“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
- Colossians 3:16
I’ve been thinking about words lately.
Now, I really don’t use any. Mostly I communicate with a bark, a whine, a look, or the occasional strategically placed sigh when my human is ignoring my very important request for a snack.
But my human uses a lot of words.
Some of them are good.
Some of them…well, let’s just say I’ve heard a few that probably wouldn’t make it into the Bible.
This morning, he was sitting on the porch with his Bible in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He was reading Colossians 3:16, and I heard him say, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
That got my attention.
I started thinking about what happens when something “dwells” in you.
Whatever lives in you eventually comes out of you.
Put a happy dog in a room, and sooner or later you’ll see a wagging tail.
Put a rabbit in my yard, and sooner or later you’ll see me chasing it.
And put Christ’s Word deep inside a believer, and sooner or later you ought to hear it in their words.
That’s the part that hit me.
Words matter.
They can build somebody up or tear them down.
They can bring peace or stir up trouble.
They can point somebody toward Jesus or make them wonder if we’ve ever actually met Him.
It’s easy to say we believe the Bible. It’s another thing altogether to let the Bible change how we talk.
Because our words reveal a whole lot about what’s living inside us.
When we’re angry, what comes out?
When somebody hurts us, what comes out?
When somebody disagrees with us, what comes out?
When we’re tired, frustrated, inconvenienced, or simply don’t get our way… what comes out?
Jesus told us that what comes out of our mouths comes from what’s in our hearts.
So maybe the answer isn’t simply trying harder to watch our words.
Maybe the answer is putting more of Jesus’ words in our hearts.
The more His Word dwells in us, the more His truth should shape our conversations.
His Word teaches us to speak grace instead of gossip.
Truth instead of exaggeration.
Encouragement instead of criticism.
Forgiveness instead of bitterness.
Love instead of anger.
And sometimes silence instead of saying what we really want to say.
I’m still learning.
Then again, I’m a dog. I’ve been known to bark at my own reflection.
But my human is learning too.
So today, before we speak, maybe we ought to ask a simple question:
“Do these words sound like the Word that lives in me?”
Because being a follower of Jesus isn’t just about what we read on the page.
It’s about what gets written into our hearts—and eventually comes out of our mouths.
So let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
And when it does, maybe our words will start sounding a whole lot more like Jesus.
Keep the Faith… Carpe Diem
