When preparing a sermon based on one of the apostle Paul’s letters, I often reference John B. Polhill’s, Paul and his Letters. I find it an invaluable resource for such study, but today when researching the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians I ran across the following statement concluding Polhill’s comments on Colossians 1:15-20.

Finally, it is significant that Paul’s great Christological statement is set in the form of a hymn, a confession of faith. It is often in our worship and our praise that we are brought closest to a full awareness of God and his greatness, something that the purely rational exercise of our theological endeavors could never do. Polhill, Paul and His Letters, 342 (endnote referencing E. Schweizer, The Letter to the Colossians, 82-88)

I just couldn’t disagree more with this statement. The simple truth of the matter is that for many of us, the deepest form of worship we experience is “the purely rational exercise of our theological endeavors.” Certainly I understand the significance of Paul using a hymn to clarify theological concerns. This certainly is one of the easiest, and perhaps best, ways of getting theology into the minds of the body of Christ. However, everyone does not share this “full awareness of God” brought about during what is considered the “ordinary” method of worship. For those of us trapped in an almost completely “rational” awareness of God, theological study brings us closer to His glory than any poetic hymn could do.