And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. (Colossians 3:15)
Not unusual in Paul’s letters are instructions at the end, occurring in a list. These are “closing arguments”, or perhaps summary statements, the lawyers might say. These are things that he especially wants his readers to remember and act on. These are boiled down in bite-sized chunks to take with them.
As we come to these statements, it’s helpful to note that in his writings, consistently Paul focuses attention on Jesus. Jesus, in a very real sense, is his main theme around which everything else revolves. As here, he admonishes his readers to let the peace of Jesus rule in their hearts. That peace of Jesus, expressed a bit differently as ‘the peace that Jesus gives to his people’, is what he desires to be the gift from him that rules our hearts. This ruling of hearts, is his directive and guidance over us.
It’s perhaps useful to note that one of the teaching points that Paul stresses in his Colossians letter is that Jesus is the head of the Body, the church. So he talks about the head, and then about the body that the head is in charge of. He reminds the body of Christ: you are called to live in peace. He wants that Body to live in harmony, as many moving parts support each other. Thus, Christ gives the peace, which he wants to rule in our hearts, and it is that peace that we are called to accept as the rule over us.
And then he adds, always be thankful. It’s a personal attitude and also a group attitude. I think as English readers of the Bible, it’s easy for us to apply the directives to “you” to always have an individual meaning, “who me”? Yes, “you”, I’m talking to “you”! Fair enough. But the intent, with his focus on the Body of Christ, is that He wants us as a Body to be thankful. My opinion is that we are much too individualistic. We ascribe way too much individual, when we should be concerned with group.
I didn’t say that individual is not important. On the contrary, unless the individuals are all in, the group is going nowhere. So, yes, there is a word here to the individual. But it’s the group made up of individuals that is important. That group must demonstrate thankfulness to God. How often? Always, he says.
My question today is: how do we as a group demonstrate thankfulness? It’s perhaps easy for us as individuals to fall down before God and lift up a prayer of thanksgiving, or burst out into a song of thanks. We can sit down and write a thank you letter to certain people. But as a body, how do we lift up our thanks to God?
“Father, please teach me and us to always demonstrate thankfulness. I know that to do this, we need your perspective on things. I open myself to hearing your voice, and to the guidance of your Spirit! Let your peace rule in my heart as I share my thankfulness with others.”
Freddy Boswell 