Living Like Christ in Every Role.

I am so glad that you all have joined us today. If we haven't met yet, my name is Abbie and I get the honor of pastoring this amazing community. We are in a series in Colossians, so if you have your Bibles with you, you can open it up to Colossians. We always have resources at our welcome table. Nicole's back there at the welcome table today with Bibles. If you need a Bible, you can grab one. We also have Daily Rhythms journals that will walk you through the book of Colossians if you want to do that.

So grab a Bible, grab one of those journals if you want, and we're excited to dive in today. We're going to be starting in Colossians chapter three, verse eighteen, and we're going to read into chapter four.

Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if you are working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 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. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Colossians 3:18-4:6

Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much today for your word that is alive, your word that is active. We thank you, God, that even today you speak to us through this text that was written years ago. I thank you, Lord, that you know each and every one of us, that you formed us in the palm of your hands, that you know the longings in our hearts, the things that we came in carrying. God, you want to meet us through your word today. You are speaking to us through your word today.

Holy Spirit, would you take these words farther than any human words could ever go? Would you use these words to transform our hearts and lead us closer to you, Jesus, to your likeness, to your love, to the life that we were created to live in communion and unity with you? We ask this, Lord, in your precious and holy name. Amen.

Do you ever read a text like this in the Bible where you're going along, going along, and you're like, all right, I'm with it. I got it. And then something just sticks out to you and you're like, what about this? So this is kind of happening in this text. If you're not reading it in the whole book of Colossians, sometimes it can just jump off and you're like, where does this fit in?

In some ways you're like, okay, Paul is saying wives submit to your husbands, children obey, but then he's also saying no favoritism. How does that all work together? So we're going to talk about this today. But I also want us to go back and read a little bit before in chapter three, because through the years, we believe the scripture is God-breathed, that the scripture has authority, and that the scripture has been translated. There are things where it wasn't quite broken up like this when they first read it. It was this continuation of a letter.

Fun fact, I think it takes eleven to fifteen minutes to read the entire book of Colossians. So you could do that every day to read it as a whole and really become familiar. But as we walk through it, it's important to keep in mind what was Paul saying before this? Earlier in chapter three, he's talking about rules for holy living. And then it goes into today's text about rules for households and Christian households. For rules for holy living, he says:

Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these. Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

Colossians 3:1-11

So this is where the next scripture is rooted and anchored. We're all one in Christ.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other. Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. And as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:12-17

And then we read into our text today. So this is the place that we are anchoring in and diving into these verses.

The foundation: Jesus comes to redeem

Essentially what we're seeing here is that Paul is giving these kind of rules in this way to say, remember, Jesus has come and he died. He paid the price for our sins. He was raised back to life. And he invites us, when we say yes to being followers of Jesus, to now live into this new creation, these new kingdom ethics. He's saying there's going to be in heaven no more slave or free, no more Jew or Gentile.

So he is speaking to this specific culture at this time where slavery existed, where Jews and Gentiles were divided. There was so much division among them. And he's speaking to them saying, hey, at the end of the day, remember in eternity, you are a new creation. You are now my child, my son, my daughter. And together we are going to spend eternity where we're no longer going to be focused on our differences, but it's going to be the love of Christ that unites us.

This is the foundation for what we're talking about today. Every week we have a so what and a now what. Our so what, the big takeaway today is that Jesus came to redeem all broken systems and structures. Jesus' resurrection gives us the power to live into a kingdom reality in whatever roles or relationships we find ourselves in.

Whatever roles or relationships we have, we have an invitation to live into this kingdom reality. We need to let the Lord reframe our roles, our systems, our structures and responsibilities. We need to continue to live from this place that says my eternal role, as a son, as a daughter, as a co-heir, as a co-laborer, that is my identity. My identity is found in Christ. I live from that place no matter where I find myself.

Now why do I want to talk about this in the beginning is because we're going to talk specifically about some of the cultural implications of what it's talking about with wives submitting to husbands and slaves and masters and all of these things. These can be hard depending on where you're at in these structures or these systems and where you find yourself.

