Are you finally growing up? Colossians 1-2

We would be very much concerned if we saw a child who was not developing according to the medical community.  If, after years, they can't talk or walk, we would seek help.   If a student in school never applied themselves and didn't improve in learning with their class they are typically held back and then identified by the educational community as needing special attention.   If an athlete doesn't progress in development it is much tougher: He/she is simply cut from the team.  In the work-a-day world an employee that doesn't "get it" is, perhaps, offered training and then finally, let go.  If a farmer has a plant and it doesn't grow and bear fruit he plows it under.  Development of who we are as human beings is a necessary part of maturity.  We expect it in every walk of life.   Why then is it permissible for believers to take the gospel in belief and never produce anymore fruit?  That is the subject we see Paul addressing in this book.  He doesn't want his listeners to believe that stagnant living in Christ was not the design or the plan of God.   In 1:6 he tells them they ought to be bearing more and more fruit.   In 1:10 he repeats the statement and adds that we are to be "increasing" in our knowledge of God.   In 1:23 he adds that we are to "continue" in the faith ... when you continue in something you are growing and moving ... not stagnant.  In 1:28 Paul tells us that we are to be moving to the final completeness in Christ. He continues the theme in chapter two and later in three and four.  We see it as abnormal when something, created to grow, doesn't.  So, too, our being in Christ. We should see the lack of spiritual growth as "abnormal."  We should not accept it in ourselves or in our midst.   Christ came to "fill" us. That filling is an ongoing process of submitting to God's Word and yielding to the Holy Spirit.  Are you growing in Christ each day?  Is there an "increase of fruit" today over last year?  If God were a farmer would he prune you for more fruit or would He uproot you for no fruit?