Reprecussions of a New You

In chapter 3 we have come to the very practical living out our belief in Jesus Christ in the life of the believer.

Since you are a new you and no longer dead we observed last week that you need a new wardrobe.

Why is clothing important? because we live among people.

If we are totally honest with ourselves, the main problems we have in this world are because of other people.

We have an inability to get along with each other.

That’s why last week we saw that we clothe ourself first of all with the Fruit of the Spirit and then the Fortitude of Christ, forbearance and forgiveness, and lastly the Fragrance of God, love.

All of these are not for us but for others, the people we are around and come into contact as we live in this world. These will work generally with whomever we come into contact.

However, the family is the very first and foremost important place that will notice the difference and be affected by our new witness.

Every relationship we have changes when we come to Jesus Christ.

Since we are Risen with Christ and since Christ is Returning, We have a new Reflection and new Reprecussions.

Jesus said we are now salt and light.

Ephesians 5:8 (KJV 1900)

8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Peter said,

1 Peter 2:9 (KJV 1900)

9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Jesus founded Christianity on relationships.

Mark 1:17 (KJV 1900)

17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to be relational.

Acts 1:8 (KJV 1900)

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

A. T. Robertson says this, and I quote,

“Real Christianity is both a doctrine and a life. Mere belief is dead without life as proof. Real spiritual life is impossible without vital contact with God and Christ, and our dealings with others become the final proof of our real connection with Christ.”

Christianity is dead unless it’s relational.

You are not here for yourself, you are here for others.

The life of the new man—is a life lived out among men. And there’s surely where it has its greatest impact. The new man has his greatest impact when he affects society.

Now, let me ask you a question?

What is the basic unit of our society and relationships?

Our Home. The Family.

Therefore, Paul begins to not give a long dissertation of everything we need to fix in the family. No, he gives 1 verse or close to it that confronts the greatest issue of every family.

In other words, Paul goes after the sore spot and is very specific in dealing with the basic unit.

A New Wife

Colossians 3:18 (KJV 1900)

18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

A New Husband

Colossians 3:19 (KJV 1900)

19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

A New Child

Colossians 3:20 (KJV 1900)

20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

A New Parent

Colossians 3:21 (KJV 1900)

21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

Christianity Affects the Home.

A Christian is not just called to be an independent, solely existing individual, who cultivates between himself and God a relationship independent of anyone else—not at all. If he has truly a relationship with God, it’s going to have social ramifications. We don’t need to suffer from the anonymity and the immorality and the loneliness and the emptiness of the world, because in Christ, all that’s covered and we become social beings. We become relational people.

Remember, Col 3:15

Colossians 3:15 (KJV 1900)

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Colossians 3:16 (KJV 1900)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Colossians 3:17 (KJV 1900)

17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

If these things are happening in your life, and they should. They are not suggestions. They are imperatives, commands. You will have a tremendous and dramatic impact or repercussions in your home.

This is absolutely nothing new. It is actually a very Old Principle.

A Worn Principle

Everyone of these repercussions are commands that deal with our 2 major issues in life.

Authority and Submission.

God’s plan from the very beginning of creation has been this same plan for the family.

Authority and Submission.

In life and especially in the family, somebody has to rule and somebody has to submit.

I have quoted this many times, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way”

However, we come to the New Testament and this is still God’s plan but there is some new things added to your life to help you accomplish this task.

A New Presence

Colossians 3:10 (KJV 1900)

10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Look at the end of verse 18

Colossians 3:18 (KJV 1900)

18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

Look at verse 20

Colossians 3:20 (KJV 1900)

20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

Look at verse 24

Colossians 3:24 (KJV 1900)

24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

Colossians 4:1 KJV 1900

1 Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.

A New Power

Christ brings an incredible amount of power to your life through the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8 (KJV 1900)

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Philippians 4:13 (KJV 1900)

13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

A New Purpose

Colossians 3:17 (KJV 1900)

17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

A New Pattern

Colossians 3:1–2 KJV 1900

1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

This a new presence, gives you aa new power, to fulfill a new purpose, in order to follow the new pattern, so you can fulfill an old principle.

The Word Prescribed

A Word to Wives: Submission

Colossians 3:18 KJV 1900

18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

The word submit (hupotassesthe) means to subdue and subject in obedience.

⇒ Vine points out that the word is primarily a military term meaning to rank under (An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1940.)

⇒ Robertson says that the word has a military air and that the word is the same kind of obedience that a citizen is to give to the government (Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. 4, p. 506).

