Colossians 3:15-18
And
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
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.
And whatever you do,
in word or
deed,
do everything
in
the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving
thanks to
God the Father
through him.
For those of you who weren’t at L4Church on that Sunday when this message was given, I was 37
minutes late due to a landslide on Hwy 30 near Ranier, OR. I am so thankful for a
great ministry team that can move forward without me. God never wastes anything and my
delay allowed Brother Mike Larsen to share a wonderful evangelistic testimony
about “God with us.”
When I finally walked in, he segued very nicely into introducing
my message, but he along with everyone there miss-guessed my sermon title. Yes, the well-known song lyrics suggest that Santa checks his list twice…but we’re not Santa
are we? I suggest that the list St. Paul makes for us in these verses has three
main elements that we need to check regularly—the peace of Christ ruling, the word
of Christ dwelling, and the name of Jesus doing—that should be distinctives in
our lives and gathering, hence the tricky title.
1) The Peace of
Christ Ruling… (v.15)
This Peace is to be understood in the widest
sense possible. This word (eirēnē) was used in the LXX (the Greek translation of the Old
Testament that was used at the time of Christ) to translate the Hebrew word
shalom which we have previously discussed as being very holistic in scope. Here
is a brief list of the types of peace that might be included within its range
of meaning:
- National peace= is a state of national tranquility; exemption from the rage and havoc of war
- Relational peace= between individuals, i.e. harmony, concord (agreement between persons, groups, nations…)
- Economic peace= security, safety, and prosperity (because peace and harmony make and keep things safe and our works prosperous).
- Messianic peace= is brought about by the promised Messiah (Gk. Christ) we would call this good news and the end of this process “salvation”.
- Christian peace= is the calm and settled state of a soul assured of its forgiveness and acceptance by God through trust in Christ, which sets us free from fearing death and helps us to live in contentment no matter our circumstances.
- Eschatological peace= the scope of this peace extends beyond this current life we live into the next where there will be no more crying, pain, sickness, and death. That heavenly peace the believer has in the presence of “The Lord is Peace” (Judges 6:24).
For in him [Jesus Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to
dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or
in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil
deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to
present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him…
These words echo Jesus’ words in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the
world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid.”
However, my
point in this post is not that we have peace, but that we are to allow this
peace to be doing something in our lives. Specifically, it is to be ruling in our hearts. What does this
mean? The word used here means “to act as an umpire” in our lives. It's football
season and half the people in our church on Sunday come wearing “12” shirts in
support of the nearest NFL team, the Seattle Seahawks (at least 12 is a biblical number) so allow me to
illustrate this point with a football analogy.
Can you picture the peace of Christ
throwing a yellow penalty flag whenever we act outside of the will of God? The Peace of Christ switches on the referee microphone and announces things like this, "Penalty on the field...
- Offsides, 5 yards for taking things into your own hands;
- 10 yards and loss of down for excessive posturing; or
- 15 yards for un-Christlike conduct in traffic."
Will we let the peace of Christ decide when we are “offside” in our
hearts, minds, and relationships?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, in their classic commentary, wrote,
The false teacher, as a
self-constituted umpire, defrauds you of your prize; but if
the peace of Christ be your umpire ruling in your hearts, your reward is sure.
"Let the peace of Christ act as umpire when anger, envy, and such passions
arise; and restrain them." Let not those passions give the award, so that
you should be swayed by them, but let Christ's peace be the decider of
everything.
Where should this peace rule? It must not merely show
up in our words and external appearance but it must rule in our hearts. I love
what Warren Wiersbe said about this,
When we
obey the will of God, we have His peace within; but when we step out of his
will (even unintentionally), we lose his peace… We must pray, surrender to his
will, and seek his guidance in the Scriptures… [For] the peace of heart alone
is not always the peace of God.”[1]
We must also extend that peace to others who join together
with us as the church. It is our unity that convinces the world that Jesus not
only came from God but is still in our midst (John 17:20-23). It is this
community unity that is a check against our own emotional self-medication and
wandering. Allow me to quote Wiersbe again,
“When a
Christian loses the peace of God, he begins to go off in directions that are
out of the will of God. He turns to the things of the world and the flesh to
compensate for his lack of peace within. He tries to escape, but he cannot escape
himself! It is only when he confesses
his sin, claims God’s forgiveness, and does God’s will that he experiences
God’s peace within.”[2]
This internal and external umpire of the peace of Christ is
tied to thankfulness expressed in praise of God. This praise is given a greater
vocabulary by the second element on our checklist...
2) The Word of Christ Dwelling (v.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.
What is the “word of Christ”? Grammatically it could be
either the words that Christ spoke in his teachings, the gospel message, or
those things that had been said about Christ (both the Old Testament prophecies
and the New Testament witnesses). Probably it is best to see this as referring
to these aspects in agreement.
Like the peace of Christ, the word of Christ is to be doing
something in our lives; specifically, it is to “dwell in you richly.” Is the
word dwelling in us? Have we made his word welcome in our lives? Do we read it,
think about it, meditate on it, and obey it? Does the word of Christ “feel at home
in us” or is the way we live diametrically opposed to the word of Christ?
Tough questions I know, but there are some visible results
of the word “dwelling richly” that we can add as sub-points to our checklist. These
results include:
- Wise teaching,
- Joyful Singing,
- Thankful Hearts, and
- Submissiveness (peace with others in marriage, family, church).
