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COLOSSIANS (24) Christ-centered Life (1)

7/16/2023

 
“Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged” (Col 3:18-21)

Review
Last Sunday, we talked about how Christians should treat their relationships with their fellow members in the church community.
 
In Colossians 3 verses 13-17, we find some important elements that make the church community one body of Jesus Christ, such as forgiveness, love, the peace of Christ, the message of Christ, and lastly the name of Jesus Christ itself.
 
And what we find in all these elements is the significance of letting Christ be the Lord of our lives. We’re to bear with each other and forgive one another because the Lord forgave us. We’re to put on love over all the virtues because that’s the greatest command given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
We are to make every effort to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts because Jesus came to the world to make peace in our relationship with God and thus with others. In other words, we are called to peace as members of one body whose head is Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
We’re to let the message of Christ, which refers to the teachings and proclamations that came from Him and the gospel of Jesus Christ, dwell among us richly.
 
So, just like the apostle Paul, we’re to “teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” so that our meetings are firmly based on nothing but the truth of Jesus Christ.
 
And Paul sums up all these things by saying this. “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17).
 
So, even though we find several different commands in the passage, they are actually all talking about one thing—Christocentric life.
 
To become Christians means that we put the name of Jesus over everything we do in our daily lives. It means that we’ve been crucified with Him so that we no longer live but Christ lives in us. It means that we live by faith in the Son of God, seeking what He would do in every circumstance and making every effort to carry out His will in all areas of our lives.
 
We’re to learn to cherish the greatest name given to us by the grace of God—the name of Jesus Christ. Now, our goal must not be to lift ourselves up, but to lift Him up and share His name with others through our lives so that they may glorify and honor Him. In other words, we’re to show who Jesus truly is by following His example.
 
Then, if we really do everything in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, then those who don’t know Him yet will experience the greatness of His love and grace through us and may return to Him. I believe that’s how we serve as vessels of God’s blessings in the world.
 
Thanksgiving
Now, before we move on to the next part, there’s one more thing that I want to mention. In the passage where Paul talks about our relationships within the church community, we learned about how he intentionally included the name of Jesus in every subject.
 
And, there’s one more concept that appears repeatedly in this part—thanksgiving. In the short passage, Paul emphasizes the importance of giving thanks to God in Christian life by mentioning it three times.
 
In verse 15, after encouraging the Colossian Christians to “let the peace of Christ rule in [their] hearts”(Col 3:15a), he said, “And be thankful” (Col 3:15b).
 
In verse 16, after urging them to “let the message of Christ dwell among [them] richly” (Col 3:16a), Paul said, “sing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Col 3:16b)
 
And in verse 17, after saying that “Whatever [they] do, whether in word or deed,” they should “do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17a), Paul added, “give thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17b).
 
So, even though Paul doesn’t specifically mention the virtue of thanksgiving in the passage, he emphasizes its importance. I feel like Paul considered thanksgiving to be a fundamental virtue that Christians need to pursue.
 
I think that’s because thanksgiving is essential in having a close and proper relationship with God. For us to give thanks to God means that we accept everything He has done for us as truth.
 
In fact, everyone who truly understands what God has done for them can’t help but give thanks to Him because they know they don’t deserve any of it. The reason we don’t thank God is not because our hearts are stubborn, but because we’re ignorant about or misunderstand what He does in our lives.
 
So, giving thanks to God is an essential element in Christian life. It is essential not because giving thanks itself is important but because it actually reveals the kind of relationship we have with God.
 
The biggest sign that reveals a problem in your relationship with God is that thanksgiving is absent in your life because again, giving thanks to God is the most fundamental response that every true Christian cannot help but have.
 
That’s the reason thanksgiving is tied to adoration toward God and giving glory to Him. God said in Ps 50:23, “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation” (Ps 50:23).
 
Those who truly acknowledge God’s presence and grace in their lives naturally give thanks to Him. And this thanksgiving is often accompanied by glorifying Him because honoring God comes from knowing who He is and what He has done for us.
 
So, giving thanks to God affects all areas of Christian life. When the peace of Christ rules in our hearts, we will give thanks to God for the true peace we’ve come to have in our relationship with Him and with others through Christ.
 
When the message of Christ dwells in our lives richly, we’ll worship Him with sincere gratitude because we’ll know the great value of the gospel of Jesus Christ and recognize that we don’t deserve it at all.
 
And, when we try to do everything in the name of Jesus, we will give thanks to the heavenly Father through His Son, because we know it’s impossible for us to do what we do now on our own.
 
We know that if there’s just one reason we can follow Jesus’ way, bearing in mind what He would do, the reason is not in us, but only in Jesus who saved us from our sins, made us children of God, and allowed us to be conformed to the image of the Son of God by constantly holding us tightly with His grace and love and strengthening us so that we can stand up again, overcoming our failures and following His way.
 
So, please don’t forget gratitude in your life, but always try to give thanks to God in every situation by remembering who God is and what He has done for you. That’s the key to living out our faith in Jesus.
 
3. Relationships with Family Members
Now, let’s move on to the next part. In the last two chapters of Colossians, Paul discusses how Christians should live out their faith in Jesus, especially in 5 types of relationships. We’ve talked about the first two types—our relationship with Christ and our relationships with fellow Christians in the church community.
 
Now, in the third part, Paul brings up the most fundamental kind of relationship—relationships with family members.
 
Paul said,
“Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged” (Col 3:18-21)
 
Here, Paul talks about the relationships between husbands and wives and parents and children. Wives are to submit themselves to their husbands, husbands are to love their wives, children are to obey their parents, and fathers are not to discourage their children by embittering them.
 
