By Adam Winn, Ph. D.
Chair and Professor, Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Samford University
THE LIFESTYLE OF WORSHIP
Colossians 3:1–5, 12–17
A lifestyle of worship is a mindset focused on Christ. (1–5)
Paul’s opening statement draws on his conviction that one’s faith in Christ creates a union with Christ in which the believer both dies with Christ and rises with Christ. The emphasis here is on the latter. Believers are no longer their old selves or an old creation but are instead a new creation! Yet the believer still lives in an old creation.
Paul urges the believer to seek and think about heavenly things — things that will characterize the future new creation of God — rather than earthly things — things of the old and broken creation. Verse 3 emphasizes the believer being united with Christ’s death. Through faith in Christ, the believer has died and is hidden with (or united with) Christ in God.
The union with Christ brings the believer back to the God who created them and from whom they have long been separated. Verse 4 describes the return of Christ when the believer who is hidden in Christ will also be revealed with Him in glory.
This reality of dying and rising with Christ has an “already” but also a “not yet” dimension to it. Believers have in one real sense died with Christ, but they also need to continue dying with Christ. They have already been raised with Christ, but they also need to continue to be raised with Him. This is why verse 5 instructs the believer to put to death whatever is earthly in them — fornication, impurity, evil desires, etc. The Christian life is one of continual dying and rising as we become more conformed to the likeness of Christ.
A lifestyle of worship seeks to live and act like Christ. (12–15)
In these verses, Paul talks about what one who has risen with Christ — those who are chosen ones, holy and beloved — must embrace.
We might think of these as the things from above that the reader was previously told to pursue or clothe themselves with.
These include compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Those risen with Christ must forgive as they have been forgiven. But above all else, they should clothe themselves with love, which brings all those things noted before together into harmony, or the way God intended them to work together.
A lifestyle of worship flows with thankfulness and honor to Christ. (16–17)
Paul follows these instructions with further ones, including the imperative to let the peace of Christ reign within one’s heart, a call that hopes for unity within the one body of Christ. He also includes a call for thankfulness. He then charges the reader to let the Word of Christ dwell within them, a charge that likely implies repeating and learning the teachings of and about Christ.
Paul next begins to describe that which would likely be present in early Christian worship — the teaching and admonishing of one another and the singing of various types of songs to God.
Paul closely follows this line of instruction with direction for the readers to do everything they do in the name of the Lord Jesus, a direction that likely means that all they do should honor that name. And they should do it all with thanksgiving.
In these verses, we see that the entirety of Christian living should be an act of honoring and thanking God. Thus, in essence, all of Christian living is worship of God.
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