Colossians 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.
“Dwell”—This exact term is used of the Holy Spirit in 2 Corinthians 6:16. “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
When God describes the relationship he intends to have with His people, it is a daily, ongoing, all-encompassing interaction. So, “dwell” makes sense. Think about the way you inhabit your home. It is a fluid, ongoing set of interactions. You eat, you sleep, you play, you work, you build, you grow…you dwell.
When you first move into a new home, you do quite a bit to personalize it to yourself and your family. You decorate, landscape, paint, and arrange until it feels like home. You cannot fully dwell in a place where you do not fit. The changes you make personalize the place so it is yours. You may stay for a time in someone else’s place, but you do not dwell there—it belongs to another.
Colossians 3:16 instructs us to allow the word of Christ to dwell in us. We are the dwelling place—the home. Like a new dwelling we have to be arranged, decorated, landscaped, etc. We have to be changed so that the word of Christ fits.
There are a variety of ways by which we can be made into a proper dwelling. This verse lists a few: teaching, wise counsel, God-centered music, and focused thankfulness. We must submit ourselves to teaching (spoken and written), we must humbly accept wise counsel, we must engage Godly music (a highway to our hearts) and we must concentrate on the multiplied ways God has enriched our lives. The combination of these elements will shape us into a proper dwelling for the word of Christ. We will experience the type of free-flowing ongoing relationship a child of God should enjoy.
