Daily Bible Reading 27th July 2025 // Colossians 3:18-4:1
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
4 Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Notice that throughout this whole section there is a repeated and very significant reference to 'the Lord', often accompanied by an imperative:
v 18 submit..as is fitting in the Lord
v 20 obey..for this is pleasing in the Lord
v 22 obey..with sincerity...and reverence for the Lord
v 23 work..as working for the Lord
v 24 you will receive an inheritance from the Lord
v 24 for it is the Lord Christ you are serving
4:1 provide…you have a master/Lord in heaven
This is the rationale of all that Paul commands. As Christians we are new men and new women, in Christ, in the Lord. We have been made over anew, we are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, and so Paul urges us to be that new man and new woman in the concrete reality of home and work. Let the Christ who is within you shine out. Let Him live out His life in and through you. It is important to realise that as Christians we are citizens of two worlds. Paul was writing to believers who were 'in Christ' but who were also in Colossae. We are 'in Christ' and we are in Edinburgh, and yet it is Paul's burning conviction that it is our heavenly citizenship which is paramount. His ethical imperatives are often set within the context of future rewards and punishments (eg vv 24-25). And so we must ever hold the realities of the eternal world before our eyes. This is what it means to set our minds and hearts on things above. But it is this heavenly citizenship that should and must motivate and direct our living here on earth. It is only when we have our hearts and our minds set on Christ and the things of God that we will be equipped and empowered to live for our Lord in the groanings of this age. Only thus will the whole of our life, the whole of our thought and conduct be submitted to His Lordship.