Bible Study August 26, 2025
Colossians 3:18 – 21 (CSB)
“Is Christ In Your Home?”
“Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and don’t be bitter toward them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they won’t become discouraged.
If you were to survey Americans today on the subject of submission I imagine the vast majority would say we are all equal, everyone should have the same opportunity, and the vast majority would say they did not like the word submission. It is a Greek verb that simply means we are “willing to put ourselves under someone or something.” If you work you submit simple statement but factual. But when we get to the idea of wives submitting to their husbands the conversation stops there.
However, if you were honest and open minded you must look to the remainder of that verse. “as fitting the Lord.” Submission is secondary to love. The husband must love the wife as Christ loved the church that is an awesome responsibility. It’s all done out of love by both the man and women in the marriage covenant. Submission does not work without love and love does not work without submission.
The word “love” used by Paul here has very deep meaning and often we overlook what he is saying. The use of the word here is “do not be bitter.” Everyone has their own idea of love but what would you think if you looked at as “do not be bitter?”
We live in a society of rebellion today. From civil disobedience to murder, to all types of crimes against humanity. Children are subjected to far more than I was when I was growing up. Thankfully I did not have a helicopter mom that hovered over everything I did. I drank out of a garden hose but today we are concerned that every drop must be two-hundred percent pure. We allow our children to eat food that is laced with unhealthy ingredients yet allow them to tell their parents what to do. Is there a limit to obedience? I believe there is.
We should allow our children a right relationship with God even if we were to believe something to the contrary. It is the responsibility of parents to teach their children right from wrong yet today we have to many absentee fathers and in some cases absentee mothers and the home is not what it should be. The unrest in the world today lies in the hands of the parents.
Until we get the screwed up parents thinking and acting right we will continue to face a lack of submission and obedience in our society. There is an answer but are parents willing to pay the price?
God Bless.
Asbury Chapel 