Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Word for Today: Thursday, February 7, 2013

Colossians 3:18-4:1 Family Harmony
Memory Verse Colossians 3:23(KJV)
“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men”;


In yesterday’s passage, Paul get us the virtues we need to possess as chosen people of God, now he addresses the relationships within the family.

Our first responsibilities as Christians should be to our homes. It is hypocrisy trying to make other people live holy lives while your family’s lives don’t portray God.
It is very important for family harmony to be preached in homes. Charity, they say begins at home. We are in an age ridden with rebellious children and teenagers who want to have their will. It is whatever the children learn at home that they will exhibit outside, that is why it is proper to train our children up in the way of the lord (Proverbs 22:6).

Today’s passage addresses six categories of people and presents the rules that they are to follow to ensure harmony in the home.
•        Wives
•        Husbands
•        Children
•        Fathers
•        Slaves
•        Masters

Most of us fall into either one, or two of this category, maybe you are that wife that is ill-treated by your husband or that slave ill-treated by your master, don’t repay evil with evil instead see your duty to them as a service to God and God will surely vindicate you for the wrong done to you and he will also reward you for your good.

Apostle Paul started by addressing wives. Wives are to be submissive to their husbands, just as Christ is the head of the Church so is the husband the head the home. It is the duty of wives to obey their husbands.

The next are the husbands, inasmuch as God has placed them as the head, they shouldn’t treat their wives harshly instead they are to love their wives just as Christ loved the Church.

Children are expected to the obedient to their parents. This is very important as it is the only commandment with a promise. A disobedient child will invoke the wrath of God and also reduce their number of days on this earth (Exodus 20:12). As Children, we shouldn’t grieve our parents. I know there are a lot of peer pressures and it’s easy to succumb to them, but let us remember youths like Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who stood for integrity, these youths were in strange lands yet they never compromised their faith in God and also Timothy, a young man who followed in the footsteps of his grandmother and mother. They taught him about the way of the lord and he never departed from it.

Fathers shouldn’t grieve or embitter their children. God gave these children to you, fathers to ensure that they should them love and train them in the way of the lord, don’t favour one child and neglect the other, it will cause discord, and there is no limit as to what the embittered child can do.
It is mandatory for parents to set good examples for their children to follow; parents should ensure that their lifestyle preach Christ to their children. You can’t expect your children to live holy lives if your lifestyle isn’t holy, because it is whatever they see you do that they will also like to do.

Slaves are told to obey their masters, in those days slavery was rampant but it has been abolished. But we can likened this to our present day, most of us work in offices where we have managers we report to, we are to obey them with sincerity. Some people will go any length to pretend or perform eye service to get promoted. Some managers can be very mean but if we bear in mind that we are rendering our services to God, it becomes easier for us to go through these challenges.

Masters, Pastors, managers, and whoever God has placed in a position that you have to oversee people should be fair to everyone. No matter the position you occupy, there is always someone ahead of you. The President of a country maybe the highest in authority but there is always someone greater- God. In performing our duties, we should remember that we are rendering our service to God and not man. God bless you.

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