Colossians 3:16-17 - Lay Duties: Teaching, Admonishment, and Thanks

Colossians 3:16-17 - 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Message: Lay Duties: Teaching, Admonishment, and Thanks

Time: Paul penned this letter to the Colossian church in AD 60-61 during his first imprisonment in Rome after the church was under attack and denigrating the deity of Christ. He penned it before visiting the church. Christ was and is the visible image of the invisible God, containing within Himself the fullness of Deity. 

What the Lord is Saying: As I was finishing up my senior year at Baylor University in 1989 and 1990, I honestly wondered if there was a call for me to go into full-time ministry. I really enjoyed the Bible teaching of Tommy Nelson from Denton Bible Church and I even made a personal visit to the seminary he attended in Dallas - Dallas Theological Seminary. I seriously wondered if this would be my vocation. But as I prayed about it, I sensed the Lord was leading me not into full time ministry, but instead to be an active lay person, working and yet active in ministry. To this day, I still wonder if anyone should be in full-time ministry as a vocation or whether everyone should be working in some capacity. Over the years, I see a tendency among non-paid church staff to watch the paid staff do most of the work of the church. But, my guess is that even if this happened, there would still be a tendency to watch a small number do the work of the church. And yet, I can't help but think that the model found in the Old Testament of priests set aside is not the model of the New Testament and beyond. 

But the reality is the church body is made up of people with different responsibilities. I have studied in the previous two lessons the responsibilities of elders and also deacons. And so this lesson provides words that can be applied to those in the Body. Chapters 3 and 4 of Colossians are laid out as verses that respond to the sufficiency of Christ in all things and thereby the practice of the believer and in these verses how the believer is to put on the new man. 

Colossians 3 says to "seek the things above" (v. 1), "set your mind on things above" (v. 2), "your earthly body is dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed" (v. 5), "put aside anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech" (v. 8), "do not lie to one another" (v. 9), "put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" (v. 12), "bear with one another, forgive one another" (v. 13), "love" (v.14), "let peace of Christ rule in you" (v. 15), "let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you - teach, admonish, sing, with thankfulness" (v. 16), "do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Jesus to God the Father" (v. 17). And then what follows is specific direction to wives, husbands, and children. 

Here in these verses we see a responsibility we have to shed the old life and the sins that entangled us. But also to put on the new life and all that comes with it. And then more specifically, what this passage of Scripture is emphasizing today is: 

(1) let the Word of Christ dwell within you. As I am doing right now, we need to do as we gather and that is to dwell on the Word of Christ. Each of us can through our lives and our words teach one another. Teaching is not reserved to only some. I notice this in our Sunday school class as the teacher leads us and often asks questions of us. In the answers from the class, we can receive encouragement and teaching from one another. 

(2) It also says to admonish which means to warn or reprimand. We need to watch out for one another. A friend and I have been doing this lately, encouraging one another in our lives and some of the dangers of life that often occur. There are temptations all around us to get off the path of truth and onto the path of sin. We must stay clear. And we can do this through our singing with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Let the word of God not only speak but sing. Scripture can be sung to one another. 

(3) sing with thankfulness. I am continually reminded of the need to be thankful. I was with a friend yesterday and we were sitting and thinking. Each of us are in our mid-50s. We have raised kids and all the kids are out of the house. And the reality is we have a lot to be thankful for. It is good to stop always and lift up our voices to thank God for his provision and how He has carried us through so much in this life. We are not done, but God has done so much. 

Summary: Each person in the church puts on the new person in Christ to learn God's word, teaching, admonishing and giving thanks. 

Promise: Let us seek to give thanks to God in all things, remembering that He works all things for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). 

Prayer: O God, you are good. You are true. You are right. I thank you for making me new. And for showing me continually what needs to be old about me - what needs to be in my past - namely sins that should not be known by me. Help me continually to do good. I want to put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. I want to bear with one another and come alongside one another to forgive one another. Help me to love, really love people the way you love. I pray Christ for your peace to rule in me. I ask that your Word Lord would richly dwell in me. Help me to teach others and to be taught. I want to sing your songs lifting high those words of hymns and Psalms. Be glorified in everything I do and in everything I say.