“As For the Lord”

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Colossians Series: Colossians 3:18-4:6

Introduction: I was e-mailed this poem last week that I’d like to read for you. It’s called the “New School Prayer.”

Now I sit me down in school, where praying is against the rule. For this great nation under God, finds mention of Him very odd. If Scripture now the class recites, it violates the Bill of Rights. And anytime my head I bow, becomes a Federal matter now. Our hair can be purple, orange, or green, that's no offense; it's a freedom scene. The law is specific, the law is precise, prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice. For praying in a public hall, might offend someone with no faith at all. In silence alone we must meditate, God's name is prohibited by the state. We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks, and pierce our noses, tongues, and cheeks. They've outlawed guns, but First the Bible, to quote the Good Book makes me liable. We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen, and the 'unwed daddy' our Senior King. It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong, we're taught that such 'judgments' do not belong. We can get our condoms and birth control, study witchcraft, vampires, and totem poles. But the Ten Commandments are not allowed. No word of God must reach this crowd. It's scary here I must confess, when chaos reigns the school's a mess. So, Lord, this silent plea I make: should I be shot; my soul please take! Amen.

The truth is, it is in more places than just schools where we have failed to show obedience to God and His word. This morning we finish up our series on the book of Colossians by looking at Colossians 3:18-4:6. Let’s start with Col. 3:18-4:1.

I. Learning to Submit- (Col. 3:18-4:1; Ephesians 5:21-25)

Colossians 3:18-4:1, “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. ²¹ Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. 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. ¹Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”

From Colossians 3:18-4:1 we see Paul talk about the topic of submitting. In this section he talks about husbands and wives, parents and children, slaves and masters, and our submitting to God Himself.

Of course, submitting is really a state of mind; an attitude of the heart. It actually is a change of heart. As we talked last week about our sinful desires and putting them off so that we can put on our new clothes, so submitting is one of those ‘new clothes’ we need to put on. Our natural tendency is to want to be independent; even from God. That is why Adam and Eve were so tempted to eat of the fruit. They wanted to know good and evil, just like God did. They felt like God was holding them back. This idea of submitting goes along with this attitude of not wanting to be held back. It is Paul getting practical with us, teaching us how to be Christians in our every day relationships.

a. Husbands and wives- Paul starts with husbands and wives. As we

think about this passage, we need to be careful about how we interpret it. And to interpret it correctly, we have to understand the historical setting. In Paul’s time, husbands basically owned their wives. A woman was a possession. A husband could divorce his wife for almost any reason, but a woman had no right whatsoever to initiate divorce. From the wife, the husband could demand complete submission and servitude.

Paul writes Colossians 3:18-19 to give some balance to this relationship; to give a Christian perspective on it. There was to be mutual submission, care, and concern. It didn’t matter what the law said, because God was a higher law, and had higher expectations of this relationship. That is why Paul says in v. 19, ‘Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.’

Even more, we see Paul tell us in Ephesians 5:21-25, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. ²²²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 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. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

This is a wonderful passage, because it teaches us that the concept of submission is not about submitting to a tyrant, or a dictator, but to a servant. Just as Christ served the church, and died for the church, so the husband should be a total servant to his wife, caring for her every need. In this way there is mutual submission and servanthood in the relationship!

PAUL’S WORDS WERE GROUND BREAKING WORDS AT THE TIME. If more couples gave heed to these words, I believe we would have far less marital problems, and the divorce rate would go down!

b. Children and parents- Next, Paul turns his attention to the

relationship between parents and children. Now children had even less rights than wives. Children were under the domination of their parents. A parent could do anything they wanted to do with their children, including selling them into slavery if they so chose.

Again, Paul is trying to help the Colossians understand that God had a greater idea of what the relationship between a parent and a child should be. This relationship should be loving in nature, not tyrannical. This relationship should have depth. This relationship should be meaningful, much the same way as our relationship with God.

So Paul says in verse 20: ‘Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.’ Paul starts with the role of the child. Children were to be obedient; obedient in everything. First, because a child doesn’t know what is right and wrong (even though they think they do, especially when they become a teenager). Second, because God has established parents to have the role of authority for children, and to help guide them in their lives. But third, because if the child is disobedient, then it will upset the parent, and lead the parent to be reactive in their parenting, instead of parenting out of love.

I know that when my kids are defiant before me, it changes my perspective, and keeps me from being able to work with them. Instead I have to discipline and challenge them. This does not lead to us working together.

But Paul also has a word for the fathers, because God has given them a great responsibility in this relationship. The parents are to develop a loving, growing, productive relationship. So Paul says in verse 21, “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.” While at the time a father had every right to treat his children however he wanted, Paul is warning fathers that this would not be beneficial to the relationship. Even more, it is not how God designed for the relationship to work.

I know that sometimes when I am overly hard on my kids, they do get discouraged; they do feel unloved; they do feel beaten down. In these times I have to step back and work with them, and love them a little extra to get them back on track.

c. Slaves and masters- Third, Paul turns his attention to slaves and

masters. While God does not support slavery, this was a practice at the time. And so Paul is trying to help slaves not be abused. Paul is trying to make the best of a wrong situation. Paul is trying to help masters to treat their slaves with love and respect. A slave was really seen as a thing, in this day and age. They had no rights. They couldn’t marry. If they were to have a child, the child would belong to the master. Paul is trying to get the master to turn his thinking from, ‘what do they owe me?’ to that of what Christ would have them think, ‘what do I owe others?’

