Paul & the Spirit

Recently in our Wednesday emails, I’ve been connecting our Sunday theme in the Jesus Breathed series (the Holy Spirit) with our daily readings and bible studies, to help draw out more understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives and community. Today, I want to draw on today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

Colossians is one of those letters, however, where the Spirit barely plays a role. In most translations, in fact, the Spirit only appear in one verse (1:8). However, in today’s reading – depending on translation – the Spirit makes his other appearance. Look at how the NIV renders Colossians 3:16,

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Most other translations say “spiritual songs” rather than “songs from the Spirit”, but in this case, I think the NIV captures Paul’s intent better. What he’s saying, when we connect the dots of the passage, is that the Spirit is God’s means of having the ‘message of Christ dwell’ among us. And this shouldn’t be a surprise at this point in our exploration of the Spirit, as we’ve already seen the Spirit’s role in causing God to ‘dwell’ in and among us, as well as the Spirit’s role in causing our ears to be open to hear Jesus’ word. Here, Paul is putting those two ideas together:

It is the work of the Spirit to cause Christ’s message to dwell among us.

Now, how does this all work out? A few key thoughts.

First, the “you” is plural in this passage, so before it’s about Christ’s message dwelling in you personally, it’s about the message of Christ dwelling among us as community. What Paul is driving home here is that Christ’s message – his word – should live and be active among us, meaning that it should be on our lips and in our ears often, it should be the language we speak, it should be the vocabulary we use, it should be the logic we reason with, it should be the guidebook for our life together as a Christian community. We owe this – and have this joyful responsibility – towards one another.

Second, that it should dwell among us ‘richly’ means that we should allow Christ’s word to get into every little crack and crevice of our life together. It should seep its way into corner of how we relate to each other, how we argue with one another, how we work together, and so on. It shouldn’t dwell meagerly, as if Christ’s message is periphery or unimportant. It should dwell richly – it should be ‘central’ in our life together!

Third, the way that Christ’s message dwells richly – and the way the Spirit accomplishes his work – is in and through us: as we teach and admonish one another. We, as bearers of the Spirit (walking, talking, flesh and blood temples of the Living God), are of vital important as God’s means of speaking to us, correcting us, redirecting us, and guiding us. You all have a crucial role in the faith and life of one another; it’s how Jesus has designed his church to work. We can never hear this truth enough, lest we forget – so build one another up, encourage one another, admonish one another when necessary, remind one another of the word of Christ.

Fourth and finally, all of this is done in the spirit of gratitude – thanks to the Spirit of God. Go ahead and read the two verses that bookend verse 16…what do you see? Gratitude. Thankfulness. Giving thanks. As the Spirit works in the community of Jesus, he causes us to truly know the message of Christ – and so live thankfully because of it. So today, if you want to live by the Spirit, be grateful, live thankful, and practice gratitude.

The Spirit, as he causes the message of Christ to dwell among us richly, gives our church’s life together so much meaning, potential, and promise. The presence of God through the Spirit elevates our life in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Our calling is to simply live into it day by day. 

This is just one small piece of what Paul had to say about the Spirit (I’ve got a 915 page book on my desk that talks about all of the other times he does!). Join us on Sunday to hear about another important moment that Paul talks about the Spirit and his role in our mission towards the world. See you then!