Colossians 3:18-4:1
Lesson Focus
Paul calls us to examine all of our relationships as if we were looking through the mind of Christ.
Lesson Outcomes
Through this lesson students should:
Understand that subjugation in relationships is never what God intended.
Understand that we are to reevaluate our current relationships to see if they are pleasing to Christ.
Catch up on the Story
Paul has just finished telling the Colossians what to wear. After doing some serious lifting regarding the nature, origin, and saving nature of Christ’s death and resurrection, he exhorts the Colossians to take off what is from below and put on what is from Christ. What must be stripped off must be replaced with different values and habits. These values and habits only come about through the power of Christ and the collective sharpening of the community of faith that has at its head the risen Christ.
The Colossians, who find themselves followers of Christ, find themselves amid a cultural system that is directly contrary to the mind of Christ. This passage urges them to remain faithful to “the things above” (3:1) in their most common daily relationships. The relationships of husbands and wives, children and parents, and slaves and masters must be reinterpreted using the mind of Christ. While Paul’s comments in this section might seem trite or routine, they would have been quite different from the societal norm.
Some Context
Contrary to our current cultural norms, Greco-Roman culture had a strict hierarchy that specified how everyone in society was to relate to each other. The hierarchy went something like this: The elderly male of status had the most authority. Specifically, in the household context, the eldest adult male had the right to do just about anything he wanted to his wife, children, or slaves who were seen as living property.
While having rights within everyday Greco-Roman culture, wives were not valued as much as we might respect wives today. Indeed, love in the marriage relationship often flows in only one direction, from wife to husband. In most cases, husbands were free to indulge themselves with other women (temple prostitutes and the like) with impunity.
Children, even male children (sometimes regardless of age), were seen as something to be governed and ruled, not treated with equality and dignity. “Aristotle addresses the same three relationships. He assumes that in each pair, one member is superior to the other and hence is given the obligation to rule or govern. ‘For that some should rule and other be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule.’ As we noted in the discussion of 3:11, Aristotle assumed that Greeks, by nature superior to barbarians, ought to rule over barbarians. The same argument gave masters rule over slaves, parents over their children, and husbands over their wives” (Thompson, 90).
This hierarchy was not just cultural but was codified in law. The Roman legal code gave the male rights over his wife, children, and slaves so that the superior person’s vested interests were taken care of. On the other hand, by instructing the people in these relationships as he does, Paul expects that these Colossian Christians try to live rightly amid an unjust and unfair society.
The Text
The last section in chapter 3 is commonly called the “Household Codes” and outlines how Christian believers in Colossae are to navigate their Christian lives amid current cultural norms. Paul addresses three sets of normal familial relationships: the marriage, the parent/children, and the master/slave relationship.
What makes this list different from other household codes is that Paul addresses the person in a position of power in the relationship in a way that calls him to respect and love his subordinate. In doing so, Paul revalues these relationships. It is no longer a one-way street, but each subordinate party in these relationships is lifted from pure subjugation.
Verses 18 and 19 begin with a call for wives to be subject or subordinate to their husbands as is fitting in the Lord. This statement reflects the legal status quo and yet sets a limit to which subordination goes. Conformity to the standard social codes was filtered through the new perspective that believers gain from seeking after the mind of Christ (3:1-4). The difference also comes in Paul’s call for the husband to love his wife and never treat her harshly.
Verses 20 and 21 deal with the parent/child relationship. Children are called to obey their parents as is their duty as children of God. Once again, the normal relationship is filtered through their commitment as children of God.
Fathers are encouraged not to provoke their children, who might cause them to give up hope and lose their zest for life. This is substantially different from other household codes in that the father is not free to do whatever he likes to his children. The emphasis here seems to be on the Father’s duty to bring the children up in the way of Christ.
Finally, verse 22 through 4:1 deal with the master/slave relationship. It may seem that Paul is condoning the practice of slavery. I do not think that is Paul’s intent. I do, however, believe that he is instructing enslaved Christians to filter how they live, work and respond to their masters through the new reality that Christ brings. There is also a sense that these relationships will not last when Christ comes again. Indeed, Paul has declared that there is no longer and slave or free because of what Christ has already done. But the current reality remains, and the Christian’s responsibility is to navigate that situation properly.
Therefore, slaves are to obey their earthly masters in everything they do, even when the master isn’t watching. Their goal should be to please their master. At the same time, however, Paul calls slaves to fear the Lord in all things. Once again, the slave’s actions are to be filtered through the new reality Christ brings. They may not be able to do all that their master desires if it is contrary to the ways of Christ.
Verse 23 is a little interesting. Slaves are called to do things as if they were doing it for the Lord because they will eventually receive an inheritance from him. Slaves were not allowed to receive an inheritance. Paul might be saying here that there is a special place in God’s kingdom for those who have been mistreated in the bonds of slavery. The next verse declares that those who have done wrong will be punished with no partiality. In this context, we can assume that the slave is urged to take some solace in that despite their current situation, those who mistreat them will be appropriately judged by God.
Verse one of chapter four calls the masters to treat their slaves fairly and justly because the master’s master is in heaven. This reminds us that all that we have and own is a gift from God. We don’t own these things at all. Paul is reminding these masters that God ultimately “owns” these slaves and that God owns the master themselves. Their property is not entirely at their disposal to do with as they would please.
So What…?
We all find ourselves amid societal and cultural norms and values that we know are contrary to the way Christ. On a large scale, things like poverty, war, abortion, and the like exist in our world, and try as we might to change things, they remain the same. On a smaller scale, there will always be relationships between wives and husbands, children and parents, boss and worker that are unjust and unfair. While I believe we have a responsibility to work to change these unjust and unfair circumstances, Paul is calling us to live rightly, to view our involvement in these relationships through the eyes of Christ. In other words, whenever we find ourselves in a relationship that is unjust or unfair, we must seek to have our behavior guided by the mind of Christ, not our social norms.
This leads us to one final question, how do we go about re-imagining our relationships? In previous verses, Paul gives us the answers. First, we can be changed only through the power of Christ, through his death, resurrection, and ascension. Second, by allowing Christ to be the head of our body – our individual body and the body of believers. Third, by seeking after the mind of Christ. Fourth, we must ingest and digest God’s word, the words of life and transformation both individually and as a body of believers. Fifth, we must actively be engaged in the lives of our brothers and sisters, teaching them, being taught by them, and allowing them to speak prophetically into our lives and vice versa. Finally, we must gather for worship together, ensuring that all the things we do, we do in the name of Christ –as if he would approve of the things we do.
Discussion Questions
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
How have you been taught how the family is to be structured? Is Paul reinforcing that belief or challenging it?
Paul addresses wives, husbands, children, and slaves. Is there any commonality in how Paul suggests each group behave? If so, what are they?
In verse 22, Paul addresses slaves. Slavery was a reality in Paul’s day, though how it was practiced varied from place to place. By telling slaves to obey their masters, is Paul condoning slavery? Justify your answer.
In the next verse, Paul encourages slaves to view their work as work done to the glory and benefit of God and not of their earthly master. What do you think Paul means by that?
Why doesn’t Paul encourage masters to free their slaves?
In general, how does this passage make you feel?
How would each of these sets of relationships differ if we were to filter our behavior through the mind of Christ?
What is God calling us to do?
How is God calling us to become?
Works Cited
Thompson, Marianne Meye. Colossians and Philemon. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2005).