Richly (4146) (plousios from adjective plousios [4146 see uses below] = rich, in turn from the noun ploutos = wealth, abundance, riches) is an adverb which pertains to that which exists in a large amount with the implication of its being valuable in large amount, in abundance and so can be translated rich or richly. The basic sense is "fullness of goods." A literal sense would be a "rich man." The figurative sense (as in this passage) describes rich in something (non-material). Plousios (actually the related word ploutos) gives us our English word plutocrat which describes a person whose power derives from their wealth. Plousios describes incredible abundance, extreme or vast material wealth, enormous affluence, great prosperity, immense riches, magnificent opulence, extravagant lavishness. NIDNTT - The word-group associated with ploutos is related to polus, much, and means initially abundance of earthly possessions of every kind. Later its meaning divided in two directions. In the one it meant riches in a technical and material sense. In the other it was more general, and occurs with a qualifying word, generally in the gen., e.g. riches of wisdom, honour, mercy, etc. All the words in this group can bear this double meaning: plouteo, be or become rich; ploutizo, make rich; ploutos, possession of many goods, super-abundance of something, riches; and plousios, as an adjective, wealthy, rich and as a noun a rich man. The adjective plousios (4146) is much more common than the adverb (28x in 28v) = 19.23-Matt.19.24" class="scriptRef">Matt 19:23, 24; Mt 27:57; 25" class="scriptRef">Mark 10:25; 12:41; Luke 6:24; 12:16; 14:12; 16:1, 19, 21, 22; 18:23, 25; 19:2; 21:1; 2Cor 8:9 (describes the wealth of Christ!); Eph 2:4 (God "rich in mercy"); 1Ti 6:17; Jas 1:10,11; 2:5, 6; 5:1; Rev 2:9; 3:17 (= Note the deception produced by riches in the church at Laodicea and the striking contrast with spiritual riches in the church in Rev 2:9!); Rev 6:15; 13:16 To dwell in us “richly” has the twofold meaning of quantity and degree; it means abundantly, applying it and using it in all its teaching, but also using it constantly, at all times and in all circumstances. Plousios - 4x in NAS - abundantly(1), richly(3). Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 1 Timothy 6:17 Instruct (present imperative - paraggello = to transmit a order. Used by doctor to give instructions or prescription. It was used as a military command calling for unhesitating and unqualified obedience) those who are rich (plousios 4146) in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope (Life in Christ is an endless hope, but without Him it is a hopeless end) on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy (“A lavish emphasis to the generosity of God” - Parry). Titus 3:6-note Whom (Titus 3:5 - refers to the Holy Spirit, cp Ro 5:5) He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 2 Peter 1:11-note for in this way (What way? see context - 2Pe 1:10 and preceding verses) the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. John MacArthur - Plousios (richly) could also be translated “abundantly or extravagantly rich.” The truths of Scripture should permeate every aspect of the believer’s life and govern every thought, word, and deed. The Word dwells in us when we hear it (Mt 13:9), handle it (2Ti 2:15-note), hide it (Ps 119:11-note), and hold it fast (Php 2:16-note). To do those things, the Christian must read, study, and live the Word. (Colossians) John Wesley comments that "richly" means "In the largest measure, and with the greatest efficacy; so as to fill and govern the whole soul." Wuest - Not only must the saint be yielded to the Word, but he must have a good knowledge of it. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God that we know as He talks to us and guides our lives. He can efficiently talk to us to the extent to which know the Word. That is the language He uses. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans) (Ed: I would add that this spiritual dynamic [Word in us, indwelling Spirit speaking to us through that indwelling Word] helps us understand the Will of God, which is predominantly found in the Word of God.) Rick Renner - "Let the Word of God dwell in you richly! Throw open the doors, roll out the red carpet, and give it a grand reception! If you'll let the Word dwell in you in this way, it will produce an amazing amount of spiritual wealth in your life...." You may ask, "How can the Word make us spiritually rich?" Paul continues to tell us what the Word can produce in us if we allow it to do so. He says, "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" (Colossians 3:16). These words describe people so full of the Word of God that their entire being is affected. Their hearts are full of joy; their minds are flooded with wisdom and understanding; and their mouths are singing songs to the Lord. This describes people who have struck it rich spiritually! It is a fact that when the Word of God really comes to feel at home in you, dwelling lavishly inside your heart, it enriches you with the wisdom, the gifts, and the power you need for today. You become so filled with the riches of God that