_THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY._
"Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the
Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
"Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is
well-pleasing in the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children, that
they be not discouraged.
"Servants, obey in all things them that are your masters according
to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but in
singleness of heart, fearing the Lord: whatsoever ye do, work
heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that from the
Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance: ye serve
the Lord Christ. For he that doeth wrong shall receive again for the
wrong that he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
"Masters, render unto your servants that which is just and equal;
knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven."--COL. iii. 18-iv. 1
(Rev. Ver.).
This section deals with the Christian family, as made up of husband and
wife, children, and servants. In the family, Christianity has most
signally displayed its power of refining, ennobling, and sanctifying
earthly relationships. Indeed, one may say that domestic life, as seen
in thousands of Christian homes, is purely a Christian creation, and
would have been a new revelation to the heathenism of Colossae, as it is
to-day in many a mission field.
We do not know what may have led Paul to dwell with special emphasis on
the domestic duties, in this letter, and in the contemporaneous Epistle
of the Ephesians. He does so, and the parallel section there should be
carefully compared throughout with this paragraph. The former is
considerably more expanded, and may have been written after the verses
before us; but, however that may be, the verbal coincidences and
variations in the two sections are very interesting as illustrations of
the way in which a mind fully charged with a theme will freely repeat
itself, and use the same words in different combinations and with
infinite shades of modification.
The precepts given are extremely simple and obvious. Domestic happiness
and family Christianity are made up of very homely elements. One duty is
prescribed for the one member of each of the three family groups, and
varying forms of another for the other. The wife, the child, the servant
are bid to obey; the husband to love, the father to show his love in
gentle considerateness; the master to yield his servants their dues.
Like some perfume distilled from common flowers that grow on every bank,
the domestic piety which makes home a house of God, and a gate of
heaven, is prepared from these two simples--obedience and love. These
are all.
We have here then the ideal Christian household in the three ordinary
relationships which make up the family; wife and husband, children and
father, servant and master.