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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Colossians 3:16 - 3:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The word of Christ
The only occurrence of the phrase. The word spoken by Christ.
Richly
See on Rom 2:4, and compare Col 1:27.
In all wisdom
Some connect with the preceding words, others with the following - in all wisdom, teaching, etc. The latter seems preferable, especially in view of Col 1:28, where the phrase occurs teaching and admonishing in all wisdom; because the adverb richly forms an emphatic qualification of dwell in, and so appropriately terminates the clause; and because the whole passage is thus more symmetrical. “Dwell in has its single adverb richly, and is supported and expanded by two coordinate participial clauses, each of which has its spiritual manner or element of action (in all wisdom, in grace) more exactly defined” (Ellicott).
Admonishing
See on Col 1:28. The participles teaching and admonishing are used as imperatives, as Rom 12:9-13, Rom 12:16-19; Eph 4:2, Eph 4:3; Heb 13:5; 1Pe 3:1, 1Pe 3:7, 1Pe 3:9, 1Pe 3:16.
One another (ἑαυτούς)
Yourselves. See on Col 3:13.
Psalms
See the parallel passage, Eph 5:19. A psalm was originally a song accompanied by a stringed instrument. See on 1Co 14:15. The idea of accompaniment passed away in usage, and the psalm, in New-Testament phraseology, is an Old-Testament psalm, or a composition having that character. A hymn is a song of praise, and a song (ᾠδή ode) is the general term for a song of any kind. Hymns would probably be distinctively Christian. It is supposed by some that Paul embodies fragments of hymns in his epistles, as 1Co 13:1-13; Eph 5:14; 1Ti 3:16; 2Ti 2:11-14. Jam 1:17, and Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6; Rev 15:3, are also supposed to be of this character. In both instances of his use of ᾠδή song, Paul adds the term spiritual. The term may, as Trench suggests, denote sacred poems which are neither psalms nor hymns, as Herbert's “Temple,” or Keble's “Christian Year.” This is the more likely, as the use of these different compositions is not restricted to singing nor to public worship. They are to be used in mutual christian teaching and admonition.
With grace (ἐν τῇ χάριτι)
Lit., the grace. The article limits the meaning to the grace of God. With grace begins the second participial clause.