(Colossians) Doing All Things in the Name of the Lord — Brian Brodersen

The Believer’s Responsibility to Act

The Apostle is calling us to action. He's calling us to Take certain steps In order to Experience Certain blessings and To experience the victory that God has waiting for each of us. We pointed out in our last study how?

There is a balance between God's working in us in our working out of our own salvation so there is that aspect of human responsibility that we concentrated on and So as we pick up in verse 16 once again, the Apostle is reminding us that We have a part to play and so he uses once again the word let.

Letting the Word of Christ Dwell Richly

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let the Word of Christ implying that if the Word of Christ is going to dwell in you richly there's something that you must do and of course the obvious would be that we have to Spend time in the Word of God.

We've got to spend time meditating upon it thinking about it studying it determined to Apply it to our lives. Let it affect us so that's his Admonition here let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

The word dwell has the idea of permanently residing within you and controlling you. In Ephesians chapter 3 Paul prayed that Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith and The idea there is that Christ would take up permanent residence that he would find himself a home in your heart.

And so here the same idea is being expressed the Word of Christ dwelling in you. Finding permanent residence within you taking up its place in your heart. Having authority over you controlling you. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

So that there would be an abundance. That's the idea behind it. There's an abundance of a supply of the Word of Christ in our lives. Now the Word of Christ would be the scriptures in their entirety really.

He's not talking simply about the words of Jesus. But he's talking about the entirety of scripture because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. So all of the Bible are really the words of Christ.

Not just the words that he spoke in the gospel record, but the words spoken in the Old Testament. They are the words of Christ. The words spoken in the New Testament epistles are the words of Christ because the prophets and the Apostles they Wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

So what the Apostle is saying is let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Let the Word of God control you let it Have its place permanently in your life. Let there be an abundance of a supply of God's Word in your life in order That you might teach and admonish one another in all wisdom.

Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. So as you would let the Word of Christ dwell in you knowledge is Being communicated there you have a storehouse of knowledge.

But it's important to know how to apply that knowledge. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. So let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly have a thorough knowledge of The Word of God is what Paul is saying and then with all wisdom teach and admonish one another.

So having This storehouse the supply of the Word of God this thorough knowledge of the Word of God then the ability to apply it. Wisdom we need wisdom and applying the Word of God to the various situations of life in our own experiences and Also in the lives of others those that God would bring us into contact with.

The context here is primarily The church the body of Christ other believers. Teaching and admonishing one another it's the responsibility of each of us as Christians to teach and admonish one another.

It's not only the responsibility of the pastor teacher or the evangelist to Teach and admonish but it's a responsibility of each and every one of us as Christians to teach and admonish one another with the Word of God Instructing each other encouraging each other Revealing to one another the things that God has spoken to us and taught us through the word and with wisdom applying the knowledge that God has given us to the situation of others.

Teaching Through Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

And then he says Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Now we have a variety of translations and Some translations like the one that we're using here the New King James Similar to the King James version gives the idea that the teaching and Admonishing is coming through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and so forth and That could very well be but other translations emphasize the teaching and admonishing one another and then also Make somewhat of a distinction between the Psalms and the hymns.

The implication not being so much that they are the the tool through which you teach and admonish but that in your Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs the Word of Christ is Richly being brought forth there also so that encouragement can be obtained through that.

There are times when the Lord really ministers to people Before I ever get up here to teach the word he ministers through the songs Through the hymns through the spiritual songs and so forth and of course that Can only happen if those songs that we're singing have a strong spiritual content to them.

Unfortunately many of the more contemporary Praise songs and so forth I've mentioned this in the past, but you know many of them are so weak in their content. You do not find a rich Resource of the Word of Christ and some of the newer songs that's why as I have mentioned before the hymns So often in my mind are preferred over some of the newer songs.

I remember times of feeling very Oppressed times of feeling condemned and and you know just the different Aspects of spiritual warfare that one might go through and I remember as as a young pastor back at Calvary Costa Mesa.

They of course would sing hymns quite regularly back then I think on Sunday morning. That's all they did sing. I think they've changed it now, but they used to sing only hymns and I didn't particularly care for organs and those kinds of things you know.

But I remember so clearly there would be times when I would be sitting on the platform Just feeling very oppressed feeling very under satanic attack and During the course of the singing as we would sing certain hymns.

I remember being so encouraged and and Lifted up and brought out from under that oppression. Because those hymns were filled with the words of Christ. They were so rich in their biblical content, and and I remember just being ministered to Incredibly before we ever got to the time of teaching and So ideally our Singing the songs that we're singing ought to be full of the Word of God.

Those are the best songs so whether The teaching and the admonition is to go on through the Psalms hymns and spiritual songs or There's teaching and admonition and then also encouragement to be Singing praises to the Lord.

