Daily Bible Reading 23rd July 2025 // Colossians 3:12-17
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 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. 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 develops his theme, with another imperative, in v 15, urging the peace and the unity of the body and its mutual upbuilding. Paul, here, is not so much urging inner peace of soul/an inner sense of peace, although that is clearly a part of what he is referring to; he is urging, rather harmony within the body of Christ. We are exhorted/ commanded to allow the peace of Christ to hold sway in our lives as we relate to one another. The Church is the realm of the new man where peace is to preside. As members of one body, as members of the new humanity, love and peace are to characterise our dealings with one another. Once again, Paul is saying, be what you are. It is Christ's peace. He has won it for us. As the Lord of Peace, He embodied it and He gives it to us; indeed He is that peace. So, says Paul, as those who have been reconciled to God, as those who have peace with Him through Christ, we should manifest that peace among ourselves. Christ has reconciled us to the Father, making peace through His blood shed on the Cross (1:20). If we have truly been reconciled to the Father, then we will be men and women who are reconciled to each other within the body of Christ. There can and must be no barriers to separate. It is inconceivable that those who share the immeasurable benefits of Christ's great peace-making work of the Cross should live with any kind of hatred or contempt for each other in their hearts. When Christ rules in the heart, his peace will rule in the fellowship. There will be a unity and an ease about the body. When there is discontent and dissension within a fellowship, when there is a marked lack of the peace of Christ, it says something about the rule of Christ in the hearts of the members and is a sad measure of spiritual disease. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts!