Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Colossians 3:16).
to yourselves--"to one another." Hence soon arose the antiphonal or responsive chanting of which PLINY writes to Trajan: "They are wont on a fixed day to meet before daylight [to avoid persecution] and to recite a hymn among themselves by turns, to Christ, as if being God." The Spirit gives true eloquence; wine, a spurious eloquence.
psalms--generally accompanied by an instrument.
hymns--in direct praise to God (compare Acts 16:25; 1 Corinthians 14:26; James 5:13).
songs--the general term for lyric pieces; "spiritual" is added to mark their being here restricted to sacred subjects, though not merely to direct praises of God, but also containing exhortations, prophecies, etc. Contrast the drunken "songs," Amos 8:10.
making melody--Greek, "playing and singing with an instrument."
in your heart--not merely with the tongue; but the serious feeling of the heart accompanying the singing of the lips (compare 1 Corinthians 14:15; Psalms 47:7). The contrast is between the heathen and the Christian practice, "Let your songs be not the drinking songs of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart" [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].
to the Lord--See PLINY'S letter quoted above: "To Christ as God."
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Ephesians 5:4
Colossians 3:15
Colossians 3:16
Colossians 3:16
1 Timothy 3:16
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