“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:16-17
Reflect on verse 16: “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
Slowly speak out in an audible voice (if possible) this verse from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Pause and reflect on each of the key words in this verse:
- The word “let” here means to allow, to give permission. Do I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Teacher? To be a disciple of Christ means that I follow him and allow him to teach me. Jesus told his disciples,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
John 14:6
The “word of Christ” isn’t merely a printed word, but a personal living word. It is Jesus Christ himself, the Word of God, who is speaking to me. To allow the Lord Jesus to be my Teacher begins with giving the Lord my full attention and readiness to be taught by him.
Do I give the Lord permission to form and change my way of thinking, judging, speaking, and acting according to his word, his mind, his heart, and his will for my life?
Do I pray each day and ask the Lord to open my ears and heart to hear him speak to me and guide me in my reading and meditation of his word?
“Morning by morning he opens (awakens) my ear to hear as those who are taught.”
Isaiah 50:4
- The expression to let the word of Christ “dwell in you” means to make Christ and his word your constant companion whom you never leave or set aside. The Lord Jesus desires to personally unite himself with each and every person who believes in him. Jesus told his disciples,
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
John 14:23
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Galatians 2:20
Do I love the word of Christ – and make it my daily bread (nourishment) and my lifeline? Do I cherish it as if my life depended on it?
- The expression “richly” means to make the Lord and his word my true treasure and the joy of my heart and life.
“Give me life, O Lord, according to your word! Your testimonies are my heritage for ever; yes, they are the joy of my heart.”
Psalm 119:107, 111Â
How might the Lord want you to grow in loving his Word, and find joy in living it, and in encouraging others to love to his Word as well? Do you set aside time each day to read and meditate on God’s Word in the Scriptures?
Loving God’s Word and Being Transformed by ItÂ
Paul the Apostle shows us the way to full maturity as disciples of Christ by allowing our minds to be conformed to God’s word. Spiritual growth involves not only a process of learning God’s wisdom and truth, it also involves a process of unlearning sinful and worldly ways of thinking, evaluating, and acting.Â
“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2
If we want to know God’s mind – his thoughts and intentions for our lives – then we must allow his word to not simply inform us but transform us as well.
How can we conform our minds to Christ’s? A key step is learning how to listen to God as he speaks to us through the words of Scripture. We can approach Scripture in two very different ways – informational reading versus formational reading. The chart below (1) compares these two approaches.
Transformational reading of Scripture versus informational reading
Dr. M. Robert Mulholland Jr., a professor of New Testament and Vice President of Asbury Theological Seminary, has written an excellent book on the nature of a formational reading of the Scriptures, Shaped by the Word: The Power of Scripture in Spiritual Formation. He distinguishes between a typical modern approach of reading biblical texts chiefly to gather information which we then analysize, dissect, and evaluate for ourselves versus a spiritual reading of the Scriptures which allows the Word of God to shape, form, and transform the way we think, discern, and evaluate and make judgements which conform to the mind and character of the God who reveals himself to us in the Scriptures.
| INFORMATIONAL READING | FORMATIONAL READING |
|---|---|
| Seeks to cover as much as possible | Focuses on small portions |
| A linear process | An in-depth process |
| Seeks to master the text | Allows the text to master us |
| The text as an object to use | The text as a subject that shapes us |
| Analytical, critical, and judgmental approach | Humble, detached, willing, loving approach |
| Problem-solving mentality | Openness to mystery |
The following excerpt from his book helps to explain the difference between informational versus formationalreading of the Scriptures.
The formational approach [to reading Scripture] is a radical alternative to our normal orientation to reading and study. Let’s look at some of the balancing characteristics of reading for formation versus reading for information.
First, in contrast to reading for information, the object [of formational reading] is not to cover as much as possible as quickly as possible; reading for formation avoids quantifying the amount of reading in any sort of way. You are concerned with quality of reading, not quantity. You may find yourself in a “holding pattern” on just one sentence or one paragraph or perhaps as much as a whole page, but probably never more than that. You are not concerned with getting through the book. So what if it takes you a year, two years, five years to get through the book? That is not the point. The point is meeting God in the text.
Perhaps there are some things grating inside you right now. You may be saying, “That’s not reading! I’ve got this book; I’ve got to get through it.” Do you ever find yourself thumbing through a book to see how many pages are left in the chapter you are reading? This may be a symptom of informational reading. Or better, you find yourself stopping and going back and reflecting, perhaps dropping back a paragraph or maybe even a whole chapter and saying, “Hey, I missed something here. There are deeper levels of meaning here, and I have to slow down and meditate on them.” This indicates that you may have begun to move into formational reading.
Second, although informational reading is linear, trying to move quickly over the surface of the text, formational reading is in depth. You seek to allow the passage to open to you its deeper dimensions, its multiple layers of meaning. At the same time, you seek to allow the text to probe deeper levels of your being, disclose deeper dimensions of your flawed “word,” disturb the foundations of your false self. Instead of rushing on to the next sentence, paragraph, or chapter, you seek to allow the text to begin to become that intrusion of the Word of God into our life, to address you, to encounter you at deeper levels of your being. If you don’t take time like this with a text, the Word cannot encounter you in it; the Word of God cannot form you through it.
What happens in personal relationships if, as you see people coming toward you, you begin walking toward them talking steadily as you approach, come up to them, shakes their hands, and continue on, talking the whole time? Has there been any address from them? This is just what we tend to do with reading material. We pick up the book, and our minds immediately start informing that text. We go all the way through the text telling it what we want it to say to us. When we finish we say, “That was a great book” or “That was a lousy book.” The book has never really had a chance to address you.
Third, in informational reading, we seek to grasp the control, to master the text. I suspect you already see what the third point is in formational reading: It is to allow the text to master you. In reading the Bible, this means we come to the text with an openness to hear, to receive, to respond, to be a servant of the Word rather than a master of the text. Such openness requires an abandonment of the false self and its habitual temptation to control the text for its own purposes.
Fourth, instead of the text being an object we control and manipulate according to our own insight and purposes, the text becomes the subject of the reading relationship; we are the object that is shaped by the text. With respect to biblical reading, we willingly stand before the text and await its address, ready for the Word to exercise control over the “word” we are. This is one reason formational reading cannot be quantified. It requires waiting before the text. You have to take time with it in order to hear what it says.
[Excerpt from Shaped by the Word: The Power of Scripture in Spiritual Formation, Chapter 5, Copyright © 2000 M. Robert Mulholland Jr, revised edition published in 2000 by Upper Room Books, Nashville, Tennessee. M. Robert Mulholland Jr. is Provost and Vice President of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, USA.]Â
See related articles:
- The Lord Speaks – Are You Hungry for His Word?
- Resources on Reading Scripture as the Living Word of God
Top image credit: A cropped illustraton of a man stepping through a cross-shaped entrance, from ChristianPhotoshops.com, © by Kevin Carden. Used with permission.
Don Schwager is the editor of Living Bulwark and author of the Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation website. He is a lay religious brother and life-time member of the Servants of the Word.