Colossians 3:16 English Standard Version (ESV) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Doing a search of the 3:16 verses will render a wealth of knowledge in God’s character. Here is one more.

Vine’s includes this comment about admonishing; “The difference between ‘admonish’ and ‘teach’ seems to be that, whereas the former has mainly in view the things that are wrong and call for warning, the latter has to do chiefly with the impartation of positive truth,”

As one who knows the truth, it became my duty to admonish others. I was arrogant. The results was alienation by way of wounds inflicted by me.

I learned that admonishment without wisdom was painful so I prayed for wisdom and received wisdom.

Now I applied wisdom to admonishing others and found myself to be the dissenting opinion in nearly every discussion. They would not yield to truth and it was frustrating. I could not make anyone see the truth.

What I discovered over the years is that while I had head knowledge, I had not taken it to heart. When I discovered how to allow the Word, Christ, to change my heart and overrule my mind, others began to listen in ways that were accepted and welcomed.

It does not matter what we know if we cannot show that Christ dwells richly in our hearts.

In my haste for knowledge I had assumed that the word resided in my head and I was wrong.

Speaking Christ in love is not about giving our opinion. It is listening in our hearts to discover what Christ has to say at any particular moment.

It is often found to be a quiet Word spoken after everyone else has had a chance to speak without being cut off or corrected.

That is where grace shines.