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Review
1:27 “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The presence of Christ in your life should point your attention to a future glory. 2:6 “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” The kind of Christian that perseveres to that future glory is the kind of Christian who continues walking daily in faith. 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” The way that you walk daily in faith is by having your mind fixed on the resurrected Christ in heaven. But how do you fix your eyes on that which cannot be presently seen? He can be seen, because his body is all around you.
The Body of Christ
The body of Christ is before you in the web of human relationships into which each and every one of you have been woven.
3:18-19 Marriages
Wives, submit to your own husbands. What the secular world wants to pathologize, is simply the clear teaching of Scripture. A wife is commanded to submit to her husband. This carries with it two important qualifiers. First, she is to submit to her own husband and not any other man. Second, her submission is to be “in the Lord.”
Husbands, love your wives. Men your bar is too low for what you consider to be love. Your wife is an end to be pursued like you would any other ambition. One simple way to know whether or not you are actively pursuing your wife is to look to see if there is bitterness or resentment in your heart towards her.
3:20-21 Children and Parents
Children, obey your parents. This pleases God. Generational harmony is the key to culture building and covenantal blessing (Eph. 6:2-3). You give to yourself when you obey your parents.
Fathers, their obedience is actually to God and not to you. So your authority is not a dog whistle that you get to blow to impress people with your kids obedience. Parent their hearts, pointing them to Christ. And if they follow Christ, you will keep them because Christ has kept them.
3:22-4:1 At Work
Employees and Bosses, your contracted labor is a service that you offer before God, a labor that his word governs. Men, you especially are prone to exempt your careers from the rule of God in order to make room for fleshly ambition.
Serving Christ
Wherever we go, we are wrapped up in layers of authority and submission. But every authority that you submit to, you submit to because God would have you do it.
This is radically freeing because it means that you are actually being called to submit to one and only one – the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of your submission.