The Household Belongs to the Lord

Grace and peace to you. I had just said that whatever you do, in word or deed, you must do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17) — and now I bring that word down out of the air and set it in your own house, where the risen life is either real or it is nothing. For it is easy to be radiant in the assembly and hard as flint at your own table. So I speak to wives, husbands, children, fathers, servants, masters — because Christ means to be Lord of the room you sleep in.

Notice how his name runs like a thread through every command. Wives are to submit "as is fitting in the Lord" (Colossians 3:18) — and husbands, in the same breath, are told, "love your wives, and do not be harsh with them" (Colossians 3:19), for there is no lordship over her here, only the costly, tender love that Christ himself has poured on us. Children obey "for this pleases the Lord" (Colossians 3:20); and fathers, do not use your strength to crush — "do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged" (Colossians 3:21). Every duty is answered by a duty. No one in this house is given a whip.

Then I linger longest over the servant, the lowest in the world's reckoning, and I lift his eyes highest. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ" (Colossians 3:23-24). Do you see it? The unseen labor, the task no one thanks you for, the eye-service you are tempted to give when the master turns away — all of it is done before a Master who never turns away, who "shows no partiality" (Colossians 3:25). And to those who hold power over others I say plainly: "treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven" (Colossians 4:1). You are not the top of the ladder. There is One above you, and you will answer to him.

So take this home today. Your marriage, your children, your work, the one you must obey and the one you must lead — none of it is beneath the gospel; all of it is where the gospel is proved. Do the small, unglamorous thing as unto Christ, and you have not wasted it, for he sees, he keeps, and he rewards. Grace and peace be with you.