“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:16-17 NASB1995)
We have The Word of God written down for us in the Scriptures (Genesis to Revelation), and we have The Word living within us in the person of the Holy Spirit speaking biblical truth to our hearts, as well, reminding us of the teachings of Christ Jesus. The Spirit gives us guidance and direction in holy living and in who God wants us to be, and in what he has called us to do as his disciples. He gifts us with Spiritual gifts, and God assigns us our body parts (ministries) within the universal and local body of believers in Christ.
[Acts 2:14-18,42-47; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]
And the Scriptures teach us, not only how we are to live as followers of Christ, regarding our own walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, but they teach us our responsibilities within the body of Christ, as a whole, to the body of Christ. For we are to minister to one another on a daily basis, according to the Scriptures. But before we teach others, we need to be those who are walking the walk God has marked out for us. We must not be those who are deliberately and habitually walking in sin against our Lord.
And if The Word of God is richly dwelling (living) within us, this is not about us just putting the Scriptures to memory in our minds. But it means that we are living what the Word teaches us. The Word of God is what guides and directs us each day in what to do, and in how to think, and in what to say, for the glory and praise of God, and not for selfish gain. And this does not make us absolutely perfect in every respect, but it must mean that we are following our Lord in obedience, and we’re not living according to the flesh.
And then, as the body of Christ, we are to be teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So this is not about sitting through a “worship service” singing songs someone else picked out for all of us to sing. But this is about us ministering to one another with such spiritual songs, i.e. the kinds of songs which literally do teach and admonish us in our walks of faith in obedience to the Lord, much like many of the old hymns which many are no longer singing, most of which I love to sing.
And if whatever we do, in word or deed, we are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, we are not to do so falsely and hypocritically. We are not to do or speak in his name what is contrary to who he is and to what he teaches us in how we are to live as his followers. For “in his name” has to do with “according to his character,” and “according to his will and purpose.” So what we do or say in his name must be according to the teachings of the Scriptures and not according to our own will and purpose and thinking.
Therefore, we must be diligent students of the Scriptures who study them in their appropriate biblical context, who compare Scripture with Scripture to make certain they agree, and who test whatever we are hearing from other sources against the truth of the Scriptures to make certain we are believing in and following the truth of God’s word and not the lies so popularized in today’s “Christian” culture. We must not rely on other humans to tell us the truth, but we must be those who study the Scriptures for ourselves.
And in all that we do in the name of Christ we should be giving thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his mercy, for his compassion, and for his love for us in giving his life up for us and in rising from the dead so that, by faith in him, we can now die to sin and live to God and to his righteousness in walks of surrender to Christ, in obedience to his commands, and in holy living – all in the power and wisdom of God, and not of our own doing; not of our flesh. For we have so much to be thankful for, for the grace of God in our lives.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]
My Sheep
Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they follow me.
Login to view embedded media
In Word or Deed
An Original Work / November 25, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love