Order and Instructions for Christian Households

Introduction: Colossians 3:18-4:1 is a perfect segue to our Father’s Day message last week.

This whole section should speak to us more about order and unity than it does about the word submission which usually tends to be the focus in these verses.

Transition: You have heard somewhere, maybe here at CLC that the God we serve is a God of Order – Why?

Question: Can you imagine a world without order?

• In creation there was order! Everything is created and done in God’s sequential plan at God’s ordered time.

In 2 Thess. 2:7, ‘For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way’. (NKJ)

During the tribulation, the Holy Spirit will modify His work to some extent—He will no longer inhibit evil to the degree He now does, and the result will be an unprecedented time of wickedness on earth. But the Spirit will not take a leave of absence. There will still be evangelists to empower and people to save, and that means the Spirit’s presence will still be required.

Divine Order – https://www.gotquestions.org/God-of-order.html

• The Bible’s teaching that God is a God of order is indirect—we understand that God is a God of order through the negation of the idea that He is associated with disorder: “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). This verse is part of a rebuke of the Corinthian church. Their worship services were out of control, chaotic, and even offensive to unbelievers who visited (1 Corinthians 14:23). The book of 1 Corinthians is, in part, a letter outlining proper conduct in the worship of God. Paul bases the command for order in the church service on the fact that God Himself is a God of order, not chaos.
• Order implies a neat and logical organization of items, tasks, or people. When a room is in order, it has been tidied and everything is in its proper place. God’s universe is orderly. He created everything in an orderly sequence in a six-day span that set the world as we know it into motion (Genesis 1:31; Exodus 20:11; 31:17). He created the sun, moon, and stars to regulate time and seasons (Genesis 1:14–18; Psalm 104:19), and the heavenly bodies operate with precise predictability.

Transition: So, let’s dive into our text and learn about God’s divine order as it relates to families and relationships!

Even before sin entered the world, there was still the principle of the husband’s headship (1 Timothy 2:13).

Adam was created first, and Eve was created to be a “helper” for Adam (Genesis 2:18–20).

God has established several types of authority in the world:

1)      governments to enforce justice in society and provide protection.

2)      pastors to lead and feed the sheep of God;

3)      husbands to love and nurture their wives; and

4)      fathers to admonish their children.

In each case, submission is required: citizen to government, flock to shepherd, wife to husband, child to father.

Transition: Let’s begin (before the text) to talk about submission within the family unit.

1. Submission within the family unit

And each Christian should live in humble, ready submission to others (Ephesians 5:22-24).

First, of course, we are responsible for submitting to God, which is the only way we can truly obey Him (James 1:21; 4:7).

1 Corinthians 11:2–3, ‘says that the husband is to submit to Christ (as Christ did to God the Father) and the wife is to submit to her husband’.

The Greek word translated “submit,” hupotasso, is the continuing form of the verb. This means that submitting to God, the government, a pastor, or a husband is not a one-time act.

This is in the future continuous tense. = It is a continual attitude, which becomes a pattern of behavior.

Submission is an important issue in everything!

Transition: With marriage/Family there is order. Here is the plain biblical command:

II. Husband to Christ

First and foremost, husbands are to be subject/submissive (come under) the authority of Christ.

1.  “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22–24).

What Submission is and is not!

There is much misunderstanding in our world today about the roles of husband and wife within a marriage. Even when the biblical roles are properly understood, many choose to reject them in favor of a supposed “emancipation” of women, with the result that the family unit is torn apart.

It’s no surprise that the world rejects God’s design, but God’s people should be joyfully celebrating that design.

Submit is not a bad word.

• Submission is not a reflection of inferiority or lesser worth. Christ constantly submitted Himself to the will of the Father (Luke 22:42; John 5:30), without giving up an iota of His worth.
  
  

• A wife is to submit to one man (her husband), not to every man. The rule to submit does not extend to a woman’s place in society at large. 2) A wife is to willingly submit to her husband in personal obedience to the Lord Jesus. She submits to her husband because she loves Jesus. 3) The example of a wife’s submission is that of the church to Christ. 4)
  
  
• There is nothing said of the wife’s abilities, talents, or worth; the fact that she submits to her own husband does not imply that she is inferior or less worthy in any way.
  
  
• Also notice that there are no qualifiers to the command to submit, except “in everything.”
  
  
• So, the husband does not have to pass an aptitude test or an intelligence test before his wife submits.
  
  
• It may be a fact that she is better qualified than he to lead in many ways, but she chooses to follow the Lord’s instruction by submitting to her husband’s leadership. In so doing, a godly wife can even win her unbelieving husband to the Lord “without words” simply by her holy behavior (1 Peter 3:1).
  
  Submission should be a natural response to loving leadership. When a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25—33), then submission is a natural response from a wife to her husband. But, regardless of the husband’s love or lack thereof, the wife is commanded to submit “as to the Lord” (verse 22).
  
  
• This means that her obedience to God—her acceptance of His plan—will result in her submission to her husband. The “as to the Lord” comparison also reminds the wife that there is a higher authority to whom she is responsible.
  
  
• She submits in things that are right and lawful and God-honoring. Of course, she does not “submit” to abuse—that is not right or lawful or God-honoring. To try to use the principle of “submission” to justify abuse is to twist Scripture and promote evil.
  
  

Transition: So we now move on the husbands place:

III. Husbands Love Your Wives

The submission of the wife to the husband in Ephesians 5 does not allow the husband to be selfish or domineering.

His command is to love (verse 25), and he is responsible before God to fulfill that command.

• The husband must exercise his authority wisely, graciously, and in the fear of the God to whom he must give an account.

• When a wife is loved by her husband as the church is loved by Christ, submission is not difficult. Ephesians 5:24 says, “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

• In a marriage, submission is a position of giving honor and respect to the husband (see Ephesians 5:33) and completing what he is lacking in. It is God’s wise plan for how the family should function.
  
  Commentator Matthew Henry wrote, “The woman was made out of Adam’s side. She was not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.”

Spirit Filled:

The immediate context of the commands to the husband and wife in Ephesians 5:19–33 involves the filling of the Spirit. Spirit-filled believers are to be worshipful (5:19), thankful (5:20), and submissive (5:21).

Paul then follows this line of thought on Spirit-filled living and applies it to wives in verses 22–24. A wife should submit to her husband, not because women are inferior (the Bible never teaches that), but because that is how God designed the marital relationship to function.

Transition: There are two other ‘order’ admonitions:

IV. Parents to Children

Do not provoke/aggravate/embitter

Stir up, excite, stimulate. Give rise to a reaction or emotion, typically a strong or unwelcomed one.

Transition:

V. Children to Parents

Children too do not have a right of emancipation from Parents.

Obey – listen, harden, submit – ‘of one who knocks on the door comes to listen to who it is’.

VI. Slaves to Masters

Serve and willingly – Sincerely – not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers.

VII. Masters to Slaves – Col. 4:1

Be just and fair

Conclusion/Question: Key to submission/oversight in whatever role? Verse 24, ‘Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.’