“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.”
I think we could all agree that this first admonition of Paul’s in verse 16 is far from being an afterthought; that in fact all he has been telling them to do in the past 15 verses is dependant on their diligence to follow this one.
For how can a person perform these spiritual exercises, putting off things of the world and the flesh and putting on things of the Spirit in his daily life, if he does not have the mind of the Spirit – and how can he have the mind of the Spirit if he does not have the Word of Christ in him?
Now before we go very far into this I want to remind you that Paul is writing this letter, not to an individual, as he did to Timothy and Titus, but to a church. He is writing to an entire congregation of people who are being troubled by men who would distort the scriptures and lead people away from truth into grievous error.
So this exhortation of his to ‘let the word of Christ richly dwell within you’ is said with a sense of urgency and momentousness, and it is said to the church! This is said to the congregation as a whole. Therefore Paul is calling for a congregation of believers to work together in diligence to keep the Word of Christ before them and taking it into them so that it abides, not only in individuals but as a living entity in the church.
THE SURPASSING VALUE OF THE WORD
Let’s talk first about the Word itself. Paul says here, the Word of Christ. It should be apparent to us what he is talking about. He is talking about the scriptures.
Now here is where one scholar might argue that when Paul was writing, to him the scriptures were the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, so in saying the Word of Christ he must be meaning the Gospel message itself, and maybe some of the sayings of Christ that had been written down so far in the epistles.
But I think by this time Paul had understood clearly that since all scripture is God-breathed, 2 Tim 3:16, and Christ is God, as he just stated in verse 9 of chapter 2, then all scripture comes under the heading of the Word of Christ.
So if some nit-picker who needs an excuse to be lazy and negligent in Bible study says that what Paul is encouraging here is the memorization of the Gospel message and some of the sayings of Jesus to get us through the rough places, our answer to them is that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (It’s always best to respond to error or to challenging questions with scripture)
So then, if we are agreed that Paul meant all of scripture when he used the term Word of Christ, and we are already agreed that for us of the New Testament church ‘all scripture’ has come to mean these Bibles we hold in our hands, then we must agree that Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit…maybe I should turn that around and say, the Holy Spirit through Paul, has told us that we should have the Bible, the scriptures, the Word of God, taking up residence within us.
We’ll talk more about this. First I want to establish a couple more things about the Word itself.
First, it is alive. It is a living thing. The Bible says so. Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Isn’t it interesting, that in history men have passed judgment on the scriptures, declaring them to be in error as a result of the passing of time and many transcriptions, declaring them to be myth, and worse, deliberately falsified by men with their own agendas, declaring them to be outdated and no longer adequate to help modern and enlightened society, declaring them to be the crutch of the superstitious. They have stood in pretentious judgment of the scriptures in their ignorance and their sin…
…but the scriptures will judge them. The scriptures do judge them. The scriptures are able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, because they are living and active and, may I add, more up to date than tomorrow’s headline.
Secondly, the Bible is here to stay.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” Isa 40:7-8
Now two words of encouragement can be gleaned from what Isaiah has said here. One, since it is the Word of God, and God does not change, therefore His Word will not change. If God’s Word changed that would indicate a change in God and that is not going to happen. Change takes time, whether long or brief, and since God is not in time but eternal He cannot change. Therefore, neither can His Word.
The encouragement for you and me in that is that we can study it, memorize it, hide it in our heart, write it down on notepads, put it in our computers, whatever… and never have to worry about having to go back and do rewrites or modifications or un-memorize something so we can memorize a correction.
It is encouraging because since our God never changes and His Word never changes our salvation will never change and His promises for our eternal future will never change.
The second word of encouragement in Isaiah’s statement is that God’s Word abides forever. Well, if it will never change then I guess that goes without saying. I mean, if God’s Word failed, if it went away, that would be change, wouldn’t it? Yes, it would be the very worst kind of change.
But it’s just very encouraging to hear and to say, “The Word of God abides forever”.
The scoffers and the mockers and the sinful judges will go away. When the breath of God blows on them they will wither like the grass and like the flower of the field they will fade. God’s Word will not.
I have a commentary you have heard me quote, that was written in 1627. I’m sure there are older works out there. But do you know what I observe as I read that man’s works and see scripture verses quoted in his works? I observe that the Bible hasn’t changed, and I observe that the things he says about the scriptures are the things we still believe. I observe that he, in the 17th century spoke of and looked forward to the coming of Jesus and our final glorification, just as we do today.