I remember part of the reason that this scripture was always so tough for me is I didn't really know what it meant for me. I'm going to tell this story and you can laugh because it's funny. I went to my first ministry pastors meeting for the state of Wisconsin. I showed up, I was twenty-two and I'm an ordained minister and I'm ready to check in and all this kind of stuff. I noticed everybody was getting this book. Instead of a book, they gave me chocolates, which I wasn't mad about at all.

I was like, great, I'll take the chocolates. And then I was just like, I didn't get one of those books. They looked at me and said, oh, they're just for the pastors. I was like, oh, that's me. I'm a pastor. They're like, okay, they probably gave it to your husband. I was like, I don't have one of those. That was literally my response. I was like, I don't really have one of those. They felt terrible and I said, so can I have the book and the chocolate?

I found that so many situations in my life I'm like, where do I fit in a lot of different spaces when I don't have, you know, a family, as some people would say, because I don't have a spouse and I don't have kids. I know that even if you do have a spouse or you do have kids, not all family structures look the same.

I get to work with a lot of children during the week. And it comes up several times where kids ask. Some people say kids ask the darndest things. I'm like, can we just be honest? They ask the rudest things sometimes. I get asked a lot. They're like, do you have a family? And I'm like, what do I say to that?

I've probably told this story before, but one time a kid was so specific. They'll ask, do you have kids? I'm like, no, I don't have kids. And they'll be like, oh, so you have no family. I'm like, well, that sounds sad. Like that sounds really sad. Or one time a kid straight up asked me, he's like, do you have a husband? I was like, no, I don't have a husband. Do you have kids? No. Do you have a dog? No. And he goes, so nobody loves you?

Like, that sounds really sad now. I was like, no, people love me. So then I feel like I have to show them, like, here's friends. Here's proof. Like, someone signed that they love me. But all that to say, no matter where you're at, sometimes even if you are married, your family might not look the way that you thought it would or what you feel like society tells you your family structure and makeup should look like. You might have kids and maybe you don't have a spouse. Maybe you have a spouse and you don't have kids. Maybe you're single, wherever you fall. It can be hard sometimes to read passages like this and be like, well, I don't know where I fit into this structure.

So much of my life, I was like, well, what does that mean? Why submit your husband and this and that? Because I'm like, I don't really have a husband. I love my dad, but my dad lives hours away and I call him all the time. I'm like, what is this? What does this look like? I love how Paul lays this out because he's speaking to a specific culture, but there's an invitation for all of us in this to live like Christ, no matter what role that we find ourselves in.

How to approach this text

As we approach this, I want to give us a little bit of guidelines. All of these things that can have some weighty theology attached to it is kindness, curiosity, through the lens of scripture, Old Testament to New, and ultimately through the lens of Jesus. This is how we're going to approach this text today.

Because what we always have to remember is whenever we pick up the Bible is we have to look Old Testament to New to understand how did God create things in the garden in Genesis? And then what did Jesus, after the grave, after he was resurrected, come back to redeem and to restore?

Everything else is kind of filtered through this lens of these broken systems. And even today, like we still have remnants of broken systems and structures that we live in and that we find ourselves in. So how do we make sense of that? What do we do? The kindness piece is recognizing that specifically this text today. I recognize that some of you, even in the churches you grew up with or you come from, or even today might have different interpretations of this.

And to always approach each other with kindness and curiosity. Jesus says so many times, they're going to know you're my disciples by the way that you love each other. So this isn't like if somebody doesn't see this text the same way, we can't talk to you, we can't love, no. We need to love each other. We need to have curiosity when we read scripture and truly believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us and make the text alive.

And then again, rooted in Jesus. This is the important thing I want to touch on because I think specifically a lot of theology, when we talk about our thoughts about God and our beliefs about God, sometimes we can interpret the life that Jesus lived through Paul and through what Paul says. But what we need to do is remember that we're interpreting Paul's letter through the life of Jesus. We're not reading this and interpreting Jesus based on what Paul said. We're interpreting what Paul said based on what Jesus said. Are you with me there? Does that make sense?

The historical context: back to Genesis

Let's talk about some of this historical context of what we're stepping into. Paul is pulling from Genesis. Paul would have known this all throughout. Even like the letter so far we see him tying into Jesus, Jesus being the first, the last, the final, all of that. Jesus is the one that completes us.

