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COLOSSIANS - Christ in you, the hope of glory!
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians
Part 3 - What Does Your Resurrection Life Look like? (Colossians 3:1-17)
18. The Elixir that Keeps a Church Alive (Colossians 3:16)
The apostle to the nations believed and had experienced that the words of Jesus are “spirit and life” (John 6:63). They are what enlivens and quickens a church. A church dies as soon as these words of Jesus, filled with power, fall silent. Therefore, Paul challenged the elders of the churches in Colosse and Laodicea to let the word of Christ richly dwell in them. Whoever has just one full meal per week, while fasting on the other days, will soon be half-dead in his existence. Whoever drinks but a swallow of water from the bottle every morning and quickly bolts down a piece of bread will still get to school or work in one piece. But that is not enough. Everyone should have one healthy meal per day, along with an encouraging vesper. It is the same with spiritual life. The person who only hears a sermon on Sunday will not die spiritually, but will certainly know frailty. Whoever manages to read a few devotional verses each morning before starting out receives power for a few hours, but it is not enough to last the day. We need several times daily to seriously read and consider the word of God, to search diligently therein and conscientiously listen to what the Spirit of the churches is saying.
Above, all, we should memorize a verse or passage each week, so that our subconscious might be filled with power. In the fast day and age in which we live, the reading of God´s word alone is no longer enough. The cacophony of noises that come our way, the warning lights that flash and the flickering TV, harm our power to concentrate and devour our inner peace. We must overcome this trend and fill our soul with words of Christ that we have memorized. Then we will receive power, consolation, assurance and direction.
In the Western world we have gotten lazy as far as memorizing goes. By using our intellect we´ve come to feel we can penetrate and analyze everything. That, however, is a naïve error. The words of Christ encompass both this world and the next. They illuminate the past, the present and the future. They reveal God the Father to us, and protect us from Satan, who is a liar and murderer.
Why not put together a program to memorize 50 or more of the words of Jesus each year? Get your family and your friends involved in this enriching activity and offer a reward to everyone who learns more than just one verse a week. One forgets all too quickly what he or she reads or hears in a sermon. However, that which a person has thoroughly impressed upon his heart and mind remains throughout eternity. Jesus said:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My
words will by no means pass away.”
(Matt. 24:35)
Paul further recommended that church leaders not teach too much in one sermon, and not to expect that hearers will be able to take in everything. We need to offer the gospel and the law of Christ with all wisdom (Matt. 28:20). Today the majority of people can attentively follow a lecture or a sermon for only eight minutes. After that the brain and eyes begin switching off and start concentrating on other things, unless the speaker can hold the listeners attention with a gripping event, an interesting example, or something that brings laughter or shock. Only then does the brain tune in again so that the hearer listens to what is being said. Earlier the recommendation went – a sermon should be positive, practical, personal, primitive (simple) and plastic (pictorial), so that everyone can understand it. It is claimed that Martin Luther said: “In the event that a mayor, a general, an artist, fathers, mothers and children are sitting in a church, to which of them should the preacher direct his words? Luther is to have given the answer: “To the youth and the small ones, for then all the others will understand what he wants to say”.
Yet Paul did not only direct his words to the preachers, but to all the church members, with the expectation that they mutually teach and admonish one another. This, however, has, by and large, become a recommendation gone lost. Paul did not just believe in the theological education of a church leader, but in the personal inspiration of the Holy Spirit in each individual church member, along with their equipping for service through various spiritual gifts. All who have experienced something from Christ and His Spirit should be quick to pass it on. No one should be put on a lower level than others. No one should imagine that he knows it all and can do everything. We need each other. Often the Spirit of Christ gives deep insight to the lowliest in the church, just as Jesus testified in His prayer: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight” (Matt. 11:25-26). We need to frequently consider this prayer, so that we might grasp that the seemingly insignificant and those looked down on in a church often have more to say than those who are famous, rich and educated. We need to learn to listen to one another and to accept different points of view, as long as they harmonize with our triune-confession of faith.
Paul went on to describe singing in a church and at home as a decisive means of understandably formulating and confessing the truth and consolation we have in our faith. Blessed is the one who has memorized many of the hymns and songs of Paul Gerhard, Friedrich Hiller, Martin Luther and other Bible-based composers. They contain powerful testimony and prayer that can empower to faith, love and hope- even in the midst of great bodily weakness and times of tremendous testing and trial. It will become clear in eternity that the treasury of song left behind by Spirit-lead German composers is many times over more valuable than the lines composed by Goethe, Schiller and Hermann Hesse. The new and attractive praise and worship songs of our day need to be more oriented to the crucified and risen Lord, rather than toward an undefined love, harmony and unknown God. Paul pointedly said: “But we preach Christ crucified!” (1 Cor. 1:23).
The one who can sing should also sing Spirit-lead hymns of faith at home, in the circle of family, or together as husband and wife. In singing, both body and Spirit are freed in a harmony for Jesus. A song can unite a church in becoming one voice. The rule goes: Whoever can talk, can also sing! If someone really thinks he can´t sing, let him hum along in his heart. Pastor Wilhelm Busch once said: “We need and should ask for a musical heart for us and all followers of Christ!” In the nights of bombing, during the Second World War, the hymns of faith of his family, assembled together in air-raid shelters, had a reassuring effect in the midst of the ear-splitting crash of bombs bursting all around!
Many songs and hymns we sing can be a help to our faith. Yet we need to practice, so that we will grant the offering of thanksgiving to God the pre-eminence it deserves. We stand in danger of asking much, yet thanking Jesus and His Father too little for the rich and continuous help they give to us (Ps. 103:1-2). Our stinginess in the giving of thanks and our thoughtlessness after we receive of grace hinders our spiritual growth. Therefore, Paul summons us three times in the third chapter of the Book of Colossians (3:15-17) to be thankful. A church elder was asked why he was always so full of peace and radiant, even though his family was plagued by great need. He answered: I get up in the morning before all the others and begin to give thanks for the air, the sun, water, job, for every blessing, for strength, for unknowingly being kept in every situation, for all that Jesus suffered for us and all that He still does, as well as for the consolation of the Holy Spirit. After that my bitter problems become small and my heart free and grateful.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we thank You that You, through Jesus Christ, have become our Father. We worship You, for Your only begotten Son died for us and caused You to be reconciled to us. We praise You for the life of the Holy Spirit in us and ask for a musical heart for us and all of our friends, so that praise to You will grow both in our houses and churches. Amen.
Question 45: How many Bible verses have you learned by heart? (Repent over it, and willfully begin to preserve more Scripture in your heart for your own well-being!