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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
3:18-4:1 Living in the Christian Household. Paul gives special instructions for the various members of a Christian household. He addresses wives and husbands, children and fathers, and slaves and masters. Significantly, he addresses the women, children, and slaves directly as equal members of the Christian household, and he addresses each of them first in their respective sections. Cf. Eph. 5:22-6:9.
3:18 Wives, submit to your husbands. Instead of telling wives to "obey" (Gk. hypakouō), as was typical in Roman households, Paul appeals to them to "submit" (Gk. hypotassō), based on his conviction that men have a God-given leadership role in the family. The term suggests an ordering of society in which wives should align themselves with and respect the leadership of their husbands (see Eph. 5:22-33). Paul is not enjoining the wives to follow the prevailing cultural patterns of the day but to live as is fitting in the Lord. Seven times in these nine verses (Col. 3:18-4:1) Paul roots his instructions in "the Lord" or an equivalent term, thus stressing the importance of evaluating everything in light of Christ and his teaching.
3:19 do not be harsh with them. There was a tendency in the Roman world for men to rage bitterly against their wives and mistreat them. Because of their greater strength and louder voices, men in their sinful natures are prone to use harsh words, threats, unkindness, and even physical violence to intimidate their wives. There is no room for even a hint of this in a Christian home; instead, men are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25).
3:21 do not provoke your children. Men are urged to restrain their anger and any other attitudes that can embitter their children (cf. Eph. 6:4), lest they despair of pleasing their parents.
3:22-25 Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters. The relationship between husbands and wives and parents and children are ordained by God from creation. Hence, Paul's instructions on marriage represent the perfect will of God. Slavery, on the other hand, is something created by human beings and does not represent God's will from creation; the Scriptures regulate the institution without commending it (see notes on 1 Cor. 7:21; Eph. 6:5; 1 Tim. 1:10), and the evil of trafficking in human beings is condemned in the NT (1 Tim. 1:10; cf. Rev. 18:11-13). As in any other city or village in the Roman world, there would have been many slaves at Colossae; Paul treats them with dignity and appeals to them directly to honor Christ in their hearts, work, and behavior. Philemon (see the book of Philemon) was one of the slaveholders who lived in Colossae. Slaves should work heartily, not primarily to please their earthly masters but as if they were working for the Lord. The principles of Col. 3:22-4:1 apply to employers and employees today.
4:1 treat your slaves justly and fairly. Paul does not condone the system of slavery but instead provides instructions to believing masters and slaves regarding their relationship to each other in the Lord. Such instruction clearly sows the seeds for the eventual dismantling of this unjust socioeconomic structure (see note on Eph. 6:5).
