Dress for the spiritual life—this is how Paul sums up his final general instructions before moving to specific applications for everyday relationships. Two summary mandates are laid out: allow God’s Word to be central in your life and do everything in Jesus’ name. The first reflects what Peter had said years earlier, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68). His words are life, they are our daily sustenance. In the upper room, the Lord Jesus prayed, “The words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me” (John 17:8). That Word has been received by us and we need to continue receiving it so that it permeates every portion of our body, so that He actually dwells in us, like one would comfortably dwell in one’s own home, with no hidden closets, no restrained resources, no out-of-bounds areas.

This dwelling of the Word of Christ can’t help but find its outward expression in permeating our relationships with others—not so much an attitude of lecturing people with the Word, but teaching them through the melody of our lives. Certainly Paul was using both the imagery as well as the actuality of singing in his instruction here. The melodious Christian is a singing Christian. And that is why when Christians gather they sing songs.

The second summary statement is that all should be done “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” This means we are conscious of our relationship as His ambassadors. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us…” (2 Cor 5:20). We represent Him, we act on His behalf, not our own. Everything, not just on Sunday mornings or at our daily devotional times. We represent Christ on our business trips, in the theater, when exercising, in the privacy of our home and bedrooms, everywhere, all the time. We represent Him when no one but the unseen angelic world is watching. Therefore, we ought to do everything with the view of how it honors the Lord.

Finally, did you notice the repetition of giving thanks to God in these two verses? A Christian in whom the Word of God dwells richly and who honors the Lord Jesus Christ, is a thankful Christian, and has much to sing about.