Colossians 3:16-17Amplified Bible

¹⁶ Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind—permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ Whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus [and in dependence on Him], giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

In Colossians 3:16, Paul writes this:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God.”

Now, here’s the most interesting thing: this passage from Colossians 3 is about our encouraging and admonishing one another but the source and foundation of our encouraging one another is to ensure we are each worshipping together.

The best way in which we can encourage one another in life is to make sure that we all edify each other, we all build each other up in the faith, we grow stronger in God’s family, we grow stronger together as a people of praise and worship.

And if we get our praise and worship right and become strong as a spiritual family, that will then spill over into how we live our lives throughout the week,

and we will each be taking God with us in our hearts into the everyday lives of all those others in God’s own Neighborhood which we live and work and play.

And that is, as Paul suggests, is perhaps the greatest encouragement of all.

If we have found our happiness, our contentment, our fulfilment, in the worship of God in the context of a loving and supportive spiritual family, then we will know God’s encouragements and presence in every aspect of our lives.

The praise and worship of God within the context of a Christian church family is foundational to knowing, living out, His happiness and fulfilment in our lives.

And in this passage from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, especially verses 16 and 17, we see firstly how the church family gathers together for praise and worship and then secondly, how that extends, pours itself out into every aspect of life.

So, as we think about this idea, let’s start by thinking what we actually mean by the idea of ‘praise and worship’.

And there’s three things I want to say about this.

1. Worship engages us with the Word of God in the Bible

Colossians 3:16, Paul writes this: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”

This is referring to the teaching and life of our Savior Jesus, of course, that we find in the four Gospels.

But it’s also true to say that literally the whole Bible points readers to Jesus and so there’s a very real, deep sense in which the whole Bible is the word of Christ.

And Paul uses this interesting word, ‘dwell…’: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” and that implies a deep rootedness in our lives.

As a Pastor can visit you in your home and it is always nice to do that, but they do not ‘dwell’ in your home; They ‘dwell’ in their own homes.

My home, where I ‘dwell’, is where I go to relax and get some rest, the place where I can chill out with my family and recuperate after a tough day at work.

We see this word ‘dwell’ in another important verse, in John’s Gospel where he wrote that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. (John 1:14)

God became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, and he dwelt among us, he lived among us, and as the people were moved to, they came to him for rest and recuperation, encouragement and challenge and healing and experience God.

And there’s something important about the idea of God’s word dwelling in us.

Because in all the storms and chaos and confusions of life, we can return to God’s word every single day, find our rest, Shalom and relaxation there and recuperate with God as he speaks to us through the Bible and also be challenged and healed as we grapple with the harsh truths found deep in God’s word to us.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”

There is a richness in God’s word that we won’t find anywhere else.

There is a fullness and a completeness to God’s word: we can turn to the Bible in any season of our life, no matter what we are going through, no matter how we are feeling – and we will each receive the richness of God’s presence in our life.

But there’s just one more interesting point to note from this phrase: “Let the word of God dwell in you richly…”

In the original Greek, the word ‘you’ is in the plural, not the singular.

So what Paul is saying is this: that it’s not just us as individuals that need to dwell in the Word, soak ourselves in the Scriptures.

But this is a corporate activity for us to focus on as a church family together.

As the body of Christ, we, together, are to ‘dwell richly in the word of God…’

Together, we are to read and study the Bible, be shaped by the Bible, and allow the Bible to transform how we are as a church and how we develop our mission, ministry and gather together regularly for praise and worship of God together.

Letting the word of God dwell richly is very much a covenanted community act, not something that we just do exclusively as individuals.

So, in the context of this passage from Colossians 3, then, we are to encourage one another – as the Body of Christ, the family of God – to study the word of God together, and be shaped by it as a family as we come to worship together.

So what does that look like in practice?

Well that leads on to the next point, which is this:

2. Our praise and worship engages both the mind and the emotions

In verse 16, Paul says this: 

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.”

As we come to praise and worship, we want to be engaged together in both our mind and our emotions.

Firstly, our minds: “Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom”.

In Church, the idea of a sermon may seem, to people, to be outdated: there are few places in society today where someone talks to a group of people for 20 minutes in an uninterrupted way in order to work through the text of a book!

But sermons are still important in all religious settings, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or whatever, because it is through the sermon that we engage together as a faith community to encourage through the sacred texts.

And the church, this church family, is a learning community.

All of us are learning together.

Just because I might have an education in Theology or Ministry, a clergy collar on, does not necessarily mean I somehow know God any better than you do.

