Background: Slaves were viewed as property. They were able to sell themselves into slavery, purchase slaves for themselves, earn wages, and buy their way out of slavery. Slaves could come from any conceivable background. Some slaves were doctors, philosophers, and government officials. For some, slave life was voluntary. If a person wanted Roman citizenship, they could become a slave to a Roman and when manumitted gain Roman citizenship. Slavery was not a racial matter, rather it was a means to get manual labor done.
Colossians 3:16–4:1 parallels Ephesians 5:18–6:9, except that the emphasis here is on being filled with the Word of God.
When the Word controls your life, you will be joyful (3:16), thankful (3:17), and submissive (3:18–4:1), and these are the same characteristics of the Spirit-filled Christian as explained in Ephesians 5:18–6:9. To be filled with the Spirit of God means to be controlled by the Word of God.
The Message
Colossians 3:18-25 NIV18 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
- The emphasis of the whole passage is on duties, not rights. The duties are reciprocal—i.e., not all the rights are on one side and all the duties on the other.
- Submit: Wives are instructed to let husbands “Lead” but not to “Lord” over the family
- Love: Husbands are instructed to lay down their lives (self interest) for the sake of the family
- Obey: Children will “Do” what they “See”, not was you “Say”
- Genesis 2:22-23 NIV Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
21 Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
- Proverbs 22:6 NIV Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
- Colossians 3:17 NIV And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.