Aspects of an Abundant Life
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
This week we give thought to an abundant life as a grounded life. In doing so we can take a lesson from Jesus the master teacher who tended to shun communicating truth with words of six, seven or eight syllables. He chose rather to communicate through common, everyday objects and experiences. In doing so He let those familiar objects and experiences become the vehicles that carried His message.
Like Jesus, the Bible often uses common images to communicate theological truth. For example, we encounter both the architectural metaphor of a building and the agricultural metaphor of a tree as ways of setting forth truth for life.
A worthy building rests on a strong, deeply embedded foundation and a fruitful tree has a strong and deep root system. So we turn to the Bible where we discover both images set forth as a way of thinking about the Christian life.
Grounded in love
Both of these images are expressed in the Ephesians 3:17 prayer that Christ may dwell in our hearts and that we might thereby be rooted (like a tree) and grounded (like a building) in love.
From these two illustrations we think of abundant Christian living as stemming from a solidly grounded life after the likeness of a tree grounded by its roots and a building by its foundation.
Among specific biblical truths to be gleaned from these images is that of stability such as contributes to an abundant life. Like a building withstanding strong winds due to its sturdy foundation, so a life grounded in sound doctrine can withstand the winds of false teaching that often abound.
Deeply rooted
The Bible encourages us as Christians not to “be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).
Like a tree with healthy roots demonstrates its health by bearing good fruit, so a life deeply rooted in the good soil of sound doctrine sports attractive foliage and bears abundant fruit. Stability, attractiveness and fruitfulness all contribute to the abundant Christian living that results from being rooted and grounded in God’s truth.
After Colossians 1:23 admonishes, “Continue in the faith grounded and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel,” Colossians 2:6–7 goes on to say, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
A grounded life leads to abundant living.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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