But I would notice that the emphasis here is not on the

Submission is not the idea of Obedience.

as an authoritative, overbearing, browbeating relationship, but it’s submission.

Obedience is reserved in this passage for children and servants.

The word submission is reserved for wives. And it has a more cooperative concept tied to it.

Now, notice that he says, “Wives, submit …” It isn’t the idea that he’s firing out the orders and you’re obeying. It’s the idea that you have a spirit of submissiveness.

He says, “Submit to your own husbands.”

Now, you say, “Why does he say ‘your own’?

Does he think women are going to go around submitting to everybody’s husband?

No, I think the idea of “own” here is to emphasize that this is a personal, intimate, inward, vital relationship. He’s saying to submit to your own husband. This is the man you own. This is yours. This is your possession. And somehow, that makes the submission all the more possible. You’re not just submitting to some indifferent, detached authority. This is your own husband. You possess him; he possesses you. There’s something very intimate, very personal there.

Submission is NOT Inferiority.

It doesn’t mean you’re inferior to your husband. Not at all. Jesus wasn’t inferior to God, but He submitted, didn’t He? That isn’t the idea. Women have great dignity in the New Testament. Paul emphasizes it in 1 and 2 Timothy and in Titus. Women have a strategic place in the ministry. We’ve been through that many times. Submission does not man inferiority.

Another thing—

Submission is Not Absolute.

It doesn’t mean that you submit to everything all the time under possible situation. In Acts 5, Luke says you have some times to choose, as did Peter and John, when they said, “You choose whether we ought to obey God or men.” Your husband may ask you to do something that you can’t do in good conscience before God. So the submission is not absolute.

And then, I would add, thirdly, that

Submission is in Love.

This is your own husband, assuming the one that you are intimately, inwardly, vitally in love with. There s something relational here.

A Christian wife who loves her husband, who sees him as God’s gift to her, who sees him as her own possession, will more easily regulate her conduct in harmony with this particular command. She’s not going to join the Women’s Lib. She’s not going to parade her equality spiritually into equality maritally.

Well, these are things you are well aware of. Notice what be says at the end of the verse.

Colossians 3:18 (KJV 1900)

18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

Verse 18: “… as it is fit in the Lord.”

The only justification for this is that this is the way God intended it. This is the way God invented it. This is the way God designed it. And people, if anything should be true that is true, it should be true in a Christian home. And this is true. “Wives, submit to your own husband.” It’s got to be true in a Christian home. Christianity has got to work there before it can work in the world.

Now, let’s move the Husband. Ok Wives, notice Paul states 2 things to the Husband.

A Word to Husbands: Love and Be not Bitter

Colossians 3:19 KJV 1900

19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

You husbands keep on continually loving your wives and stop being bitter toward them.

Now, there are really two imperatives or commands here.

Number 1

Keep Loving your Wife

Why does Paul command to Keep Loving your Wife.

Remember before you are married, and all the pursuit that involved, and then, when the marriage happens, all the love and pursuit seems to drain away.

When that happens, what comes in its place?

Bitterness.

And Paul knows this; the Holy Spirit knows this and if you are honest, you know this.

You can replace love with bitterness.

“Keep on loving your wives …” You loved them before you married them; you loved them when you married them; you loved them for awhile after you married them. Keep on loving your wives.

I have defined this word and defined this word, Agape.

Don’t sink to the level of assuming that love is an emotion.

Love is activity. It is the act of self-sacrifice.

Don’t Let what was Love Turn to Bitterness

Some have suggested that this word “bitter” should be translated “cross.”

Don’t be cross toward them.

Well, either word emphasizes a harshness of temper.

It emphasizes that attitude of resentment that leads to misery and often leads to divorce.

The verb here could be translated here as “exasperate” or “irritate.”

Don’t irritate your wife.

Don’t exasperate your wife.

Don’t be cross against your wife.

The word, incidentally, is only used three other times in the New Testament. And you’ll find that the only times it is used, it is used in Revelation 8, once, and chapter 10, twice, and it has there the idea of bitterness … something very distasteful, something very unenjoyable.

What Paul is really saying is, “Don’t call her honey and act like vinegar.”

A husband is a leader and a lover.

Howard Hendricks said, “A lot of frustrated sergeants are running around with biblical clubs in their hands shouting, ‘I’m the head of my house,’ and they’re the only ones that are convinced.”

And the reason they are not, he says, is because there is no love. Keep on loving.

Now, this is more than sexual love.

It’s that deep affection that sees your wife

as a sister in the Lord,

as a weaker vessel to be cared for,

as your best friend,

as the most important human being in the world,

as your most critical permanent investment and life-long partner.

