Above All: Colossians 3:18-21

Impressed, the visitor decided to adopt the idea. Arriving home, he embraced his wife and said, "You look wonderful!" For good measure he added, "Sweetheart, I’m the luckiest guy in the world." His wife burst into tears. Bewildered, he asked her, "What in the world’s the matter?" She wept, "What a day! Billy fought at school. The refrigerator quit and spoiled the groceries. And now you’ve come home drunk!"

This was revolutionary in Paul’s day and even our own.

I remember a woman being interviewed outside of a Promise Keeper event. She was ranting about how terrible PK was and that it demeaned women with talk of submission. Another women who was there stepped in the conversation and said, “If your husband loved you the way my husband loves me, you wouldn’t hesitate to trust his leadership.”

In Emerson Eggerichs classic marriage book, “Love and Respect,” he makes the case that women need love and men need respect:

“When a husband feels disrespected, it is especially hard to love his wife. When a wife feels unloved, it is especially hard to respect her husband.”

But this is really where the rubber mets the road in our submitting to the Lordship of Christ in our marriages:

“Ultimately, you practice love or respect because beyond your spouse you see Jesus Christ and you envision a moment when you will be standing before Him at the final judgment, realizing that your marriage was really a tool and a test to deepen and demonstrate your love and your reverence for your Lord.”

Tony Evans tells the story of his parents. His father became a Christian and his mother would mock him endlessly about his faith. He never retaliated. He got up at 4:30 am every morning and went downstairs and prayed for his wife to come to faith, another thing she made fun of him for. He loved her well, even when she didn’t return the love.

One morning, while we was on his knees interceding for his wife, he felt a hand on his knee. She had slipped down and had been sitting beside him as he prayed. She joined him on her knees and and said, “Whatever you have, I want!”

I wish we could spend three more weeks just on these two verses but we need to move on to the second pair - children/parents.

Teach Your Children Well

“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” (Col 3:20)

Now, it was the kids turn to be amazed. I’m sure they weren’t exactly excited about the command that Paul gives but the fact that they are addressed at all is miraculous.

Children were considered property not people.

But Paul addresses them as morally responsible human beings capable of making choices. Again, this was revolutionary.

Notice that Paul assumes that there will be parents plural - a mom and a dad. No matter how much the culture wants to say that the nuclear family is dangerous to society, research consistently shows that children fair better with both parents in the house.

Unlike wives, children are called to “obey.” This is written to children still in the home. As older children, we still have the responsibility to honor our parents but not obey them.