And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Some people like to make "new year's resolutions." On this first day of 2019, let's take this verse to be our resolution. Let it guide us in all we say and do this year.
God made us to worship Him. Worship is "worth-ship," "giving worth to." What is worth your doing? What is worth your saying? If it has any value at all, then do it for God, in Jesus' Name. That is worship.
How do we do this?
When we go to church to worship, the service usually contains music. This is appropriate, because the verse just previous to this one says to;
Let the message of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish each other with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. (v. 16.)So we are to teach and admonish each other with music, and also sing in our hearts to God. Music is very powerful for putting the lyrics into our brains, and our enemy knows this. So we must take care with the kinds of music we listen to, because the message of the song will embed itself into our attitudes.
I like to tune my radio to Christian music to play in the background whenever I'm at home or in the car. And I usually find a song playing in my mind when I wake up in the morning, probably the last song I heard the night before.
The verses before these tell us;
As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on Love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (vs. 12-14.)This list of virtues is how God expects us to live our lives each day together. We need to be like Jesus, as He demonstrated all these virtues in His life, between His birth and death.
God's Spirit is working in each one of us to mold us and make us like Him, so we need to make the effort to cooperate with Him and let Him change us, instead of wanting the other person to change.
That's when we need to forgive anyone who has grieved us, not harboring the grievance, but letting it go. When Jesus took your death upon Himself to pay for your sinfulness, He forgave you fully, unconditionally, pure as snow. So we also ought to forgive one another. Release yourself from the bondage of holding a grudge.
And Love is the overcoat over all the other virtues we are to clothe ourselves with, that ties them all together into a perfect unit, like Jesus' life. Jesus said that, On these two commandments (loving God and loving one another) hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:40).
When we love God we will not give worth-ship to any other. And when we love one another, we will have compassion, we will be kind, we will humbly put them before ourselves, we will do it all gently and patiently.
And then we will be able to offer to God as our worship everything we do, everything we say, whether at church or at home, at work or at play. Everywhere you go, take your Friend with you. Then this year can be the best year ever!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
