Friday, June 29, 2007

Word Up

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.
(Colossians 3:16 – ESV)

This would be the body functioning at full capacity. People need to know their bibles and be ready always to talk of Christ; this is what should be on our lips most often, not everything else all the time. The community is formed around Christ and is to be fed with Christ, He is to be our treasure, and this is the wisdom that Paul has been espousing in this whole book of Colossians. Jesus Himself is the treasure that makes the church a community, instead of maverick individuals all looking for some secret wisdom, and Christ is what makes the community precious, as He is all, and is in all. It is not about getting spiritual power or temporal wealth it is about Jesus.

Instead of looking for some new thing outside the knowledge of Christ we look to Christ by looking at each other and teaching each other what we know and lifting each other up, the metaphor of the body being seen as working in harmony, just as an elite athlete would use all parts of their body to accomplish their purpose. If one part isn’t in shape the rest of the body suffers and so it behooves the entire body to keep each other well and to exhort each other and nurture all the parts. We can and should and must be thankful that God has allowed us this togetherness because without it we would be like those gnostics out there all vying for supremacy with their secret stash of spirituality, but instead we have Christ as our supreme leader and sufficient Lord. And we have each other to help build us all up, no one striving against the body, but realizing and striving for the new man in manifestation.

This ideal of the new man and the peace of God ruling in it, with words of grace edifying the others in love, is a consistent theme throughout the New Testament. It also would apply to those outside, in that we might show them what it is like inside the new man. If we are walking in wisdom with God and toward one another, our speech to those outside will also be truth with wisdom (Colossians 4:6 / Ephesians 4:29 / Matthew 12:36 / 1 Peter 4:10). If we let the Word dwell with wisdom then we will walk in wisdom to them that are without. It’s time we Word up.

4 comments:

donsands said...

Such an important truth for us. Thanks JD.

I wish my last church would have grasped this. Some did, but some didn't.
Satan loves to bring striving.

Unknown said...

"This would be the body functioning at full capacity."

Amen, brother! Love your exhortation to take Col 3:16 as a vision of a healthy church. You've given me much to ponder.

And thanks for stopping by my site. Look forward to interacting with you. Any friend of donsands- that's gotta be a good man!

Even So... said...

Greg, thanks for stopping by, I am looking forward to it as well...yeah we love Don, his consistent witness is appreciated...

We need to see Colossians 3 primarily within the context of the "new man", and I believe that this is speaking in the first instance of a corporate identity, rahter than an individual focus...

Of course, there is much application to individuals based on that, as we are all "new men" in Christ, but as we are exercising our "new man", it is best done, and truthfully, only done within the context of the "new man" that Paul is representing here, which is corporate in nature...further posts will follow to substantiate this idea (I'm not the only one saying these things)...

jazzycat said...

It is time to Word up.... I like that phrase and it is true.
Wayne