Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

First of all I would like to begin by saying I did not plan to be in this passage on mother’s day but I did get a bit of a laugh out of it in preparing, especially with all of the misconceptions that surround this and other passages like it in scripture.

In all reality though, what better day to speak about the Christian family than Mother’s day.

Mothers so often are the ones that truly hold a family together.

Mothers are the glue that holds the family together.

Life in the new age begins at hoe, where anger often surfaces and gratitude often evaporates.

This section affirms that the family is one of the primary contexts for faith formation and for living out one’s faith.

In our study so far, Paul has had a pretty broad focus.

Paul addressed his letter to -

and in Col 3:11 made the statement.

Paul defined the community that he was speaking about.

He was speaking to the Christian community as a whole, the body of Christ.

Christ is all and in all.

In our verses for today, we see Paul narrowing the focus down though.

Whereas Paul had been addressing the community of believers and how they interact with each other.

He now focuses in on the family unit.

We must remember that all of the things that we have read still apply, there is not a shift away from how we interact with others because the focus is being narrowed.

It is as if Paul is peaking in concentric circles, one inside the other.

This smaller circle now is His focus.

Paul addresses three pairs in verses 3:18-4:1 - Wives and husbands, parents and children, as well as slaves and masters.

In each one he insists that the more powerful of the pair show concern for the less powerful.

Husbands must treat their wives with love, parents treat your children with understanding, and masters treat slaves as human beings deserving justice.

The motivations for this behavior is distinctively Christian.

Christ’s lordship imposes itself over all aspects of our lives and leads to gentle submission, love, service, obedience, and conscientious work.

Paul is reminding us that as Christians we must remember the design that God has given for the family unit.

To the wives.

Paul begins with the ladies first.

This verse and verses like it have been misused countless times throughout history because people have missed the point and or taken them out of context.

People of taken Jesus and the family out of the context of these verses.

This verse is packed with some very significant theological and practical implications.

First off how we read these verse makes a difference.

Paul is making a direct address in these verses to the people and then stating the imperative.

We could read it,

To the wives -

The verb Paul uses here for submit is in what is called the middle voice.

The middle voice is one of the most difficult to translate into English because the object of the verb is both participating in the action either in one way or another, and the action is also upon the object. .

While an active verb stresses the action itself, the middle stresses the agent.

This can be quite confusing the closest we can get in English is to most often translate the word in a reflexive way.

So another way to understand this would be to read it as - wives let you submit yourselves.

This is a voluntary act, a willing choice, not a law that ordains masculine dominance.

I want to begin by breaking down some of the words in the verse.

The first verb that we see in this verse is submit, or be subject.

This is the narrow meaning of this word, to submit or be subject.

The verb “submit” (hypotasso) does not convey some innate inferiority but is used for a modest, cooperative demeanor that puts others first.

This type of demeanor was something expected of all Christians regardless of their rank or gender.

This type of submission involves the recognition of an ordered structure.

This is not the same word that Paul uses with children when he tells them to obey in verse 20.

Obedience isn’t in view here, rather the relationship between the husband and the wife.

The broader meaning of the word outside of Biblical literature carries the meaning of being associated with.

Taking all of that into account the idea is: wives, let yourselves be on the same page as your husbands.

Eugene Peterson does well in getting this idea across in the Message paraphrase.

Having to do with the form of the verb -

I explained the form because it is quite important.

Paul is telling, imploring, begging, wives to let themselves be in such a relationship to your husband that you are working together with him - as it is fitting in the Lord.

These ideas that Paul is laying out for us stem from his theology, his understanding the Old Testament, and of creation itself.

And further described in Chapter 2

Women, are the only creature not made from the dust.

Woman were created out of the flesh and are to be one flesh.

This union is a picture of the trinity, God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit together as one.

But something got in the way.

Genesis 3. The blame game.

I don’t know how many other families have an additional member in the house that they never see.

My mom used to give my brother and I a hard time and ask us when we got another sibling.

His name was not me and he sure caused plenty of trouble.

Because of Satan’s deception and Adam and Eve’s disobedience, sin entered the world.

God first spoke to the serpent, and then spoke to Eve.

This is the result of sin.

That the woman’s desire, single minded preoccupation, shall be for her husband, rather than for God.

There is a little bit of translation difference in this verse depending on which translation you are reading.

The ESV and NLT take what seems like a different direction.

The reason for this is because the word translated for has a very broad meaning.

Depending upon the context it can mean: for, toward, in, into, up, against, in addition to.

Translation truly is a bit of an art which is why in difficult passages, translations vary.

The importance though is that not matter which version you read their is sin in the picture.

Sin has tainted women’s relationships with their husbands.

This sin has brought about a battle for mastery between men and women rather than relationships working as God designed and intended.

Guys aren’t out of the picture in this verse either though.

Eugene Peterson puts it this way -

In the battle, the mans rule shifts from one of love and kindness to one of domination.

Again - more sin.

God did not instruct the man to dominate his wife.

A helper, as we saw in Gen 2:18 is not someone to be dominated.

The phrase is qualified with As is fitting in the Lord.

Eduard Lohse comments that what is regarded as “fitting” (aneko) is determined entirely by custom and tradition.

Those who have ever lived in another culture for any length of time soon learn that things “fitting” in their own culture are unseemly in another.

But Paul does not just say that it is culturally proper or correct but “fitting in the Lord.”

The Lord determines what is fitting or not.

Some things may be culturally acceptable, but reflection on them “in the Lord” leads to the realization that they are unfit for a Christian.

This qualification recasts the wife’s submission to her husband by turning it into allegiance shown to Christ.

This brings us to the point of the relationship which will be expanded on in the next verse as well.

Our allegiance to Jesus is shown in our marriages.

We must strive as Christians to remember the design that God had for the relationship between men and women and strive, as Paul instructs, to live in a way that honors and glorifies Christ.

To the husbands.

Verse 19 continues with the men.

Husbands are presented with a demanding task, not by Paul, but from the Lord.

Husbands are told to love their wives.

This command reveals that Paul is not writing to prop up the authority and rights of husbands, which everyone especially in that patriarchal society took for granted.

Most of the ancient world did not expect a marriage to be grounded in love.

It was considered and union, though usually unequal, between and man and a woman to produce legitimate heirs.

Requiring wives to submit to husbands, as we have noted, matches widespread Greek and Jewish teaching about marriage.