Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. Colossians 3:18-21
We said yesterday that the source of tension in relationships comes from the fact that people at their core are selfish. We want what we want, and we want others to do what we want. The problem of tensions in relationships because of selfishness runs through all the settings we are looking at this week. Yesterday the setting for relationships was the church. Today the setting for relationships is the “home.”
When we stop and think about it, “relationships” are more important than anything in life. Just consider for a moment what was accomplished through the provision of redemption through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God was providing the means by which we could be restored to an intimate love “relationship” with him. Without a relationship with God, life is broken, and all is lost. But with a relationship with God comes the glorious adventure of knowing him and living fully for him. With our relationship with God restored and at the very center of everything, we go forward in the adventure of seeing all relationships being restored and transformed.
Today’s Scripture is pretty straightforward as it lays out before us the Divine imperative for “the family.” The imperative society gives us is quite different from this one. Yes, the man (husband and father) in the imperative of this Scripture is front and center. He is front and center, not because he is superior or in control, but rather because God gives to him responsibility for the family. It his leadership that will provide the guidance necessary for his family to live fully for God. When all is said and done, he is the one who will give an account for what has transpired in his family.
The key to this is his own vibrant connection to God that leads the way for vibrant connections with God for his wife and children. As in all relationships, selflessness and not selfishness must prevail. It is his selfless love, devotion, and sacrifice for his family that will make all the difference. Only his selfless love, devotion, and sacrifice for God will make it possible for him to extend these same gifts to his family. From this will come a family setting where all participants can readily follow his lead and go forward with the imperatives of today’s Scripture fulfilled in beautiful and lasting ways.
Lord, thank you for the wonderful relationship with you that is mine through Christ. Continue to make this connection strong so that all my family connections can be blessed and strengthened. Guide my life toward greater correspondence to the imperatives of your word. I love you, Lord, and I am so grateful for the hope and promise that lie before me with all this. Amen!
