Colossians 3:16

In the previous verse, we have the phrase: “let the peace of Christ.” Here we have “let the word of Christ.” And all these are still in the context of existing in a community of believers.

There are several activities mentioned here that are supposed to be the result of having the word of Christ dwelling in us.

To one another: Teaching & exhorting

To God: singing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs

You don't teach and exhort God, and at the same time, you don't sing to one another.

I am not creating a rule here, just trying to be true to the words of this verse.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom

The teaching and exhorting should be with all wisdom, while the singing should be with all grace. Wisdom means there is something we need to achieve. Grace means we are settled in God’s pleasure.

I define wisdom as what you do to get results. Therefore, the teaching and preaching cannot be to mark time, but rather to achieve the aim that God has in mind. At a minimum, it is to help the hearer to understand and to go on their journey with God, like food for the journey, equipment, food for spiritual growth, done as a service to the hearer.

With teaching, I am explaining to impact understanding; with exhortation, I am encouraging certain actions and motions. With teaching, I want you to understand; with exhortation, I want you to take action.

The wisdom part is able to have a targeted aim.

• Paul said, “So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air (1 Corinthians 9:26).”

• In another place, he said that the weapons of his warfare involved confronting arguments against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

• And the sword of the Spirit is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17).

• And the word of God is sharper than any two edged sword, able to exposure to the things in the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

• Every scripture is profitable for reproof, correction, teaching, so that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

• Paul told Timothy to preach the word; proclaim the word (2 Timothy 4:2).

We cannot overemphasize the primacy of the preaching of the word when it comes to the relationship of one believer to another.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that Paul does not mention an officially arranged meeting for all these to take place.

• But in our time, we have limited teaching and exhorting to just a specified place and done by specified people at a specified time, and that is a shame.

• Two Christians are together, and they want to talk about everything else except the word of God. It's sad.

And Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). You cannot help but have come out of your mouth what you are full of, and we are, according to Paul, meant to be full of the word of Christ.

• But people treat the word of God, of Christ, as an afterthought (sad!) compartmentalize it to a time, a place and delivered by certain people with institutional certificates. Again, sad!

• We should be hanging out around the word of God.

• Why should Christians hanging out not be different from unbelievers hanging out? It is a shame.

• Is it that we are ashamed of the word or what? If not, why are we treating the word as an irritable (strange ad bizarre) foreigner with funny accent, that we tolerate. He amuses us. But we can't wait to go back to our comfort zone. The word should be our comfort zone.

And we see that Paul is saying you should be so filled with the word of Christ, the word relating to Christ, understanding impacted by Christ that every and everyone should overflow with that knowledge so they teach and exhort one another.

I understand that there are specially called ones, set apart to the gospel of Christ like Paul, but those are not the people he is referring to here in this focus verse.

singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in your hearts to God.

There is an abundance of singing to God in the Christian community. God wants to hear your voice singing. And you want to sing because you have grace in your heart because God has been gracious to you because you are in touch with the grace of Jesus.

Sing because he is majestic, and not because it is the key to this or that.

• Paul and Silas sang in prison, and the gates became opened (Acts 16:25-26), but Peter slept, and angels opened the gates (Acts 12:6-10). So why don't we have a breakthrough method called sleeping to break the barriers? Why sing to break the barriers? It is because we are always attracted to law so that we can pat ourselves on the back that we have done something to deserve divine intervention.

A heart overflowing with the word of Christ, in whom the word of Christ is dwelling richly, is encouraged to sing. Yes, sing! Sing to God.

Paul listed different kinds of songs so that we don't start to elevate one genre above the other. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We know the first two, and the third covers songs that are neither psalms nor hymns.

Every word has to be about God, addressed to God, and full of the flavor of knowledge of Christ, not some random musings that have no bearing on God and the gospel.

This is not an aspersion on those kinds of songs, just as an emphasis on preaching the gospel and teaching does not mean we should not go to school where they teach biology. That we are not supposed to confuse the two is the point.

People write songs that address all manner of issues directly, the songs to fellow humans, but the ones directed to God are what Paul means here.

Grace in your heart means overflowing with gratitude; grace in your heart tells us that the songs are flowing from depths of gratitude to God, affinity to him, attachment to him, and fondness for him.