Colossians 1:10

περιπατῆσαι ἀξίως τοῦ Κυρίου (Cf. Ephesians 4:1). This lofty wisdom and insight is not an end in itself. It must issue in right practice. Doctrine and ethics are for Paul inseparable. Right conduct must be founded on right thinking, but right thinking must also lead to right conduct. The infinitive expresses result “so as to walk”. τοῦ Κυρ., i.e., of Christ, not of God (Hofm., Ol.). In 1 Thessalonians 2:12 τοῦ Θεοῦ is used, but ὁ Κύρ. in Paul means Christ. ἀρεσκείαν in classical Greek used generally in a bad sense, of obsequiousness. But it often occurs in Philo in a good sense; see the note on the word in Deissmann's Bible Studies, p. 224. καρποφοροῦντες καὶ αὐξανόμενοι. For the collocation Cf. Colossians 1:6. The participles should probably be connected with περιπατῆσαι, not (as by Beng., Hofm., Weiss) with πληρωθῆτε, which is too far away. The continuation of an infinitive by a nominative participle instead of the accusative is frequent in classical Greek, and occurs several times in Paul (Colossians 2:2; Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 4:2-3). They should not be separated. The whole clause should be translated “bearing fruit and increasing in every good work by the knowledge of God”. Fruit bearing is one of Paul's favourite metaphors. τῇ ἐπιγνώσει : not as R.V. and Moule “in the knowledge,” for Paul has already spoken of this in Colossians 1:9, but “by the knowledge,” the knowledge of God being the means of their spiritual growth. Meyer, against the overwhelming weight of evidence, reads εἰς τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν, “as regards the knowledge”. This would make knowledge the goal of conduct (Cf. John 7:17), whereas previously the relation is reversed.