Colossians 1:10 “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;”
When “the word of the truth of the gospel” is prayerfully learned and applied to our lives, it is the “good work” which “bringeth forth fruit” (Colossians 1:5-6); that is, it brings “forth fruit unto God” (Romans 7:4). In practice this “fruit” is the loving and faithful obedience to our Lord (John 14:15) that “born again” (John 14:15) Children of God strive for. Paul tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9); that is, as we are guided and equipped by the Holy Spirit, we are diligently using the service-gifts that our Lord has given us and living according to our Lord’s Commandments which are “good” and “right” and “truth”! When we are diligently applying ourselves to learning and living according to “the truth of the gospel”, we will “bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). To “bring forth fruit with patience” is to endure the hard times, the sad times, the miserable times, the disappointing times, the frightful times, the times of temptation, etc. all the while remaining faithful to our Lord and His “gospel”. Paul describes the pleasant beauty of this blessed “fruit” as “the fruit of the Spirit” which “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23) that should be seen in our lives. As a young boy, I liked to walk through the field to see Dad’s field-corn with stalks higher than my head, most stalks with three large ears of corn, and beautiful long dark green blades sprouting from the thick stalks; and to walk through the garden to see dark red tomatoes bending the branches low, bright yellow squash shining in the sun, and turnips with their purple tops pushing out of the ground. Oh, let us pray with Paul that we could live in such a faithful way that we would “bring forth” such pleasing “fruit unto” our “God”, to His Blessed Glory and our peaceful joy in this present life.