L4: The Deity of Christ
Memorizing Colossians 1:15-23
Let's continue memorizing Colossians 1:15-23. To that end, we will follow two steps in this lesson.
It is important that you not just memorize a text, but that you work at understanding it as you memorize it. One way to help you do this is to divide the text up into units of thought.
Divide the text into smaller pieces.
If you've never taken Biblearc's Phrasing course, don't worry: this doesn't have to be an exact science for our purposes in memorizing from Colossians 1.
I suggest that you click after every punctuation mark (whether a comma, semicolon, or anything else). Divide wherever a new unit of thought seems to begin. Don't be afraid to divide too much; the goal of this is for you to isolate the distinct pieces of the text, so you can better understand and memorize each piece.
When you move your cursor over the text below, a small red horizontal line will appear where the cursor hovers. Just click wherever you want to divide the text.
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Check what you know.
Let's fill in some blanks in the passage, as in Lesson 3. Only this time, there will be far more blanks than words! This will help you prepare for the next lesson, when you will write out the entire passage by memory. Like in the previous lesson, every blank contains only one missing word.
(15) The is the of the , the over all . (16) in him were : things in and on , and , whether or or or ; all things have been him and him. (17) He is all things, and him all things . (18) And he is the of the , the ; he is the and the from the , so that in he might have the . (19) God was to have all his in , (20) and him to to all things, things on or things in , by through his , on the .
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
(21) you were from and were in your because of your . (22) But he has you by physical through to you in his , without and from — (23) if you continue in your , and , and do not from the held out in the . This is the that you and that has been to every under , and of which I, , have become a .
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Our desire is that you continue to memorize Scripture after you've finished this course, to increase your delight in the glories of Christ.
To that end, watch John Piper encourage you to memorize Scripture, the written Word of God, which is how God will transform you to love and desire Jesus as he deserves.
And here is John Piper reciting the book of Philippians by memory. Notice the joy with which he recites, and how he demonstrates a deep understanding of the verses by his emphasis and vocal inflections.
Digging Deeper
The glory of Christ revealed in Colossians 1:15-23 does not begin nor end with these verses. Indeed, the whole book of Colossians bursts with the glory of Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Therefore, we encourage you to build on what you are learning in this course by memorizing the entire book! If that seems overwhelming to you, consider this article from Dr. Andy Naselli:
11 Steps to Memorizing an Entire Book of the BibleHere are instructions from Dr. Andy Naselli on how to memorize a whole book of the Bible yourself.
When memorizing an entire book of the Bible, it helps to understand the structure and thought-flow of that book. The video below traces the structure and thought-flow of Colossians by using a Bible study method called "arcing." If you want to dig deeper by memorizing all of Colossians, take some time to watch the video. Even if you cannot memorize the whole book now, the video will help you by placing Col 1:15-23 within its wider context. The video comes from Biblearc's Arcing course.