This week we will wrap up a four-part series on the New Testament book of Colossians. What I have presented each week is called exegesis: “critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.”

I thought you might like a guided exegetical exercise, so you can do some study of your own on this amazing letter from the Apostle Paul. So get out a sheet of paper and here we go!

Let’s work on this verse for today’s exercise (zooming in on the phrase in bold):

(Colossians 2:6-7) Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Write the verses above on your sheet of paper (or at least our key phrase). Then think about thanksgiving. Do any other verses come to mind off the top of your head? Look them up and write them down. Then use your favorite concordance (or google) to search for other verses on the topic of thanksgiving. Here are a few I found (Phil 4:6, Col 4:2, Eph 5:4, Rev 7:9-12).

What themes are you seeing throughout your catalog of thanksgiving verses? I’m noticing how thanksgiving is a key element to prayer, it should be a constant presence in our lives as Christians, and it is worshiping the Lord to give him thanks. Write down a couple of verses you found and the themes you see.

The next thing I did was look up the Greek word Paul uses for “thanksgiving”—eucharistia. My Bible dictionary shows me related Greek words and the root word. This is really cool, because the “charis” that you see in “eucharistia” means “grace”! And the root word is “chairo”, which means “to rejoice”! So built into Paul’s encouragement to be “abounding in thanksgiving” is that we rejoice in the grace of God!

Now you can repeat the process we did for thanksgiving by looking for Bible verses about grace and rejoicing. Are any of the grace and rejoicing themes similar to the themes you saw for thanksgiving? Or maybe revisiting your thanksgiving themes with grace and rejoicing in mind adds layers or wrinkles to your understanding?

The Bible is the inspired word of God, written by the Holy Spirit in partnership with his people. It is so deep! So layered with truth and with his love for you! Keep reading it! Keep studying it! Keep sharing it with one another! The Lord bless your times of exegesis!