you automatically find yourself admonishing and encouraging other people in their faith. When the Word dwells in you richly, there's always a song of rejoicing in your heart! When you are filled with the Word to this extent, those inward spiritual riches will easily flow out of you to bring life to everyone around you. By using the word "richly" in this verse, Paul is painting a picture of what the Word of God will produce for you if you allow it to take up residency in you and become a vital part of your life. So if you're tired of striving with no results—if you're tired of feeling spiritually weak and worn out with nothing to offer—stop right where you are today. Don't take another step without making the decision to let God's Word play a more important role in your life. As you do, the Word of God will enrich you with spiritual wisdom and insight. It will put victory in your heart and a song in your mouth! It will turn you into a spiritual billionaire! It will enrich your life so much that you'll always have something spiritually to donate, to bequeath or to freely share with someone else!... 1. How can you roll out the red carpet and give God's Word a grand reception today? 2. Do you want the wisdom, gifts, and power of God to be more active in your life so you can minister more effectively to those around you? 3. What can you do differently in your private times with the Lord to "let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly"? (Sparkling Gems From The Greek- 365 Greek Word Studies For Every Day Of The Year To Sharpen Your Understanding Of God's Word) An Illustration of Letting the Word Dwell Richly - A beautiful and touching story is told of a young French girl who had been born blind. After she learned to read by touch, a friend gave her a Braille copy of Mark’s gospel. She read it so much that her fingers became calloused and insensitive. In an effort to regain her feeling, she cut the skin from the ends of her fingers. Tragically, however, her callouses were replaced by permanent and even more insensitive scars. She sobbingly gave the book a goodbye kiss, saying, “Farewell, farewell, sweet word of my heavenly Father.” In doing so, she discovered that her lips were even more sensitive than her fingers had been, and she spent the rest of her life reading her great treasure with her lips. Would that every Christian had such an appetite for the Word of God! The exhortation is to the effect that the Christian is to so yield himself to the Word that there is a certain at hominess of the Word in his being. The Word should be able to feel al home in his heart. The saint should give it unrestricted liberty in his life. A more tragic illustration of letting the word (sad because it was not God's Word) dwell richly is found in the life of Alexander the Great who had a casket of gold studded with gems to carry Homer's works! Another illustration of letting the word dwell richly - H. A. Ironside told of visiting a godly Irishman, Andrew Frazer, who had come to southern California to recover from a serious illness. Though quite weak, he opened his worn Bible and began expounding the deep truths of God in a way that Ironside had never heard before. Ironside was so moved by Frazer’s words that he asked him, “Where did you get these things? Could you tell me where I could find a book that would open them up to me? Did you learn them in some seminary or college?” The sickly man gave an answer that Ironside said he would never forget. “My dear young man, I learned these things on my knees on the mud floor of a little sod cottage in the north of Ireland. There with my open Bible before me I used to kneel for hours at a time and ask the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to my soul and to open the Word to my heart. He taught me more on my knees on that mud floor than I ever could have learned in all the seminaries or colleges in the world.” A pilot was flying his small plane one day, when he heard a noise which he recognized as the gnawing of a rat. Wondering what its sharp teeth were cutting through, he suddenly realized with horror that it might be an electric wire. Then he remembered that rodents can’t survive at high altitudes. Immediately he began climbing until finally he had to put on his oxygen mask. Soon the gnawing sound ceased, and when he landed he found the rat—dead. Do you want to destroy the power of evil in your life? Then read the Bible regularly, meditate upon its truths, and actively do God’s will. Sinful appetites can’t survive in such spiritual heights. Listen to the Heavenly Father as He calls, “Children, come up higher!” Spurgeon - If other forms of knowledge are useful, they are like the planets; but the knowledge of God as revealed in Christ Jesus is as the sun. Let this always be the center of your system of knowledge, and let all the rest that you know move in subordination and subjection to that first and best form of knowledge....if you find a professing Christian indifferent to his Bible, you may be sure that the very dust upon its cover will rise up in judgment against him...My dear friends, I should like you so to read the Bible that everybody in the Bible