Let me read a little bit of the creation story in Genesis. We read in Genesis that we have the whole creation story written out. If you have your Bibles, you can follow. If not, I'm going to chunk it out, but go read Genesis one through three this week.

Then God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air over the livestock over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves around the ground. God saw all that he made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

Genesis 1:26-28, 1:31

Then I'm going to jump down to chapter two. The heavens and the earth were completed. Now we're going to get a little bit more details of the creation process and what happened.

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man came a living being.

Genesis 2:7

Adam, he's alive, he's breathing. Then verse eighteen:

The Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to man to see what he would name them and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds, the air, and all the beasts of the field, but for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused man to fall into a deep sleep. While he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with the flesh. Then the Lord God made woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man. The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man. For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.

Genesis 2:7, 2:18-25

No shame. That's what we look for someday. No shame for all of eternity. And then we go into chapter three where we see the temptation. The serpent comes in and tempts them and Eve and Adam, they eat the fruit and sin enters the world. And then we see the curse is put on women and all of the things follow in the Old Testament.

In the creation story, we see two things. The first, when it says that God created them male and female, and it was after he created them male and female that they are given authority to rule and reign together as co-laborers. And then we see that where Paul is referencing again in the New Testament. Jesus talks about we are going to be co-laborers and we're co-heirs then with Christ together, male and female working together.

Then when it gives the specifics of the story, some things to notice. The first word that is described as a helper for a woman is this military powerful word called ezer. This word was a powerful word. In other parts of the Old Testament, it's used to describe military strength and the ways that God moved. So we're seeing this powerful word to describe the woman, the partner for Adam.

The other thing that I love here to point out is that it's bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. I always heard it kind of like, she's mine type of a thing. But I think of it so much more in who we see God to be and his heart, Jesus' heart and the way that he interacted with women. You came not from the head, not from the feet, but from the side, saying bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. Like we're in this together. We are one because he created us to co-labor and be co-heirs together as men and women for the kingdom.

A new creation for all relationships

Paul is addressing not only what he's familiar with and speaking about and bringing in, but he's also now speaking to a specific Greco-Roman culture. And that's where this language of household code comes to play. Because for us, again contextually and even statistically, not every single family or household is going to be man, woman, and children today. So this isn't like a straightforward applies to those specific roles, but there is again that invitation for all of us to say, what does this look like?

This is kind of the genesis that we're seeing. At this time, the three different sections that he's referring to, whether it's wives or children or slaves, they were all subject to an authority and to a power in a way that they did not have any legal authority or power or control on their own. He's speaking to both sides of the relationships though. He's speaking to both the people in power and he's going to be speaking to the powerless, those that did not have any power on their own.

Because in that Greco-Roman culture, women could not work and could not provide for themselves. In the same way that we see Jesus, when he talks about divorce, sometimes he's strengthening that language because he recognizes like, if you divorce a woman, she can't provide for herself. She's out in the streets. There's nothing she can do. So he's like, men, you can't just be divorcing women left and right and leaving them on the streets. He's not saying it's the worst sin in the world for you to get divorced. There's like all of these differences here.

In the same way, Paul's speaking to these people saying like, what does it look like? Because you need to provide for these women because in this cultural moment, they cannot provide for themselves.

So wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord. This word here for submit in the Greek is to arrange under or to align yourself with. But this does imply this voluntary alignment and partnership. So he's saying wives, like partner with your husbands, but notice the theme here. As it is fitting to the Lord. That's the other theme we're going to see here where he starts early in chapter three saying like, hey, there's no Jews or Greeks, but you're living as a new creation for the Lord.

He's writing to women at this time where they had no choice because their only way to have a roof over their head, to have food on the table was to be married. So he's saying, hey, if you are in this spot, women, I see you, but remember you're living this way and everything you do is for the Lord. As you align yourself with the person that's providing for you, with the person that is your source right now, like align yourself as it's fitting to the Lord.

He's not forgetting the cultural implications here. Because what I think is also so strategic is he is speaking again to this Greco-Roman world where talking about some of these things would have been socially dangerous. So he's walking this fine line too in the way that he's speaking to them. But then he's saying:

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

This word for love there is agape love, a sacrificial type of love. He's speaking to a culture where it would have been so normal for men to just mistreat the people in their power, to just mistreat whoever was in their household. They could basically do whatever they want and it wasn't going to be questioned.

