Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs… I. THE LESSON-BOOK. The Word of Christ, so called, because — 1. He is its central theme. The beginning of the story of the race is told that the first Adam may prepare the way for the second: then the mass of the race is forgotten, and one chosen family selected because Christ was to come out of it. The songs, prophecies, teachings of the Old Testament are full of Christ, and its characters are as fragments of the perfect character of Jesus. The ethics of the book find their full manifestation in Him. The Gospels are biographies of Him, and the Epistles expositions of the truths of that biography. 2. It was originated by Christ. Some write of what they see or hear, but Christ produces the history He causes to be recorded. He not only breathed His Spirit upon men's minds that they might write its doctrines; He produced the facts which are the basis of the doctrines. Pardon is taught; but He made the atonement by His death. Immortality is taught; but He revealed it first by His resurrection. 3. He dwells in it. Men are in quest of Christ, and seek Him in sacraments and holy things and places. But we have "not to ascend into heaven to bring Him down,'" etc. "The Word is nigh thee." Christ is in His Word, not as Plato in his. republic or Shakespeare in his plays, but as a living and operating power. "My words are spirit, and they are life." 4. Through it He works. There is not a process of grace promised or commended that it does not promote. (1) Conviction of sin. "The entrance of Thy Word giveth light." "The Word is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword."(2) Conversion. "The law of the Lord is. perfect, converting the soul."(3) Salvation from sin. "Thy Word have I hid in my heart," etc. (4) Edification. "The Word of His grace... is able to build you up," etc. (5) All sound Christian profit. "Is profitable for doctrine," etc II. THE SCHOOL. 1. The Church generally. Christ appointed the Church to teach His Word, and His Word forms the basis of her creeds, and the final authority when those creeds are questioned. It is to be exalted in her worship, commemorated in her sacraments, and proclaimed and defended in her pulpits. 2. The school of devotion; the prayer-meeting. 3. The school of experience; the class or fellowship-meeting. 4. The school of the family, where children learn theology, and the Divine character and administration, by object lessons, by what father and mother say and do. 5. But pre-eminently is the Sunday school the school of the Word. III. THE TEACHER. 1. His qualification. The Word is to dwell in him richly — in his tongue as its expounder; in his memory as a student; in his heart as a believer: so that when he prays he uses it, when he teaches texts come to his tongue-ends, and as he lives he illustrates it. It must so dwell in him that he will delight in it, love to quote it, go to sleep in times of storm resting upon it, and use it in the hour of death as the key to the kingdom. 2. His method. (1) Teaching; (2) admonishing; (3) translating into life. (Bishop Vincent.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. |
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