Wednesday Bible Study- the Way of Worship

This week's verse required me to do a "Dennis Miller"- to understand the whole thing, I had to graph it out.  In trying to simplify what I learned, let me start (for a change) with the actual verse-in-question, from Colossians:

Col 3:16  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. 

Now to get where this verse is going, I had to examine most of the chapter before it, and then tumble to the fact that the key is the next verse.  Because the whole thing eventually boils down to, why and how do we worship God?

And the whole structure, for me, came down to three sets of three, at three different levels.  Each level has a part for each of the Trinity- Father, Son, and Spirit.  And the three levels are basically, 1- what we show to God, 2- what we show to our Christian brothers, and 3- what we show to the world at large.  So let me show you the verse following ours, because it contains that first level all to itself:

Col 3:17  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. 

This is the true key to worship, but as I unpack the rest, this will take on (hopefully) a richer meaning.  Like I said, this to me divides into Father, Son, and Spirit:

Spirit: "And whatever you do, in word or deed..."

And this will get easier to see as we get to level three...

Son: "...do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus..."

And Father:  "...giving thanks to God the Father through him..." 

And that is basically the lesson in itself:  Giving thanks to God the Father is the top priority, through Jesus Christ and His example, through the Spirit who calls us to do so in all we say and do.  This is our relationship with God, the very highest level.

Level two is our verse, by itself.  Let me divide it again:

Spirit: "...teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom..."  The Spirit IS Wisdom.  I am working on a bit more about that for a Sunday Message when God gives me the okay.  For now, let's look at the interrelation between the two levels.  In all we say and do, our goal with one another as Brothers is to grow each other in Wisdom, by sharing what God has spoken to our hearts.  THIS IS THE WAY THE EARLY CHURCH DID THINGS.

Son:  "... singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs..."  As I dug into this, I found the following definitions to these three acts:  A Psalm was defined in part as "a set piece."  Hymns are based on the word for "celebrate"; and spiritual songs came from a word for, paraphrased, sacred or holy chants.  What I saw here is, these are ACTIONS, things you do in the framework of worship.  For lack of a better word, the ritual that goes with which we encourage each other and frame our praise.

Father: "...with thankfulness in your hearts to God. "  Here the ESV doesn't quite convey the original message.  Let us try the YLT:

"... in grace singing in your hearts to the Lord.."

The commentators point out that this isn't necessarily meant to be the physical singing of earlier, but by the Grace given from the Spirit, to reach out to God heart-to-heart- in other words, the MEANING behind the ritual.

So how do we get to this level of praise?  Well that is explained by Paul giving examples of how to TRULY live it out before others in vv 12-15.  Rather than pick it completely apart, let me just tell you what I saw:

3:12 gives us a list that we should model as "the elect of God" (from the LITV).  These are the attributes that mark us as children of the Father:

-A heart filled with compassion and mercy

-kindness- a word that translates out as "usefulness to others".  In other words, being kind is being helpful in drawing others to worship.

- Humbleness of mind- lowness of esteem compared to those you are showing all that kindness and mercy to;

-Meekness/gentleness;

-and longsuffering (basically "long tempered"), which is a perfect lead in from the Father's part to the Son's part.

And His part is the EXAMPLE:  

V13, "...even as Christ forgave you, so also you ..."

And here, you get two things to exemplify Christ in.

First is forbearance- which translates out to "holding up against".  In other words, no matter what others do to or around you, you stand fast in your faith against it.

Second is, as you might have guessed, forgiveness.  I like the way the Strong's translation made it "a gift or favor" you do for someone.  They may not deserve it; you might never be paid back.  You do it, and move on.  As you can see, you really need the first to do the second!

And in 14-15, we hit the Spirit's part in this:

Col 3:14  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 

Col 3:15  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 

Get the key phrase there, which marks this as the Spirit's domain?  "... to which indeed you were called ..."!  and to the Spirit is commended three areas:

Above all, love- "agape" love, which ties us to God the Father;

The rule in our hearts of God's peace- and I also loved the Strong's translate on this:  "Set at one again".  In the Garden we started out in peace- as one- with God; the goal is to return to that perfect unity.

And finally, set apart in big, bold letters- BE THANKFUL.  And see?  We've come full circle!

And to bring it all together:

Worshipping the Father starts with how we treat others, with kindness, meekness, and the rest.  Through those acts, we learn to worship from the heart, and give Him the thanksgiving He is due.

Acting in the name of Jesus starts with following His examples of forbearance and forgiveness, makes it a daily routine in our lives, offered to the Father in the Name of Christ whom we hope to emulate.

And the power of the Spirit spreads it out to all we do and say, all we live and love.