Paul depicts three relationships in this passage of Scripture: wives and husbands, children and parents, servants and masters. For each situation, there is a shared liability to submit and cherish, to comply and energize, and to try sincerely to be fair.
We ought to inspect our family and work connections. Do we connect with others as God has expected? This passage of Scripture mirrors that of Ephesians 5:21-6:9.
How Does Paul Describe Our Relationships?
Paul gives explicit directions for those residing in Christian homes. This section incorporates headings for husbands, wives, kids, and employees. Paul tries reminding Christians not to simply scrape by with the absolute minimum of what we are committed to doing.
Rather, we should serve to realize that Christ is our judge. Paul additionally puts masters, or employers, under similar commitment to benevolence and reasonableness as employees: both are equivalent according to Christ.
1. Wives and Husbands
Paul first attends to Christian wives. Much contention has encircled the comprehension of the word “submit.” In the Bible, wives are not called to be second-rate followers of their husbands, they are to be agreeable partners.
Husbands are given spiritual commitments towards their wives. This incorporates exhibiting a similar magnanimous, conciliatory love and concern for the church as shown by Christ (Ephesians 5:25).
This kind of responsibility, from a wife towards her husband, is thought of as fitting to God. As such, it is proper for a Christian wife to live in a mindful relationship with her husband and this incorporates permitting him to lead the family.
Unfortunately, there are numerous instances of Christian men who have failed in leading their families well.
Notwithstanding, with regards to how God expects the family to work, the fitting picture is that of a Christian husband who cherishes his wife and is delicate with her (Colossians 3:19).
She, thusly, offers comparative thoughtfulness to him and supports her husband’s job as the head of the family.
Then, Paul is talking to the husbands. Men are to demonstrate consideration, concern, and tenderness with their wives. Note that, in the earlier verse, wives were provided a solitary order, but here the husbands are given two.
First, the husband is committed to love his wife. The Greek word agape is utilized here. This term shows an unselfish, conciliatory love for another. The Bible is steady in its depiction of an appropriate husband-wife relationship (Ephesians 5:22-33).
Men are intended to be the heads of the home. Simultaneously, there is no room in Scripture for husbands to be oppressive or out of line.
Nor is there anything proposing male predominance. In actuality, an appropriately working marriage ought to have a similar sort of correspondence with accommodation found in the Trinity (Colossians 1:19; Philippians 2:6; Matthew 26:42; Luke 22:42).
Paul's subsequent order is an immediate counter to Colossae's predominant mentalities about married couples.
In that overall setting, ladies were not given equivalent worth and portrayal in their way of life. The way of life of Paul's day let men know that they had the power and the option to be tyrannical and extreme to their spouses.
People are similarly made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Paul previously taught the husbands to live in generosity toward their wives, similarly as Christ adored the church and gave his life for it (Ephesians 5:25).
Here, he orders men not to anger their wives, but instead, they are to care and treat them with thoughtfulness.
2. Children and Parents
Next, Paul instructs children with a somewhat expansive idea. Children are provided one all-encompassing order, which is to obey.
This follows the education of honoring their parents found in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1-3). It additionally addresses the general Christian instructing of living with adoration and regard toward each other.
Paul reminds the children that obeying their parents is what pleases God. He has, as of now, mentioned that everything that is to be done, is to be done for the glory of God (Colossians 3:17).
This incorporates how children are to obey their parents. Jesus set the model submitting to his earthly parents (Luke 2:51), as well as concerning the desire of his divine Father (Matthew 6:10).
Disobeying one’s parents was thought of as corrupt (Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2), however, to obey one's parents is the scriptural expectancy for young people in the Christian home (Ephesians 6:1).
Paul adds extra guidelines for the Christian father. This intently looks like the guidance Paul gives in Ephesians 6:4, giving advance notice to fathers not to incite outrage in their children. Some render the expression Paul utilizes here in Colossians to not make youths harbor resentment.
The thought is that of working up or creating some negative issues for the child. Specifically, shamefulness and hostility should not be utilized. Fathers should not be producing negative issues for their children, yet models and providers for their children.
Fathers who incite their kids can cause demoralization. Kids depend on their fathers to offer consolation. At the point when fathers fail in this area, it can lastingly affect the prosperity of their children.
Fathers are called to give discipline and to teach God's commandments to their kids. This is not to be appointed to a mother or others. Spiritual guidance might include help from other relatives, yet it is the father’s responsibility.
3. Employees and Employers
Paul does not censure nor support slavery; however, he teaches that Christ rises above all divisions between individuals. Slaves are advised to work sincerely like their lord is Christ himself, yet masters are to be fair and just.
Maybe Paul was considering Onesimus and Philemon, the slave and master whose contention lay behind the letter to Philemon. Philemon was a slave proprietor in the Colossian church, and Onesimus had been his slave (4:9).
Paul explicitly says that this submission or obedience is not intended to be “to look good or for show” as it were. Shallow work, done just when the master is watching, is the sort of work done by a "people-pleaser" as opposed to a God-pleaser.
Nor is it simply expected to meet the absolute minimum necessities of the expert. The Christian bondservant was to serve “with genuineness of heart, dreading the Lord.”
And the servant is to “do it heartily,” work with all your heart. God sees what is in the heart and what motivates us. The reasonable point is that the bondservant should work for God's greatness (Colossians 3:17).
In Paul's day and time, bondservants were not qualified for any legacy from an affluent relative. From a material angle, these slaves had little to anticipate throughout everyday life.
However, Paul empowers them with an update that this human life is not the place where their genuine rewards will be given.
God's inheritance, our unceasing abode with him, will far surpass the preliminaries and impediments of this life. Paul looked for by and by to zero in readers on things above (Colossians 3:1-2) instead of the day-by-day worries of life.
Paul finishes this instruction with a reference to the bondservant's actual master: Jesus Christ. Even the lowliest slave, when they acknowledge faith in Christ, turns into a worker of the best individual known to man.
There could be no higher honor or advantage. With this viewpoint, an abused worker can live with bliss, knowing his actual Master and the everlasting happiness that anticipates (1 Peter 1:8-9).
After offering guidelines to bondservants, Paul noted in Colossians 3:25 that all men would be given a fair judgment by God. Considering that, Paul here cautions masters to be reasonable in their dealings with their workers.
This was in opposition to the social standard of Colossae and most other old urban communities. Although abuse may have been socially satisfactory, it was not appropriate for a believer in Christ.
This order to “treat your bondservants fairly and justly” is reliable with the numerous lessons of the Old Testament to treat workers well, notwithstanding Christ's accentuation on “loving your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39-40).
What Does This Mean?
All Christians serve the same Lord and Savior, or so we should be. How we individually serve Christ is based upon our relationship and our commitment to him.
Which in turn, can determine how we think we are to be right and fair to those we are responsible for and will also affect the way we serve those over us or those we may oversee (Acts 10:34; Ephesians 6:9).
For further reading:
What Is the Biblical View of Submission?
How Long Do We Have to Honor Our Parents?
What Does it Mean a Servant Does Not Know His Master’s Secrets?
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