one hand, and in our praise on the other, that we are really established in it.

V. 7. Moreover if we are rooted in Him as the source of all our blessing, let us seek to be built up and established in our souls in the truth in Him, and thus assured or confirmed in the faith. This confirmation in the faith is the result of holding to the truth as we have been taught in the apostolic teachings. That which we have been taught in Scripture is not to be held half-heartedly. We should seek to abound in the truth with thanksgiving.

Alas! too often saints show how little they are confirmed in the faith, as they have been taught in apostolic writings, by lightly abandoning under the enticing words of some leader all they have professed to believe. How needed the warning, "Lest any man", whatever his gift or sincerity, "beguile you with enticing words". Whatever we hear, come from whomsoever it may, we are only safe as we test it by "the faith", as we have "been taught" in the Word of God.

The positive exhortations of verses 6 and 7 are as needful for us as for them. In having received Christ Jesus as Lord, our lives should be consistent with this fact: we should "walk in Him." This side of the truth is specially pressed in Colossians. To walk in Him it is necessary first to be "rooted." The root system of a tree takes considerable time to develop before there is much growth above ground, and continues to develop during the tree's growth upward. Hidden communion with the Lord is vital that there may be strength to stand. And the building up too is to be "in Him:" nothing can be left to our own ability or energy.

The stable basis of all this is "the faith," the whole revealed truth of Christianity. We must be solidly established "in the faith" as taught in Scripture, yet not only being doctrinally correct, but "abounding in it with thanksgiving" (v.7). For the truth is that which can so fill the heart as to cause an abundant overflow with spontaneous thanksgiving arising to our God and Father.

Then they were to be rooted and built up in Him. No doubt "rooted" suggests the thought of a tree with its growth and fruitbearing, that which is for His eye and pleasure. "Built up" suggests the house, that which is seen in testimony here in this world. We have our part in both aspects of Christian life thus figured. May we strike our roots deep into this fertile soil and be built up "in" Him, the sure foundation. They were to be "stablished in the faith." To be so we need to know what the "faith" is. No book of man's wisdom can school our souls in this. The sure Word of God is our only text book, hence the constant need to steep our souls in the precious Word of God. Do we read and meditate upon the Scriptures as much as we could do, not just as much as we ought to? It is certain that if we read, seeking Christ on every page, the light of God will flood our souls. "The faith" is the whole body of the revealed truth of God; the complete teaching of Christianity in which we have the revelation of God in the Son and the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which find their centre in Christ Who died and Who is now triumphantly risen and glorified — an inexhaustible store. This is the blessed substance of the faith. They were to follow the apostle's teaching — "as ye have been taught." It has often been said, "What is true is not new and what is new is not true." They had received that which was from the beginning through the apostles and were not to depart from it. The hallmark of apostolic authority is, "We are of God." The mark of faith is, "he that knoweth God heareth us" (1 John 4:6). Innovations, however learned and attractive, are to be tested by the Scriptures — the alone Word of Truth. If they do not stand four-square with apostolic teaching — whoever propounds them — they are of no value. Indeed they are positively evil; let us throw them away. The mark of a healthy Christian is the tenacious hold he has on the original teaching. At the beginning of the dispensation "they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking bread and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). Only thus shall we abound in thanksgiving. Does our study cause us to do this? Philosophy, legality etc., turn a man in upon himself; an unhappy occupation. "The faith" gives us an object outside of ourselves, the living glorious Lord Jesus Christ Who so eclipses everyone and everything that we abound in thanksgiving to God through Him. In the midst of a rapidly apostatising Christendom we have, through grace, received true and sound ministry but let us remember that the greater our privilege the greater is our responsibility. The way to grow in the truth of God is by obedience and the way to obedience is affection.

It is easy for the reader to perceive that the introduction of the word "so" in verse 6 mars the force of the apostolic exhortation. The exhortation is based upon the preceding five verses; and it is as a warning against being deceived by "persuasive" words into seeking help or instruction outside the mystery of God, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that the apostle writes, "As ye have therefore" (or, As then ye have) "received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him." The position of the words "the Lord" seems to bring His Lordship especially before the souls of these believers, with the implied claim to their entire subjection. It is then in Him, Christ Jesus the Lord, they were to walk, in accordance with their professed reception of Him, in all that He is, together with all His claims — in Him as the sphere and element in which they were to live, and move, and have their being. The succeeding verse, when rightly understood, gives a greatly increased force to the exhortation. Its first words should be rendered, "Having been rooted, and being built up in Him." They had been, and were, rooted in Him, like a tree rooted in the soil; so that all the roots of their spiritual life proceeded from Him. The "being built up in Him" implies two things. Christ was the foundation on which they had been placed, yet more than this, inasmuch as He is a living foundation, and hence it can be said to be "in Him," besides the fact that we are in Him before God; and secondly, being on the foundation (as involved in the word "built up"), these were to be continuously built up — edified, by the ministration and apprehension of the fulness of the Godhead, which dwelleth in Christ bodily, and in whom we are filled full or complete. The apostle adds, "And stablished [or confirmed] in the faith," the truth of Christianity, we judge from the following words, "As ye have been taught … abounding therein with thanksgiving." It is a wonderful scripture, and teaches, what indeed is the lesson of the whole chapter, that nothing outside of Christ can in any way contribute to the believer, that in Christ he possesses all he needs, whether it be wisdom, or knowledge, or completeness before God.