I think that's probably the better translation myself. We see here The twofold exhortation. We are called to teach and to admonish each other but first we must have the Word of Christ dwelling richly in us and that should manifest itself in our singing in our hymns in our psalms and we're to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord and Whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving.

Doing Everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus

Thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do and so the context here is is worship the context here is is the congregational setting and So whatever you do in the congregation in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But we can take it beyond the congregational setting and we can apply it to just every aspect of life. Whatever you do In word or deed in the church or outside the church Do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ if we would but live like that.

Oh how We would impact our world if we would just live like that with the glory of God in mind. The people who have lived with God's glory at the forefront of their minds are the people who have been most effective in their service to the Lord and Here's a verse that's really exhorting us to do that.

Whether we're among Christians or we're out in the world doing whatever we do word or deed Doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a way to bring joy into every task That you might perform.

Remember the old Saying I think it was a song even Whistle while you work. And you know the idea behind that was you know, you could you could add Pleasure to Perhaps an unpleasant situation by just whistling while you work just you know get your mind off of The the task and and just think on something else enjoy what you're doing whistle while you work That never works for me but Putting my mind on the Lord does work for me and That brings joy to every situation.

Whatever I'm doing in word or deed Doing it in the name of the Lord Regardless of what it is. It can bring joy to the situation. You might have a task before you you might have some difficulty that you've got to deal with some mountain that you've got to climb or some Something that you have to conquer and and the very thought of this whole thing is overwhelming to you.

But yet if you do it in the name of the Lord Lord, I'm just gonna do this for you you can bring joy right into that situation a few weeks ago we had gone out to dinner with some friends and we were driving home from Orange County and Cheryl fell asleep as we were driving home and I was thinking and this was all before we Did all that we've done in the past couple of weeks before we packed our house and Shipped our belongings off and so forth.

And and as I was driving home, I was thinking of This task before us and it just seems so overwhelming so overwhelming that in my mind I just thought you know what? I don't even want to do it Forget it.

I'm not going to England and I mean, it was just it was this overwhelming thing. It was just that like this mountain before me and As I was being overwhelmed by it suddenly the thought came to me That I'm doing it for the Lord.

This is part of my service to the Lord you know, I'm thinking about the The more exciting part of it going and preaching the gospel and teaching the word and all that. But there's certain things that had to be done before I could get to that part of it these These tedious kinds of things and At one moment I was overwhelmed by it, but then suddenly I thought no this is all part of serving the Lord this is all part of of Getting ourselves to the place where God wants us to be so he can use us and immediately the burden was lifted.

The thought of being able to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus to be able to do it for the Lord. It just took away that that miserable element. That was there and So whatever we're doing in word or indeed Doing it for the Lord doing it with the Lord in mind doing it in his name in The context of the church as we're ministering Whatever we're doing doing it in the name of the Lord.

Why do you do what you do as a Christian? Do you do it to be seen by people do you do it to receive praise from men? Do you do it because it makes you feel good to do it? All of those reasons are the wrong reasons the reason you should do anything is for the Lord.

Whatever you're doing in word or deed do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. So if it's in the context of the body of Christ, or if it's outside the body of Christ whatever you're doing do it for the Lord as You're reaching out to people as you're helping them out as you're giving them a hand as you're Bearing their burdens or whatever you might be doing do it in the name of the Lord Giving thanks To God the Father through him, so this is the attitude that we are admonished to have and now Paul is going to deal with some very practical areas of life and This attitude notice is Placed before the things that we are to do to remind us that we can only do these things Properly if we do them with the right attitude.

Wives, Submission, and the Lord’s Order

And So he begins with the marital relationship. Wives submit to your own husband's as is fitting in the Lord now a lot of times what we do is we open our Bibles and we pull out certain text and We read them or we speak them to someone else, but we don't look at the context and So here we're in a counseling session for example.

And there's a situation going on where a wife maybe is not being submissive to her husband so we open the Bible and we turn here to Colossians 318 and we say wives submit to your own husband's and Right away the woman feels Within her this resistance to this whole thing.

Oh say that I don't want to hear that that is not what I came here for and you don't know what kind of a man I live with and you know, this is impossible and What we need to do is Look at the context.

Whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God the Father through him wives submit to your husband's. How do you do that when it goes against everything in you you do it in the name of the Lord.

You do it for the Lord. There are times when you have to look beyond your husband. Paul in writing to the Ephesians. He said wives be submissive to your own husband's as unto the Lord as unto the Lord.

What he means by that is there are times when you have to look beyond your husband and do it. Because the Lord said to do it not because you agree with your husband or feel that He's worthy of being submitted to her followed because there are going to be times when you won't agree with him.

