Colossians 1:10

Walk worthy (worthily) of the Lord. Here St. Paul begins to dwell on the practical life, much in the same spirit in which, in Ephesians 4:1, he returns from the profound thought of Colossians 2:3 to the entreaty “to walk worthy of the vocation with which they are called.” “The Lord” is here, as usual, the Lord Jesus Christ; to walk worthy of Him is to have His life reproduced in us, to follow His example, to have “the mind of Christ Jesus.” The “worthiness” is, of course, relative to our capacity, not absolute.

All pleasing. — The word here used is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but is employed in classic and Hellenistic Greek to mean “a general disposition to please” — a constant preference of the will of others before our own. It is here used with tacit reference to God, since towards Him alone can it be a safe guide of action. Otherwise it must have the bad sense which in general usage was attached to it. St. Paul emphatically disowns and condemns the temper of “men-pleasing” (see Galatians 1:10; Ephesians 6:6; Colossians 3:22; 1 Thessalonians 2:4), as incompatible with being “the servant of Christ.” He could, indeed, “be all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22); he could bid each man “please his neighbour for his edification” (Romans 15:12). But the only “pleasing” to which the whole life can be conformed is (see 1 Thessalonians 4:1) the consideration “how we ought to walk and to please God.” Only in subordination to this can we safely act on the desire of “all pleasing” towards men.

Increasing in (or, by) the knowledge of God. — The context evidently shows that the path towards the knowledge of God here indicated is not the path of thoughtful speculation, or of meditative devotion, but the third path co-ordinate with these — the path of earnest practice, of which the watchword is, “Do and thou shalt know.”