3:15
When we seek to follow Christ, especially if we are in leadership positions, we are often tested. We face situations that we feel unable to cope with. This happens because God’s plans for us are not based upon what we can deal with in our own strength, but what we can handle with Christ’s strength. So we need to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. This peace involves Christ saying to us that together with Him we can do all things. We need to let this Christ dependency be the governing thought in our minds. Our natural reaction is that we look at things in terms of whether or not we can handle them in our own strength, for which the answer is usually no. We were called to peace. Again, the natural human reaction is to consider fear and anxiety to be our normal lot. Without Christ this was indeed the case, but in Christ everything changes. We are also to be thankful.
3:16
The gospel, the message of Christ, is not just something we listen to, give assent to, and then move on. Rather, we are to let it dwell richly among us. And this is not just an individual thing, but a corporate thing. We are to teach and admonish one another. So we instruct one another with the message of Christ, but we also admonish one another. The word of God requires change in our lives and our thinking (Rom 12:1,2). There will be ways we act and attitudes that we have that are contrary to the gospel. So we need to change, and when we see things in each other where change is needed we say so. Now this is to be done with all wisdom. We do not spend all day finding fault with each other! Such a life would be intolerable. Here Paul says we do this through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and with an attitude of gratitude in our hearts.
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