Sermon Tone Analysis

The book of Colossians is all about genuine spiritual maturity.

Genuine spiritual maturity is only possible because of a relationship with Christ, you cannot become mature without a growing walk in Christ, and you do not need anything other than Christ in order to grow spiritually.

For this reason Paul began the conversation of genuine spiritual growth with a command to walk in Christ.

In Col 3.1-17 Paul gave these believers the blue print for how one actually does that- in other words, how does one walk in Christ?

You walk in Christ, you grow unto spiritual maturity in your relationship with Christ by:

Seeking the things that are above (that is making Christ the treasure of your heart)

Setting you mind on things that are above (delighting your thinking in Christ)

Putting to death that which is earthly in you (this process of mortification must go all the way deep down to the idolatrous loves of our hearts)

Being renewed by knowledge back into the image of your creator

Putting on the very character of Christ

Paying special attention to four aspects of your walk with Christ that are of paramount importance

Putting on love, being ruled by peace, letting the Word of Christ live in you richly, and doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus- and in everything having an attitude of thanksgiving.

This is what Paul means when talks about walking in Christ, and it is these kinds of believers that will become spiritually mature.

And this is Paul’s goal:

As Paul continues his discussion of spiritually mature believers in Colossians 3 He shifts his focus from a blue print for how to walk in Christ, to what spiritually mature believers will look like once they have been transformed by a meaningful walk in Christ.

In other words, if you follow the pattern of Ch 3.1-17 after a while of doing that- your relationship with Christ will begin to change every aspect of your life.

In Col 3.18-22 Paul focuses on how walking in Christ transforms all social relationships you have.

How will walking in Christ transform other relationships in your life?

Paul gives us four examples of transformed social relationships of believers who have genuinely grown in their spiritual walk.

How will walking in Christ transform other relationships in your life?

I. Walking IN CHRIST will transform the wife to husband relationship (v.

18)

First, notice the command to the wives-

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands.

The term submit means “to subject or subordinate.”

Here Paul uses this command in the middle voice- You, yourselves submit to your own husbands.

When the middle voice is used for this verb in Scripture it takes on the idea of a voluntary submission, this voluntary submission resembles the concept of Christian humility.

So wives, voluntarily put yourself in a position of subordination to your own husbands.

Wives, voluntarily put yourself in a position of subordination to your own husbands, and do so as unto the Lord.

Here, Paul ultimately ties your submission to your husband to your submission to the Lord.

The reason you are to submit is that God has chosen the husband to fulfill the role of HEAD over the home.

Just as Christ is the head of the church, God has chosen the husband to be head in the home.

So as the church voluntarily puts itself into a position of subordination to Christ, so the wives are to do the say for their husbands.

Why?

Because that is the way that God designed it to be!

That was what God thought to be best.

Ladies, your responsibility is to ultimately submit to God and His choice that your husband is the head of your home.

Second, notice the qualification of the command to the wives back in Col. 3.18-

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands- why?

as is fit(ting) (proper, or the right thing) in the Lord.

This is a very important qualification for you wives.

You are told to submit because it is fitting.

Notice, Paul does not tell the wives simply to obey.

Paul does tell children and slaves to strictly obey, but to the wives he says submit because it is fitting or it is right in the Lord.

That means that submission is voluntarily assuming a particular role because it is right.

This qualification eliminates many misunderstandings concerning what submission is and what it is not.

In our culture, for the wife to submit to the husband is akin to sexism, bigotry, and slavery.

Our world would view submission as weakness and as a way for the man to be superior over the woman.

But that is not biblical submission.

Biblical submission is the wife willingly assuming a role in the marriage relationship, that is a subordinate one to the husband, not because the husband is superior to her, but because it is right in the Lord.

That means that submission has nothing to do with personal worth or value.

God values equally the worth of the wife and the husband.

When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the wives will be rewarded to the same degree as the husbands will be- because their worth or value is equal.

When Peter says that the wives are heirs together (with the husbands) of the grace of life- I believe that Peter is referring to the reward of eschatological life that God will give all believers one day.

Both the husband and the wife will be heirs together (equally) because both the husband and the wife have equal value to God.

Case in point that submission does NOT mean that one is superior to another in terms of worth or value is I Cor 15.28.

Here Paul is talking about the end of the story- all the way at the end when all things are subdued unto Christ unto the Son, then the Son will subject or subordinate or submit Himself unto the Father, that God may be all in all.

This is the same word that Paul uses for the wives.

Just because the Son submits Himself to the Father does not mean that the Son has less value than the Father.

No, they are equal in value and worth.

Everything that makes the Son God is equal with everything that makes the Father God.

The Son is not lower in essence, He is simply subordinate in function to the Father.

The same is true of the wife and the husband.

The wife is equal to the husband in essence (in value), but there is a difference in function.

Differences of roles to accomplish specific functions does not mean that one is superior and the other inferior.

Rather it is better to understand that the wife functions in the role of submission- why?

Because God choose that role for her.

Because God knew that the role of being submissive to her husband was the role best suited for her.

And it is the wife’s job to trust God’s judgment.

Therefore, she must willingly put herself in a subordinate role because that role is the right it is proper in the Lord.

Wives, the next time you are tempted to bauk at the idea of submitting yourselves to your own husbands remember that this exact relationship is found within the Godhead.

The Father, Son, and Spirit each have different operations (functional subordination), but they are all equally divine (essential quality).

Your marriage relationship is patterned after those in God, and both husbands and wives should endeavor to understand their roles in that light.

Wives, how are you doing in the area of submitting to your husbands?

Are you doing so willingly?

Are you thinking of submission from a biblical point of view?

Do you understand and see how your submission models the very relationship of the Godhead?

What excuses are keeping you from proper biblical submission?

You don’t know what my husband is like.

I would submit if my husband were a godly leader.

If he would just treat me better then I could submit, but he just makes it impossible!

Why are you submitting?

Are you doing it because it is fitting, it is proper as to the Lord?

In each of these relationships, remember that a wife who properly submits to her husband is a wife who is walking IN CHRIST.

And out of that walk, her relationships are transformed!

Maybe, ladies, you are having trouble submitting, because you are not walking IN CHRIST.

Maybe, there are still some idolatrous loves ruling your hearts, maybe you are delighting your thinking not in Christ, but in earthly things.

You cannot be the mature godly wife that God has called you to be unless you are walking in a deep growing relationship with Christ!

How will walking in Christ transform other relationships in your life?

II.

Walking IN CHRIST will transform the husband to wife relationship (v.

19)

First, notice the command to the husbands- Husbands, love your wives!

This is no earthly, wordly view of love- this is ἀγαπn love.

This is the kind of love that only comes from a believer who is walking in Christ, and who is filled with the Holy Spirit.

This agape love is the first fruit of the Holy Spirit filled believer.

Dr. McLachlan at the WFBC annual meeting did a workshop on strengthening our marital and moral integrity.

And he gave this definition of ἀγαπn love.

Biblical love is “the self” surrendering to God fully and completely by serving one another sacrificially and redemptively.

Biblical love is a radical change from self to unself.

It is a selfless and sacrificial investment in the wellbeing of another.

It is a conscious decision to act first in behalf of another rather than first in behalf of yourself.