No matter how dysfunctional our past or present, our future (both now and in the Kingdom to come) can be better. There is hope in God's Kingdom.Colossians 3:18-21
Two important backgrounds to help us understand interpretation of the bible (a/k/a/ hermeneutics):
(1) What does the verse say in the overall context of the book?
(2) What does the book say in the overall context of the culture?
Only as we look at these together can we see the meaning of the verse.
(1) Overall message of Colossians: Christ is Supreme (Col 1:15) therefore be who you were intended to be (Col 3:16-17). How does this fit in daily life? Where does the rubber meet the road? Home.
(2) In the context of any culture, God meets people where they're at, and brings them forward. Scripture always gives a redemptive lift to the oppressed. Women. Children. Poor. Slaves.we are at our worst with those we love the most
There's a cultural progression:
Original Culture of paganism
Old Testament introduces laws and guides for life application
New Testament gave more heart-related internalized life application
Today we live in a further-progressed revelation of life application
Marriage. Slaves. Life together with other cultures and peoples. God started with where people were at, and moved them forward.
In Colossae, the culture of the day devalued women compared with men. They (and Greeks in general) modeled this after nature -- the animal kingdom.
Paul models things on our new nature -- in God's Kingdom
Now we can understand what Paul is saying. It was completely liberating for the women and men in the culture of the day in Colossae! (and in a parallel passage of Ephesians Paul talks about mutual submission).
Our model we follow oday is something like a very soft patriarchal system. There has to be some structure, but it fades quickly. Billy Graham says "Yes I am the head of the household, but we haven't talked about that since our 2nd year of marriage. Today we live at a higher standard."
"submission" is not a slave-like subservience. Paul is just saying to the women "Ladies, let him be the man he wants to be. Masculine men honor God!" and to the men he is saying "Men, love and honor her like she wants to be loved. Feminine women honor God!"
The main point of the book: Jesus is supreme. Jesus gets ultimate honor. So treat each other as deserving of respect.
The whole point of scripture is to call people away from external religion to internal relationship with God. Likewise, we are being called away from external roles to intimacy.We are called to something higher than
the mere execution of roles.
We are called to relational intimacy.
This is much more difficult than the law. Communication and understanding and intimacy is what we are called to. Finding out what is important to one another and understanding one another. That means we have to figure it out as we go along. That takes work!
The goal is not perfection (theme of Colossians is that there is only One who is perfect).
The goal is establishing a family system which can work it out together when anything comes along.
And as we do, heaven breaks in.
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