阅读经文 

近三十年前，当我认信基督并将生命交托给祂时，我是用这段经文来表达基督的爱对我个人的意义。虽然保罗在写给歌罗西人的信中没有特别提到树，但他确实借用了在基督里扎根的图画——这会带来被建造、坚固的生命，感谢的果实不断增长。

在这节经文中，“扎根 ”这个词是希腊文的rhizoo，这是我们英文根茎rhizome 的词根——一条不断生长的水平地下根茎，会发出芽来在地面上生长。但是这个动词在希腊文中是用被动语态来写的，也就是说，与其说把重点放在信徒要扎根，不如说是强调我们如何被基督扎根，因着基督在我们身上的工作而在祂里面扎根。我们接受基督的时候，祂要使我们稳定、坚固、被建立。祂要使我们在祂里面彻底扎根。

当我们知道基督会在我们里面做这些事，我们也信靠祂的时候，一切都会改变。我们被邀请继续接受祂，让祂在我们里面作工，不断地建造我们。这就是我们与基督所享有的相互的、深厚的个人相交：我们住在祂里面，祂也住在我们里面。

When I professed my faith in Christ and committed my life to him nearly three decades ago, I used this passage as I talked about what Christ's love meant to me personally. Though Paul doesn't refer specifically to trees as he writes to the Colossians, he does borrow the image of being rooted in Christ—and that leads to living a life that is built up, strong, and overflowing with the fruit of gratitude.

The word for "rooted" in this verse is the Greek word rhizoo, and this is the root word for our English word "rhizome"—a continuously growing horizontal underground stem that sends up shoots to grow above ground. But the verb in Greek is written in a passive tense, which means that rather than putting the emphasis on the believer to be rooted, the emphasis is on how we are being rooted by Christ and in him because of his work in us. When we receive Christ, he will render us firm, fixed, and established. And he will cause us to be thoroughly grounded in him.

It changes everything to know that Christ will do this in us and for us as we trust in him. We're invited to continue to receive him and to allow his work in us to continually build us up. This is the mutual and deeply personal communion that we enjoy with Christ: we abide in him, and he abides in us.