THE WORD AT HOME

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord." — Col 3:16

The command is not to visit the word. It is not to consult it, admire it, or carry it about as a possession. The command is to let it dwell — to give the word of Christ a house and let it live there. A guest is received and departs. A dweller remains: he is there in the morning, his goods are in the rooms, the household is ordered around his presence. And the measure of the tenancy is named: richly. Not a corner rented to the word while the rest of the house serves other masters. Not a ration. The word is to dwell in abundance, at full strength, with the run of the whole house.

But mark whose house it is. The "you" of this verse is not the solitary reader. The sentence before it has already set the address: "let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful." (Col 3:15). Called in one body. The house the word is commanded to dwell in is the congregation — a people, not a private study. A man may read alone, and profit. But the dwelling this verse commands cannot be completed alone, because the verse itself names the means, and the means require brothers.

The means stand in the same sentence: "in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another." This is how the word takes up residence. It dwells in the body by passing from mouth to ear between the brothers. It is not warehoused in the body; it circulates through the body. Teaching carries the truth across. Admonishing carries the truth's warning across. Neither is a solitary act, and neither is optional decoration around a private core. A word kept in one man's store, never taught onward, has not yet dwelt as this verse commands it to dwell. The word's home is built out of speech between brothers, and it stands only while the speech continues.

Paul had already described his own apostleship in these same two verbs: "We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." (Col 1:28). Admonishing, teaching, in all wisdom — the phrases match word for word. In the first chapter the apostle does this to every man. In the third chapter the whole body does it to one another. What was the apostle's ministry becomes the congregation's ordinary life. The aim travels with the verbs: that every man be presented perfect in Christ Jesus. The dwelling word does the presenting, and it does it through the brothers, because the brothers are where it lives.

The sentence does not stop at speech. It runs into song: "with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord." The singing is not an ornament hung on the teaching after the fact. It stands inside the same clause, as the same instrument. The doctrine rides the melody into the heart. And the verse holds two directions in one act: the teaching moves sideways, one to another; the singing moves upward, to the Lord. The body instructs itself while it worships God, and it worships God while it instructs itself. Separate the two and the verse is broken in half. Joined, they are the sound of the word at home.

Ephesians sets the parallel, and the parallel is the testimony. "Don't be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Eph 5:18-19). Colossians commands: let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Ephesians commands: be filled with the Spirit. Two commands, two letters — and the fruit hung on both is identical: the same psalms, the same hymns, the same spiritual songs, the same speaking one to another, the same heart singing to the Lord. The arrangement preaches without commentary. The fullness of the Spirit and the indwelling of the word are not rival blessings to be chosen between. Where the word dwells richly, there the Spirit has filled His house, and the evidence is not a private sensation. The evidence is a body singing doctrine to one another with grace in its heart.

Nor does the verse stand unguarded. Before it, the body is dressed: "Put on therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection." (Col 3:12-14). This is the house the word is given to live in. The admonition of verse 16 stands inside the bearing-with of verse 13: the brother who warns is the brother who forbears, and the brother who is warned is the brother who is forgiven as Christ forgave. A body that will not forgive will not long teach, for its speech will curdle into accusation. A body that will not admonish will not long forgive, for its silence will call neglect love. The verses hold together or they fall together.

And after it, the outflow: "Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Col 3:17). Word and deed, both governed, because the word has moved in. The sequence of the chapter is the whole doctrine in three verses: the peace of God ruling in the one body, the word of Christ dwelling in the one body, and everything the one body says and does carried out in the name of the Lord Jesus. Peace above it, obedience below it, and the dwelling word between them, doing its work mouth to ear, heart to heart, in psalms and in warnings and in song.

So no man holds this word alone. The brother who never teaches has left a room of the house empty. The brother who never receives admonition has locked a door against the tenant. The word of Christ was not given to be admired in private or stored in silence. It was given a body to live in, brothers to live among, and a measure for its living: richly. Where the brothers teach one another in all wisdom, and the singing rises with grace to the Lord, there the word is not a visitor. There the word is at home.