Finding contentment for myself. Being happy. Discovering my divinity. These are characteristic of self-worship — making the chief end of one’s life the fulfillment of one’s own interests. The spirituality of this post truth world can be best described as self-worship. Organized religion is nixed, but replaced with elements of spirituality like yoga, meditation, healing, Wiccan spells, and astrology. The ultimate goal is one’s own self-satisfaction, happiness, or welfare. All this is symptomatic of self-worship. It is the doing whatever is right in one’s own eyes. But this is really chasing after the wind — vanity of vanities.
Self-worship follows in the likeness of the gods of pagan mythology. The new gods displace the old gods until they are replaced by the next generation of gods. Egyptian mythology tells of the Osiris and Isis who have a son named Horus. Osiris is murdered by his brother Seth. Osiris is locked in a box, drowned in the Nile, and then cut to pieces. Seth becomes the ruling god, while Isis and Horus escape into exile. Isis reassembles the corpse of Osiris, but she is unable to revive him. Osiris becomes the ruler of the netherworld. But Horus grows up and deposes Seth, avenging his father’s murder. The Greeks tell us that Uranus fathered Chronos but Chronos castrates and deposes Uranus. Likewise, Chronos fathers Zeus but Zeus deposes Chronos banishing the old Titan to a faraway island. The old gods are replaced by new gods. These myths illustrate the futility of self-worship.
The gods in power set the rules according to their own self-interests. They do whatever is right in their own eyes. They even go to war when self-interests come into conflict. Of course, they only get their way until the next generation of gods take over. The cycle of rising and falling gods repeats ad infinitum.
All the topsy-turviness in our world today is but ordinary people setting themselves up as gods in pursuit of their own self-interest. Self-satisfaction becomes the prime objective. Anything that gets in the way of self-satisfaction is crushed, dismantled, and erased. Such an existence is unsustainable. The reign of one self-worshiping human is toppled by the rise to power of the next self-worshipping human. Life was never really meant to be this way. This is the folly of human rebellion against God. But Christianity tells a different and more fascinating story, what C.S. Lewis calls the “true myth.”[1] It is the news that sounds too good to be true which really turns out to be true.
The good news is that the one true God of the universe has come to dwell with us in the person of Jesus Christ, and union with Christ becomes the way that life is set to right. Believers in Christ put to death the vices of their former life and put on the virtues befitting of God’s chosen, holy and beloved. Moreover, the new life in Christ brings believers together into fellowship with God and one another. Christ becomes the epicenter of authentic community and worship. This is the essence of what Paul is getting at in Colossians 3:15-17.
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body” (Col. 3:15).[2]
The peace of Christ ruling in our hearts is not really that sort of Stoic-Zen like inner calmness in the midst of external calamities. Rather, it is the resolving of differences within the church fellowship. N.T. Wright explains, “whatever disagreements or mutual suspicions occur in the church, they are to be dealt with at the deepest level, by all parties allowing the fact of their unity in Christ to settle the issue in their hearts.”[3]
Life in this sinful and fallen world is filled with strife and unceasing conflicts. Fallen people fight over just about anything: race, gender, possessions, authority, recognition, politics, doctrines and so forth. Yet, God calls people out of darkness and into the kingdom of light.
Christ death and resurrection reconciles God and humankind and tears down the walls of hatred and strife that separate one from another — “for he himself is our peace” (Eph. 2:14). Those forgiven of an unpayable debt to the Lord can likewise extend forgiveness to a debtor owing a far lesser amount (Matt. 18:21-35). Yes, blessed are the peacemakers for they are the sons and daughters of God (Matt. 5:9). If the world needs anything, it is for God’s people to be agents of peace, for they are united with the Prince of Peace.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16a).
The word of Christ refers to what the Lord taught. Specifically, it is the good news that God has come to dwell with us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the long-awaited Messiah (or Christ) foreseen by the Old Testament prophets. Tied closely into the teaching of Christ is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings to remembrance the teaching the Christ and Christ informs the Spirit on what the community of believers need to know in His absence (Jn. 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-14).
