In the World
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Sunday Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:18-4:1 (NRSV)
18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Read more…
Looking to Sunday: Preparing to Hear From God
by Elaine Poproski
One of the reasons preaching through an entire book in Scripture is good for me, as opposed to picking and choosing random passages to preach from, is that doing so forces me to deal with parts of Scripture I don’t like. Don’t get me wrong: I love Scripture. I am awed by the truth that God wants so much to be known by us that He inspired the words of men and women throughout history and continues to use those inspired words to reveal Himself to us. I am amazed by the breadth of genres and diversity of voices that it takes for us to glimpse God’s eternal, infinite personhood. And yet, there are some words in Scripture that I simply wish had been left out. The words we’ll be reading from Colossians this Sunday are those kind of words.
Wives, be subject to your husbands…
Children, obey your parents in everything…
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything…
These instructions are so different from everything else Scripture seems to be saying. Consider Jesus, for instance, and His insistence that the last shall be first (Matthew 20:16) and that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor (Luke 6:20). Consider the whole story of Israel – a nation of slaves, the least of all the nations, set apart to be a light for the world. Consider those Jesus called to be His first disciples – not the rich and powerful, not the religious elite, but simple fishermen from far outside the nation’s capital. And yet, in this little part of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, it seems as though the least are to remain the least and the last are to accept and even embrace their lowly position in the world.
Whenever the way we understand something in Scripture doesn’t fit with the rest of Scripture, we must question our understanding. Is it possible that Paul is not actually advocating the maintenance of the status quo where Greco-Roman household codes are considered? Is it possible that there’s something else going on, perhaps something more subtle, than the apparent directive that wives, children, and slaves just accept that they have less worth than husbands, fathers, and masters?
As we engage with Colossians 3:18–4:1 on Sunday, we’ll be looking for clues for understanding the text in a way that is consistent with the rest of Scripture. As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps read through Colossians in its entirety, looking for clues in the letter itself. For instance, how might Colossians 3:11 inform these later words in the same chapter? Does Paul’s warning in Colossians 2:8 against human tradition have anything to say here? Maybe also read Paul’s short letter to Philemon, a slave owner of Onesimus, one of Paul’s friends who’d previously run away from his master. How do Paul’s words to Philemon help inform our understanding of his words to the Colossians as a whole?