Let the word of Christ dwell

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 3.16

Above all put on love
Let the peace of God rule
Let the world of Christ dwell in you richly
Teach and admonish each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual  songs
Sing and make melody in your hearts

This last one says so much. The word of Christ must dwell in us. That means that the living Christ dwells in us and personally. Christ in us is our hope of glory.

But it also means that the word of Christ, the Bible, must dwell in us. We must be so full of it that it controls our lives and our words and our actions. As we let it dwell in us we find in it the wisdom we need to get through anything. Wisdom does not mean that we are going to know everything. We doesn’t mean we are going to be any smarter about this accursed virus. It doesn’t mean that we have the answers. It doesn’t make us experts on virology or prevention or the economy or politics.

It does mean that we have the wisdom – based on God’s word – to handle what comes our way. It means that we have the sound disciplined mind that God gave us in place of fear.

It’s the last part of this verse that gives me a longing – the part about teaching and admonishing each other is psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That is one of the things I miss the most from church. It’s great that we have videos and Spotify and all that, but it is clear here that this is something thing church needs to be doing together. It can be lovely on your device screen – but there is nothing like joining our voices together whether it be a dozen of us or a thousand. ‘Singing together with grace in our hearts to the Lord’ as we gather together to encourage each other is song is something I long for.

O for that day when we can gather together again. I hope I never take it lightly again.