And I know that as I hide God’s Word in my heart, it is the treasure that will preserve the safe.
THE WORD IN THE BELIEVER
Let’s talk about the need for the Word of Christ to be in the individual.
Do you know where the very best place is for going and finding out what detrimental effects take place in a life when the Word of the Lord is not abiding there?
It is the Bible. Did I surprise you? I didn’t think so…
Do you know where the very first example is recorded, of someone suffering because they did not have the Word of the Lord abiding in them?
It is recorded very early. It is in Genesis 3, verses 2 and 3
“The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
Did God say they couldn’t touch the fruit? No, He did not. A minor distinction? I tell you that is a MAJOR distinction!
If you have changed God’s Word, if you have added to it or taken away from it, then it is not God’s Word. It is your perversion of God’s Word.
It is the Word of Christ we are to have dwelling richly in us, and I am afraid that far too often it is our private, more comfortable, more self-serving version we have dwelling in us. That is why we succumb to temptation. That is why we take matters into our own hands. That is why we go through the same problems over and over and never learn from them. That is why our public testimony is weak and pathetic and hypocritical.
Gee…this is fun. I had thought to give you several examples of Bible characters who suffered for rejecting, for forgetting, for neglecting the Word of the Lord; but we don’t need to go there, do we? We don’t need to speak of Balaam, or of Saul, or of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, or of the Pharisees or of Judas or of Ananias and Sapphira.
We only need to know ourselves.
Let’s go to the positive side of the issue.
The Psalmist declared,
“Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” Psalm 119:11
Does that mean having the word in our heart will prevent us from ever sinning?
No. It means the more of His Word we have in our hearts the more we will see sin the way He does; the more we will understand holiness and holy living; the more of His voice we will hear over our own; the more power we will have to turn from temptation so that sin is not conceived and then born.
Here is another passage of scripture even more encouraging than the Psalm, by virtue of who it is that spoke it.
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” John 17:14-17
Jesus is soon to be crucified and this is His prayer for His Apostles and also for us.
He has said here that He has given us His Word, then He asks the Father to ‘sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth”.
It is the Word of Christ that sets us apart from the filth of the world. It cleanses, it protects, it shields our hearts and minds as we travel this road.
It is the truth that girds our loins. It is the sword of the Spirit. It is the great uniting element that ties us together and gives us cohesion and one-mindedness because it is the Word in us that the Spirit uses to continue His sanctifying work and to bind us together in the love and eternal purpose of Christ.
THE WORD IN THE CHURCH
Let’s talk about the need for the Word of Christ to be abiding in the church corporately. How does that work?
I want to read a portion of the book of Nehemiah, and it may be unusual to read such a long passage from a part of scripture secondary to the text before us, but I think we can learn something from it relating to our study today.
Turn to Nehemiah 8 and let’s read verses 1-8
“And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had given to Israel. 2 Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. 4 Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. …(There is a list here of the names of men standing with Ezra, and it is not unimportant, but for our purposes I will skip over them) 5 Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6 Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. 7 (again the list of names), 8 They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” Nehemiah 8:1-8
This was after the return of the people to the land following their seventy five year captivity in Babylon, and this gathering is to commemorate the finishing of the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem.
Notice what happens when God’s people gather together to honor Him. They asked Ezra to bring out the scriptures and read to them. They wanted the Word renewed in them. They desired that foundation as they began life anew in the place their fathers and grandfathers were taken from – in the place that was taken away from them because they forgot God.
I also want you to see the form that it took. Ezra was on a platform above them so that all could see and hear, he was behind a podium that was built for this moment and this purpose, and all who were able to understand were gathered there to hear, and when they did they bowed with their faces to the ground and worshiped.
In your own time you might go to Nehemiah and continue reading in this chapter to see how the people honor the Word and hunger for it and desire to know what God’s instructions are for them there.
And as you do, consider the emphasis God puts on attendance to His Word both in thought and in life.
I have heard on occasions, tales of people visiting churches and discovering that the Word is not read or preached there. I have not been to one. I would walk out if I found myself in one. But I have had people tell me that they received stares, even looks of disapproval, when they walked into a church carrying a Bible, and then they noticed they were the only one.
I do not understand this. I do not understand how a church and church leadership can say that they are a Christian church yet subtract the Word of God from the equation.
A couple of years ago a young man called me to ask if, as Pastor, I would invite my congregation, and especially my young people, to participate in a Saturday evening function that was being planned for the area youth.
