Let us read together Colossians chapter number 3 verse 18 to verse number 25:
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. May God add His blessing to the reading of the Word.
Let us pray:
Our Father in heaven, we come before You once more, and we ask, Lord God, that You would send forth Your Holy Spirit to kindle the flame within our hearts and open the eyes of our understanding, that we might behold wondrous things out of Your law and might be moved to obey the things that are written therein. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
So far, through the book of Colossians, we've been trekking our way slowly but surely through this wonderful epistle. But anyway, I think it's a wonderful epistle, and I'm sure you do too. We've been looking at different aspects of what Paul the Apostle has been instructing the church at Colossae concerning, and we must never forget that the epistle begins with a prayer.
In chapter number one, verse numbers nine through to verse number ten, Paul says these words: "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy."
And Paul prays that the church in chapter number one will be a church that's filled with the knowledge of His will and would live lives that are fully pleasing to Him. And he unfolds who this Him is, this Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is the preeminent One, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He does it in the end of chapter one, that all things were created by Him and for Him and through Him, and He was before all things. And this is the One with whom all things are held together and exalts this Lord Jesus Christ as the One who is to be obeyed, to be honored, to be worshiped as King, as Lord, as Sovereign One.
But it doesn't end there. He also goes on to tell the Colossians in chapter number two that this Jesus, in Him is hidden all the wisdom and all the knowledge, all the treasures are found in Him. He's not only Lord, He's not only Sovereign, He is not only the One to whom we must give homage and praise and obedience to, but you're looking for wisdom, you find it in Him; you're looking for knowledge, you find it in Him, for you are complete in Him, for He is the head of the church.
And so, Paul goes on to explain that this Jesus is everything to the believer. And he goes on in chapter two to warn them against philosophy and empty deceit, the traditions of men, and legalism, all these things that detract men and take men's attention away from the sufficiency that is in Christ Jesus. He warns them of those things and then he goes into chapter number three and explains them all.
This Jesus, who I've told you about, who is the exalted Lord and King, has a new community of new men, and He has taken those who were in darkness, who were dead in sin, and has made them alive and has brought them together in communities to live out His laws, to live out His gospel, to reflect the praises of Him. And therefore, they should live lives where they are marked by seeking the things which are above and not the things of the earth, marked by lives that put off things that are not pleasing to God, put on things that are pleasing to God, lives of peace, lives of love, lives that show that they belong to Jesus and Jesus is Lord.
In verse 17 of chapter 3 that we finished off with last week, he goes on to say that in everything that we do, in word or indeed, we must do all in His name. We, as new creatures in Christ Jesus, are representatives of Him in the world, and therefore, no task is menial in His sight. We can do all, whether we eat or drink, to the glory of God.
Our holiness of life, Paul mentions in chapter 3, doesn't only extend to our personal conduct and how we think and how we feel and how we behave in relationship to ourselves, but he also says that it affects the way that the community runs and the community operates, and how the church should be. We should be living holy lives not only for ourselves but to benefit others and to show the Christ-likeness to others.
But not only should we show Christ-likeness to others in the church life, but he goes on now in verses 18-21 to show that that Christ-likeness needs to extend into our home life. If the truth be known, it's very easy to live out God's commandments when a lot of eyes are on you, especially eyes that you're not too comfortable with. But in private is where things get difficult. In the home, where you're living your life in front of your wife and your children, it's very easy to become comfortable and to let the flesh, as it were, come out and affect those that are dearest to us.
But what Paul wants us to understand is that all these truths that we have just looked at in all this epistle actually intersect at this point. Now it intersects at many points, but it intersects at this point also, particularly. That's at least what I want to draw your attention to. How does it do that? Well, what does it look like to live a life pleasing to Him, being fruitful in every good work in the home? Verses 18-21 tell us what that looks like.
What does it look like to be a household or have a household where Christ Jesus is preeminent? Yes, He's exalted Lord of all creation, but is He Lord of your home? What does that look like? Well, verses 18-21 let us in a little bit to what that looks like within the home, not only in the church but in the home. How should the new man conduct himself not only in the church life but in his home life? Verses 18-21 also tell us what this should be like.
