Teaching and admonishing each other

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. – Colossians 3v16


I must say that as I read this today, journalled it, and now begin to type it for this platform I have been growing more convinced that there is something we are missing when it comes to music in our churches. There is so much backed into this one verse that I am having hard time deciding where to start.

‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.’ Here is one of those many times when I regret not having studied Greek. I will have to trust the translators here who consistently have made a connexion between this and the rest of the verse. In some way the word of Christ dwells in is richly, in all wisdom as we teach and admonish each other. We do that in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. We are to sing with grace in our hearts, and we are to sing to the Lord.

I haven’t got my head around this yet, but I am convinced that most of us do not put the importance in singing in our services that we should. The purpose of our singing should be to teach and admonish each other. Our singing should always be done with grace in our hearts, and it should always be to the Lord.

Most of the time I have just seen the song service as an addition or as something stuck on because it is expected. Sometime songs are even done for their performance or entertainment value. Singing has not always been done for the purpose of teaching and admonishment. I know that my singing has not always been done with grace in my heart. I would love to be an idealist, but I am certain that some of the ‘specials’ I have heard through the years are done more to the congregation than to the Lord.

Its time for me to consider my philosophy of music in church, to see if it is truly in line with the word of God, or what is expected by men.