Colossians 4:6

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. God expects us to have kind words to say to people. But we should always tell the truth. And telling the truth sometimes means that we should warn people about sin and God’s coming punishment for their sin. That is the salt part. But, just like we shouldn’t use too much salt on our food, we shouldn’t talk about God’s judgement the sinner’s punishment all of the time. God will punish the sinner, but God also loves the sinner, and will forgive. We should talk about God’s love and forgiveness more than we talk about God’s judgement. That’s what our verse is saying. We be ready to give answers to people when they have a question about the Bible. Most people have ideas about heaven and God and the Bible, but often they are just ideas – they are not based on facts. They heard something from someone, or just thought about things and came up with their own ideas. They may think of spiritual things the way that they think they should be and not necessarily how God says that they really are. That’s where we come in. As a Christian, we should speak for God. So, how do we know what to say? How do we know what God likes and what God doesn’t like? How do we know what goes on in heaven and what happens in the future? Well, we have to read the Bible to find out what God thinks. We have to read the Bible to know what is going to happen in the future. When someone finds out that we are a Christian and they have a Bible question, we need to have answers ready. Most people don’t know God and don’t know what the Bible says. Our verse tells us that we should be ready to speak up for God and to speak up with correct information. But to do so, we must study the Bible. Dig in! Read God’s word! And then you will be ready to give an answer.

Colossians 3:23

Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. This verse is a lot like the verse from yesterday, but it adds a little. Our verse from yesterday said that everything should be done and said to the glory of God; but our verse for today adds that we should do it heartily. Heartily means with strength or power. Little Greyson sings a song that says, “There is power in the name of Jesus”. And he sings it with power. It’s so cute. But actually, that’s how we should live our Christian lives. We should be powerful with our Christian living. Don’t live like a wimp; live like we mean it! There is power in the name of Jesus, and there should be power in our lives too!

Colossians 3:17

Colossians 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Often we forget that God sees everything that we do. He sees our every action. But God also sees our hearts. He knows what we are thinking. He knows when we want to do the right things, but forget. He knows when we try to do the right things, but fail. God knows everything. But in order to do the right thing, we should be directed by God. We should let God work in us and through us. Let the Holy Spirit, which is in us, direct what we say and do. That is what our verse means when it says word or deed. And it says that everything should be said or done in the name of Jesus Christ. Everything that we say or do should be pleasing to Jesus. After all, He sees everything and hears everything. let’s do our best to please Him!

Colossians 3:16

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, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Our verse for today reminds us that singing is important in church. We are not just to sing songs to be doing it, but singing should serve a purpose. Our verse says that our singing should teach and admonish. The word admonish means to warn. So the songs that we sing should have words that teach and warn us about serious Bible principles. Songs should not just take up time before the preaching; the songs themselves should do some of the preaching. And songs have another advantage: they often have a catchy tune that we remember. And the words are in poetry form and rhyme so that we can easily remember them. The songs that we learn in church will be remembered during the week. We can remind ourselves of Bible truth during the week even when we aren’t at church. The songs go with us. But here is the problem: we should be careful to listen to, and learn only solid Bible-based songs. We want the right songs to be going around in our heads, not the wrong ones!

Colossians 3:14,15

Colossians 3:14,15 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. These are two great verses on the Christian life. There are many things that we should do as Christians, and there are many things that we should be as Christians. In the King James Version of the Bible, the word charity meant love. But in the Greek language in which the Bible was originally written, there were four different words for love. Storgé meant the love of a parent for their child. It meant love that someone just naturally had. The next was philia, which meant brotherly love or affection for someone else. The city of Philadelphia has philia as its root word, and is known as the city of brotherly love. The third word was eros and meant the sexual type of love between a man and woman. This is the Hollywood movie type of love. But the fourth word for love in Greek was agapé. It meant unselfish love; a love that put the other person above yourself. Agapé love was unselfish love, and is the word that is used here in our verse. Paul is telling us to love each other unselfishly and to put the other person’s interests above our own interests. Paul is saying that love must be over everything in our churches. Love must be like the sweet, sweet icing that is drizzled all over the cake. It makes it good! Love should be like the syrup that is poured all over the flapjacks. It makes those pancakes really good! Love for one another will make our churches and families really good! And that is the way that our dear Lord intended it to be!

Colossians 3:13

Colossians 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Most of us know what forgiving means, but what about forbearing? Well, it’s like this: When I was a little boy, we used to get milk in from a local farmer in Maryland. But the farmer actually worked for the railroad and had hired men to work the farm for him. His wife was the one who sold the milk from her farmhouse. But this farmer’s wife was a talker. My mother hated to go to her farmhouse twice a week to get milk, because Mrs. Harmeyer would talk and talk and talk. I think that she talked a lot because she was alone most of the time. Her husband worked all day, and when he got home, he did his farm work until late in the evening. She had so many words to say and no one to say them to. So she talked and talked and talked to her milk customers. My mother hated to deal with her so much that she made me go inside and get the milk. But that didn’t slow down Mrs. Harmeyer even just a little bit. I was only a ten year old boy, but this lady would talk and talk and talk to me. So here it is: Mrs. Harmeyer was overbearing, but I was forbearing in listening to her talking. I put up with her talking in a kind way. And that is what we must do for troublesome Christians that we might know. We must listen to them and be kind to them even though they drive us crazy. And we should forbear them because that is exactly what Jesus Christ does for us! Jesus forbears us. Jesus puts up with our constant whining and crying. He listens patiently as we complain about other Christians, not realizing that we are guilty of the same offenses! Jesus puts up with us, and we should put up with others too! Jesus forbears us; we should forbear others.