Let the Word Dwell in you Richly

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Col 3:16).

I like that verse. It puts a new spin on the biblical use of music as well as the methods by which believers ought to communicate. Paul here says to use "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" for the purpose of "teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom". Imagine if our Sunday morning churches did this. They wouldn't just sing songs in the hopes of producing the proper emotional response. They would select and use songs for teaching and admonishing. Given the nearly magical power of music to move you apart from your mental faculties, this would offer a powerful tool to engage both mind and emotion in the service of the King.

But, hold on a minute. What does that first part mean? "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." It informs the rest of the verse. That whole "teaching and admonishing" thing is linked to this. Apparently "teaching and admonishing" is the way we work out this indwelling of the word of Christ. So, what is it?

Well, we might approach this by asking what it is not. It is not a disregard for the word of Christ. A popular view today is that the Bible is a good book (they even use the term "good book"), but certainly not infallible or even completely reliable. That view wouldn't fit with the concept of letting the "word of Christ dwell in you richly". And, of course, it is a known fact that a lot of us who call ourselves Christians don't really spend much time with our Bibles. First, we don't know about it. What is the order? What is the content? What does it say? Beyond that, it isn't our priority or our companion. "Read my Bible? Yeah, I will, but I just don't seem to have much time for that." We always make time for what is important to us. And if the Bible is our friend, our intimate, the voice of God to one who loves God, then a lot of things would slide before we failed to make time for the Word of God. So "let the Word dwell in you richly" is not a lowered view of Scripture or a cursory knowledge of Scripture. Neither makes sense with the phrase "dwell in you richly."

The text suggests that Christians ought to be people of the Word. If bibliolatry is the worship of the Bible, we ought not be confused with a bibliolater. If, as the dictionary suggests, bibliolatry is an excessive reverence for the Bible as literally interpreted, we should own that one. No, we don't worship the Bible, but it sure can look like it because we don't merely know this stuff, we live it. That is, the book itself is not sacred, but we highly honor what God says. It shapes our daily existence. It informs how we see life. It defines reality. The Bible is not our sole source of knowledge or morality, but it is our sole authority in matters of faith and practice. Since the Bible is God-breathed for us, we cannot separate the Bible from God. It is His Word.

The most common error we see in Christianity today is a light handling of the Word of God. "It's a matter of private interpretation. It is simply a matter of opinion. It's a good thing, but certainly not the final word on what is or isn't true. Besides, who has time to really get into all that, you know, with computers and television and movies and all? There are only so many hours in a day." That would not be letting the Word dwell in you richly. The opposite error -- where the Bible is the only thing there is, the only source of information, etc. -- is not as common. But it, too, is a failure to let the Word dwell in you richly.

We need to be people of the Word. We should be reading, studying, memorizing our Bibles. We ought to know what it says not merely verse by verse, but in its entirety. We ought to be listening to God speaking to us through His Word. And we ought to be living His Word. We need to be teaching and admonishing one another. We need to let the Word dwell in us richly. No excuses will do.