And how do I know if I've been taken captive by philosophy and vain deceit in relationship to the way I treat my family and think of the home? You see, all these things interplay with this very important subject of the Christian home. And if any institution has been under attack in the last 80 years more than any other, it's the Christian home.
An onslaught that doesn't look like it's slowing down, that is undermining the very foundations upon which our society is built upon. And so it's my desire that we would slow down here at verses 18-21 and we would look at the Christian home and the importance of the Christian home and how we are to behave ourselves as members of the Christian home.
And so I intend to do that with a series of sermons and have a little miniseries in our Colossians series. And I think we'll all be benefited from it. In verses 18-21, there are five imperatives or five commands here. And they're addressed to the different people within the homes. You have wives submitting yourselves to your own husbands, husbands loving your wives and not being bitter toward them. There are two commandments there. And obeying your parents, and you have fathers, don't provoke your children unless they become discouraged.
So, Paul, almost in a rapid-fire manner, says, "Alright, here we go," with his machine gun and firing away. We need this. Paul was concerned about the Christian home. We should be concerned about the Christian home. Five commandments directed to the people of the Christian home in the Christian church, and saying, "Take heed, listen up. There's some important information for us here in God's Word."
And so today, I want to begin with an introduction concerning the Christian home as God's institution. And next week, I want to look at the external threats to the Christian home. I think it's important; we'll see how those things intersect also together. But firstly, let us consider this morning the Christian home as God's institution.
Now, the home is the first and oldest social institution. Between government, the church, and the family, the family existed before all those. In fact, we could actually argue that the church is made up of people that have come from homes or belong to homes and families. And government is only required because of the societies that have been formed because of homes and families.
You see, as families have reproduced and had offspring and offspring and offspring, there's a need for government to protect the rights of the family, to protect those things that have been given to the family to do, to live out, to bring order in the societies that have been formed by families. And so, it is the oldest and it is the first of all institutions, and it is important, very, very, very important.
The church, as I said, is a society of humans made up of families, and there's an inseparable link between the strength of Christian churches and the strength of families. Strong families make strong churches. Strong families make strong societies. You see, I teach you here for 40 minutes or so on a Sunday and a little bit there on Tuesday night, but mom and dad teach the children throughout the week. It is there that they are instructed; it's there that they are corrected; it's there that they are taught.
Husbands and wives, husbands instructing their wives and wives instructing the children with the husbands, and there's this unity in the family whereby there is this education happening in the home. And so, it's very, very important. But before we move on to look at the importance of the institution of the family, I have to give a word of caution.
There is also an extreme by which some people idolize the family, and they think that everything exists in the world for the glory of the family. Jesus strikes right at the root of this tree, and He challenges allegiance to Himself as the ultimate and primary allegiance above even the most dearest of our relationships. He goes as far as to say, "If any hate not father, mother, brother, sister, his own life also, he cannot be My disciple or is not worthy of Me."
And so, as we look at the family and try to exalt it to its proper place, let us not lose sight of the fact that our allegiance ultimately is to Christ. And the reason why I say that is because when we begin to idolize the family, what ends up happening is we lose sight of the commands of Christ in the rest of our society and in the Christian church. And I want us to be careful of that.
There is this balance that must be held, and the issue that we must face is this: our allegiance is not to the institutions; our allegiance is to God and to Christ. And He tells us how to live in all our relationships in society, in the home, under government, and in the Christian church. And so, let us remember that our allegiance ultimately is to Christ; He is the preeminent One.
But where did the home begin? I want us to go all the way back to Genesis chapter 2 this morning, if you want to turn there with me, and I want us to consider verses 18 through to verse 25 that was read for us this morning. Where did the Christian home, or where did the home begin? Where did the family begin?
