Colossians 3:15-17 – the new man – part 2

Last week we looked at a list of seven behaviors we should be cultivating in our lives as believers. We said these things represented the new, clean clothes we are to put on since we have been elected, made holy, and loved by God.

This week we’re going to look at the rest of the paragraph. In these verses, Paul gives us three principles and one overarching attitude, that if followed will increase our likelihood of living out the kind of life we looked at last week.

The three principles are:

• The Peace of Christ
• The Word of Christ
• The Name of Christ

The attitude is: Thankfulness.

Let’s look at each in turn, and see how we can apply these things in our lives today.

The Peace of Christ

Paul says in verse 15 that we should let the peace of Christ “rule” in our hearts. There are three things that need defining here. We need to know what the peace of Christ is. We need to know what Paul means by “rule” and “heart”.

We’ve talked about the heart before and what the Bible means by heart. It simply means your inner man, who you are as a person apart from your physical being. The heart is the seat of your mind, will and emotions. It is your soul.

Next let’s look at the idea of peace. Here’s the dictionary definition.

Freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility; freedom from or the cessation of war or violence.

The idea of peace is an important one in Scripture. In the OT the Hebrew word is shalom. Shalom differs from our english word peace in some important ways. Shalom means

Completeness, soundness, welfare, safe, well, healthy

Shalom refers to your entire well-being. It means more than just the ceasing of conflict, it means the healing of the wounds caused by conflict.

Shalom is used throughout the OT, a total of 242 times. It is translated most often as peace, but also as:

• Safety (Genesis 28:21)
• Welfare (Genesis 43:23)
• Well-being (Isaiah 45:7)
• Greet (1 Samual 25:5-6)
• Prosperity (Psalm 73:3)
• Health (Psalm 38:3)
• Close friend (Psalm 41:9)

In Isaiah 9:6 we are told that Jesus (the coming Messiah) is the “Prince of Peace”.

Here in Colossians, the Greek word Paul uses that is translated as peace, means almost exactly the same thing as shalom. It means:

set at one again; welfare, prosperity, quietness, rest.

Jesus himself spoke of peace many times. He promised to give true peace, not peace as the world knows it (John 14:27). Paul often opens, and closes, his letters with a blessing of grace and peace.

In Matthew 5:9, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes this statement.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Using our shalom definition of peace, a peacemaker would be someone who brings an end to strife and a healing of the wounds caused by it. I think Jesus had in mind bringing peace to a situation in which you are one of the parties involved, not just sticking your nose in as a third party. Such peacemakers are here referred to as “sons of God”.

Understand that in the Jewish culture, it was assumed that if you called someone a “son” of someone, it was because they shared the characteristics of the father. So when Jesus was called a “son of David” it was more than just being a descendant, he was a great king like David. When Jesus called James and John “sons of thunder” it was because they were like thunder. Remember when they wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume a village that didn’t welcome Jesus? (Luke 9:51-56)

In Galatians, Paul says that even gentiles who display faith are “sons of Abraham”. So to be a “son of God” means to be an imitator of God and act as he acts. Jesus again mentions this in Matthew 5:44-45.

How is God a peacemaker? How has God made peace with those who were at war with him (us)?

…making peace by the blood of his cross. – Colossians 1:20

So if we are to be peacemakers, to have the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts, we must be willing to make sacrifices to end hostility and heal hurt. So think back to last week’s lesson about self-sacrificing love. Verse 15 begins with “and”. There is a connection between love and peace.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way.

…love is the indispensable companion of faith, and when they come together, peace is the result. ¹

Paul says in verse 15 that we should let Christ’s peace rule in our hearts because we were called to that, as one body. We’re supposed to be one whole unit as a church, as a group of believers. We need to put on this new lifestyle, or we’ll have nothing but discord. It won’t be pleasant.

Wayne Grudem defined the peace of God this way.

God’s peace means that in God’s being and in his actions he is separate from all confusion and disorder, yet he is continually active in innumerable well-ordered, fully controlled, simultaneous actions. ²

So having the peace of Christ rule in our hearts is not an inactive state.

The Greek word here translated “rule” means to umpire, to arbitrate (settle) disputes, make sure the rules are enforced.

The peace of Christ is supposed to dwell in our hearts, making sure that the conflict between our old nature and our new Christ-like nature are settled properly. In other words, when you find yourself in a situation where someone, is offending you, you are to let the peace of Christ decide how you will respond. If you do, you will respond in the ways we looked at last week. If not, you will respond in the ways we looked at in the paragraph preceding.

Thankfulness is tied to peace. In Philippians 4:6-7 Paul tells us to pray about everything with thanksgiving, and the result will be the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds. If we keep the Gospel in the forefront of our thinking, we should be thankful for Christ’s redeeming self-sacrifice and grace. If that is our primary thought pattern and attitude, our hearts will be ruled by Christ’s peace rather than our sinful inclinations. In this way, thankfulness is the key to peace.

The Word of Christ

By this phrase does Paul mean: the words spoken by Christ (red letters), the Gospel message of Christ, or the entire Scriptures of both Old and New Testaments? I think the answer is yes. Jesus spoke of the OT as testifying of him (John 5:39), and spoke often of Scripture and prophecy being fulfilled in himself. The entire Scripture tells us the good news of the Gospel. Beginning in Genesis, the entire book is about Jesus. There should be no distinction made then, in our minds, as one part being better than another. Paul tells us that all Scripture is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16).