So Paul's speaking to them. He's saying, hey, those of you that are in positions of power, those of you that are serving as the source, as the head, as the provider, like sacrificially love and care for those that are in your household. Don't be harsh with them. Don't be bitter. Don't be resentful. He's saying to sacrificially love like Jesus.

F.F. Bruce says, "Paul's teaching on women and men must be read in the light of his fundamental principle. In Christ there is neither male nor female. Whatever roles were appropriate in his day they were temporary arrangements, not eternal decrees." Just thread that we see, that we are all on this side of eternity in different roles and structures and systems, but these are not our eternal decrees. But someday there's going to be in heaven no shame, no pain. We're going to be set free. All of that. So there's again this constant thread for that.

We get into children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord. And so again it's different from wives. It's saying like wives, align and submit and kind of put yourself in partnership with the men at the time. And then children, it's saying obey as it's fitting again to the Lord. This language is a little bit different.

Essentially, again, he's speaking to a culture where the children, it's not like now where you're fifteen and you could probably go work at McDonald's or something like that. But similar, you're usually living with your parents and you have someone that's providing for you. So he's saying, hey, listen, obey in that type of way. But he's again speaking more to the fathers saying:

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

Which essentially means they will not have courage. They will be discouraged. But instead he wants them to give them courage. And this is so crucial, I think, for not just fathers, but parents. To see that the primary role when you are parenting your children is that you get to raise disciples of Jesus. It's not about dominion. It's not about we want the most disciplined kids, but we want disciples of Jesus.

Paul is pointing to that where he's saying, hey, don't embitter them or they're going to be discouraged. But there is a special role that you have as a parent because a disciple is someone that is in the process of becoming like their teacher. The best discipleship is not just happening when you show up to church on Sundays or even in small groups, but just when you're walking with someone so closely that you get to see that the way that they're living in the household is a place where that's going to come alive.

Kids are going to watch how their parents live, how they speak, how they forgive, all of those things. So he's talking so clearly here. He's like, don't discourage them, but be people that give them courage.

And then he starts talking about slaves at that time:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

Now Roman slavery was not identical to American slavery. And we know that all around the world there's different types and forms of slavery that still exists in bondage. So this is like so sensitive here when Paul's talking to them. But when he's talking about this and he's saying like, slaves, submit to your masters. I love that after that he gives like even more care to that.

Where he's saying:

Obey your earthly masters in everything and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if you are working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.

Imagine you're hearing this and you're in a place of bondage. You're in a place where, even though slavery was different, there was still exploitation. There was still abuse. There was still the evil that exists of someone owning another human. So it was not good. And he's speaking to those people not in power, but the powerless, who are likely in situations that they're just born into these structures and these systems.

So he's saying, hey, even you, remember you're serving the Lord. Remember eternity. Remember that this is not your final space, your final identity. This is not where you're going to be forever. Work at it with all your heart. And when you work at it with all your heart, you are not justifying what is happening. You are not approving of it. But instead remember they're going to be repaid because God is a God of justice.

We're reminded of this. There was a testimony of this, of God revealing himself as a God of justice and remembering that God is a God of justice. So in these moments where Paul is speaking so sensitively, because he knows they're in pain and Paul himself, he's in prison. He's in bondage right now. He's in a place of pain and he's in a place where he's kind of powerless, but he's writing to say, remember, you're doing this for the Lord and not men. And remember, I'm a God of justice and I am going to repair every single broken system and the people will be repaid for their wrong.

And then he speaks to the masters:

Masters, provide for your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know you also have a Master in heaven.

He's back to the people of power where he's saying, hey, you might be justified right now because culturally it was acceptable for you to have a slave. But he's saying, do right by them. Be fair to these people. Don't just mistreat them because it's culturally acceptable.

Living like Christ in your role

So how do we make sense of this for us today? How do we look at this text and say, what is my role and what is my responsibility and what is my invitation? And maybe some of us, you find yourselves in those roles. Maybe your wife or your husband. We all have parents somewhere. Somebody brought us into this world so we can relate there.