Well, it was on day 6 of creation, and in Genesis chapter number 2, verse 18 to 25, the Bible says, "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.' Out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
And here, in this passage of Scripture, we have day six of creation, where the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the earth. And as He looked on man, He didn't say what He said about all the rest of His creation at that time. At the end of every day - day one, day two, day three, day four, day five - God looked upon what He had made, and He said it was good. And that doesn't mean that man wasn't good; it just implied the idea that there was a completeness about what He had just created. In fact, though, God finishes the work of Adam, and He says these words: "It is not good that man should be alone," meaning the work of creation concerning human beings is incomplete without the creation of woman.
And so, God then sets out to create Eve, to create woman, out of the side of man, and He did that by putting Adam to sleep, taking one of his ribs, and by forming her. Now, let me just begin by saying this: what we are reading here is distinctively the Christian worldview regarding the family. And if we don't get this right, we won't get anything right in regards to the family moving forward. You see, the world, not having this worldview concerning God and His creative order, falls into many errors at this point of the family because they do not have this standard by which to run by or to measure it up by.
But we, as God's people, recognize that the family institution began by God. It was God's idea; it wasn't man's idea. It wasn't incidental; it's important, it's major. And not only was it not incidental, it wasn't accidental. It wasn't just something that happened because Adam had a great idea; no, God had the idea. It was God that looked upon Adam and said, "It is not good that man should be alone." It was God that looked upon His creation and said, "This work is incomplete; it must be completed with the creation of woman."
And so, it was God's idea that there would be man and that there would be woman. It was God's idea that there would be family. And that's very important to recognize: if it's God's idea and it's God's design, then we must hear what God has to say about His own institution. And amongst all the voices of our current culture and society, the one voice that we must hear is the voice of God revealed here in the Word of God concerning the family.
And the Bible, and God, is so gracious to take us all the way back to the revelation of Himself there at the beginning, to show us how things were from the beginning and set forth a pattern to all the generations that should follow. And He begins by saying, "It is not good that man should be alone." Man needed a companion. Adam needed a helper, a helper comparable to him. Remember, God did not say that after Adam looked at the animals and named them. That's when Adam realized that he didn't have a helper suitable for him. But it was before that that God said, "It's not good that man should be alone. I'll make a helper suitable for him." Then Adam names all the animals and doesn't find a helper suitable for him. And God says, "OK, go to sleep, and I'll make one for you."
It wasn't because, you know, it was a mistake and Adam didn't feel satisfaction. Therefore, God had to make up for that. No, no. It was God's intention from the beginning to make woman so that there might be a family: Adam, Eve, offspring. She was to be a helper comparable or suitable to him, one who was to complement him. That is the biblical worldview concerning marriage, and Corinthians picks this up. Paul picks this up in 1 Corinthians 11:9. He says, "Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man."
As one man said, "The man needs the help; the woman is to help." You see, God said man needs help even though man doesn't feel like he needs help. That's because, on this side of the fall, our pride doesn't indicate that. But the Bible teaches us that men need help. Therefore, for them to fulfill the creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, Adam needed a helper suitable to him and comparable to him that he could not find in the animal kingdom.
So God put him to sleep and made woman, and woman was to be the helper to complement him so that, in their role of subduing and having dominion over the earth, they together could fulfill the creation mandate. This was God's intention from the very beginning.
And so, God completes His creation by taking woman out of man's side. And as Matthew Henry said, "Women were created from the rib of man to be beside him, not from his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."
And so, Genesis 1:27, on the sixth day of creation, was fulfilled: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." And then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
You see, God created the family institution on that sixth day of creation. And God instituted marriage, the first marriage that ever was, the first family that ever came together. And God officiated the wedding right there in the most beautiful garden, in the presence of all the angels and all the creation. This is what God has done.
And God has done this to set forth a pattern to every generation to follow: what a family ought to be, what it is in essence, what this institution is, and how it should be continued on in the generations that follow.
Look with me then in Genesis 2:23-24. This relationship that God designed was a covenantal union. It was not just two individuals being two individuals living in the same garden. God's intention for the home was that there would be union, and not only just union made by man, but union made by God, a covenantal union whereby there would be promises, commitment, and them being part of one another.