Now if Scripture, the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is to dwell in our hearts, it is to be permanently there. A resident, not just a guest. This means it is given plenty of room. That’s what it means by “dwell in you richly”. It means it is to have abundant dwelling space. We’re talking about large quantities. The Word is to be plentiful in our lives and hearts. Not just relegated to Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, but living there, and ruling there, always. Our lives are to be saturated with the Word.

Every Christian is called to live this way, and to hold each other accountable for living this way. Do you see that? We are to teach and admonish each other, with wisdom (skillful use of knowledge).

To teach means to show or explain how to do something. It doesn’t necessarily mean lecturing. To admonish means to warn or reprimand someone, gently, when they are doing something wrong. We are called to hold each other accountable for how we live our lives as Christians. And to demonstrate, and explain, to each other how it should be done. Not arrogantly, but with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and self-sacrificing love that brings healing and unity. But we are to speak up and instruct, encourage, and even at times reprimand each other, to live this way.

The punctuation of the remainder of verse 16 is uncertain. Older translations, like the KJV and the NASB tie singing directly to the idea of teaching and admonishing.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. – NASB

Modern translations draw a distinction between the two actions of teaching and admonishing, and singing with thankfulness.

Either way, the idea of corporate singing as the people of God, comes under the context of the Word of God, which should lead us to the same conclusion expressed by Bob Kauflin.

Songs are de facto theology. They teach us who God is, what he’s like, and how to relate to him.

We need songs that have substantive, theologically rich, biblically faithful lyrics. A consistent diet of shallow, subjective worship songs tends to produce shallow, subjective Christians.

Lyrics matter more than music. Truth transcends tunes. ³

Is there a distinction to be made between psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs? Some modern commentators think not. Luther suggests there is.

“psalms” properly indicates those productions of David and others constituting the Book of Psalms; “hymns” refers to the songs of the prophets occasionally mentioned in the Scriptures…; “spiritual songs” are those not written in the Scriptures but of daily origin with men. ⁴

Remember that Luther is responsible for writing some of the best “hymns” in our hymnals, such as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” and others.

Furthermore, just as Paul mentioned thankfulness in the preceding verse, he brings the topic up yet again. Our singing is to be done with thankful hearts toward God. Our worship through song should flow from thankful hearts, and be Biblically informed. Thankfulness is key to biblically faithful worship and lifestyle.

The Name of Christ

We often pray “in the name of Jesus” but what do we mean? Here Paul instructs us not only to pray, but to do everything in the name of Jesus.

We made a list of some things we had done during the day. Our list looked like this.

• make the bed
• eat pizza
• go to the music store
• eat a brownie
• brush teeth 

What would it look like to do all those things in the name of Jesus?

For all peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. – Micah 4:5

To walk means to live your life. Paul is telling us the same thing as this OT verse. Live your life in the name of Jesus. Back to this idea of prayer for a minute.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. – John 14:13-14

Does this mean I can ask for a new Mustang and say “in the name of Jesus, Amen” and God has to give it to me? Of course not!

There are two parallel passages that may help us understand what Paul’s trying to say. The first is 1 Corinthians 10:31

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Paul is addressing a different issue in Corinth than in Colossae, but the principle remains. Everything we do, all areas of our lives, every action, every word, every thought, should be designed to bring glory to God.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. – 1 Peter 4:10-11

Our words and actions are done in the name of Jesus, when they are done in faith, with the goal of bringing glory to his name, and magnifying his name before men. When, by faith, we cling to the fact that Christ is in us, and we are in him, that we ‘toil with all his energy that he powerfully works within us’ (Colossians 1:29), then we are living by faith, and his name if magnified. When we do anything apart from faith, when we work by our own effort, seeking to be good enough, then we are working in our own name, not his.

When we end our prayer with “in the name of Jesus” but the aim of our prayer was not to bring glory to his name, we are hypocrites. When we pray earnestly, seeking his glory, asking for things that will magnify his greatness among people and in our lives, then we don’t even have to say the words, we are praying in his name.

For the third time Paul brings up the idea of thankfulness. Here he says we are to give thanks “through” Christ. It is only through Christ that we have access to the throne of God. No merit of our own grants us the right to stand before God. Only while united to Christ may we approach the Throne of Grace and make our requests known. And if we are living our lives for his glory, with the goal of magnifying the greatness of Christ, we will only ask for those things that will bring glory to God through Jesus.

His name is wonderful, because

…there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. – Acts 4:12

A couple weeks ago when we talked of putting to death the old man, we saw that there were no longer distinctions among us because

Christ is all, and in all. – Colossians 2:11

All things were created by him, through him, and for him.

Thankfulness is key to living for Christ’s glory.

Are you living your life for Christ in such a way that the people around you will clearly see his greatness? Remember, the chief characteristic of this kind of life is thankfulness.

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1. Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol 9, p308
2. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p203
3. Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters, p92-93
4. Martin Luther, Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, vol 4.1, p89-90