In the world and OF The Kingdom
Colossians 3:18-4:1 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Our identity is in Christ no matter what role we have.
Our identity in Christ doesn’t erase our role(s).
Our identity in Christ defines how we live into our role(s).
1. Our identity is in Christ no matter what role we have.
Colossians 1:2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae.
In Christ in Edmond. In Christ in your role in your household. In Christ in your role in your organization.
2. Our identity in Christ doesn’t erase our role(s).
3. Our identity in Christ defines how we live into our role(s).
Relational Pairs: Wives & Husbands Children & Fathers Slaves & Masters
Category 1: Wive, Children, Slaves
Non-Christian Household Codes: Not addressed. Viewed as property, not people. No minds or wills of their own.
New Testament Household Codes: Addressed. Actual person with agency/ability to choose and be held responsible for actions. To be treated with dignity.
Category 2: Husbands, Fathers, Masters
Non-Christian Household Codes: What to do to make sure your wife, children, and slaves fulfill THEIR responsibilities.
New Testament Household Codes: Act in a matter appropriate for followers of Jesus. Fulfill YOUR responsibility to act for the good of others.
Paul places obligations on husbands, fathers, and masters, not to ensure that wives, children, and slaves fulfill their responsibilities, but rather to fulfill their own responsibilities to act for the good of others. - Alistair I. Wilson
Colossians 3:18-19
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.
Husbands are to image Christ’s love for the church to their wives and the watching world.
Wives are to image the church and her submission to her bridegroom to the same world.
God’s design for marriage is that it would be a play upon the world’s stage.
Submit means to give over or yield to the power or authority of another.
Submission - One equal person’s voluntary acceptance of the authority of another equal person.
Being a Christian husband is not about being some prideful, self-absorbed leader but a humble, self-giving servant leader. In this, you reflect the reality that Christ, not you, is the king. And his kingdom has dawned. - Erik Raymond
Colossians 3:20-21
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart.
Obey means to listen attentively in a way that leads to action.
Obedience is pleasing to God because it glorifies God and mirrors Christ's relationship with his Father to the watching world.
John 15:30-31 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
Is the way God fathers you evident in the way you parent your children?
Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct. Kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, patience, forbearance, sympathy, a willingness to enter into childish troubles, a readiness to take part in childish joys — these are the cords by which a child may be led most easily — these are the clues you must follow if you would find the way to his heart. - J.C. Ryle
Slaves
Masters
Colossians 3:22-4:1 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality.
Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
EMPLOYER (PERSON IN POWER) - Your identity is in Christ no matter what role you have. EMPLOYEE (PERSON WHO WORKS UNDER PERSON IN POWER) - Your identity in Christ doesn’t erase your role. _EMPLOYER OR EMPLOYER - Your identity in Christ defines how you live into your role.