Jump Start # 128

Colossians 3:15-16 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 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.”

  These two verses are packed full of wonderful ideas and concepts and principles from God. These are great verses! These teach us so many great lessons. One of the unique features of worship within the churches of Christ is singing. Not just singing, but singing without any piano, organ or other instrument. This is not a novel idea thought up long ago by some in the churches of Christ, but rather, this is what is found in the N.T. Nine times the N.T. shows the followers of Jesus singing. Singing is something all of us can do, even those who can’t carry a tune in a bucket, such as this writer. When we sing we are following the N.T. blueprint. What’s the big deal about instruments? It’s simply not in the N.T. The early church did not use them—history as well as the N.T. shows that.

  Notice the repeated words in these verses. Let the peace of Christ rule…let the word of Christ richly dwell. LET. That’s up to us.

  Also, repeated here, “be thankful” and “singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” This is a person who counts their blessings instead of their woes. They see God’s goodness more than their problems. Thankful in prayer and thankful in song.

  A third, implied repeated expression is the heart. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…” and, “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you…” What does within you mean? It’s the heart. Christ’s word in our hearts and Christ’s peace in our hearts. Be filled with Christ is the idea.

  That would have a great impact upon us. Christ living in us, is the idea from Gal. 2:20. His attitudes, not mine. His definitions of life, not mine. His priorities, not mine. His way, not mine. His hope, not mine. His, not mine. Sometimes we get this mixed up. We try going to church, being good, doing right, but it just doesn’t seem to take. It doesn’t last. We lose our cool. We get bogged down. We don’t feel like doing what we should. The problem? We often think it’s the Bible. It just doesn’t work. We walk away frustrated and defeated. The reality is that we haven’t got it in our hearts. That’s where it works.

  Notice the words Paul uses here: the peace of Christ RULES in our hearts. To rule is to be in charge. The peace of Christ takes over. When stress, fear and worry comes, the peace of Christ overcomes, because it rules. Paul also says, the word of Christ richly DWELLS within us. To dwell means to make residence, to stay. It’s not company that comes for the weekend and then leaves, the word moves in. It dwells in your heart. The words of compassion. The examples of Jesus. The hope in Christ. The faith in God. All of these dominate and affect us. We must stop treating the Bible like vacation land that we visit once in a while or the hospital that we go to in emergencies. God’s word wants to move in. But when it does, it has an affect upon you. It will change you, better you, challenge you, move you, and open your eyes to serve others. Some may not like that. So they keep the Christ at a distance. They want Him only when He is called. That relationship will never work. It falls apart every time. The solution to most of our issues is letting Christ dwell in our hearts.

  He’s at the door knocking. Are you going to let Him in? If you do, He wants to stay. He will change things. It’s for your good, but He may throw some things out of your heart that is junk. He will make adjustments. Like a home make over, it’s tough at first, but when He’s done, you’ll be shocked at the way you once lived. You’ll never want to go back to the old way again. Let Him in. He has some work to do.

Roger