Sunday’s sermon on the community of faith that engages in the worship of God was drawn primarily from Colossians 3:16. The apostle Paul tells the Colossians to “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” He then describes the effect the indwelling word produces on the worshiping church: (1) As the word of Christ dwells within, the worshiping church speaks the word to one another; (2) as the word of Christ dwells within, the worshiping church sings the word to God.
You can hear Sunday’s sermon here.
For this post, I want to ponder a bit further the significance of the word of Christ dwelling within, especially in light of the connection Paul makes between the word of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
The books of Colossians and Ephesians have a great deal in common. They were written from the same prison cell in Rome and delivered at the same time by a man named Tychicus to their respective destinations (see Ephesians 6:21 and Colossians 4:7). Many of the passages contain similar wording and themes, but no two passages are more similar than Colossians 3:16-17 and Ephesians 5:18-20. Check them both out below:
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
To help you see just how closely these two passages parallel each other, I’ve placed the texts side by side in the table below:
|
Colossians 3:16-17 |
Ephesians 5:18-20 |
| “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you…” | “… be filled with the Spirit,” |
| “with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another…” | “speaking to one another…” |
| “with songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” | “in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;” |
| “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” | “Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” |
In both passages, Paul describes the worship of the people of God in terms of communicating truth to one another, singing songs to God, and living lives characterized by thankfulness to God in the name of Jesus Christ. In both passages, these characteristics of Christian worship are the byproduct of some foundational spiritual reality. In Colossians 3:16, the spiritual reality that produces right Christian worship is the word of Christ dwelling within. In Ephesians 5:18-20, the spiritual reality that produces right Christian worship is being filled with the Holy Spirit. Let’s consider each of these realities briefly and then consider how they relate to one another.
Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.”
The phrase “word of Christ” means “the message about Christ” and refers to the truth that is inspired by God concerning the Lord Jesus. In other words, we should understand the word of Christ to be a reference to Scripture. Paul is saying that the message/content of Scripture should fill our minds and hearts to the extent that it produces results consistent with the message of Scripture, similarly to the way that a house takes on the character of its residents. The character of the indwelling word is the truth-speaking, song-singing, thankful lives of Christians in worship.
Ephesians 5:18 – “Be filled with the Spirit.”
Being filled with the Spirit is contrasted with being drunk with wine. Wine controls the drunk person, resulting in actions that demonstrate the controlling influence of the wine that fills him. Rather than that, Paul says, we are to be filled in a controlling way by the Holy Spirit. As wind fills the sails of a ship, moving it through the waters, so the Holy Spirit is to fill the Christian, moving him in right worship and right living. The result of being filled with the Spirit is the truth-speaking, song-singing, thankful lives of Christians in worship.
The interesting thing to note is that Paul can ascribe exactly the same results to the word of Christ in one passage and to the Holy Spirit in another. What are we to take away from this? The working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians is always consistent with and in cooperation with the truth of Scripture. The inner guidance, comfort, or empowerment that comes from the Holy Spirit will never contradict Scripture, and it will be enhanced by the knowledge of Scripture and meditation upon it. Conversely, Scripture, as mere words on a page, will effect no change in our lives if its message does not “dwell within,” where it is being put to use by the Holy Spirit who also dwells within (see 1 Corinthians 3:16).
Very recently, I had a conversation with a good friend who is going through a tumultuous personal crisis. He has been spending a great deal of time reading and meditating on the word of God, not only in this crisis, but as a matter of daily habit. As we talked about the crisis in his life, he shared with me the path that be sensed God was leading him down. After laying it all out, he made the comment, “I don’t know if this is just my ramblings or if this really is God leading me.” I told him that I have full confidence it is the Holy Spirit of God leading him. You may wonder what gave me such confidence. It was simple, really. The path that he described was saturated with Scriptural truth and lined up consistently with the counsel of God’s word in the kind of crisis situation he was facing. You see, if he had told me God was leading him down a path that I knew did not line up with Scripture, I would have warned him that it was not God’s Spirit leading him but his own flesh or perhaps an evil spirit. However, when the path he described lined up with the word of God, and I knew this person had been spending much time reading and meditating upon God’s word, there was no doubt in my mind that the path was being laid out by God.
So, was my friend’s wisdom in walking the right path through crisis the result of the indwelling word of Christ, or was it the result of the Holy Spirit? Yes, yes it was!
Christian brother and sister, as you hear, read, and meditate upon the word of Christ (Scripture), you will find that you are being moved along by the Holy Spirit of God to rightly worship and rightly live in ways that glorify your heavenly Father! The word of Christ and the Holy Spirit cannot be separated!