This study is from an on going online Daily Bible Study at:
DailyBibleStudy.Org | Daily Bible Study Index Page | Daily Bible Study Online E-Book Library
Colossians 3:18
18 Wives, [gune] submit yourselves [hupotasso] unto your own [idios] husbands, [aner] as [hos] it is fit [aneko] in [en] the Lord. [kurios] KJV-Interlinear
18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. NASB
Social structure is one of the key ingredients to a stable society. Without it, chaos exists and tyranny reigns, and suffering is the only thing that anyone will have to look forward to.
Bible doctrine is truth. Anything else is not truth, or a lie.
The scriptures present social order through several mechanisms of social conduct, morals, norms and standards, and practices that promote a stable environment in which everyone can live a reasonable life.
Apart from doctrine, there is no such thing as social order, no such thing as legitimate norms and standards, no such thing as socially acceptable practices, because in the carnal world everything becomes relative. Whoever is in power, sets up the rules, and rules from the carnal world are always evil.
Without Bible doctrine, amorality exists. There are no absolute ethical or moral standards by which society is governed. Without Bible doctrine, people become anonymous, without identities. Without Bible doctrine, people become alienated, distant, even hostile.
Without Bible doctrine, inordinate competitiveness rises, pitting one person against another. And when this occurs, especially within families, then the family structure breaks down and everyone loses, especially the children. Office politics, insubordination, back stabbing and so forth, can destroy an organization.
And although no one individual is better or worse than any other, after all we are all specks of dust, then can one speck of dust be better than another?
However, the perpetuation of human history depends on some sort of order and structure, and God here, commands that order.
The directions in these verses to wives, husbands, children, parents, servants, and masters, are given here not to make one party better than another, but to instill cooperation among people, so that life is better for all.
But these commands are to be applied and consistent with Gods will, not taken advantage of by opportunists attempting to use them in order to control others.
A family can have only one master. Two cooks, two chiefs, make for arguments and disaster.
Paul begins with wives, to be subject, to their husbands. This is not a slave relationship, nor a dictator relationship, but one of cooperation and deference and respect, in contrast with competitiveness and control.
Any good organization leader seeks advice from his subordinates and any good organization leader delegates roles to subordinates. But in any good organization, the people at the top have to get along and work toward a common goal. Selfish interests had to have been left at the door, when the organization was started. And when two people get married, their individual interests must disappear, while their joint and new interests are brought to the forefront of their marriage.
And when children enter into the picture, well then, all adult interests disappear altogether. That is, if the adults are truly grown up, and mature to any extent.
The husband and wife form the basis for a stable society, and both must understand marriage, and each other, and place their own interests behind them, and certainly not compete for authority over the family. Far too often immature or selfish people get married, and that leads to divorce.