This is seen for us in Genesis 2:22-24 when it says, "Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, He made a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." That day in the garden, a covenantal union was made. God brought Eve to Adam, Adam looked at Eve, he received her, and he was joined to her, and they became one flesh. He declared, "She is bone of my bones, she is flesh of my flesh." This was a union, this was a covenant.
Adam was to be one with his wife forever, at the exclusion of all others. He was joined to her in covenantal union. This covenantal union is affirmed by Malachi and confirmed by Proverbs 2:17, that when an adulteress commits adultery, she forsakes the covenant of her God. This is what God has done; He's joined them together in one, not just in the garden but in every marriage that has followed since then between one man and one woman.
But beyond this, in this covenantal union, God made Adam the covenantal head of this union. Adam was the head of this union, and we see that he is the head of this union from several aspects. Firstly, he was the one created first, as Timothy picks up on that point, and therefore she was made to be a helper for him, which indicates that he was to be the one who needed the help and was to be the leader of the home, to be the head of the home. She was to help him in this covenantal union.
But beyond that, Eve was named after Adam. Go to Genesis 5:1-2, and it says, "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind [or called them Adam] in the day they were created." The same Hebrew word translated "mankind" there is the word translated "Adam."
Now, have you ever been to a wedding and they say, "I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Kura"? This is the idea from where that comes from. There was a union, a covenantal union, whereby Eve had her name, she had a name, but she was named and received the name of Adam. Therefore, when we speak of man in general, mankind, we use the word "man," but it also applies to woman as well because she came out from man.
And so, we see that Adam is this covenantal head. Eve adopts and takes on his name; she becomes a sharer of the name, and Adam bears the responsibility for what takes place, therefore, in the home. Now, this is not to mean that Eve doesn't take any responsibility for what happens, but you remember when the fall took place, God called out, "Adam, where are you?" Eve ate first, Adam ate second, but God calls Adam first and says, "Where are you, Adam? Where are you? I told you not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You instructed your wife, but listen, did you live out your responsibilities as a husband, a faithful husband to her?"
Adam's like, "Oh, the woman You gave me, God." "No, she's bone of your bones, Adam. She's flesh of your flesh, Adam." And so we see that Adam is to take responsibility for what takes place in his home. Now, that is not to mean that woman will not be judged for her sins on the final day, but remember, what takes place in the home ultimately falls upon the heads of the home who are responsible to God for the ordering, instructing, and teaching and educating of the family. And that's a very important thing to remember.
The Bible teaches us, "For by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Who is that man? Adam, not Eve. Adam. The Bible singles out Adam in regards to that as being the federal head, not only of his family but of the whole entire human race. And so it's important to realize that that covenantal union was a union by which Adam was head. Now, we're going to look at all these more as we go through the individual responsibilities of each in the coming weeks, but just to help us understand and get back to the beginning and what things were like here.
So, what was God's purpose for marriage? Well, God's purpose for marriage was simply this: to reflect the covenantal union that God has for His people. The Bible is very clear like that. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it." The church is the bride of Jesus Christ, and she is in covenantal union with Him. And that relationship that exists between a husband and wife is to reflect the beauty of God's covenantal faithfulness to His people.
And so, a faithful marriage reflects a faithful God. When you bear with one another, it reflects God bearing with us, and so on and so forth. And so this faithfulness to one another reflects the faithfulness of God in covenantal union. God said the same thing to Hosea regarding Israel. Did He not say, "Stay with her, be with her, with this woman, and it will show My faithfulness to the nation of Israel as a husband to them"?
And not only that, they were to share as companions, as we mentioned, in the labor and dominion of creation. That was also the purpose of marriage. Thirdly, the purpose of marriage was to procreate. Go to Genesis 1:27-28, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'"
God blessed them, and God said that to them because they, together, were to be involved in the creation mandate. And they were to be fruitful and to be multiplying and replenishing the earth. And lastly, another reason for the purpose of their union was to avoid fornication. In 1 Corinthians 7:2, Paul picks this up and says, "To avoid fornication, let every man have a wife." And so there are these reasons that God has purposed in marriage that we are to remember and that we are to fulfill.