The word of Christ is to penetrate deeply into the Christian soul. William Hendriksen writes,
The objective, special revelation that proceeds from (and concerns) Christ—“the Christ-word”—should govern every thought, word, and deed, yes even the hidden drives and motivations of every member, and thus should bear sway among them all, and this richly, “bearing much fruit” (John 15:5). This will happen if believers heed the word (Matt. 13:9), handle it rightly (2 Tim. 2:15), hide it in their hearts (Ps. 119:11), and hold it forth to others as being in truth “the word of life” (Phil. 2:16).[4]
Becoming grounded in the Word of God is never a solo project. Believers gather together “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16b). It is within community that Christians receive instructions from the Word, and together they sing of the goodness and greatness of the one true Triune God of the universe. The rhythms, rhymes, and melodies of their songs serve as a mighty medium through which great truths are instilled into the heart. As Wright puts it: “The church is to be stocked with good teaching as a palace is filled with treasures.”[5]
“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” (Col. 3:17).
The “name” really refers to Jesus Christ as He has expressly revealed Himself to us. Doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus has to do with living “in vital relation to him” or “in harmony with his revealed will, in subjection to his authority, in dependence on his power.”[6]
Only in the name of Jesus are we are saved from sin (Acts 4:11-12). When we pray, we ask in Jesus’ name, and we receive from the Lord (Jn. 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24).[7] Jesus has been given the name above all names and our response is to bow our knee and declare Him to be Lord (Phil. 2:5-11). Life is to be lived in such a way that only thing people remember of us is only Jesus, as that song from Casting Crowns goes.
Being reflections of divine glory is what God intended for us from the very beginning. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. As bearers of the imago Dei, they were to be reflections of divine glory in the creation. But the fall broke the union between God and humanity, which also disrupted human relationships and the very foundations of the whole creation. Jesus came to redeem sinners and set all things to right. Jesus invites us all to unite with Him (i.e., repent) and it is through our union with Him that we are restored as a community of divine image bearers reflecting the brightness of God’s glory throughout the creation. Moreover, when Jesus appears a second time, the problem of sin will be fully and finally resolved, God’s dwelling place will be with humankind, and all things will be set to right (Rev. 21). The reflection of God’s glory from the restored imago Dei bearers will be at its brightest. So, the angels sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).
When experiencing the peace of Christ, we are to “be thankful” (3:15). When we come together to share in the word of Christ, the teaching, admonishing and singing is experienced “with thankfulness” (3:16). When we represent Christ in word and deed, we always go forth “giving thanks to God the Father through him” (3:17). Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights and thus gratitude flows from the Christian heart. We give thanks to the Lord for His mercies endure forever. There is never a shortage of gratitude life with Christ: “Thanksgiving is a motive for Christian life and conduct, a general attitude toward both the blessings and trials of life, a central component of prayer, and the context for the proper use of material things.”[8]
What is really going to matter at the end of life? It is sharing Christ through our words and deeds. Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. Let the word of Christ be shared in the places we gather. Teach about Him. Make His ways our ways. Sing forever about all the good things He has done for us. Let all things done in the name of the Lord.
— WGN
[1] C.S. Lewis, “Letter to Arthur Greeves, October 18, 1931,” in The Essential C.S. Lewis (New York: Scribner, 2017), 56
[2] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016),unless noted.
[3] N.T. Wright, Colossians and Philemon: Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 12, ed. Leon Morris(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986), 143
[4] William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of Colossians and Philemon, vol. 6, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 160.
[5] Wright, 144
[6] William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of Colossians and Philemon, vol. 6, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 164.
[7] This is not a formula for getting anything we wish to get, regardless of the goodness of the intention. But it is never that God fails in answering prayers uttered “in Jesus name.” Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage explains, “Unanswered prayer is, as many realize, not truly unanswered, but in fact answer unheard or undesired. God has spoken, ‘Wait,’ or ‘Not yet,’ or ‘No, but we have often talked over God, refusing to listen. As we grow more spiritually mature, we will learn to listen in prayer, and as we do, we will, like the Psalmist in Psalm 22:24, learn to recognize the song lie of redemption, God singing His love over us” (Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage, “How Unanswered Prayer Grows Faith, Hope, and Love,” Christian Research Journal, 44, 3 [2021]: 18). Tension between petitioning the Lord and anticipating the fulfillment of the request put us in the place where spiritual growth is advanced.
[8] Daniel Doriani, “Thankfulness, Thanksgiving,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, electronic ed., Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 769.
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