Our youth pastor was given the opportunity to preach this week and did a tremendous job. 

Colossians 3:18-4:1

In these verses, Paul addresses three pairs of people. 1) Husbands and Wives 2) Parents and Children 3) Masters and Slaves. Some parts of this passage are controversial in our culture. So, let’s take a look at what Paul says. 

Big Idea: The Gospel transforms our most basic relationships. 

1. The Gospel transforms our daily lives through our marriages (vv. 18-19). … Paul calls for husbands and wives to submit to God. For wives, particularly in that culture, that meant yielding to the husband's leadership. In Epheesians 5, Paul again explains this as a model of how we are all to submit to Christ. In our culture, this is a controversial instruction and it has been used in awful, out of context, ways in the past. The Bible tells us that man came first and woman was created to be his companion. As such, the man is the default leader of a family. This passage encourages us to keep that structure. But it doesn’t tell man to rule with an iron fist. On the contrary, man is called to be like Jesus, to love his wife and to make sacrifices for her. 
2. The Gospel transforms our daily lives through our parenting (vv. 20-21). … It pleases God when children obey their parents. And parents are instructed to not overdo it with everything so the children don’t grow discouraged. Don’t put unrealistic expectations on children and don’t give punishments so harsh it jades them.
   1. Disciple our children. … Deuteronomy 6:4-9 gives great instructions on how to do this. At every opportunity, teach the Word.
   2. Discipline our children. … Hebrews and some of the Proverbs and Psalms tell us the importance of discipline and even that God disciplines us because He loves us. 
   3. Encourage our children. … It’s important to give encouragement to children, or really anyone, when they do good or show interest in something that can improve their relationship with Christ.  
3. The Gospel transforms our daily lives through our work relationships (vv. 22-4:1). … Another controversial passage. Paul wasn’t supporting slavery here, he was addressing the culture they lived in. Paul reminds those who are slaves that they are to work hard and that they will inherit a great reward from God. He tells the masters to treat their slaves fairly with dignity and respect because they too have a Master in Heaven who shows no favoritism. How does this apply to us? As employees at work, we should be diligent and always work hard. And if there are people working under us, then we should treat them well.