Colossians 3.18 – 4.18
- Household Rules (3.18-4.1)
Humorous Household Rules
by Ian Frazier in the article Laws concerning food and drink; household principles; lamentations of the father. © The Atlantic Monthly, Feb 1997 v279 n2 p89(2)
Have you heard the old saying? “Don’t be too heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good.”
We are to set our minds on things above, but a life ruled from above effects our lives in marriage, parenthood and everyday work.
The whole of our lives are to be submitted to the Lord. Every aspect of our lives is effected by our Christianity.
Perhaps the false teachers were indifferent to the domestic. The Colossians are called to remember the simple duties of family life.
Paul begins with the closest relationship working to the most distant. There are twin admonitions: instructions given for both parties. Can’t look at one apart from the other.
Wives and Husbands
Wives, submit
Submit, balanced with husbandly love.
Submit: voluntary. Never a breaking of the will. Same is expected of church members: submit to one another/ mutual submission.
Ephesians 5 “as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit…”
Husbands, love
Love is not just an affectionate feeling or sexual attraction, but the husband is to have an unceasing care and loving service for the wife’s entire well-being.
Eph 5: sacrificial aspect of Christ’s love for the church
Do not be embittered – the negative. Do not become angry …
Children and Parents
Children, obey
Children, at the age of growing up, obey in all things.
Obey is a stronger word than submit. (Used for slaves, as well.) Absolute obedience.
Fathers, don’t provoke
Parents, but fathers especially, do not irritate or provoke unless children become discouraged or think it useless trying to please parents within the home. Give firm guidance; not servitude (Eph 6.4)
In Roman society, fathers were given unlimited power over their children. Hellenistic Judaism, sever punishment could be given disobedient children.
Here, power is not held up, but the responsibilities or duties to their children. They are not irritate by nagging at or deriding the child’s efforts, so that children become discouraged or think it useless to try to please.
Be an encouraging example: 2 Cor 9.2
Slaves and Masters
Slaves, obey
Obey in everything. Don’t just work to please your master. Service is not to be superficial or performed to attract attention, but conscientiously, with pure motives, wholehearted work so every action is serving the heavenly Lord. Lift tasks above compulsive necessity to that of joyful service.
Keep transcendent view. Earthly master distinguished from heavenly. The Master in heaven will graciously reward with an eternal inheritance of life in the age to come.
Masters, be just and fair
Stoic codes seldom addressed masters. Not commanded to release but treat justly and with fairness. (Fairness could refer to fair wage.)
Both master and slave have a Master in heaven, whom they must obey. Their relationship with one another must reflect their relationship with God.
Short statement regarding prayer. But this is an ever-present part of Paul’s teaching, emphasizing it’s importance.
Be devoted:
The whole congregation is instructed to persist in prayer. Make it a regular part of who you are. Be constant, persistent, adhere to. Something you are always busily engaged in. “Pray unceasing.” Don’t ever give up or grow weary. Always pray. (petitionary prayer).
And to give thanks – an outward expression of gratitude to God for his gracious decisive action through his Son on their behalf.
Mutual prayer
Paul prays for the Colossians. He asks for their prayers, for “us” and for “me”. Especially for the work of the Gospel.
“Open door” refers to the opportunity for effective evangelism.
“Proclaim mystery” is God’s plan of salvation in Christ (esp. for Gentiles).
Reaching others with Christ
“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities.” Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.”
Wisdom: knowledge of God’s will; walking worthily of Lord. Be godly, give none cause to find fault or criticize. Live so that God’s name is honored. Do not hinder anyone from being saved.
Make the most of your time: snap up every opportunity. Not a specific point in time, but amount of time at one’s disposal. As we have opportunity; as we have time, because it is severely limited.
(A retired local pastor shared how even though he is now in retirement, he is experiencing an increasingly greater evangelistic call. He has a burning desire to use every moment he is given for God’s glory.)
Speech:
Be tactful, yet bold in your Christian witness. God’s grace evident in speech. Choose the right words in response to each pre-Christian. Not only what you say but how you say it is important. Speech seasoned with salt: adds flavor, appeal; interesting speech.
Paul’s greetings reveal a diverse team:
Slave and free, Jew and Gentile, men and a woman are named. Other communities are named(Laodicea & Hieropolis) and Paul’s letter is shared between them.
Colossians 3.18—4.18
This section begins with some basic household rules. Paul addresses
three groups of people: Wives (submit) and Husbands (love), Children
(obey) and Parents (don’t provoke), Slaves (obey) and Masters (treat
with justice/fairness). He gives each group instructions (see
parenthetical statements above) on how to live together in ways that
honor God.
(Note: In the sermon, I made some brief comments on this section, and
opened it up for Q&A, but quickly moved on to deal with the
remaining section of Colossians.)
Remember the Mission
The process we’re in is consuming! We’ve been in the process for some
time; intensively for the last 1.5 years. That’s okay. We have to take
the time we need.
In fact, timing is very important: we have to move slow enough that we
have time to digest/process what’s happening, and fast enough that we
don’t lose momentum/focus!