Now, what I want to say here as we move towards the end of this introduction is this: Genesis lays the foundation for all marriage in that it defines, patterns, and establishes the home before the fall. And what that means is that we can learn from Genesis what God's intention was, and we can judge every marriage from this day forward, from that day forward, to what God's order ought to have been. Which means that you can test the current cultural views of marriage in light of the Book of Genesis alone.
And so, we see right here from the beginning that God did not make Steve to complement Adam; He made Eve to complement Adam. Straight away, we see there, right at the beginning, that this is one man, one woman. Here we have that right at the beginning.
Secondly, we find even that Adam did not find his completeness in the animal kingdom. And so, therefore, we have to be done with the idea that a dog is man's best friend. Your wife is your best friend, okay, according to God. A dog can be there for the walks, but ultimately, your wife is your best friend. That's biblical. That's what God had intended: that she would complement him.
Thirdly, the important thing is the understanding in this passage that we can see the distinction of the roles right from the beginning that God had established Adam as head and Eve as helper. So the arguments about the roles, the arguments of modern feminism, break down really at this point, even that she was designed to be a helper, out of Adam, made for Adam.
Also, what we learn from this passage is the equality of male and female. That woman is not a lesser being than the man, but they were both made in the image of God. Remember, the highest privilege of the creation was to be made after the image of God. And it wasn't just Adam that was made after the image of God. In the image of God, He created them; male and female, He created them. And in Genesis 5, they were both made in the image of God. And so, we see right there that woman is not less than man. This is the equality that God has established in the garden right from the beginning.
Also, what we see is that the boundaries for sexual intimacy are revealed, and the purpose for sexual intimacy is revealed right here. So, as culture tells us that sexual identity and sexual expression, the purpose of sex, is to express yourself, the Bible just chops that idea immediately. "Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth." It's got more meaning than just expressing yourself. The Bible also talks about it in covenantal union, this "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh," this helper that Eve was to Adam. It's got more than just the gratification of one's own desires. All these things break down.
We also have clear distinctions of the biology between what is a woman and what is a man right there in the garden. So all questions cease at that point where God says, "This is woman, taken out of man." They're different. So all these chapters rule out for us homosexuality, rules out for us polygamy, rules out for us gender neutrality, it rules out egalitarian feminism, it rules out sexual promiscuity, and it rules out a host of other problems that we are facing in our society today.
But the question still remains that the psalmist asked, and we should ask ourselves now: if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? You see, what I have outlined to you today is a very brief overview of the foundations of the family. And these foundations are coming under attack from every angle in the culture and the society in which we live. And my friends, if those foundations be destroyed, what can we do? We're undone. We're done for.
And at the very least, we must fight within the Christian church, we must fight within society, we must fight within our own homes to maintain the foundations of the beginnings of the creation of God. God said, "It is not good for a man to be alone; I will make a woman suitable for him." What God said about marriage, what God said about this institution.
And the question then has to be asked toward us: how are our foundations? Have they been shaken? Has the current climate and the current culture shaken the very convictions that our faith is based on? The faith of our families, the strength of our union in the homes. Have we lost sight of what God's intention was for us from the very beginning?
Adam, I speak to you today. Adam, do you see your wife as God sees her, bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh? Do you see your wife as God sees her, this union that you have as one? Eve, do you see yourself as a helper to Adam, or one who is competing with him all the time and opposing him on every level? Do you see bearing children as part of a wonderful, God-glorifying mandate to the creation, or do you see it as a nuisance and a hindrance to what you desire to do with your life? For many, it's just an interruption, isn't it?
Eve, do you see yourself as one made for him, taken from him, brought to him? Adam, do you see your wife as one who is equally created in the image of God, or to you is she just a lesser being and treated as if she's scum or a second-class citizen? Eve, do you see yourself as equal in essence but different in function, that your equality doesn't extend to all the roles, but it extends to you as being made in the image of God?
