And let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body, and be thankful.
Paul has just told the Colossians to put on compassion, forgiveness and love. Now he names what should rule the heart underneath it all: the peace of Christ, given to a people called as one body.
Older English versions read "the peace of God" here. Commentators point instead to the best manuscripts, and add that "the peace of Christ" fits the whole letter.
Colossians 3:15 — Here it is the peace, not of God as such, but of Christ. All critics of note allow this, on the authority of the best manuscripts and versions. The general strain of the letter, and of this verse, is in its favour.
The difference matters. Writers separate three things Scripture calls peace: peace with God, the peace of Christ, and the peace of God.
The first concerns the conscience, the second the heart, and the third is to guard the heart. The first, peace with God, the believer has as a result of being justified by faith... The second, the peace of Christ, is Christ's gift to His people (John 14:27). It is what He enjoyed on earth, in the middle of all He passed through in His testimony for God. And it is to rule in our hearts.
So this peace is more than a settled conscience. It is the calm Jesus Himself lived in as a man, and it runs deeper than any storm on the surface.
How easily we can meet every difficulty if we have the peace of Christ in our hearts! Go down to your shores when the storm is blowing and the winds are raging. See the waves crashing and breaking on the surface. But go far down below that troubled surface, and everything is perfectly calm. It is the same with the Christian while he passes through the storms here.
One writer names what produced that calm in Him:
It was that rest of heart and mind which comes from perfect confidence in the Father's love and perfect submission to the Father's will.
Some translations render the word as "preside". In practice, this peace settles disputed matters inside us.
Notice: the word of Christ dwells where the peace of Christ rules. This last one decides all questions. It is the umpire or court under which the heart rests.
Notice too the wording of the command. We are not asked to produce this peace, only to stop blocking it.
It is the peace of Him who is now raised from the dead, in calm, tranquil triumph over all things. We are not told to make peace rule, but let it rule, for the only hindrance to this is an unsubmissive will.
The middle of the verse stops this from being a private calm. God's call came to us as one body, and that shapes how we treat each other.
The peace is not only to preside in our hearts. We are to enjoy it together in the Christian company, for to this we have been "called in one body". The oneness of the body needs peace between the members if it is to grow with the increase of God.
It also rules out one common reflex: pulling away when other believers trouble us.
So it is peace, but not an isolated spirit — not as having finished with one another, but on the contrary clinging to everyone, despite everything. Suppose something painful troubled me about someone in fellowship. Should I let it trouble me so much that I stay away from the Lord's table? That would be adding wrong to wrong. I am never allowed to give in to trouble about such matters. I have the right to let the peace of Christ rule in my heart.
The verse ends with three words that are easy to skip. Yet thankfulness grows from the same broken will that lets this peace rule.
"Be thankful," for I receive everything from God. I cannot be thankful for everything if my will is not broken. But the moment I look to God as the One who counts the hairs of my head, I glory in tribulation. I count every trial and exercise as all joy.
- Whose — Christ's own peace, the calm He lived in as a man. It is not the same as peace with God, which settles the conscience.
- Given — it is His gift, not our achievement. The command is let. The one thing that blocks it is a will still insisting on its own way.
- Ruling — this peace acts as umpire in the heart, deciding disputed questions. Where it rules, the word of Christ makes its home.
- Shared — God called us to this peace in one body, so we enjoy it together. Trouble with another believer is no reason to stay away.
- Thankful — a will surrendered to God receives everything from His hand, so even trials become reasons to give thanks.
Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And everything, whatever ye may do in word or in deed, [do] all things in [the] name of [the] Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by him.
This verse closes a long run of instructions about daily Christian life. It gathers them into one rule: every word and every action carries the name of the Lord Jesus, and ends in thanks.
To do something "in the name" of another is to act on that person's behalf. One writer draws out what this means for a believer standing before the world:
Here is what it means to act in the name of Christ, or, as in this scripture, in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is to act on His behalf, and under His authority. The Christian stands to Christ as an ambassador stands to the ruler who sent him. His Lord's will is to govern everything he does.
That authority is not something we assume for ourselves.
I can only use His name if He authorises me.
The exact wording matters. Paul does not simply write "Christ" here, and one commentator notes both what the name gives and what it demands:
Doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus is more than the thought that we belong to Him. It carries the thought of perfect grace. Yet the title is "the Lord Jesus," not "Christ" alone, and that brings in our relation to His authority. Grace never weakens that authority, and the result is that we give thanks to God and the Father through Him.
The verse also gives a test for the questions people actually ask:
Young believers, when their hearts are drifting from God, often ask questions like these. What harm is there in going to such a place? Can I not go to a concert? To a flower show? I answer, Yes; if you can do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. This test applies to every department of life. Christ is now to be everything in my life. Lip and life are the only two channels by which we can express anything, and Christ is to come out in my words and my ways.
"Whatever you do" leaves no part of the week outside. One writer refuses the familiar split between religious work and ordinary work:
If a thing cannot be done as service to Christ, it should not be done at all. That makes the matter much simpler. It is our sweet privilege to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to the glory of God. We sometimes hear people speak of "a secular calling," as contrasted with what is "sacred." We doubt that this distinction is right. Paul made tents and planted churches, but in both he served the Lord Christ.
The verse meets us in ordinary moments, and it uncovers a divided life:
Verse 17 is a very simple direction, but how it sweeps things away. If you are going to buy a house — are you doing that in the name of the Lord Jesus? It is the motive that governs us. My life is not made up of heroisms, but of a hundred different little things; do them all in the name of Christ: it is everyday life. Suppose I am living three-quarters of my day without Christ, I then have to make an effort to get back. Christ at the bottom of my heart, and blameless conduct at the top — no one can reproach me, but in between the two there is just a man. When I look back over today, has it been for Christ?
The verse ends where the doing leads — thanksgiving. It is not reserved for easy days:
The verse closes with "giving thanks to God the Father through Him." We are to give thanks in every circumstance. The Lord, when rejected by Israel, could say, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth". Paul could sing in the inner prison, with his feet locked in the stocks. These instructions show how tightly two things are tied together: the character of Christ in believers, and the way they live day by day.
That thanks goes up through a name the Father Himself values:
We learn to appreciate it as being dear to the Father. We ask of the Father in that name because it is the centre around which all the Father's glory circles. The day is coming when every knee will have to bow to that name. Before that day dawns, if we understand the Father's thoughts about that name, it will be our joy and privilege to let our words and actions show, in some small measure, that the Father has taught us to value it.
- The name given. Kelly points to the exact title: not "Christ" alone, but "the Lord Jesus." It carries perfect grace, and it never loosens His authority over us.
- The name authorised. No one takes this name at will. Darby says I can only use it if He authorises me, and I then stand like an ambassador, governed by my Lord's will.
- The name over everything. The verse reaches speech and action alike. Mackintosh leaves no "secular" corner: Paul made tents and planted churches, and both were service to Christ.
- The name tested. The question is not "what harm is there?" but "can I do this in the name of the Lord Jesus?" Darby says life is made up of a hundred small things, and this settles them one by one.
- The name returning thanks. Hamilton Smith points to Paul singing in prison: thanks in every circumstance. The same name that governs the doing carries the thanks up to God the Father.