But it might not be specific things that you're finding yourself relating to, but to say, in what ways do I have power? And how might God be inviting me to live? In what ways am I powerless? And there's things that are just out of my control. And how might God be inviting me to live?

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if you are working for the Lord. And then here it says:

Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, the Lord is our reward in everything that we do. The Lord is responsible for repaying all the injustice.

Now that doesn't mean that we don't speak up against injustice. It does not mean that we do not advocate for justice. We do all of those things because that's what Jesus did. That's what we saw Jesus do. So we follow in his footsteps in that. But the most important thing that we can do is continue to look at this big picture and say, how am I continuing to not just live according to what the cultural implications and expectations of me are, but to live into the way of Christ in everything that I do?

So whether that's in my personal identity, which he's talking about in the first part of chapter three, saying put off your old self and put on your new. To constantly be saying, how am I living with Christ? How am I living like Christ? And then when it comes into any role in any relationship that you find yourself in, to say, how am I living like Christ? How am I living into this kingdom reality? Into my eternal identity as a co-heir with Christ. Christ is my reward.

So for those that you find yourself in positions of power, it's these questions. I think for all of us, there's going to be both, right? We all have positions where we might have power, and we all have situations where we feel powerless. In this place of power, to say where can I live sacrificially? How can I love like Christ? What does that look like for me? To love like Christ, to lay myself down for the people around me.

If you're here today and you feel like you're in a situation that you feel powerless, I just feel like this reminder is specifically for you today. The Lord is your reward. Those words can just seem like sometimes a blanket statement, but truly the Lord is our reward. How do we live in all situations at that place? Maybe you're stuck in a job that you're like, this is exhausting. This is not where I want to be. How can you show up and say, I'm doing this for the Lord? This is not forever, but this is a place that he has me in.

I don't know the exact situation that you find yourself in, but I know that the scripture and that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you today through it to say that he is your reward. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs. There is no favoritism. So how can we live like Christ in all situations?

I want to invite you to stand today, and we're just going to take a moment. I felt like overarching of this, as we look at the reality that Jesus came to redeem all broken systems and structures. It's the resurrection of Jesus and the power of his Holy Spirit that gives us the courage every day to live into this new reality. To look at the lives before us and to say, how do I live like Christ in this? We need the power of the Holy Spirit.

So I just want to give us a moment. If you want, you can close your eyes. I'm going to stay up here and just pray and just invite the Lord to show us where we can live sacrificially and where we can love like Christ. Maybe even some of you today, you are in a place where you're like, I feel more of that powerlessness, and I feel like the Lord just wants to remind you that he's your reward.

And then I feel this like challenge for those of us to let the Lord reframe how we have seen systems and structures. Go back to the garden. Go back to creation where he said, male and female, I created you. Here's the authority to rule and reign. And then go back to Jesus' words when he empowered his disciples in Matthew twenty-eight, nineteen and twenty, when he said to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I've taught you. Surely I will be with you always.

God gave authority for us to be his co-laborers, his co-heirs. God sent Jesus to show us what that looks like. To come into these broken systems and these broken structures that may not always feel like we know where we fit in them and we know what that looks like. But he's saying to us again, you are my co-heirs. Right now you're my co-laborers. There's work for us to do. Some of that is us letting the Lord completely reframe and reform how we view our roles and our relationships to other people.

Holy Spirit, would you just speak to us now for these few moments? Would you convict us and would you show us in the roles that we find ourselves in and the responsibilities that we have what it looks like to live like you?

God, we just thank you for your word today. We thank you that you have called us to follow you in all ways. We thank you for your scripture that continues to lead us and to guide us and to draw us closer to you. I just pray that even as we move throughout our weeks, we would just be aware of the places that we find ourselves in and the invitations that we have to sacrificially lay down our lives for the sake of the gospel. To lift others up. To give others power. To give others courage. To give others strength in a way that only you can through the power of your Holy Spirit.

And so as we move from this place, would we be anchored and rooted in the resurrection power? That the old is gone and the new has come. That our current roles are not our forever. But that the identity you're calling us into is your sons, your daughters, your co-heirs for all of eternity. That as we share in your suffering, we too will share in your glory. We thank you for that, Jesus. And it's in your precious and holy name we pray. Amen.