SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/11/2017
8:48 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Word of Christ
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
3:16
Message of the
verses: “16 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.”
This is a very special verse, and we can compare it with
a verse from the letter to the Ephesians, which were written by Paul during the
same time period. “Speaking to one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with
your heart to the Lord (Eph. 5:19).
“In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus
Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in
creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world’s life both
physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man’s salvation put on human
nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead,
and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds.
“This term was familiar to the Jews and in their writings
long before a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus used the term Logos around 600
B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing
universe. This word was well suited to John’s purpose in John 1,” (Greek/English
Dictionary).
Let’s look at “dwell,” where John MacArthur writes “Dwell
is from enoikeo and means ‘to live
in,’ or ‘to be at home.’ Paul calls upon
believers to let the Word take up residence and be at home in their lives.”
Richly “plousios”
means and could be translated abundantly or even extravagantly rich. This, of course is speaking of the Word of
God, the Bible, and Scripture should permeate every aspect of the believer’s
life, and it should also govern every thought, word, and also deed. I understand that this is very difficult to
do, and without the Holy Spirit living in believers it is impossible.
MacArthur writes “To let the word of Christ richly dwell’
is identical to being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).” Now remember I wrote that Ephesians 5:19 is
very similar with Colossians 3:16, and if you add Ephesians 5:18 before 19 and
then compare it with Ephesians 3:16 you have an even better match. MacArthur goes on to write that “The Word in
the heart and mind is the handle by which the Spirit turns the will. It is clear that these two concepts are
identical because the passages that follow each are so similar.” As mentioned both letters were written near
the same time by Paul when he was in prison, and MacArthur goes on to write
that “Colossians 3:18-4:1 IS A MORE
BRIEF PARALLEL TO Ephesians 5:19-6:9.
The result of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the same as the
result of letting the Word dwell in one’s life richly. Therefore, the two are the same spiritual
reality viewed from two sides. To be
filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by His Word. To have the Word dwelling richly is to be
controlled by His Spirit. Since the Holy
Spirit is the author and the power of the Word, the expressions are
interchangeable.”
We will look at the rest of
verse 16 in our next SD.
5/11/2017 9:09 PM
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