EHP Day 50-The Word Indwelling Richly
Colossians 3:16-17
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Should someone, sometime, ask you what the Bible is all about, how would you answer? How might you summarize the point of the Bible? Paul’s letter to these early believers in Colossae (a city in what is today the country of Turkey) offers a simple summary. Using it, you might say, “The Bible is the Word of (or about) Christ.” Jesus dared to claim on several occasions that all of Scripture points to and speaks of Him.
In these verses, the apostle is urging that all the disciples in the Colossae church should nurture an eager, increasingly-familiar intimacy with the Scriptures, which point to Christ, speak about Christ, present His life and example and teaching, and instruct us on how He Himself can life in us and through us by the Holy Spirit. If the “word of Christ” dwells in each of us and among us all in a “rich” way, what will be the result?
All kinds of important and life-enriching realities. We will be free to offer—and receive—both positive teaching and admonishing correction. Readily exchanging God’s wisdom. What’s more, we’ll worship with song and scripture, while deepening in thankfulness. Our entire living—what we say, what we do—will flow out of the prioritized presence of God’s Word in our lives.
Some Christians today live just this way. Humbly, freshly in the richness of minds and hearts fully enriched by God’s presence bestowed by God’s Word.
Journal Notes