Deeper Reflection
IN 2 THESSALONIANS 3, PAUL EMPHASISES THE CENTRALITY of the Word of God in eschatological discipleship (v.1, 2 Thess 3:4, 6, 10, 12, 16). The Word of God must have its outward growth – to “spread rapidly” throughout the world (v.1), and its inward growth in the life of the church. Church growth constitutes both: “Each is incomplete and unbalanced without the other. Both also demand time – world evangelisation on the one hand and church formation on the other.”³¹The inward growth of the Word is to happen in individual believers and as a community. It begins with “the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col 3:16a). The “word of Christ” is “the Gospel about and centred on Christ”³² which is not just the New Testament, but also the Old Testament, which to Jesus is “everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Lk 24:44). The Word is to “dwell” in us – to “take up permanent residence” in our lives as the centre and “constant reference”³³. The Word of Christ is to “dwell” in us “richly”. It means the Word in us is not “superficial or passing…but a deep and penetrating contemplation” by which the Word’s “transforming power” works within us.³⁴ (cf. Jas 1:25).Out of the Word of Christ – “in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 1:3) – dwelling in us richly will be a worshipping community “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom” (Col 3:16b). Mark the words “one another”. Do we see this Word-richness in our small group meetings?

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³¹ John R. W. Stott, 184 ³² David W. Pao, Colossians & Philemon, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Zondervan, 2012), 247 ³³ Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentaries (Apollos, 2008),286 ³⁴ Douglas J. Moo, 286