The Supremacy Of Christ Is Demonstrated In Our Personal Relationships

The Supremacy of Christ is Demonstrated in Our

Personal Relationships

Colossians 3:18-4:1

November 11, 2001

Intro:

A. [Wife Taken for Granted Too Long, Citation: Robert Leslie Holmes, God’s Man (Kregel, 1998)]

A man accompanied his friend home for dinner and was impressed by the way he entered his house, asked his wife how her day went, and told her she looked pretty.

Then, after they embraced, she served dinner.

After they ate, the husband complimented his wife on the meal and thanked her for it. When the two fellows were alone, the visitor asked, "Why do you treat your wife so well?"

"Because she deserves it, and it makes our marriage happier," replied the host.

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!"

B. How are your relationships today?

1. With your spouse? With your children? With your boss or employees?

2. Have they been neglected and mistreated for so long that you would be thought drunk if you tried this?

3. In the last few verses of Colossians 3, Paul gives us some valuable principles on how to maintain godly relationships with those around us.

4. When our relationships display these principles we will be demonstrating for all the world to see the supremacy of Christ; first…

I. Wives, submit to your husbands

Colossians 3:18, Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Ephesians 5:22-24, Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

A. Now here is a Biblical command that is not popular or politically correct.

1. This is not something that is touted in the women’s magazines, nor in the college classrooms.

2. But it is the Word of God.

B. Now let me briefly tell you what submitting is not.

1. Submitting doesn’t mean you’re a slave.

2. Submitting doesn’t mean you’re a go-for.

3. Submitting doesn’t mean being physically or emotionally abused.

4. And submitting to your husband doesn’t mean that you submit to all men.

C. So what is submitting?

1. Submitting is placing yourself in subjection to.

2. Submitting is willingly following your husband’s lead.

3. Submitting is what Christ did when He submitted himself to death for you.

4. Submitting is necessary for peace in the home.

5. Payton Manning may not be the strongest, fastest, or smartest member of the Colts, but he is the designated leader.

a. There has to be a leader on the team and the quarterback is that leader.

b. There has to be a leader on the team and Payton is the leader to whom the others submit, even though he’s not the fastest, strongest, and smartest one on the team.

6. Wives, submitting to your husbands is not degrading or humiliating, it is simply necessary that someone has to lead when there is not agreement and God has chosen the husband to be the leader.

7. Husbands and wives should communicate in loving ways to seek the best for the family, but when agreement cannot be reached, God has chosen the husbands to lead.

D. Submission, however is not absolute.

1. There are exceptions to wives submitting to husbands.

2. Wives, your first responsibility is not to your husband, but to the Lord!

3. Your first allegiance is to Christ and your husband second.

4. If your husband were to ask you to do something immoral, unethical, degrading, or dangerous, you are to "obey God rather than men."

5. Submission to husbands is not absolute; only submission to Christ is absolute.

6. Wives, respect your husband enough to submit to them.

II. Husbands, love your wives

Colossians 3:19, Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Ephesians 5:25-33, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.