Be Taught And Be Teaching

Colossians 3:16 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.

We are called here not to let the Word of Christ wander around homeless never finding rest. Rather to let Christ’s Word dwell inside of us finding permanent residency.

We do this through teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. It involves placing ourselves under the consistent doctrinal teaching of the Word, and overflowing our new found knowledge to some other person. Each of us are called to be taught and be teaching. Teaching could have a tendency of being general and abstract, but admonishing applies the Word of Christ directly to a person’s life. When this happens on a regular basis, we become wise. We become wise when the doctrine of Christ is applied directly to a specific area of our life, and we gain the skill and expertise of living out that truth of Christ in our day to day endeavors.

Another necessary way to root Christ’s Word in our heart is through song. We are called to sing psalms (sacred music), hymns (songs declaring the magnificent greatness of God), and spiritual songs (non-carnal, nor gross songs that are rational and consistent with the Spirit of Christ). We are called to sing these songs in community, and with thankfulness in our hearts to God.

Verse 1 of Chapter 3 assumes that all Christians will do what verse 16 calls us to. Paul says, “if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.” Letting the Word of Christ richly dwell inside ourselves is what we are to do if we have been raised with Christ. It is how we set our minds on the things that are above, and not things that are on earth.