From the Ask Pastor John podcast inbox comes this question. "Hello Pastor John, my name is Joshua Chapman from Memphis, Tennessee. What does it mean to be rooted in Christ? I know Colossians 2:6 talks about being rooted and built up in Christ, but what exactly does that mean?" Let's go to Colossians.

I mean, there is another usage of it over in Ephesians that's really full of implications, I think, but mainly I think we'll just stay here with Colossians and maybe toss in a thought from Ephesians. Here's what it says, Colossians 2, 6. "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted" Now there's the word, "rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." So let me take it a phrase at a time because every one of these phrases in these two verses sheds light on the meaning of "rooted." So number one, "walk in him, rooted and built up." So "rooted and built up" are participles modifying the word "walk," that is, live, how we walk in life, how we move through life.

So "walk rooted," "walk rooted." Being rooted is describing how we live our lives as Christians, live as rooted in Jesus, in his person, in his work. And this is not abstract. This is a how-to. Paul means for us to really get practical here. This is how you get up in the morning.

This is how you eat breakfast, how you go to work, how you come home, play with the kids, cut the grass, have sexual relations, sleep. Do it all rooted in Jesus. That is, do it all by drawing up nourishment from Jesus. Do it all in the confidence that you are firmly planted in Jesus.

That's the way to live. Don't live a wobbly, unnourished life. Step number two, "walk in him rooted and built up." Isn't it interesting that he mixes his metaphors? Rooted is what a tree is. Built up is what a building is. And you can see that even more clearly in the Greek.

So we are rooted. Our roots are sunk down in solid, nourishing soil. And we are built up, that is, on a solid foundation. Now why would Paul mix his metaphors, tree and building? Perhaps because they have different connotations that are both important to his point. So tree connotes life and strength, drawing nourishment up from Christ by our root being sunk in him.

He's nourishing strength. But building connotes something even more solid and unshakable. Big stones built together on a granite foundation of Christ's reliability. And so I think he's mixing it up here just to make sure we get the point. And number three, he makes the point explicit. He says, "walk in him rooted and built up in him and," and then the English says, "established." Now that word puts all the emphasis on firmness and solidity.

Doesn't put it so much on nourishment. Firmness and solidity. So that's what he wants us to feel mainly in these two images. A tree that is rooted and firm and established in solid ground and rock and not easily blown over. Reliable, strong. And so walk as a Christian whose roots are deep in Christ that nothing can uproot you or blow you over in the culture or in anything that happens of an adverse nature.

Number four, and this tells us how we connect with the root and the foundation. "Walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith." That's our connection to the root. Faith is our connection. God roots us. God establishes us in Christ through our faith. If you say, "Well, what do I do to sink my root into this Christ who won't let me go and who will nourish me?" And the answer is, you trust him.

You trust his promises. You trust his work. You trust his person. You trust him to be a good foundation and to be good food for you and to meet your need every day. You walk by faith. That's to walk rooted. So he's the root and he's supplying, but our part is to stay planted right there and keep sinking the root of faith down into his solidity and his nourishment.

Number five, the next phrase is very practical and shows how we grow in this root through our faith. "Walk in him rooted and built up in him, established in faith just as you were taught." So that says that our faith is nourished through teaching. Now, this root is a person with thoughts.

He did things. He's a kind of person, and we have to know these things. We have to be taught about the root. And so our faith makes its way down into the solidity and the nourishment of Christ through the teaching that the apostles give us about the root. And finally, number six, Paul focuses on one of the great fruits of this firm tree of the Christian life.

He says, "Walk in him rooted and built up in him, established in the faith just as you were taught." And now finally, "abounding in thanksgiving." So if God has rooted you and founded you, and the passive verbs there means God did it. You are rooted. You are founded. God did this for you.

And if your life is now made firm and strong, and you're being taught, and you're trusting in him, then one of the inevitable overflows is you're going to be a thankful person. So my answer to the question is, what does it mean to be rooted? That's what it means to be rooted in Colossians 2.7.

And let me just toss in real quick here at the end a thought from Ephesians 3.17 where it says, "May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded," same mixed metaphor, rooted and grounded, "in love," that's new, "may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the height and breadth and length and depth, and to know the love of Christ." So my thought over the years has been, I wonder if the reason for both rooted and grounded is to get at breadth and length and height and depth of love.

So if our roots are going deep in the love of Christ, then that explains the word "depth." If our branches are going up high in the strength of Christ, that might explain the word "height." And if this foundation is spreading in every direction so there's no place where he's not a great sufficient foundation, that would account for breadth and length of the love of Christ.

In any case, the point is this. Because we are rooted, because we're built in Christ, we can begin to grasp the breadth and length and height and depth of his love for us, and we live off of that, and we're rooted in that and founded in his immeasurable love for us.

That is magnificent truth, Pastor John. Thank you for that. I love this theme of union with Christ, and if you want more on this, be sure to check out episode number 383 in the archive of this podcast, which features British theologian Michael Reeves. Episode number 383 is titled "Christian Life as Union with Christ." It is very good.

Check it out. Well, sadly, as sinners, we are all born with an addiction for human praise, and social media doesn't help at all. So what does this addiction do to us, and how can we sever the root of this addiction we have for praise? That's tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.