So Paul says, ‘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.’

Paul, knowing that this life of a slave was a grueling, disheartening place, writes 3 verses of encouragement to the slaves. Paul is helping them to understand that as Christians, they have to be obedient to the authority under which they find themselves, because it is their duty, and because their disobedience will just cause them trouble with their masters. Any disobedience on the part of the slave is an excuse for the master to come down on them.

But Paul gives them a fresh perspective, and that is for them to do their work as if they were serving the Lord; which in the end, that is indeed what their lives were to be about. If they work for the Lord, and not for their human masters, then they could work with joy in their hearts, knowing that they will find blessing from God in this world, and in their life in heaven!

And isn’t that how we should treat our jobs; work for the Lord, not for our employers? If we do this, we too will experience more joy in our work!

Paul also has a word to say to the masters in 4:1, ‘Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.’ As a Christian, a master was to treat his slaves differently than those who were not Christian. They were to treat them with fairness, even though nothing in the law dictated this to them. Masters were to let their slaves have some rights. Again, Paul words are transformative for the time.

All of these relationships were to come out of our first being submissive and obedient to the Lord. We serve the Lord in our lives, and if we have the right attitude, then we will seek to be right in all of our relationships. Hopefully, with this in mind, we will be led to be better spouses, employees, children, and parents. Hopefully, we will seek to live in mutually submissive relationships.

II. Devoted to Prayer- (Col. 4:2-6; Ps., 17:1; John 14:13-14; Matt. 21:22)

Let us finish with 4:2-6, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. ⁵ Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

a. Why do we pray? Paul next turns his attention to prayer. For

Paul, prayer was essential to our faith, essential to our living, and especially important in our service to the Lord. The problem for many Christians is that they don’t understand prayer. For many, prayer is just words we say to an invisible God. They don’t understand the depth of prayer and the power behind our prayers. How can you be devoted to something you don’t understand? You can’t.

So let’s take a moment to see why Paul challenged us to ‘devote yourselves to prayer.’ I came across this piece titled…

Illustration: “An Interview with God.” found on the internet; source unknown.

I dreamt I had an interview with God. "Come in," God said. "So, you would like to interview Me?" "If you have the time," I said. God smiled and said: "My time is eternity and is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?" "What surprises you most about mankind?" I asked. God answered: "That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived…" God’s hands took mine and we were silent for a while and then I asked…"As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?" God replied with a smile: "To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved. To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group on a comparison basis! To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them. To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness. To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings. To learn that money can buy everything but happiness. To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally differently. To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them…and likes them anyway. To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they have to forgive themselves."

I sat there for a while enjoying the moment. I thanked Him for his time and for all that He has done for me and my family, and He replied, "Anytime. I’m here 24 hours a day. All you have to do is ask for me, and I’ll answer."

1. Connects us to God- If we could interview God and talk to God in this

way, we would be able to grow in our relationship with God. That is exactly what prayer is, the avenue by which we connect to God. The psalms are really just prayers to God. The writers of the psalms knew that their prayers were heard by God and connected them to God. As Psalm 4:1 says, “Answer me when I call to You, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress. Be merciful to me and hear my prayer.” You can hear the connection that the psalmist wants to have with God here. OR, Psalm 17:1, which says: “Hear, O Lord, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer, it does not rise from deceitful lips.”

2. Opens doors- Paul asks the Colossians to pray for doors to be open.

Another wonderful aspect of prayer is that when we pray with faith, God will open doors for us to spread His word and to teach others. God graciously answers our prayers for His glory. As we are told in John 14:13-14, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” AND Matthew 21:22- “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

b. Prayer leads us to good behavior- It is by prayer that the power of

God’s Spirit works on us to lead us to behave as we should. As Paul says to the Colossians in verses 5-6, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

As God gives us open doors, we must be wise in what we say to others. We must not be contentious with them, or argumentative, but speak with grace and love. We must live our lives with eyes wide open, so that we can be ready for the opportunities that God gives to us.

Illustration: “The Blind Boy and the Man,” e-mail

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it.
He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way." I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."
Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

So many people are blind to who God is and the difference a relationship with God can make in their life. We should seek to gain more knowledge of God’s ways so that we can answer all who have doubts and questions. We need to pray for them, and have others pray for us in our behavior and witness!

Conclusion: This whole section really comes down to the idea of our submitting to God. When we humble ourselves before God, and submit to God, then we will be more likely to have good and right relationships in our lives, we will be devoted to prayer, and we will seek to not only live out our faith, but share our faith with others! This is at the core of what Paul desires the Colossians to know; desires for us to know.

So, we have made it through Colossians. This letter speaks to the Colossians and to us about the heresies and worldly pressures that exist around us. To stand strong in our faith we must hold fast to the Lordship of Chris in our lives, be devoted to prayer, and understand that our goal in life should be to become mature believers.

Let us hear the words of the apostle Paul, so that we can be ready to do the work of the Lord, standing strong in our faith, and making a difference with our lives. Amen.