Of household affairs . . . Colossians 3.18-25

Of household affairs . . . Colossians 3.18-25

Submit.  Love.  Obey.  Do not aggravate.  Serve.  Work.  These are the commanding verbs of today’s focus - as Paul turns to the relationships of the household. 

“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.  Husbands love your wives and never treat them harshly.  Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord.  Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord.

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.”  Colossians 3.18-25

Your attention, please?  Historical understanding of cultural context is critical to the correct interpretation of this Scripture passage.  Women have wanted to exhume Paul’s body and kill him again for his command to women: submit to your husbands.  [Perhaps they had not had good teaching on humility?] 

But understand this—the men of Paul’s day must have been even more outraged with his teaching!   Women in the first century were just the possessions of their husbands.  They had no legal rights whatsoever, and that was true of the Jews, Greeks and Romans.  It was Jesus who taught a different way, and Christianity which sought to implement respect for women into the cultural view of women, and love for wives into the marital relationship.  Jesus was a revolutionary with regard to his treatment of women!  You must be aware that in the first century, at every synagogue service, Jewish men prayed, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, who has not made me a woman.”  Women sat in a separate section, were not counted in quorums, and were rarely taught the Torah.  In social life, few women would talk to men outside of their families, and a woman was to have no close contact with any man but her spouse.¹

Paul said ‘submit’ to the wife, but to what and to whom was she to submit?  A loving husband.  Did you see it?  Paul commanded husbands to love their wives … a ridiculous notion for a first-century man who thought he could treat his wife however he wanted, even divorcing her for any cause.  The Greeks believed that husbands could have as many relationships outside of marriage as they wished, while the wife was to remain chaste.  The privileges belonged to the husband and all the duties to the wife in the first century.²

Christianity ushered in a change—a beautiful change to the whole idea of marriage—love and respect were now in the house.  Love? Paul had previously defined love as that which is patient, kind, never jealous or envious, self-seeking, arrogant or rude^.3  “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” he taught.⁴ Paul is telling husbands to love their wives so much that they would be willing to DIE for them.  Now, of who is required more?  Wives are to submit because they love, but husbands are to die because they love. 

Children were under the total domination of their parents in the ancient world.  Roman law permitted a father to do anything he wanted with his children—sell them into slavery, use them as laborers on his farm, or even sentence them to death. Again … all privileges and rights were on one side, all duties on the other.  So Paul’s teaching is absolutely radical.

Now do you see the reason for such focus on humility?  If there is humility present in a loving marriage, there is a mutual obligation of serving one another.  If humility is in the house, love can abound, respect flourish.  Get radical in your humility . . . audacious in your love . . . crazy in your submissiveness.

Christine

¹ Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

2 William Barclay

3 1 Corinthians 13.4-7

4 Ephesians 5.25