In this passage, we see some specific instructions given to families, but what’s more important is the principle behind them. We see Christ-centered life here.
 
Before we move on, I want to address Paul’s instructions to wives. Some people might feel negatively about the word ‘submit.’ They might think it doesn’t fit today’s circumstances because of the modern connotations of the word. So, Paul’s emphasis on submission may make some Christians uncomfortable.
 
But we also know that a word can have different meanings depending on the context it’s used in. In fact, in Christianity, especially in Paul’s usage of the word, submission doesn’t mean humiliation. Rather, submission appears as one of the virtues that all Christians should have.
 
Paul’s instruction for wives to submit themselves to their husbands isn’t only found in Colossians. It is also found in one of Paul’s other letters written around the same time.
 
Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:22, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord” (Eph 5:22).
 
But, what’s notable is the fact that Paul encourages all Christians to submit themselves to one another in the previous verse. Eph 5:21 says,
 
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21).
 
Therefore, what’s more important than the word “submit” is the basis for these instructions. We’re to submit to one another because we submit ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ and He wants us to be committed to each other as well. So, when the word ‘submit’ is used in Christian relationships, I think it means more like complete trust and commitment.
 
We should look at the principle behind each instruction. What Paul is really talking about here is what it means to call Christ ‘Lord.’ As Christians, we should always try to find what is “fitting in the Lord” in every relationship. That’s how we live out a Christ-centered life, not self-centered.
 
The Christocentric way of life in family relationships is more clearly shown in the book of Ephesians. Paul said in Ephesians chapters 5 and 6,
 
“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord… Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… Children, obey your parents in the Lord…  Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 5:22, 25, 6:1, 4).
 
Here, we find that every instruction is based on one’s relationship with the Lord Jesus. Wives are to submit themselves to their husbands as they do to the Lord. Husbands are to love their wives, following the sacrificial way of love that Jesus Himself showed by laying down His life. In other words, their love for their wives must come from Christ’s love for them and their love for Him.
 
We can find an important principle in all these things. Our relationships with others, including our families, actually depends on our relationship with Christ.
 
I once heard a speaker who talked about relationships. I don’t remember the exact wording, but he basically said, “all the problems we experience in the world come from relationships, especially our relationship with God.”
 
I thought about what this means to see if what he said was right and after contemplating it for a while, I came to agree with him. I thought about every problem I had at that time, especially in my relationships with my family, friends, and others, and concluded that the real problem was my relationship with God.
 
I thought about what would’ve happened if I had treated them the way God treated me, and couldn’t help but admit that there would’ve been no problems if I really had loved them with God’s love.
 
From that time on, every time I found problems in my relationships with others, I tried to check my relationship with God first, and sure enough, I found that the real problem was not the person I was struggling with but my relationship with God. The problems I had with others were actually signs that there was something wrong in my relationship with God.
 
I once heard a story of a woman who went to the pastor of her church and confessed some serious problems she had with her husband. But, after listening to her, the pastor suggested that she check her relationship with God first. And she became somewhat angry with the pastor. She thought he was talking about something different.
 
But, after thinking about it for a few days, she finally admitted that her relationship with God wasn’t the same as before. She realized she had lost something and started to pray about it. She began to pray to have a close relationship with God again.
 
And the recovery of her relationship with God actually started to change every aspect of her life, especially her relationship with her husband.
 
He was the same. He still did the same things that had annoyed her before. But what changed was the way she saw him. God poured out His love in her heart so that she could understand and embrace the things that had irritated her before. That change also affected her husband and they came to have a good, loving relationship again.
 
Then she wrote about her testimony on the church website, and with her permission the pastor used her story in his sermon, which I heard. Through this story, I also realized the importance of my relationship with God and how it affects every aspect of my life.
 
So, if you have problems in your relationship with anyone and it makes you frustrated, it might be a good chance to check your relationship with God.
 
There are two lines in the cross, one vertical and the other horizontal. I believe they represent our relationships with God and with others. Jesus came to the world to reconcile us to God by paying the ransom for our sins. Through His sacrifice, He made peace in our relationship with God.
 
But that wasn’t the only relationship that Jesus wanted to restore. Jesus wants the peace and love we have in God to impact those around us as well. And if we really believe that we’re in Christ and that He is not only the Savior but the Lord of our lives, we’re to make every effort to achieve what He wants us to achieve.
 
We must be continuously devoted to our relationship with God so that we can be filled with His blessing and love, which will affect all the relationships we have with others. I believe that’s how those who say they are in Christ should love.
 
I pray that all of us here today realize the importance of Christ-centered life and our relationship with God so that we can experience them restoring all the relationships we have with others. Let’s pray.
 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us this time to learn from Your word. Thank You for teaching us about the importance of thanksgiving and our relationship with You.
 
Lord, we want You to be the Lord in every relationship we have. We want to learn what it means to live out a Jesus-centered life. Please awaken our hearts and allow us to consider how far we have fallen so that we can repent, return to You, and follow Your way again.
 
Please continue to pour out Your love and presence in our lives and make us more devoted to our relationship with You through reading Your word and through prayer so that we can see Your love working in us, restoring all the relationships we have with others.
 
Please give us Your perspective and Your heart so that we may see others through Your eyes and love them with Your love.
 
We thank You and love You, Lord.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Hope, we pray, Amen.
 
Reflection Questions
1) Why do you think thanksgiving is important in Christian life? What are you thankful for the most nowadays? What prevents you from giving thanks to God?
 
2) How do you think your relationship with God affects the relationships you have with others? How is your relationship with God nowadays? What is something you can do to grow closer to God this week? 


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