We are all on a uniquely God designed, God planned, journey into a far deeper relationship with our God. And I too need to learn with you and from you what that looks like and hopefully I can encourage all of you in some small way too.

So, we each still need to gather together, we each need to explore together the teachings of the Christian faith so we can find our way on our spiritual journey.

But worship of God is not all about the mind: it should engage the emotions too.

As Paul says in Colossians 3:16: 

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.”

Our praise and worship of God comes from our hearts, our emotional centre, as we each reflect on what God has done for us, what Jesus has done for us and the forgiveness, new life that we have received through Jesus’ death on the cross.

As we come together to worship, we reflect on God’s amazing love for us and we are each inspired, moved in our hearts to sing, to praise, to receive Communion together, have our hearts warmed as we meet together in the presence of God.

The Psalms, the old and new hymns, the songs, the Communion, should not just be ritualistic acts we go through. Instead, as Paul says here, we worship “with gratitude in our hearts” for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

And as he also says in this verse, our worship is “to God”.

We aren’t singing for one another, or to just do something pleasing amongst ourselves: God is our audience when we sing, when we worship, when we receive Communion, and God is ‘pleased’ with our worship… (Psalm 19:14)

It does not matter if we have a good singing voice or a bad singing voice.

It doesn’t matter if we feel worthy or unworthy when we receive Communion.

It doesn’t matter what clothes we wear to church.

It doesn’t matter what people may think about us.

We only have an audience of ONE when we praise and worship – and that one is God, the Father, and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

And hopefully and prayerfully God is always ‘pleased’ with our worship…

So firstly, worship of God engages with the word of God, the Bible.

Secondly, worship of God engages both the mind and the emotions.

3. Our worship impacts on how we live throughout the week

In verse 17, Paul writes this:

“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.”

Praise and Worship is not something that we do just one day a week, on a Sunday, or on those occasions throughout the week when we come to church.

Our whole life, every aspect of our life, should be an act of worship. We are to honor God with the way we live and all our behavior’s, all our relationships, all our responses should aim to be an act of worship to God.

When we are at work, we offer our work as an act of worship to God.

When we are cooking dinner, we offer our cooking as an act of worship to God.

When we are looking after the kids, when we are looking after our loved ones as Care Givers, we offer encouragement, love and care as an act of worship to God.

Everything we do is an act of praise and worship to God.

Of course, we will fail, and fail often, because we are fallible and weak. But it should be our very highest aspiration to honor God in every part of our life.

And what we do when we come to church, to meet together in worship, should energize us and orient our thinking towards God so that when we leave there after an act of worship, our minds and our hearts are focused exclusively on our God, and we seek to reflect that in how we are in the world outside those walls.

But it’s not ever going to be easy to do that, of course, and we desperately need the encouragement of one another to worship God in our own churches and the steadfast encouragement of one another to live for God throughout the week.

And that’s why I believe that the Apostle Paul here puts this teaching into the context of encouraging one another.

We simply cannot live out the Christian life on our own.

We absolutely and desperately need the encouragement of one another.

We each absolutely and desperately need the steadfast and immovable encouragement of one another so that we can deepen our walk with God.

So, this passage from Colossians 3:16 and 17 is a really important one for us to read and study and pray over and desperately hold onto because it stresses our dependence on Jesus, on one another, and our need to encourage one another.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 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.”

Let’s do all we can to encourage one another in the faith.

How do we do that?

Firstly, by encouraging one another to come to worship and while there, to engage with God through his word to us in the Bible and to engage with God through our emotions in the liturgical acts undertaken within its sanctuary.

Then to encourage one another to take God with us when we leave our worship services and to do all we can to live our lives as acts of worship, pleasing to God.

We are the Body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in God’s Neighborhood.

We are the Church living and moving and ministering in God’s Neighborhood.

We walk by faith not by sight through God’s backyards and His Neighborhood.

The Christian faith is a community of faith weaving in and out of His Alleys.

The Christian faith is a community of faith weaving in and out of His Streets.

It is the community God has given to you and me for this season in our lives.

Let’s be sure to encourage one another as we walk together with God and, with gratitude in our hearts, thank him mightily for all that he has given us through the sacrificial life and death of his Son, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

God of all wisdom and enlightenment, help me understand your word. Give me insight into the meaning of your commandments and how I should follow them. As I meditate on your wonderful miracles, may I be encouraged and empowered. As I study how you have fought our battles from the stories in the Bible, may I truly be strengthened. Help me know how you want me to put your word into practice. Assist me to know you more fully through your word and be pleasing to you. Amen.

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