I want to begin looking ahead, beyond “the vote.” I want to prepare us
to be missional (I think I have been trying to lead us toward being
more missional all along) so that once the vote is behind us, we can
hit the ground running as best we can. And today’s passage really helps
us make this transition very well.
You may recall me saying at the end of service last Sunday: “God will
do amazing things if we give him a chance, if we fully engage God and
one another.” It struck me as I said that (which I went on to say),
“God HAS done amazing things for us!”
In fact, in the last year and a half, we’ve had four votes regarding
worshiping together. All four votes were unanimous! Can God do amazing
things? Absolutely!
So, let’s look at Paul’s final words to the Colossians, and his challenge to us, to remember the mission.
1 – Get seasoned with salt!
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.” (Col 4.6)
“Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.” (Col 4.2)
I heard a pastor say once a sermon something that really struck me in a
negative way: “Prayer changes the heart of God.” I don’t like that
statement; it gives me the image of arm-twisting!
Prayer is a means of communication …
Part of my understanding of prayer is that it’s a means of
communication — children of God simply listening, talking, spending
time with, worshiping, hanging out with God. Part of it may involve
asking or sharing requests (although I don’t think that’s the whole
point of prayer; that would make God nothing more than a genie, it
seems to me).
As we pray, and hang out with God, we become "seasoned with salt."
2 – Participate through prayer!
“At the same time pray for us too, that God may open a door for the
message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am
in chains. Pray that I may make it known as I should.” (Col 4.3-4)
Prayer is a means of participating in what God is doing …
Another part of my understanding of prayer is that it’s a way God has
ordained for us to cooperate with God, to participate in what God is
doing. Philip Yancey seems to make some statements to this effect in a
Christianity Today article, Does prayer change God?
“(C.S.) Lewis suggests that we best imagine the world
not as a state governed by a potentate but as a work of art, something
like a play, in the process of being created. The playwright allows his
characters to affect the play itself, then incorporates all their
actions into the final result.”
“Prayer, especially, brings together Creator and
creature, eternity and time, in all the fathomless mystery implied by
that convergence. … I can also view prayer … as a way of entering into
the rhythms of eternity and aligning myself with God’s point of view, a
way to desire while on earth what God has willed for all eternity, to
harmonize my own purposes with the purposes of God. … I immerse myself
in the changeless qualities of God, and then return to do my part in
acting out those qualities on earth: ‘Your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.’”
“Why prayer? Of all the means God could have used,
prayer seems the weakest, slipperiest, and easiest to ignore. So it is,
unless Jesus was right in that most baffling claim. He went away for
our sakes, as a form of power-sharing, to invite us into direct
communion with God and into the struggle against the forces of evil.”
“By using prayer rather than other, more direct means,
God once again chooses the most freedom-enhancing style of acting in
the world. God waits to be asked, in some mysterious way making God’s
activity on earth contingent on us. Does the kingdom advance slower
because of that choice?”
3 – Make the most of the opportunities with “outsiders”!
“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of
the opportunities. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with
salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.” (Col 4.5-6)
A “missional church” is indigenous. That means the people of the church
think and act like missionaries. They strive to understand a culture
and then find ways to communicate God’s Word using the language of that
culture. A missional church will work to make the most of the
opportunities!
Making the most of the opportunities …
- Pray – pray for your unreached friends
- Love – love your unreached friends
- Serve – serve your unreached friends
- Share – share the Good News with your unreached friends
- Give – give generously so that there are plenty of resources to accomplish the task
I read the following statistics recently (GenerousGiving.org) …
- Among church members of 11 primary Protestant denominations (or their
historical antecedents) in the United States and Canada, per-member
giving as a percentage of income was lower in 2000 than in either 1921
or 1933. In 1921, per-member giving as a percentage of income was 2.9
percent. In 1933, at the depth of the Great Depression, per-member
giving grew to 3.3 percent. By 2000, after a half-century of
unprecedented prosperity, giving had fallen to 2.6 percent.
- Overall, only 3 to 5 percent of Americans who donate money to a church
tithe (give a tenth of) their incomes though many more claim to do so.
- If members of historically Christian churches in the United States had
raised their giving to the Old Testament’s minimum standard of giving
(10 percent of income) in 2000, an additional $139 billion a year would
become available.
4 – It takes a team!
In Colossians 4.7-18, Paul names a number of place who have been
helpful to the cause of Christ – Jews/Gentiles, Slave/Free, Men/Women,
from all kinds of places! It takes all of us working together in all
kinds of different places!
Three “Laws of Teamwork” (John Maxwell) that speak to us today …
- Law of Significance: One is too small a number to achieve greatness.
- Law of the Price Tag: The team fails to reach its potential when it fails to pay the price.
- Law of the Bad Apple: Rotten attitudes ruin the team.
Work at it with enthusiasm!
“Whatever you are doing, work at it with enthusiasm, as to the Lord
and not for people, because you know that you will receive your
inheritance from the Lord as the reward. Serve the Lord Christ.” (Col 3.23-24)