NT Text: Colossians 1:10 — "bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God"
OT Source(s):
Source: Anchor-Text Network — Genesis 1:28 (Beale, The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New Testament; Köstenberger & O'Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth)
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy + Longitudinal Theme
Anchor Text: Gen 1:28 — The Adamic Commission
Significance: Companion to the Colossians 1:6 pair. Where 1:6 applies the Adamic-commission verbs to the gospel's worldwide spread, 1:10 turns the same verb pair — καρποφορέω ("bearing fruit") + αὐξάνω ("increasing/growing") — toward the believer's sanctification: "bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." The αὐξάνω verb deliberately picks up Gen 1:28 LXX αὐξάνεσθε. The individual Christian thus participates in the Adamic mandate, being made fruitful and increasing not in dominion-of-the-earth terms but in conformity to God — the restored image-bearer doing inwardly what Adam was commissioned to do outwardly. Per the ATN §4 this is an analogical use (the commission verbs transferred to sanctification) rather than a typological fulfillment proper; it belongs to the Longitudinal Theme of fruitfulness that runs from Eden through the patriarchs and prophets into the church. Christ accomplishes what Adam failed to do, and the believer-in-Christ is drawn into that fruitfulness.