You won't like the decision that he makes. You don't want to follow his lead. How do you do it? During those times you do it as unto the Lord. You Submit to him as unto the Lord. You submit to him in the name of the Lord Jesus for your sake because you said to do it.

I will do this you see. That's the motivation. That's what will empower you to do what every fiber in your being is. Telling you not to do. Putting the Lord in the picture. Doing it for him. That will get us through many many things that we cannot get through on our own doing it for the Lord.

So wives submit to your own husband's. The the word submit means be subjected to and God has Set forth an order and God's order is that The man is the head of the woman and Christ is the head of the man.

There's a chain of command Christ the man the woman. Then the children being placed under the man and the woman if you have a problem with that chain of command. You have a problem with God not with some traditional form of thinking.

You know today, of course, there are many people who are opposed to this whole idea of women submitting to men and so forth and They write it off as just you know, some traditional way of looking at things that has no no place in our modern way of thinking and functioning and so forth but What we're dealing with here are the commands of God.

God is the one who created the world. God is the one who created us and God is the one who knows how things are to operate and This is God's command that the wife is to be subjected to the husband. She is to be in submission to him.

God has made the man the head over the woman and again if you're bothered by that you need to Really humble yourself before God and acknowledge that he is wiser than you you see to resist this is Not merely to resist a traditional form of thinking it's to resist God and his teaching.

But there's much resistance to God today, isn't there? Especially along these lines. There are women who are very angered by the very word submission. Feel that that has nothing to do with them and that women should never be Subjected to men and that's the reason the world is in such Bad shape because men have been in charge of it and let a woman take control and you know.

But you see that's going against God's order that's going against the chain of command that God has set up. So the wife is to be submissive. Not merely to men. Women you don't have to be submissive to men in general you have to be submissive to your own husband.

Some man comes along and wants to boss you around because he's a man tell him to take a hike. Let your husband Fulfill that place that's that's the way it is and I say that because there are certain people there are certain people who think that just because you know, they are men that they have you know, the right to dominate and control and Have authority over women and and a lot of times this happens in churches you know, there's a problem in many churches with abuse and authority and there are churches where men Develop the idea because they are men that they are superior to not Merely their wives only but they're superior to every woman and every woman is to be under their control and submissive to them and to do Whatever they tell them to and of course this can lead to all kinds of horrible horrible things.

Many of the cults and different aberrant movements leads to all kinds of sexual perversion and things of that nature. That's an obvious problem. Obviously very wrong, but there's more subtle forms of it where men just you know.

Get the feeling that because they're men they have a right to have authority over women. That's not the case biblically wives. Submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord. You need to be in submission to your husband husbands.

Husbands’ Love and Sacrificial Responsibility

Love your wives. The Bible is so beautifully balanced. It's so beautifully balanced. The the woman is not to be a doormat. She's not to be there to fulfill every women wish of the selfish ogre. Called her husband the woman is to be the object of the man's love and affection so that her submission is really Just a natural response to his love and affection for her it could be.

Guys if your wives are not submissive, it's because you're not loving them properly now. That's not an excuse for you ladies not to be submissive. Let me make that clear and Some ladies say well, I'm not gonna submit to him till he loves me as Christ loved the church.

What does that mean? He has to die? Christ died to demonstrate his love. I want him to die and then all. You know, so so don't don't misunderstand you have a biblical obligation to submit to him. Even if he's not loving you as Christ of the church now, that's that's more difficult.

But God will give you the grace. He'll supply the grace for you to do that but ideally This is the ideal that the husband would love his wife so much so that she would delight in submitting to him that it would just be a natural response and I know in my own experience that when I Show my life my life when I show my wife my love.

It's very easy for her to submit. She doesn't have a problem. It's when I'm withholding my love or affection or not really demonstrating it to her that She has a more difficult time in submitting so God balances this thing out very beautifully the wife is really the one who is Responding the husband is the initiator.

The wife is the responder. That's that's the biblical pattern not to say that a wife can initiate certain things and so forth. But in a in a general sense the husband is to initiate love. And the wife is to respond with submission with compliance with you know following the lead of the husband the word love here is the Greek word agape which which is a word that means a thorough love a complete love a true love.

Now love is Not just a vague concept love is Something that demonstrates itself in action. You know, sometimes we as men We will plead our case. When accused of not loving our wives will a plead. Oh, I do love you.

But yet we never show it and And we think that because we say it occasionally when we're forced to that that ought to be sufficient. But that isn't sufficient. Peter in writing to Us men he said husbands dwell with your wives according to knowledge Giving honor to them as the weaker vessel as a as a person.

I do not need a Whole lot of verbal.