should seem to be a friend of yours. I should like you to feel as if you had talked’ with Abraham, and conversed with David. I can truly say that there is hardly anybody in the world that I know so well as I know David. But do find your choicest friends in the Scripture...Take the whole company of Bible saints home to your heart, let them live inside your soul. . Let old Noah come in with his ark, if he likes; and let Daniel come in with his lions’ den, if he pleases; and all the rest of the godly men and women of the olden time, take them all into your very nature, and be on familiar terms with them; but, most of all, be specially intimate with him of whom they all speak, namely, Jesus Christ your blessed Lord and Master. Dr. Wilbur Chapman once said that... My rule for Christian living is this: anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it. Not "among you" but "within you" - The Word is to be personalized and personally possessed. Gipsy Smith - What makes the difference is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but how many times and how thoroughly the Bible has been through you. R S Candlish - Let the Word of Christ so dwell in you. Let it be Christ Himself, dwelling in you; Christ Himself, the living Word. Let His word, or Himself the word, dwell in you richly; molding, fashioning, vivifying, regulating, your whole inner man; all its powers, faculties, affections; its susceptibilities and sensibilities; its movements of will. Let His word, let Himself in His word, give His own tone and temper to all your emotions of joy and sorrow; of fear, or anxiety or love, or hope. Let all within you be thus imbued, not stiffly and artificially, but spontaneously and gladly, with the word of Christ dwelling in you richly by the Spirit; and so becoming Christ Himself dwelling in you as the word of life. Then, let there go forth from you, not stiffly and artificially, but spontaneously and gladly and lovingly, streams of overflowing benignity and benevolence; rich and gracious influences of holy zeal and love and joy; to the glory of God, celebrated in songs of praise; and the edifying of the church, in wise teaching and admonition. What do you need to clean up in your house so that He, the living Word, might dwell richly, as "Master of the house"? If ''the WORD of Christ richly dwells within'' what comes out of your mouth is what fills you! The Word will come out (when you walk around your home, when you are at work or school and most importantly when you pray!) The Spirit of Christ will be our Teacher and we will be but vessels as He teaches through us by the way we respond to the trials and pressures of life. Your LIFE speaks LOUDER than your WORDS. To ABIDE IN HIS WORD IS TO SUBMIT to the Word and let Him direct and instruct our actions based upon His Word of Truth. This God-ward LIFESTYLE models for the disciple, teaches the teachable and admonishes the faint-hearted and the hypocrites who do not have a genuine faith! This teaching is "In opposition to the doctrine of an intellectual exclusiveness taught by the false teachers" (Col 2:8-10-note) As we have already emphasized, to let the word of Christ richly dwell within yields spiritual dividends virtually identical to being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18-note). MacArthur - The Word in the heart and mind is the handle by which the Spirit turns the will. It is clear that these two concepts are identical because the passages that follow each are so similar. (Ibid) Illustration of the Power of the Indwelling Word - Michael Billester once gave a Bible to a humble villager in eastern Poland. Returning a few years later, he learned that 200 people had become believers through using it. When the group gathered to hear him preach, he suggested that before he spoke he would like each person to quote some verses of Scripture. One man rose and said, "Perhaps, Brother, we've misunderstood you. Did you mean verses or chapters?" Billester was astonished. "Are you saying there are people here who could recite complete chapters of the Bible?" That was precisely the case. In fact, 13 of them knew half of Genesis and the books of Matthew and Luke. Another had committed all the psalms to memory. Combined, the 200 knew virtually the entire Bible. WITH ALL WISDOM TEACHING AND ADMONISHING ONE ANOTHER: en pasêi sophiâi didaskontes (PAPMPN) kai nouthetountes (PAPMPN) heautous: (Col 1:9; 1Kings 3:9, 10, 11, 12,28; Pr 2:6,7; 14:8; 18:1; Isa 10:2; Ep 1:17; 5:17; Jas 1:5; 3:17) (Col 1:28; Ro 15:14; 1Th 4:18; 5:11,12; 2Th 3:15; He 12:12, 13, 14, 15) With all - Literally "in all". Eadie - Unless the word of Christ dwelt richly within them, they could not fulfil this duty; for they could not teach and admonish unless they knew what lessons to impart, and in what spirit to communicate them; but the lessons and the spirit alike were to be found in the Gospel. Mutual exhortation must depend for its fitness and utility on mutual knowledge of the Christian doctrine. Sparing (minimal) acquaintance with Divine revelation would lead to scanty counsel and ineffective tuition. (Ref) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/colossians_315-16.htm#p