I don’t know if your Bible has scripture references at the bottom of the page, but mine is to the right of the page. There are other books of the Bible that reference these scriptures here in Colossians, meaning somewhere else they talk about the same thing. While you’re reading there might be a little letter or number or asterisk by a word that tells you this verse appears somewhere else in the Bible. It’s important to know because this part of Colossians has a lot of overlap with a chapter in Ephesians. It shows in my Bible that Ephesians 5:22 all the way through Ephesians 6:20 cover all these same verses. The author, Paul, wrote this particular message in Colossians Chapter 3:18 – Chapter 4:6 in another letter, or book, in the Bible. After reading Colossians, it might be good to check out Ephesians (just two books before Colossians). It might shed light or give more details. The phrasing can be different too. Sometimes there’s more than one scripture reference. This one actually lists First Peter 3:7 (1 Peter 3:7) and Acts 10:34 as well as a few others. So ideally if we wanted to dig deeper into the Scriptures we could flip to those books as well. But I saw that Ephesians chapter 5 and 6 seems to come up in every single verse listed in this particular section. 

Verse 18 “‘Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.'” (NLT) This is according to the appointment of the Lord. God appointed our husbands to lead and have the final say. They are being held responsible by God. We can share our opinion on a situation and help lead in the making of the decision but we then have to let the final decision rest with our husbands. If we choose not to do this, we throw our household out of “order” in God’s eyes and it turns into chaos. So submission is giving the husband the rightful place as the head of the household. There is great danger by God to the husband if he abuses his authority over the house. So let your fears rest with God.

Verse 19 “‘Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.'” (NLT) We all have a love language. There’s an excellent book out there called The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. This is the way you receive love. Yours might be through gifts, words of affirmation, acts of service, physical touch, and quality time. Husbands should know how you receive love (one of these five is your top one, but we all usually have some degree of all five). He should love his wife in the way she receives love, not the way he wants to give love.

Verse 20 “‘Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord.'” (NLT) Children should obey without questioning, debating, disagreeing. Parents are held to a higher standard unto God in how they teach their children. When children obey the authority placed over them, they have a better understanding of what it is to obey God, their ultimate authority in heaven. We must teach our children when they are young how to submit to the authorities in their lives so that they may please God, and ultimately submit their entire lives to God.

Verse 21 “‘Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.'” (NLT) If a child is dealt with harshly, they will be disheartened and unable to receive training from the parent. They shut down. Put up a wall. And no training gets in. The child might do what the parent says, but the parent has lost the battle in actually training that child. The child will rebel at the first chance they get.

Verses 22 -23 “‘Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.'” These verses use the term slaves. This wasn’t a derogatory term when it was written. Slaves were treated very well and were given housing and food for their work. For the sake of applying this to our lives today, we might call this employment. Slaves would be what we call “employees” and masters are the “employer” or boss. So it’s saying here to obey your boss in everything you do. Do the right thing all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than for a person. God is always watching even when we think no one else is. How we treat our boss is how we treat God.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for Your unfailing, forgiving love that covers my mistakes and continually nudges me in the way to go. Thank you for teaching my heart how to listen for You, how to obey You, how to desire You. Help my heart listen to my husband, submit to my husband, and desire Your way of doing life, knowing I can trust You to work all things out for my good and Your glory. Give my husband insight and ideas on how to best love Your daughter the way You created me. Guide my children in wisdom and obedience that they may learn to trust their parents and trust You, God, that it may go well with them in life because of these choices. Guard my words and actions, and my husband’s words and actions, so that we may not discourage or deal harshly with our children, but to train and discipline them from a place of love that always points to You, Jesus. Let us not ignore delivering Truth and consequences, but to give them in the right context, in the right season, and in a fair amount. When no one is looking, God, I know You are there. You see me. You know me. Help me to obey You in every position I’m given, under every authority You’ve placed over me, out of respectful fear of You, God. Equip me with diligence to work willingly at everything that is placed in my care, that You may receive the honor and glory all the more for a work well done, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.