“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them” (Colossians 3:18-19).
As we approach the end of Colossians chapter three, Paul the Apostle will draw our attention away from the general directives that appeared earlier within this letter to focus upon three different types of relationships. Those relationships involve husbands and wives (verses eighteen and nineteen), parents and children (verses twenty and twenty-one), and concludes with masters and slaves (verse twenty-two).
Before we consider these verses in greater detail, it may be helpful to view them from a historical perspective. While many 21st century audiences tend to view the teachings of these verses in an unfavorable light, that was not always the case…
“This discussion seems negative to us today, but in its day it was strikingly positive. The three groups that had total cultural control (husbands, parents, and slave masters) are equally admonished as were those with no civic power or rights (wives, children, and slaves). This selfless mandate is an example of the reversal of the Fall.” (1)
Another source reminds us that these guidelines are not entirely one-sided…
“The Christian ethic is an ethic of reciprocal obligation. It is never an ethic on which all the duties are on one side. As Paul saw it, husbands have as great an obligation as wives; parents have just as binding a duty as children; masters have their responsibilities as much as slaves.” (2)
With respect to husbands and wives, we can begin our exploration of this passage with a look at the origin of the marriage relationship…
“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him 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” (Genesis 2:18, 21-24).
We’ll continue to build upon this foundation as we consider the proper application of these verses next.
(1) Dr. Bob Utley. Free Bible Commentary, Colossians 3:18 Copyright © 2014 Bible Lessons International http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/new_testament_studies/VOL08/VOL08A_02.html
(2) Barclay, William. “Commentary on Colossians 3”. “William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dsb/colossians-3.html 1956-1959.