Last Friday I taught on the topic of worship at Bethany Bible School, taking as my primary text Colossians 3:12-17.
I needed some fresh insight on worship, and so I selected one text to see what it might suggest about worship. I did not want to start with my own thoughts on the subject and then find texts to support my pre-existing ideas. Rather, I wanted a theology of worship to rise from the text.
Of course, even my selection of a starting point showed a pre-existing bias. I chose a text which I guessed had something to do with worship. The reason I chose Colossians, then, is its line about "singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (3:16). In other words, I chose the text for its mention of a common feature of the worship service, namely singing. But by paying closer attention to the broader context for such singing, I was to discover a much larger context for worship than as defined as what most congregations do on Sundays mornings.
Near the heart of the text lie two parallel statements which use the name of "Christ" (at least this is the case in the NRSV). These are:
"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" (3:15).
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (3:16).
These frame a very simple sentence, "And be thankful" (3:15).
If we add the three statements together, we find something virtually equivalent to the summary statement with which Paul ends this text. As the first statement speaks of the "peace of Christ", the second "the word of Christ", and the middle statement thankfulness, so 3:17 declares,
"And whatever you do, in word or work ("deed" NRSV), do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
If we begin to group like with like, we see that the closing sentence has in common with the cumulative central triplet a focus on "the word". As there is the "word of Christ" (3:15), so there is "the word" (3:17) which is one of two things which the church in Colossae might "do". Continuing with exact matches, both the conclusion and the triplet speak of "thanksgiving", whether it is the imperative "be thankful" (3:15) or "giving thanks to God the Father through [the Lord Jesus]" (3:17).
Moving beyond exact matches to like ideas, we see, by implication, that if the "word of Christ" (3:16) finds an exact match with "the word" which the Colossians might "do" (3:17), then that which is parallel to each of these two must also go together. Thus, if "the peace of Christ" (3:15) is parallel to "the word of Christ" (3:16), and if "the word of Christ" finds its exact match in the "word" which is done (3:17), then "the peace of Christ" must refer to that which accompanies the "word" in 3:17--the "work" which the Colossians might do "in the name of the Lord Jesus".
Thus, if it is fair to say that this text has something to do with worship (a word, admittedly, which does not appear in the text), then Paul is saying that true worship is essentially thanksgiving to God in the name of the Lord Jesus, and that that worship has two basic parts: "word" and "work".
Seen in this way, Colossians 3:12-17 itself may be divided into two halves, the first pertaining to worship as "work" and the second pertaining to worship as "word", before culminating in the one-sentence conclusion which ties these themes together. Indeed, the first half, ending with "the peace of Christ" in 3:15, pertains to "works" which can be done even without words. "Clothe yourselves", the text begins, with "compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" (3:12), over which "love" is put on as a garment which "completes" the outfit (the Greek of 3:14 calls love "a bond of completion"). Between these virtues of "work" is "forgiveness", literally, "generosity of spirit", which has the same root in Greek,
charis, which is elsewhere translated as "thanksgiving" ("thankful", "gratitude", etc) and appears no less than five times in the text. All of these find their natural conclusion in "the peace of Christ" which is to "rule in [the Colossians'] hearts", in the "one body" called the church "to which [they] were called" (3:15). "The peace of Christ", closing out the first half of 3:12-17 (3:12-15), is the final state of a community which practices these works of love toward one another.
Of course, it is not as if any of these "works" must be done without "words", as if "words" somehow did not enhance the expression of, for example, the practice of forgiveness. In all likelihood, quite the contrary is true. It is just to say that, according to the text, there is in life a distinction between worship (or ministry or service) as "work" and worship as "word".
The text itself reflects this distinction, for, separated only by the command to "be thankful" (3:15), it moves from speaking of ministries of "work" to ministries of "word". It moves from one summary statement--"let the peace of Christ rule"--to its introductory counterpart--"let the word of Christ dwell". The switch to "the word of Christ" ensues in an unbroken litany of activities which are done principally with one's voice. The text begins to speak of "teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom" and "singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God" (3:16). Teaching, admonishing, singing--these are things done with "the word".
And then it is there--after all is said and done--that Paul says, "whatever you do, in word or work, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (3:17).
In contemporary discussions of "holistic" ministry, mission, or service, distinctions are sometimes maligned. Concerns that distinctions lend themselves to undue prioritizing of work over word or word over work call into question whether we should think in so-called "dualisms" at all. Yet having distinctions, giving names to things we experience to be true of life, can help us to identify those particular gifts which God has entrusted to us and others for the work of ministry "in the name of the Lord Jesus". Distinctions can set our sights and focus our energies on that which God has called us to do, "whether by word or work".
-Joe
