Colossians 3:18-25

The Relationships of Christian Living

Colossians 3:18 HCSB

Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Submit is a call to recognize and respond to the God-ordained authority of the husband.

Submission does not diminish the equality or destroy the dignity of the wife.

Christ himself is the model for equality with God and submission to the one with whom he is equal ( ; ; )

To function properly, and institution must have clear lines of authority and submission. The family is no different.

The wife’s submission is fitting in the Lord. Fitting means “proper or appropriate.”

Submission is God’s desire and design for Christian wives, so it is to be obeyed by those who belong to the Lord.

Colossians 3:19 HCSB

Husbands, love your wives and don’t be bitter toward them.

The husband, though given a role of authority, is not to treat his wife as a subject. The husband’s call is to sacrificial love.

Love is meeting the needs of others regardless of the cost of self.

The model for this is Christ himself. the parallel passage in makes this clear.

The husband is to love his wife “just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her “().

When the husband leads with love, the submission of the wife will more naturally follow.

In contrast to the love to which he calls husband, Paul commands that the Christian husband not be harsh with wife. He is not to use his authority to be overbearing, critical, or bitter.

Colossians 3:20 HCSB

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Children are charged to obey their parents. Obedience is the simple process of hearing, understanding, and responding.

Once more, Christ provides the example (; ). God is the one who commanded obedience to parents (), so naturally obedience pleases the Lord.

Colossians 3:21 HCSB

Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so they won’t become discouraged.

Just as the authority of the husband is not to lead to harshness with the wife, the authority of fathers is not to lead to the kind of behavior that will embitter their children.

Embitter means to provoke or irritate.

The Christian father is not to over correct or harass his children, or they will become discouraged, which refers to a listless, sullen resignation - a broken spirit.

To be discouraged as child means to think thing like, I’ll never get it right, or, All he does is criticize, or, He’ll never love me.

Christian fathers should be sure their children are as sure of their love as they are of their authority.

Colossians 3:22–25 HCSB

Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, in order to please men, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism.

The category of slave-master would be equivalent to our modern employee-employers. The arena is the workplace.

Slaves are to obey their earthly masters. Paul reminds those under authority that they have a master in heaven who observes their interanl attitude and external performance.

Christian employees are to render sincere service.

The employee is not to work only when the boss is looking. The employee is to recognize that in the final analysis he is working for the Lord, not for men and so do his best.

Knowing the truth about Christian living invites us to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way.

Remember, God does not play favorites, He rewards wrong