Subversive Love – Colossians 3:17-4:1
Passages like Colossians 3:18-4:1 are known as “household codes” they provide instructions to Christian people on domestic matters. They define what a home life should look like, but many of these instructions seem outdated. At best these instructions seem antiquated; at worst outright misogynistic, domineering, and biased toward the wealthy. However, placed within Paul’s context these instructions suggest a way of being at home that disrupts, upends, and challenges the social hierarchies of his days.
SUMMARY OF COLOSSIANS
This letter is written to a young church: The Apostle Paul writes this letter from prison to a young church in the city of Colossae that they may grow in “maturity to Christ” (1:28), despite the cultural pressures that they were experiencing.
Christ began a new Kingdom: The foundation for resisting cultural pressure is recognizing we have been saved from ourselves and are now citizens of a new Kingdom– established in Christ. (1:13;1:15-20;3:1)
Spiritual maturity is learning to live in that new Kingdom: Paul believes that learning to live in the Kingdom of Jesus transforms every aspect of our lives.
ON UNCOMFORTABLE PASSAGES IN THE BIBLE
Passages like Colossians 3:18-4:1 are known as a “household code”, instructions to Christian people on domestic matters. They define what a homelife should look like, but many of these instructions seem outdated.
When we come to passages that on the surface seem problematic we can respond one of a few ways;
We can breeze over it, focusing on the parts we like.
We can outright ignore it, call it a product of a bygone age and keep on what we’re doing.
We can say “the bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it”.
We can wrestle with it.
The bible is a library of ancient literature revealing God’s activity to bring about beauty, justice, and flourishing out of the chaos of our world.
The Bible was composed over thousands of years by people who have a very different lifestyle from our own; It take thoughtfulness, research, and an open-minded curiosity to interpret the scriptures. accurately.
BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
The Greco-Roman world that the Colossians believers occupied was patriarchal and male-dominated.
“It is, in fact, extremely unlikely that Paul, having warned the young Christians against conforming their lives to the present world, would now require just that of them after all.” – NT Wright
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” – Colossians 3:2
Why call for a focus on heaven, if moments later you are going to suggest a social dynamic that mimics the earth?
The key to Paul’s understanding of subversive love is found in verses 11, 14, and 17.
“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” – Colossians 3:11 ESV
“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” – Colossians 3:14 ESV
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”– Colossians 3:17 ESV
In summary, Paul suggests that the Church is a community of diverse equals, united in love, and working to do everything “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”
1. Marital Relationship
“...as between the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject.” – Aristotle
“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. “ – Colossians 3:18-19
Wives submit to their husbands, which deserves careful attention:
it is spoken to a Roman culture obsessed with status and power.
this terminology has long been used to justify the domination and abuse of women.
“...though [Jesus] was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. – Philippians 2:6–8 ESV
The call of Paul is for husbands and wives to march into life not struggling for power but in self-sacrificing love
2. Parental Relationship
“He who loves his son will whip him often,
so that he may rejoice at the way he turns out.
An unbroken horse turns out stubborn,
and an unchecked son turns out headstrong.
Pamper a child, and he will terrorize you;
play with him, and he will grieve you.
Do not laugh with him, or you will have sorrow with him, and in the end you will gnash your teeth. Give him no freedom in his youth,
and do not ignore his errors.
Bow down his neck in his youth,
and beat his sides while he is young,
or else he will become stubborn and disobey you,
and you will have sorrow of soul from him.
Discipline your son and make his yoke heavy,
so that you may not be offended by his shamelessness.”– Sirach 30:1,8-13
“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. “ – Colossians 3:20-21 ESV
In just a few crisp sentences Paul says what thousands of books on parenting say in chapters– “children need discipline, and so do parents.”
3. Socioeconomic Relationship
While first-century slavery was not the racially-motivated evil of the Antebellum south; it was still the practice of owning another human.
“Fodder and a stick and burdens for a donkey
Bread and discipline and work for a servant:
Set your slave to work, and you will find rest
Leave his hands idle, and he will seek liberty
Yoke and thong will bow the neck
And for a wicked servant there are racks and tortures”
– Sirach 33:26-27
Paul doesn’t outright condemn slavery, in this or any other passage, but his instruction put cracks in the foundation of slavery and provides an opportunity to begin seeing beyond the evil institution.
What he does is subtle, but powerful nonetheless.
First, Paul is not putting women, children, or slaves in their place – he is instructing them on what it looks like to behave like Christians in the social roles they are already playing.
“…Paul is trying to Christianize a difficult and possibly abusive situation on his first occasion of addressing the Colossians and so to help the subordinate members of the household not merely survive but have a more Christian environment in which to operate.” – Ben Witherington III
Second, his instructions to the slave follow his radical assertion in verse 11.
“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” – Colossians 3:11 ESV
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” – Galatians 3:28 ESV
Amongst the people of Christ, the old hierarchies of social order and economic status are being erased by Christ.
And Third, he addresses the slave directly, instructing them on faithful service elevating their status.
“Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. “ – Colossians 3:22-25 ESV
And fourth, he addresses the master’s treatment of their slaves in chapter 4, verse 1.
“Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” – Colossians 4:1 ESV
In this seemingly innocuous add-on at the end, Paul shatters whatever foundation one held for owning another human.
Paul insists on defending the humanity of wives, children, and slaves appealing to their equal standing in Christ and warning the powerful that they will be held accountable for their actions.
In the Gospel, Christ is establishing an entirely new social order– one that stands against the exploitive systemic injustices of the Roman Empire.
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE – Love through Service (The ministry of the Towel)
In John 13, there is a peculiar story about Jesus, his disciples, and a towel. A task reserved for the lowest of low, taken up by the king of Kings;
“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” (John 13:14–15)
“A sign hangs on the wall in a New Monastic Christian community house: “Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to do the dishes.” – Tish Harrison Ward
