Daily Bible Reading 24th 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.
In v16 Paul makes a parallel exhortation which gives important insight into the spiritual health of a fellowship: 'Let the Word of Christ dwell among you richly/ abundantly, teaching, admonishing and singing.' The Word of Christ, the message of the Gospel, must be central if there is to be spiritual health. When that is the case, there will be a rich indwelling as the fellowship meets together to sit under the word as it is preached and expounded. Men and women will bow to the authority of the Word of Christ and there will be a mutual and reciprocal teaching and admonition as the Word does its deep and enriching work in our lives. Where the Word of Christ has this kind of centrality and importance there will be living fellowship and living worship. Paul's conception of the Church is of a body where every part plays its mutual and necessary part so that the body might be built up and go on to perfection/maturity. Let me quickly add that this Christ-centred and Word-centred ministry of the whole people of God does not invalidate the parallel emphasis which Paul makes of specific teaching gifts being distributed to individual members of the body to prepare God's people for works of service (cf Colossians 1:28; Ephesians 4:7, 11-16).