Interestingly these results
of the word of Christ dwelling are the same as those of being filled with the
Spirit (Ephesians 5:17-21). Christ’s word
is Spirit-breathed so this agreement should be no surprise. This unity of
message and results issues into a unity of purpose found in the third element
on our list…
3) The Name of Jesus Doing (v. 17)
And whatever you do,
in word or deed,
do everything
in the name of
the Lord Jesus,
giving
thanks to
God the Father
through him.
Paul charges us that everything we say or do should be in
alignment with the “name of Jesus.” Can people accurately see the real Jesus’
love, his blameless character, his merciful methods, and his humble authority
manifested in our lives? In this area, we also are to express gratitude “to God
the Father through him.” This challenges me as it forces me to get over my
petty grumbling and discontent and embrace the gratitude of love and faith. The
work of Christ is to bring glory to the Father, while the Father gives glory to
the Son. It is in the name of Jesus that we can enter into such humble glory-sharing
(John 15:8).
I’m making a list and checking it thrice!
Seeing the Signs Around
Us
Here is a seasonally specific application. During the
Christmas season, we are surrounded by many colorful traditions and trappings
that can either serve to focus our attention on the cynical and dominant
materialism of our day or, remind us of how wonderful God is and how very
precious and costly the gifts he's given to us are. I prefer to look at the
Christmas season through the eyes of a childlike faith where a thing as simple as
our Christmas tree can serve to stir up our hearts by way of remembrance, which
in turn leads us to praise our Lord with, renewed intensity. If the Word of
Christ dwells in our hearts richly it is not hard to see its message in the
symbols around us:
The Evergreen tree: It
reminds us that despite the hardships and suffering in life, God's mercies are
new every morning (Lam. 3:21-23). For it is God, who by His grace gives all
creation—including us—life, breath, and all good things (Acts 17:25-28). See
also Psalm 1:3; Rev. 22:2.
The Flocking/Snow: What
a wonderful reminder that God not only gives us the snow of peace [armies went
home in the winter] that we all wish for at Christmas (Psalm 147:16), but His
Word accomplishes His will (Isaiah 55:10-12). Nothing is wasted with God. Though
our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and our sins as red as scarlet
(Psalm 51:7), David prays, “Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow.” He cleanses us from our sins and clothes us with
His righteousness so that we might be whiter than snow (Isaiah 1:18).
“Come
now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
The Beautiful Ornaments: They
remind us that in our coming to Christ, we take off the ornaments of the
stiff-necked flesh and sinful pride (Exodus 33:5-6) and allow Jesus to decorate
our lives with salvation and righteousness (Isaiah 61:10),
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Other
ornaments he gives include godly instruction (Proverbs 1:8-9), like wisdom
(Proverbs 4:7-9), spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23), positive Christ-like
character traits (Colossians 3:12-17; 1 Peter 3:3-4), and good works (Titus
2:9-10; Ephesians 2:10)…living in such a way, “so that in everything we adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior.” I love the thought that we can be an
ornament of what is true about God.
The Lights: Lights on a tree are so
attractive and bring a sense of peace to those who would look. Jesus not only
came into the world to shine the light of God's love upon people who dwelt in
darkness (Isaiah 9:2; Luke 2:29-32), but He was that light (John 1:4-5; 8:12). The
lights on our tree serve to remind us that the Light of the world still lives
today to bring peace to all who would look to Him (John 1:9; 2 Corinthians
4:6). He has left Christians with the commission to be "lights,"
shining Christ's love to those around us (Matthew 5:14-16)
“You are the light of
the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a
stand,
and it gives light to
all in the house. In the same way,
let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works and give glory
to your Father who is in heaven.
We
are to walk in the light as a beacon, as children of light, as an example (Romans
13:12-14; Ephesians 5:8-10). People need the joy of the light that we can
bring, especially in dark times.
The Gifts: God is not only the
"Father of lights" but the Giver of Gifts. Every good gift and
perfect gift is from Him (James 1:17). In addition, the gifts around our tree
remind us that Christmas and Christianity are about giving. God loved us so He
gave us the thing we needed most, He gave us His Son so that we might have
eternal life (John 3:16). Now we give gifts as the wise men did long ago
(Matthew 2:11),
And going into the
house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped
him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold
and frankincense, and myrrh.
Our giving should also be an
act of worship unto God and loving care for all his children. Freely we have
received so freely we give. Praise God for His indescribable gift—his Son! (2
Cor. 9:15).
The Bells & Trumpets: In
the church age, bells have long been a means of announcing great news (e.g.,
victory, peace) just as trumpets were in the Old Testament. At Christmas, the bells
remind us that long ago, a massive host of angels gathered to announce the good
news of Christ's birth to frightened shepherds. In fact, the Gospel message rings
triumphantly like the bell—“Jesus has come! He has won the battle! Peace can be
ours!” (1 John 1:9; Romans 8:37) Our gospel message is a wake-up call of hope
and joy (Ephesians 5:14).
The Candy Cane (v.17): Everyone knows the candy
cane story, don’t we? If you don’t, then Google the “Legend of the Candy Cane”.
There was a beautifully illustrated book, The
Candymaker’s Gift, by Helen & David Haidle that you might find in your
local library.
So this week, let's let the peace of Christ rule, the word of
Christ dwell, and the name of Jesus characterize all that we do and say. Let's see
the wonder of our Lord Jesus reflected in the symbols and traditions around us,
and thank him for what he has done!
Pastor Greg, as I read your blog/message even now, I wish I could have been there to hear your sermon in person. But thanks for posting it so that it could bless me today and remind me that as life goes on in our troubled world, it is more so important to make a list and check it twice. Thanks Brother for sharing.
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