15 Let the peace of Christ have power over your hearts. You were chosen as a part of His body. Always be thankful. 16 Let the teaching of Christ and His words keep on living in you. These make your lives rich and full of wisdom. Keep on teaching and helping each other. Sing the Songs of David and the church songs and the songs of heaven with hearts full of thanks to God. 17 Whatever you say or do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give thanks to God the Father through the Lord Jesus. (Colossians 3:15-17)
"Let the peace of Christ have power over your hearts" is not used any where else in the New Testament. There are scriptures that mention the “peace of God” and the “peace of the Lord,” but this is the only reference to the“peace of Christ.”
A careful study of peace in the scriptures renders an understanding that it is about two entities who once were at war but now have come together as one. This is what forgiveness renders. When we clothe ourselves with all of these God-given traits, the peace of Christ rules in our hearts.
Gratitude plays an important role in this arena where peace rules. In v.15, Paul uses the word "eucharistoi" translated "thankful." This word gives us our English word "eucharist" which is the celebration of God's forgiveness of us through the cross of Christ. It is the intense love of Christ demonstrated at the cross that creates eucharist or thanksgiving in the heart of the believer.
Note that it is in believers' hearts that this activity takes place. Not in our minds, not in our spirit, not on our soul. It happens in our hearts, the deepest and most vulnerable part of our being. I think of Brennan Manning's quote, “How glorious the splendor of a human heart that trusts that it is loved!”
We must remember spiritual maturity is not about being repaired; it is about God being present in the everydayness of our lives. He is among the good and the bad that we are. And, He is training us to yield to Him as He works in all these traits that have their origin in Him.
Paul then writes “Let the teaching of Christ and His words keep on living in you.” Again, we have a unique phrase that we don’t see anywhere else in the New Testament; the “teaching of Christ.”
As the teaching of Christ dwells in us and defines us, we are positioned to help each other by His wisdom. And, if we are not being taught by Him, we will lack the very content that we need to be a blessing to others.
In v.16, we see one way that we help others with that which the Lord is teaching us; putting the teaching to music. And when we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, we are being given a way of allowing the word of Christ to dwell in and among us.
In v.17 the Apostle implores us to do whatever we do in the name of the Lord. Each day as we go about our normal routines, there should be no divide between our "sacred" lives and our “secular” lives.
We spend so much time trying to figure out what we should do; the reality is that God is far more interested in how we do it. We shouldn't be overly worried about what we do, as we should about how we do it. Our main responsibility is to invite Him into the details of our lives.
