Book of Colossians - Colossians 3:18-4:18

Book of Colossians - Colossians 3:18-4:18

©2003 www.SpiritAndTruth.org1

Colossians 3:18-4:18 2

Recommended Resource

In this week's passage Paul sets forth roles within the family and workplace. Of these relationships, none is perhaps more misunderstood in our day than the role distinctions between a husband and wife. Feminism, in its well-meaning quest to alleviate the abuse and neglect of women, has overstepped the purpose of God in creating unique differences between the sexes. Radical feminism seeks to erase all distinctions between man and woman, husband and wife and has found advocates within evangelical Christianity who misuse passages (such as Col. 3:11) out of context to argue that all roles, including that of pastor/elder, are open for women to fill equally with men. This is a distortion of the full teaching of scripture. As Satan aptly demonstrated, the most dangerous lie is a partial truth. Those who promote “there is neither male nor female” (Gal. 3:28) as denoting the erasure of all role distinctions are misrepresenting the full counsel of God.

For additional background and discussion concerning the teaching of scripture concerning the role distinctions between men and women, I recommend the book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem. This book is also available online in HTML <http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/cbmw/rbmw/> and Adobe Acrobat format <http://www.cbmw.org/rbmw/>.

Serving Others as Unto the Lord

Col 3:18 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Col 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Col 3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.

Col 3:21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Col 3:22 Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

Col 3:23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,

Col 3:24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

Col 3:25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.

Col 4:1 Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Our Continuing Labor

Col 4:2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;

Col 4:3 meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains,

Col 4:4 that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

Col 4:5 Walk in wisdom toward those [who are] outside, redeeming the time.

Col 4:6 [Let] your speech always [be] with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Final Greetings And Instruction

Col 4:7 Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me.

Col 4:8 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts,

Col 4:9 with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is [one] of you. They will make known to you all things which [are happening] here.

Col 4:10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him),

Col 4:11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These [are my] only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision; they have proved to be a comfort to me.

Col 4:12 Epaphras, who is [one] of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

Col 4:13 For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you, and those who are in Laodicea, and those in Hierapolis.

Col 4:14 Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.

Col 4:15 Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that [is] in his house.

Col 4:16 Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

Col 4:17 And say to Archippus, "Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it."

Col 4:18 This salutation by my own hand--Paul. Remember my chains. Grace [be] with you. Amen.

Summary - High Points of Colossians

1Copyright © 2003 www.SpiritAndTruth.org. Verbatim copying of this document for non-commercial use is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

2New King James Bible. TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982.

3Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Test of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed. Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996.

4MacArthur, John Jr. The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed., Col 4:6. Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997.

5MacArthur, John Jr. The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed., Col 4:7. Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997.

6Philemon also owned at least one slave, a man named Onesimus ( literally “useful”; a common name for slaves). Onesimus was not a believer at the time he stole some money (v. 18 ) from Philemon and ran away. Like countless thousands of other runaway slaves, Onesimus fled to Rome, seeking to lose himself in the Imperial capital’s teeming and nondescript slave population. Through circumstances not recorded in Scripture, Onesimus met Paul in Rome and became a Christian. MacArthur, John Jr. The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed., Phm 1. Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997.

7Walvoord, John F., Roy B. Zuck, and Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures, Col 4:10. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985.

8Lu 4:33; Lu 8:2; Ac 21:15-18; Ro 3:1-2; Col 4:11; Col 4:14 "It is practically certain that Luke was a Gentile... Eusebius speaks of 'Luke being by birth of those from Antioch.' Jerome plainly speaks of 'Luke the physician of Antioch.... It is worthy of note, also, that Luke characterizes demons as 'unclean,' or 'wicked' (Lu 4:33; Lu 8:2), because Gentiles believed in good demons, whereas, to Jews, all demons were evil." [Graham W. Scroggie, A Guide To The Gospels (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1948, 1995), pp. 334-335, 339]. "Luke was of Gentile origin. This is inferred from the fact that he is not reckoned among those 'who are from the circumcision' (Col 4:11 cf. Col 4:14)....Luke was with Paul on his last trip to Jerusalem and seems to have been an eyewitness to Paul's arrest at the Temple as recorded in Ac 21:1-40. ... The point is that when the Jews accused Paul of polluting the Temple by bringing Gentiles therein, why did they only allude to Trophimus? Why did they not include Luke who was also with Paul in the streets of Jerusalem (Ac 21:15-18, e.g., 'we', 'us')?"" [Merrill F. Unger, R. K. Harrison and Howard Frederic Vos, New Unger's Bible Dictionary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1988) s.v. Luke] But see Floyd Nolen Jones, Chronology Of The Old Testament (Woodlands, TX: KingsWord Press, 1999)., p18n3 for reasons Col 4:11, 14 may be inconclusive.

9MacArthur, John Jr. The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed., Col 4:16. Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997.

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