The apostle Paul here uses two metaphors together, to convey the strongest concepts of the quality of the walk we ought to have in God. The foundation of our faith has been laid and is established, and that Foundation is Jesus! Through salvation, we are positioned on this Foundation, the firm rock of the Lord’s teaching. Paul alludes to the way we should continue in Christ. He states that “as we first received” Him, we should also walk in Him. This walk is intended to be a progressively more profound experience with God! Like roots of a tree digging deeper and becoming stronger, even so, as we walk in the Lord, we must go further in the truth and understanding of His Word, and so become more firmly held, into the true and solid foundation Jesus has laid. There is no other foundation necessary, but there is for the believer, a necessary work of going deeper in His truth, deeper in love for Him and deeper in desire and obedience towards the Lord. No true believer can continue in a surface or shallow relationship with God. We are planted in the ‘good soil’ of His truth, and there, we must put down deep and healthy roots. Thus Paul firstly indicates the necessity of a deepening walk in Christ, and along with that and of equal importance, being built up in Him. We all recognise this is an ongoing aspect of our relationship with the Lord! Being firmly gripped into the Foundation - Jesus Christ, we can now, if we allow the Lord to work in us, become the kind of structure and edifice for God that He desires us to be. Here too we see a progressing and continuing work, as stage by stage, the Lord helps us to build, enlarge and improve on what we have had to date. It is again important to realise that the believer cannot remain stationary in his growth in God. Stagnation for the Christian would be like a structure that is partly built and then abandoned. It is God’s will that His people are growing people, constantly learning and becoming more perfected in His ways and principles. Spiritual growth is a process which will endure through life, and we can facilitate it by being willing to both go deeper and higher in God! Jesus is both the ground into which our roots can grow deeper, and the solid foundation upon which our edifice is established!
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion
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