He was quick to explain that this was going to be a night of Christian music and testimony from some notable celebrities, and this is what he said to me.
“Tell them not to bring Bibles. There won’t be preaching or anything; just music and testimony, because we don’t want them to feel threatened or intimidated and at the end of the night we want to give an invitation.”
My response to him was, ‘An invitation to what?’ Of course he answered that it would be an invitation to accept Christ. So I said that I would not involve my church and I would not tell my congregation about the function. When he asked why not I told him that his approach was unbiblical, that his plan was not according to the biblical pattern for evangelism, and that if the Bible was not welcome in their midst then neither was I.
“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” Romans 10:14-15
and verse 17…
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Folks, the Biblical admonition to the church universally is that the Word of Christ is to have a rich, full, deeply significant place of residence in the believer and in the corporate body.
We studied this not very long ago. Hosea 4:6.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
Christ-followers, we gather, not around music, not around celebrity, not around creed or ritual, but around the Word.
SIGNS OF THE WORD RESIDING
The degree to which we will function in the way Paul exhorts here in verses 16 and 17 of our text will always be proportionate to the degree in which the Word of Christ resides in our hearts and in our midst.
His thoughts are not disjointed here. He is not just writing as random thoughts come to him because they sound good and noble. The residing of the Word in us richly is what will make Christians that can teach one another and lovingly admonish one another, and as he says in verse 17, ‘do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus’.
I think we all know what happens when people, even Christians, presume to admonish others apart from the Word and its influence.
In my reading I came across something Warren Wiersbe had to say on these verses and it seemed very timely to me:
“If Christ is preeminent in our lives, then we will be able to get along with others for His glory. If there are differences, the peace of God will be “umpire” (rule) in our hearts as we feed on the Word and worship Christ. Christian fellowship in the local church cannot be legislated by a constitution, although constitutions are useful; true fellowship must come from within, from the hearts of the believers. If a believer is out of fellowship with another believer, it is because one or both of them have gotten out of fellowship with God. “
Wiersbe illuminates a truth demonstrated clearly in our own association in recent months.
The Word either abiding in or missing from, or even weakly attended to will clearly manifest first in relationships – in church families and home families.
It is interesting to note, and I would remind you that it is not by chance, that both here and in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul exhorts to this peaceful, spiritual relationship with one another, “…with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Eph 5:19-20, Col 3:16-17), immediately following the admonition to know God’s will – to have the Word of Christ purposefully and significantly influencing their lives. And in both cases these words are followed by his instructions to wives and husbands, children, servants and masters.
In closing but not as a matter of lesser priority, I want to say something more about verse 17 and this final admonition of such solemn gravity.
“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father”
Can any one of us claim to have that one down pat? My goodness! Do all, in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus?
How would our lives change if we had that mindset?
How would we change and how would the perception of us in the eyes of people around us change if every time we spoke or acted we first calculated if we could do or say it in Jesus’ name?
I read a little blurb in a Reader’s Digest years ago. A man sent in the story of when he was driving through an animal park where the animals are free and the visitors drive through on a narrow road to look at them.
He said that as he came around a bend there was a large black car with darkly tinted windows trying to make a u-turn, and as it was a narrow road the way was temporarily blocked. The man said he quickly came to a stop, and as the black car passed him in the opposite direction he yelled, “Where, for Christ’s sake, do you think you’re going?”
His final line in the story went like this. “Imagine my chagrin, when the tinted window lowered, Billy Graham stuck his head out and with a smile yelled back, “I hope I go everywhere for Christ’s sake.”
This is not beyond us, fellow believers. We have the Holy Spirit and we have the Word of Christ and there is all the power and knowledge we will ever need to walk in obedience to these commands; and they are commands, not suggestions.
They come to us from the Spirit through the great Apostle, and you and I need to know that these Apostles of Christ, by His anointing, spoke for Him as though He Himself was speaking. That is why He preserved their words for us in scripture. They wrote, but we don’t call it the Word of Paul. We call it the Word of Christ.
And He says let the Word reside richly in you and in the church, and then by that deeply abiding Word live with and relate to one another in a way that demonstrates Christ and by His grace sends up thankfulness to the Father.
It is not an invitation. It is expected of us, and rightly and justly expected because our Forerunner has given us first His own example, and then His own Spirit so that if we are united and diligent in this, we absolutely can do and say all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – we absolutely can go wherever we go for Christ’s sake.
