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.
Masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master—in heaven.
Puzzled, again!
I’m puzzled in a new way by this set of instructions relating to household relationships. That’s good because a furrowed brow can be the beginning of deeper understanding. But it also means that what I thought I had down pat, isn’t so settled.
I have always read these instructions out of my own non-slave owning cultural context. This meant that I took the words to wives, husbands, and children just as they are presented but ripped the words to slaves and masters out of the household context and made them speak about labor and management. I’ve treated one part of what is clearly a unit –household relationships – differently from the other parts. I’ve made the mistake of jumping to application of this text before searching out the original meaning for writer (Paul) and readers (Colosse Christians). Ooops.
Nineteenth century southern slaveholders got at least the original meaning right when they argued for slavery from texts like this. Paul, more accurately God through Paul, never commanded the abolishment of slavery! Slavery is assumed throughout the Bible as it is here and the sister passage in Ephesians 5 and 6. Not only is it assumed, but God gives instructions about how to relate as slave and master, just as he does with husband and wife and parent and child.
I, with most everyone else over the past 150 years, am convinced that the instructions given for master-slave relationships, along with other biblical declarations (not the least of which rests just a few verses earlier! – 3:11) undermine both the practice of people owning people and the absolute authority of one person over another. God intended for radical social change as more and more people faithfully followed Christ.
How can I be consistent and treat one teaching about household relationships this way while treating the other parts as if nothing nearly as radical was happening?! Men not only owned slaves, they owned their wives and children as property. As such, they held absolute authority.
So many in the church today argue that God intends for men to be forever in authority over their wives and children; that God intends households to continue on a hierarchical model – just without slaves. Is it possible that undermining ownership includes pulling the props out from underneath the very notions of hierarchy and authority in every household relationship? Is it possible that God intends that every aspect of household relationships undergo radical reorientation?
Helper and Teacher, Spirit of God, grant that my household relationships reflect more and more of you and less and less of sinful human culture. - Mike Leamon
Favorites
Favoritism in families is destructive. It creates resentment, envy, jealousy and anger. Those who are favored often become spoiled and are engrained with a life-view that they are better than others. Those who belittled often struggle with inferiority complexes and low self-esteem.
Think of the dysfunction that took place in Jacob’s family because he favored Rachel and then Joseph. Brothers were pitted against brothers in a classic struggle.
Praise God there are no favorites in God’s family. He looks at us all with the same love and passion. Paul’s instructions for living together in family are clear: Treat each other as God treats you. Wives, husbands, children, slaves, masters; all are on the same plane from God’s perspective. We all fill different roles in the family but we are all part of the same family and need to demonstrate a unity that transcends role divisions.
I wonder how our testimony as a church would improve if we lived out God’s love for each other. I am not even talking about loving those still undecided for God. I am referring to loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Family squabbles are the most destructive. The Bible calls us to love each other. The example of God’s love for the world should first become visible in the way we love each other in the church.
Father of all believers, I confess I do not always love my brothers and sisters the way I should. Help me today to love your people the way you do so that the world may see you in me. - Dan Jones
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