It is easy for the reader to perceive that the introduction of the word "so" in verse 6 mars the force of the apostolic exhortation. The exhortation is based upon the preceding five verses; and it is as a warning against being deceived by "persuasive" words into seeking help or instruction outside the mystery of God, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that the apostle writes, "As ye have therefore" (or, As then ye have) "received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him." The position of the words "the Lord" seems to bring His Lordship especially before the souls of these believers, with the implied claim to their entire subjection. It is then in Him, Christ Jesus the Lord, they were to walk, in accordance with their professed reception of Him, in all that He is, together with all His claims - in Him as the sphere and element in which they were to live, and move, and have their being. The succeeding verse, when rightly understood, gives a greatly increased force to the exhortation. Its first words should be rendered, "Having been rooted, and being built up in Him." They had been, and were, rooted in Him, like a tree rooted in the soil; so that all the roots of their spiritual life proceeded from Him. The "being built up in Him" implies two things. Christ was the foundation on which they had been placed, yet more than this, inasmuch as He is a living foundation, and hence it can be said to be "in Him," besides the fact that we are in Him before God; and secondly, being on the foundation (as involved in the word "built up"), these were to be continuously built up - edified, by the ministration and apprehension of the fulness of the Godhead, which dwelleth in Christ bodily, and in whom we are filled full or complete. The apostle adds, "And stablished [or confirmed] in the faith," the truth of Christianity, we judge from the following words, "As ye have been taught … abounding therein with thanksgiving." It is a wonderful scripture, and teaches, what indeed is the lesson of the whole chapter, that nothing outside of Christ can in any way contribute to the believer, that in Christ he possesses all he needs, whether it be wisdom, or knowledge, or completeness before God.

What Sufficiency! "Planted … beside the waters." God plants judiciously; man, not always. God knows that His plants need nourishment, and He places them where they can get it, and moreover provides them with means whereby they can absorb it. There is a suggestion of trees in Col. 2:7: "Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught." The rooting is the act of God, and once for all He roots His saints in Christ. Then, like trees, we are built up and established as we draw to ourselves the nourishment divinely provided. This is our responsibility, and it is continuous. There is no lack on God's part. "The river of God is full of water," and it greatly enriches all who draw from it (Ps. 65:10). In Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete (filled full) in Him (Col. 2:9-10). One great object for which the epistle to the Colossians was written was to stress the truth that the Christian need not, and should not, go outside of Christ for anything. There was some danger in this respect in Colosse. Other things were being presented to them to be added to their Christianity. "Christ is all," says the apostle in Col. 3:11.

He proceeds at once, therefore, to bid us, as having received Christ Jesus the Lord, to walk in Him. The place of identification with Him which God has given us is to be carried out in practice here. We are to walk as identified with Him. We are to walk as in this new place and new creation, separated, therefore, from the world and under the authority, as Lord, of Him whom the world has rejected. We have received Him as our Lord, not simply as our Saviour, although these two things will necessarily go together; but we have received Him as One who has rightful title over us and One in whom we have found all that enables us to be independent of the world around. Thus we are rooted and built up in Him. It is from Him that we draw subsistence as the plant through its root, and we are thus built up in Him as the plant builds itself up through the nourishment which it thus receives. How perfectly then are we provided! Christ is our one Sufficiency; and "the faith" is that which has, so to speak, given us Christ Himself, for it is by faith that we know Him. We are to abound in it, says the apostle, with thanksgiving, — an immense point, for if our hearts are not making joy over the truth which God has given us, what shall we have to keep us from the evil around? or to produce in us the fruits which are acceptable to God? Here he adds one of his warnings, not to be led away, therefore through philosophy and vain deceit; that is, through the working of man's mind apart from revelation. Christ is the subject of revelation, plainly. No human thought could have discovered Him: none can add to Him. All mere human teaching has upon it the essential marks of the world itself, a world into which He came in love, but which had no heart for Him.

But the fact that the Apostle could behold the absence of such disorder as, for example, he had to mourn at Corinth, in those to whom he is here writing, as well as a steadfastness in the faith of Christianity, led him to rejoice, and to urge them that, as they had received Christ Jesus the Lord, so they should walk in Him, in the sense of His sufficiency; and being rooted and grounded in Him, and thus established in the faith in which they had been taught, they should abound therein, as in pasture rich and nutritious, with a thanksgiving which would indicate their hearts’ entire satisfaction.

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord" would be when they had believed the gospel, but having thus believed on Him, confessing Him as Lord, it is now a question of going on in Him — "walk ye in Him". When first we came to Christ we came to Him as the only One in the universe Who could meet our need, and He did. Well, He is the only One Who can meet our need in working this out in our lives for the pleasure of God. "Walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him". We need not be disconcerted if we are not far on in the philosophies of this world, but let us be exercised to be rooted and built up in Him. "Rooted" means we can grow there, drawing all our resources from Him. "Built up" means we are established in the truth.

"Rooted", while something that has been done, in its effect continues. "Built up" is a continuous thing now going on, but "rooted" also means we continue in that condition. We are not uprooted. One has connected "rooted" with fruit bearing, that which is for the pleasure of God; "built up" with the house of God, which is testimony.