Be Faithful - Colossians 3:23-25; 4:2-13,17

Being faithful is not always easy or convenient. During the last few years it has become more apparent to me that being faithful and obedient to God’s will is as important for a Christian as ‘being saved’ is to a nonbeliever. The Christian’s responsibilities in faithful living extend to the family and friends as well as to observers who judge a Christian by their works. Faithful obedience is a command from God to all believers, and is just as important as the conversion experience; not in order to be saved; but because we are saved. Writers in the New Testament spent more time instructing Christians on how they should live their life, obey God, and treat others than they did on the simple plan of salvation. I truly believe that the most pressing problems that we face each day in our personal lives, in the life of the church and even the problems of the nation, and world can be attributed to people’s disobedience to God.

In our lesson today, 3:18 to 4:18, Paul continues to make practical applications of the spiritual truths he had set forth in the first two chapters. Last Sunday, we dealt with our focus on holy living in general as we were instructed to set our goals on living a righteous life with Heaven as our final destination. Today, Paul has narrowed our focus to the Christian behavior to include the people we interact with each day, wives, husbands, children, friends, employees and employers. You can not, and you will not understand this commentary unless you read the lesson text. Please read now.

There are two dangers that can become a problem as we study this lesson and we must be aware. First, we must be aware that exceptional circumstances do not negate the principals that are revealed in the Word, and second these passages must not be taken out of context.

The very first verses cause us to ask some ‘what if’ questions. What if the husband of a submissive wife is abusive? Should she steal if he commands her to do so? What if the parents abuse a child? Do you comply if your employer directs you to lie to customers, or to cheat on weights and measures, short change every opportunity? The husband is directed to love his wife. What if she is unfaithful, or mistreats his children? You must know the overall message of the bible, which teaches obedience and honesty are both important virtues. It is so easy to see how these commands are to be handled by just going back to chapter 3: 1 through 17, and read how we are to conduct our lives regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

In Ephesians 5:25-32 Paul states that God has assigned husbands a leadership role in marriage and he has the responsibility of being the ‘head of the family.’ Man’s position is one of servant-leader modeled after the way Christ relates in love toward those of us that make up His church. Both wife and husband should emulate Christ—think about this, Jesus is our Lord, the Head of our household, but He never forces us to do anything; our obedience is always voluntary. Jesus is patient with us when we fail to follow his requests and continues to love us and to act in our best interest. Wives are not submissive to their husband; neither does husbands love wives because either deserves it, but because it is in obedience to Christ.

Verses 20 and 21 should not be taken out of context. Remember that Paul is writing this letter to the church, whose members [including parents] should be living as explained in 3: 1-7. One of the greatest tragedies of our day is that many children do not obey parental instructions when they are given; and in many cases parents do not offer the instructions. There is an age of accountability—and until that age is reached, children are not responsible. They may think they know everything, but in fact the parents must demand obedience. Children can not always see or understand the validity of some parental restrictions because they do not have adult minds. They too are to obey their parents because it is pleasing to the Lord.

The bible teaches that fathers, as head of the family, have a special responsibility toward their children, but children are to obey parents which also includes the mother. Parents should work as a team [agreeing together] and they must teach their children in the right way [see Prov. 22:6]. It is not easy to be a good parent, and it is easy to forget that you are dealing with an immature person. All instruction should be reasonable; nagging or failing to acknowledge commendable efforts may become habitual. Parents can exasperate children with undesirable demands, and Paul is warning us here. By the way, did you ever wonder why the bible does not teach children not to exasperate their parents? He did not instruct them because he realized that they were immature and would not understand or misunderstand the direction.

In verses 22-23, Paul changes from our responsibilities as family members to the responsibilities of slaves and their masters. We think of slavery as being cruel and unjust but it has always been around, and was very prevalent in Paul’s day. I have often wondered why I have never found in the bible where slavery was either approved or condemned. It must have been condoned, as it seems, that was Paul’s position; at least he gave instructions as to how owners and slaves should treat each other. I wish to take the principles he laid down and apply them to management and labor today.

There should always be an understanding between the person that hires and the person that agrees to work; the time, and expectations should be explained by the employer and the wages should be stated. The employee can either accept or reject; however, if he accepts the offer, he is obligated to carry out his part of the bargain. This would take pages to cover completely, but allow me to just mention a few little things that are just not right. Cell phones and cigarettes steal an hour or more each day from the employer. At ten dollars an hour, this means the employer is paying ten dollars a day for the worker to smoke and talk. The employee should work as diligently when left alone as while being supervised.

Management has a responsibility to recompense good and honest effort. When profits go up, salaries should follow and favoritism has no part in the market place. Expensive unions would never have existed, and would never be needed if management would treat labor with respect. The other side of this coin says that when unions gain power they should not use it to force management to continue to keep and pay for inferior workmanship. Paul summed this up better than I can when he indicates that the worker should work as if he is employed by Christ; and I will add that the employer should treat his employee as Christ would treat him. Just think; with this arrangement we would have no labor/management problems in America.

The bible teaches that we are to ‘Work out our salvation in fear and trembling’—this does not mean that we work ‘for’ salvation. It pertains to our daily lives and includes the work place. Whether we are supervised or not, we should work as though we are working for Christ. Our actions in the work place are a part of our daily testimony. Those that see you at work may never see you in church; therefore the only chance you have to influence them is through your attitude toward your job. Failure to do right, is costly; “Wrongdoers will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done.”

The lesson winds to a close by suggesting that Christians have a responsibility to remain faithful to the Church and its leadership. Christ built his church upon a rock and promised that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. The church is His bride and He loves it; and He charged it with the responsibility of witnessing to the world. All ministers, in word or music, child or adult, are called into the ministry and the bible teaches that they are worthy of their calling. Individual members are viewed by God as if each member is a part of the body of Christ, an arm, leg, eye or hand; therefore when you fail to function properly you are actually making it impossible for Christ to reach his full potential.