You see, these truths are fundamental to the biblical family and God's intentions we should embrace, and we as men and women should submit to. We have to see ourselves in light of how God says we are. The first way to liberation of the soul is to believe what God says about you. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one."
Oh, it goes against the grain of what I desire, it goes against the grain of what society tells me, it goes against the grain of my self-esteem, but my friends, when you embrace what God says about you, you are free. The Pharisee said, "We have not been slaves to anyone." He says, "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. You are enslaved to sin, but if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."
And when and how are you free? When you submit yourself to the rule and reign of Christ. And the same goes in every sphere of our lives. To have a marriage that glorifies God, a marriage of peace and harmony, we'll never experience until we submit ourselves to the authority of Scripture, until we come back to the foundations and we come back to the Bible and say, "Look, I've been doing this wrong, or I've got this wrong and that wrong, and I've been influenced by philosophy and vain deceit, and I need to come back under what God has intended from the very beginning."
Only then will there be true liberation, true freedom in the family when we embrace the very roles and the very responsibilities that God intended for us from the beginning. That's the Christian worldview, and that's how we should approach this subject.
Now, does the church have the right to speak on the family? You know, this is a very sensitive subject, and for many people, it's like, "Tell me about Jesus, but don't tell me about my home. That's my business. You don't live with us."
Well, the issue is simply this: The Bible is complete and exhaustive with instructions in many of the epistles that address the family. In fact, lengthy passages, even like this one, have five commands in a short space of time. But you go to 1 Peter, you turn to the Gospels, you turn to the writings of Paul, the whole chapter in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is set out, the Bible writers are set out, the Holy Spirit is set out on instructing the family that the church is to speak as a prophet, as it were, to the family to instruct the family on what God's expectations are for it.
So yes, Jesus, Paul, Peter all spoke to this issue, and it should never be too sensitive for a subject for the church to deal and handle with. In fact, in Titus 2, when it talks about the family and the roles of the different people in the church – old men, young women, husbands, wives – this whole thing, Paul tells Timothy, Paul tells Titus, "You rebuke and teach and exhort with all authority that no man despise you." Why? Because it's important for the family to be aligned to the truth of the Word of God.
And it's the church's business to teach the truth of the Word of God in all the spheres that the Scripture speaks into, and it speaks very clearly into the sphere of the home. And so, God has given the responsibility to the church to speak to the family, to warn against the errors, to warn against the problems that exist in our culture that relate to the family, to call husbands to repentance, to call wives to repentance, to cause children to repentance, to cause us all – myself included – to examine ourselves where we stand in relationship to the Scripture, and then to come in brokenness and humility and to restore the breaches that exist within our families.
It is the job of the church to uphold the truth of God in a crumbling society, that this new society of God, the church of Jesus Christ, can display the glories of His intentions from the very beginning. Let us never forget that the Christian church is almost as strong as its families. Look, you go through the epistles, you see the household of Chloe, you see Aquila and Priscilla, you see the household of Stephanas – you see these households of people. Yes, you see individuals, but you also see households that were committed to the work of God, strong families that were bearing up in hosting people, showing hospitality to people, carrying out the gospel to the world. This is also in Scripture as examples and patterns for us.
And so, let us then not be afraid of what the Bible says about these issues, but let us return back to the Lord and hear the words of the God who said, "Let Us make man in Our image," who also says to us here, "Be this way in your home, take responsibility in your home." Let us be like Joshua, who said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
And so, husbands, wives, go back to the basics. Be who God says you are. If you are head of your home, whether you act as head of your home or not, you are head of your home; therefore, lead the home. If you are helper, because God made you helper, therefore be helper. Children, if you are offspring that are subject to your parents, therefore be subject to your parents. Be who God made you to be, and then you will know true fulfillment in the families and in the lives that God has given us to live in this world.
And so, as we go on next week to look at the threats that exist in the society, we'll see whether or not we've been taken by philosophy and vain deceit on many levels, and then we'll get into the individual responsibilities of each one in the family. Let us pray.