What Is Colossians 3:18–4:1 Saying about Submission within Family and Society?

BY BCL | Talk about wives submitting, kids obeying, and servants serving, and controversy is likely to follow. What is the apostle Paul saying in Colossians 3:18-4:1 about submission?

Photo Credit: Nathan Mueller

In our current environment, if you want to cause offense, then all you have to do is read Colossians 3:18-4:1 regarding our roles in family and society:

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 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. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservantsjustly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Paul’s exhortations in Colossians are in our day like a door slammed in the face. Mention wives submitting, kids obeying, and servants serving, and people get angry. Indeed, few passages in Scripture are more dismissed, disparaged, and explained away than this one.  

One writer on this text said, “male authority over women is pagan, anti-gospel; it cannot be redeemed; it can only be aborted.”[1] Others deride Paul as a misogynist who upholds an unjust patriarchy. Still others posit that this passage is not from Paul’s hand, but it is a later addition. However, the most common way to ignore these demands is to label them as ancient cultural accommodation that is irrelevant to us as modern people.  

Yet, even as these verses make us uncomfortable, the fact remains that they belong to Holy Scripture, which God inspired for our training in righteousness. Thus, the question stands: Will we heed God’s word or replace it with human opinion? As we will see, the wisdom Paul displays in these directives gives us both the liberty to live in gratitude and the loving comfort of our true master, Jesus Christ…