“ROOTED AND BUILT up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7). This phrase “rooted and built up in him” emphasizes two sides of our being in Christ. The rooted emphasizes the receptive side, and built up emphasizes the activity side.
We are rooted in Christ. This presupposes an affinity between the soil and the plant. They are made for each other. The plant assimilates from the soil elements akin to its own nature. The New Testament teaching is that we are made by Christ and for Christ. When we put the roots of our life into Him we come to our very own—the thing for which we were made. We have been made alien to Him through sin, but now that we are being redeemed from sin we are at home in Him. When we think His thoughts, feel His feelings, will His purposes, and become His being; we are fulfilling ourselves. This is the divine intention. We were made in His image, unmade by our sin, and now we are being remade into that image of God as seen in Christ.
If the rooted expresses the receptive side, the built up expresses the active side. This saves being in Christ from becoming a quietism, and the rooted saves it from being a mere activism. The built up puts emphasis on the disciplined life. After all, a fruit tree may be of the best stock, planted in the best of soils, and watered well, but if it is not pruned and sprayed it will be comparatively fruitless. You do not find the new life in Christ through discipline, but you cannot keep it without it. The daily quiet time spent in reading the Bible and prayer, the reading of the best books, the sharing with others—all these are a part of the process of being built up. We trust as if the whole thing depended on God, but we work as if the whole thing depended on us.
Dear Father, I would take, take, take. I would build, build, build. I would be rooted and built. Let all that I take from Thee simply fit me to give more. I would be the best person I can be in Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The materials to put into my building come from Him; how I build comes from me.
