Deeper Reflection
TO “WALK IN A MANNER WORTHY OF GOD” IS TO “LIVE IN a way that corresponds to the character and demands of God”²⁴, to live “the holy life, one that honours God in all its relationships and activities”²⁵. Instead of giving a list of specific commandments to be obeyed, Paul sets before us “the goal of living in a way that is consistent with the nature of God”²⁶. This presupposes that knowing God is a critical necessity. And we can truly know God in where He has revealed Himself: The Scriptures. And we also pray, that we “may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all Spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him” (Col 1:9-10).God “calls” us “into His own kingdom and glory” (v.12). “Calls” in the present tense indicates that it is an ongoing call.²⁷ This call is particularly significant and relevant to a discipleship context of suffering, which was that of the Thessalonians (1 Thess 1:6; 2:14). God’s kingdom is “the kingly rule, the reign, the dominion and the sovereignty of God in the hearts of people”²⁸; and God’s glory is God’s presence (Exo 40:34-35). Both are present and future realities. So, we anchor in the present with an assured future. Because we are in God’s “kingdom”, we can have “patient endurance” in our “tribulation” “in Jesus” (Rev 1:9). And as “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:2), “the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon” us in our suffering (1 Pet 4:14). 

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²⁴ Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 157 ²⁵ Gene L. Green, 137 ²⁶ Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 157 ²⁷ Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 157 ²⁸ James A. Brooks, Mark, The New American Commentary (Broadman, 1991), 47