Boy, if some men took care of their wives the way they take care of their money, it would be interesting.

Husband, Donny, listen, Never be cross; Never be bitter, never be harsh.

Honor your wife and love your wife.

It’s kinda sad when love goes out of a marriage; it should always be there. And it’s something you have to work on and cultivate.

Ephesians 5:28–29 (KJV 1900)

28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

This is the foundation of it all. The Wife and the Husband.

A Word to Children: Obey

Colossians 3:20 (KJV 1900)

20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

Now, I know some of you young people are wondering about this word child. You are picturing ages in your mind and everything else to see if this refers to you or not.

“Children,” “ta tekna,” is a very general word for child, an offspring. It can be any age. What it basically means is that it’s a general word for anybody who is still under parental guidance. You stop being a child biblically in terms of this word, you stop being a child when you go out to establish your own independence and your own life.

As long as you’re in the home, as long as your parents are responsible for you, as long as you’re under their leadership and control, you have one command.

Obey!

It’s in the New Testament in Ephesians 6:1 ;

Ephesians 6:1 (KJV 1900)

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

It’s in the Old Testament in Exodus 20:12 ;

Exodus 20:12 (KJV 1900)

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Exodus 21:15 & 17;

Exodus 21:15 KJV 1900

15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

Exodus 21:17 KJV 1900

17 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

it’s Leviticus 20:9 ;

Leviticus 20:9 KJV 1900

9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

it’s Proverbs 1:8 , Proverbs 6:20

Proverbs 1:8 (KJV 1900)

8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:

Proverbs 6:20 (KJV 1900)

20 My son, keep thy father’s commandment, And forsake not the law of thy mother:

In Proverbs 30, it kinda emphasizes this concept of all things, you know, obey in all things. It says in Proverbs 30:11 :

Proverbs 30:11 (KJV 1900)

11 There is a generation that curseth their father, And doth not bless their mother.

“There is a generation that curses their father and does not bless their mother.

Proverbs 30:12 KJV 1900

12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, And yet is not washed from their filthiness.

There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes … “- you know, they have all the answers -“and yet they are not washed from their filthiness.”

Proverbs 30:13 KJV 1900

13 There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.

“There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes …”—they think they’re hot stuff.

Now, he’s either describing junior high school people or high school people; I’m not sure which. But anyway,

Proverbs 30:14 KJV 1900

14 There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, And their jaw teeth as knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, And the needy from among men.

“… and there is a generation whose teeth are like swords and their jaw teeth like knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men.”

Proverbs 30:15 (KJV 1900)

15 The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, Yea, four things say not, It is enough:

“They are like a horse leech that has two daughters, crying ‘Give, give’ …”

A horse leech has two teeth that sink into the horse and suck the blood out. And he says there are children like that who are only trying to get what they can get. They are leeches.

In verse 17,

Proverbs 30:17 (KJV 1900)

17 The eye that mocketh at his father, And despiseth to obey his mother, The ravens of the valley shall pick it out, And the young eagles shall eat it.

“It is the eye that mocks at his father and despises to obey his mother and that eye the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it.”

Now, God is very upset about that kind of attitude.

That’s pretty vivid language—clawing out- their eyes and eating them. That’s what God says about the kind of generation that is- disobedient.

Listen to this. There is only one command in the entire Bible given to children or young people living in their home with their parents. That one command and the only command is to obey your parents in everything. That’s it.

Now, again I would add that this is limited. It is limited to that which doesn’t violate God’s standards. It is limited to that which doesn’t step against God’s leading and God’s will. I think at that point the young person or the child has to say what Peter said, “You judge whether we ought to obey God or men.”

Now, notice at the end of the verse, he simply says, “This is well pleasing …” Again, the same purpose. The reason to do this? Because this is the way God set it up. This is God’s standard. This is God’s pattern.

A Word to Fathers: Provoke not

Colossians 3:21 KJV 1900

21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

Provoke not stop provoking your children, lest they be discouraged.”

Stop—literally—irritating your children, that they may not lose heart. Stop nagging your kids. This refers to the irritation that comes by the emotional explosion on the part of parents.

There are so many ways to provoke your child.

Overprotection, Under-protection, Favoritism, Depreciating the worth of your child, Discouragement, No affection, Neglect of needs, Criticism, Over discipline, Under discipline, and I could go on and on.

Don’t let your child get discouraged.

So,

How are you doing with authority and submission within the family?

Are you Portraying Christ?