Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you ... The significance of this has already been noted under Colossians 1:27, above and under Galatians 5:23. Briefly, the word of Christ dwelling in a person is equivalent in every way to the Spirit of God dwelling in him. If it be objected that the Spirit is a living Person, then let it be remembered also that the word of God is spoken of as "living and active" (Hebrews 4:12f).

Admonishing one another ... The parallel between this verse and similar teaching in Ephesians 5:19,20, was set forth as follows by Barry:

Here again we have general identity and special distinction between the two passages. There as here we have "the speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," the "singing in the hearts to the Lord," and the spirit of "thankfulness." But there the whole is described as being the consequence of "being filled with the Spirit" ... whereas here, it (all) comes from "the word of Christ" in the soul.[40]

Thus, as Barry pointed out, exactly the same thing is attributed to the agency of the Holy Spirit in the Ephesian passage which here is attributed to the indwelling "word of Christ," lending the strongest possible corroboration to the view maintained in this series to the effect that the "word of Christ," "the mind of Christ," "God," "Christ," and "Holy Spirit" are all spoken of in the New Testament as "dwelling in" members of the body of Christ, and that all three members of the Godhead are likewise "dwelt in" by Christians, thus giving Scriptural designations of one and the same phenomenon. There does not live a person, nor has there ever lived a person, who could make these Scriptural expressions to be designations of eight different conditions. On the contrary, they all designate one condition, the saved condition, of the believer baptized into Christ.

Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs ... It would appear that "spiritual" in this verse is the modifier of all that may be properly used in Christian assemblies. By their nature of being in the Old Testament, psalms are surely spiritual, and "hymns" are so by definition; but, as for any song so used, it must likewise be spiritual. Significantly not even all singing is permissible in Christian worship.

What is the bearing of this passage on the use of instrumental music in Christian worship? The answer is this: By the apostolic injunction "to sing," thus commanding a special kind of music, all other kinds are eliminated. It is contrary to the injunction here for congregations to "whistle" or to play mechanical instruments, the latter having been associated throughout history with pagan worship (Daniel 3:4-7). Historically, no mechanical instruments of music were used in Christian worship until the seventh century, despite the fact of such instruments having been known and used throughout the whole world at the time of the beginning of Christianity and for centuries prior to that time. There is no refutation of the fact that the founder of Christianity, namely, the Christ and the blessed apostles simply left them out. See more on this under Ephesians 5:20, this volume.

Arguments from the word [@psallo] to the effect that it refers to playing a harp fail in the light of the truth that the instrument of God's praise appears in the passage, not as anything mechanical, but as the human heart itself.

With grace in your hearts ... This was interpreted by Peake to mean "with thankfulness."[41]

The word of Christ ... Guthrie interpreted this to mean "the teaching Christ brought to men,"[42] and as preserved and communicated to us through the holy apostles. This is one of the most definite passages in the New Testament, which nails down the identification of Christian doctrine as including the message delivered by Christ, thus making even the Old Testament, valuable as it is, outside the perimeter of Christian authority in all things pertaining to the church of which Christ is the head. See elaboration of this in my Commentary on Matthew under "The Great Commission."

[40] Alfred Barry, op. cit., p. 115.

[41] A. S. Peake, op. cit., p. 541.

[42] Donald Guthrie, op. cit., p. 1150.