Colossians 2:6

Here, we see two phases:

The phase where you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and the phase where you live your lives in him.

The first one is done at a point in time, and the second is a lifetime.

The first, you cross from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:13); the second, you grow up into Christ (Ephesians 4:15).

You received Jesus as Lord; now, you need to live your lives in him, or, more accurately, his life lived through you.

• With you thinking about things above, not things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).

• With you seeking to please the one who died for you (2 Corinthians 5:15).

• With you growing in the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

Remember, before we reached this verse, we read line after line about Jesus' greatness.

Before Paul said we should live our lives in Christ, he laid the foundation for who Christ is.

Therefore, we need the foundation of knowledge of Christ, which we take for granted at our own peril. We may be too quick to try to push people into living for Christ when they don't even know the Christ they are supposed to live for and in.

Jesus commanded that we should teach people to obey what he commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). And we need to do that. Speaking of who he is dethrones people’s fears—what they may be eager to yield to and persuaded by as opposed to Christ.

Paul had compared Christ to the power and principalities, the visible things and the invisible.

By painting a compelling picture of the supremacy of Christ, we don't have to do too much explaining to get the message of living our lives in him across.

He is big and cannot be put in one corner, one day, in one corner of the room, in one hour of the day, or among specific associations, thinking that compartmentalizing our life and putting in one segment of it would do.

Remember you are receiving him as Lord. We may be quick to focus on the word Lord, but let’s focus on the word ‘him.’ Let us remind ourselves of who he is. Put simply, he is God.

But so that he is not confused by other elements that are also called god, Paul said he created all things (Colossians 1:16).

So that we don't confuse him with concepts of the creator that people can have, he said his power sustains everything (Colossians 1:17).

So that you don't think it is just an impersonal power, he said that he is the head of principalities and powers, and the head of the church (Colossians 1:18, 2:10), and that he is the firstborn from the dead (really, what do people fear more than death?). He conquered death.

That is him, him that is Lord, and him that we should live our lives in because, in reality, our lives are hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3) in the heavenly places far above principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:21).

We owe our lives to him. We are members of his household (Ephesians 2:19), and we are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem and have come to myriads of angels and the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does (Hebrews 12:22-24).

He is our peace (Ephesians 2:14), righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30), right standing with God, and all in all (Colossians 3:11).

Whether you receive him as Lord or not does not make him less so; receiving him as Lord is you aligning yourself with reality.

That was why Paul took his time to paint the reality that you cannot get anywhere else except through the revelation that God has delivered to Paul and now the written word.

Any attempt to use your imagination here would not do justice, and you might fall into one bucket of error or another.

Paul wanted them to be rooted in Christ, but not the Christ of their imagination, but one laid out by the words of Paul, who has made clear the authority with which he is speaking. You can be sure of those words and not second-guess yourself.

It's a whole of life commitment.

Now, if you want to receive him as Lord because you don't want to face wrath when the time comes (and you are unsure of this whole-of-life thing), there is a problem here. In that case, we can doubt that you received him as Lord or maybe he is just an insurance.