Angelic Conflict part 345: Future work of Christ [Bema seat]

Title: Angelic Conflict part 345: Future work of Christ [Bema seat] – Col 3; Gal 6:6-10; 2Ti 3:1-5.

Col 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

A wife takes on the name of her husband and a good wife brings honor to that name. We have taken on the name of our Lord. We are called Christians. We only find this word used three times in the NT. This name was originally given to believers as a name of contempt, but it eventually became a name of honor for those who bore the reproach of Christ.

To do all in His name is to do all in His honor. He is God, Man, and Savior. He is our Husband, High Priest, and King.

And as we now see, the areas in the details of life is the perfect place to start practicing these virtues.

Divine good in application to the details of life - marriage, family, and employment are given to exercise the virtue of God's goodness.

Notice how Paul incorporates proper motivation into his admonishing to perform divine good in these areas.

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

"as is fitting in the Lord" - refers to actions that are due someone or a moral obligation.

This is the why or the motivation. Why did Christ in His humanity subject Himself to the Father? Why should a wife subject herself to her husband? Proper motivation will make it a reality but wrong motivation will only make it very short lived.

God has set the authority. The husband and wife in Christian marriage is to be a picture of Christ and His Church in Eph 5:22ff. Lack of submission to authority and desire for independence is what led to the fall of both angels and men. Therefore it is a picture of humility as was the attitude of Christ when He became a man, Phi 2:5.

Fitting in the Lord excludes any authority of the husband to force his wife to sin. In this instance, any of us under any authority, must obey God rather than man.

As fitting in the Lord is the same response to a husband who is disobedient to the word of God.

1Pe 3:1

In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives

This takes faith in the deliverance of God. The promise is that she will have peace in her own soul, whether the disobedient husband responds or not. The opposite is a house divided, which will not stand.

Pro 19:13

A foolish son is destruction to his father,

And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.

Pro 21:9

It is better to live in a corner of a roof,

Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

Pro 21:19

It is better to live in a desert land,

Than with a contentious and vexing woman.

Pro 27:15-16

A constant dripping on a day of steady rain

And a contentious woman are alike;

He who would restrain her restrains the wind,

And grasps oil with his right hand.

Col 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them.

Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church and gave Himself up for her. Therefore, the husband is to lay down his life for his wife. This will never be done without proper motivation. He must know why. There is no greater beauty in the universe than Christ laying down His life for mankind. There is no greater hero than Him who will return for His bride in victory. The husband must experience his own victory in life and then he can be a hero to his wife, certainly not faultless and definitely in need of forgiveness, yet he must experience his own reigning in life through Christ Jesus. Christ could never be a Husband to us if He did not experience His own resurrection life. A Christian husband must also experience his own, in grace, through his own election and predestination and then he can be a husband as Christ is to the Church. In this is honor, nobility, and virtue and not in the way the world promotes it in independence and self-gratification.

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;

Eph 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

Eph 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.

A husband certainly cannot cleanse his wife spiritually or make her holy and blameless, but the point here is that Christ gave Himself up for the Church for her benefit. Those benefits are cleansing, holiness, and blamelessness. In the same way the husband is to give himself up for his wife to her benefit. She may respond to it or not, but the husband is to do this as unto the Lord. Our Lord laid down His life for all mankind, knowing full well that many would reject Him.

Secondly, the Church is the body of Christ and in marriage the woman is of one body with her husband.

Eph 5:28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;

The stated benefit to loving one's wife with agape love is obvious. It is to his benefit, just as subjection is to her benefit, because the soul is at peace and the conscious is of proper priority, Christ first, and therefore clean.

1Pe 3:7

You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

The word vessel is used of a household vessel or a vessel of the temple and so it refers to an instrument whereby something is accomplished. At this time in the world womanhood was accorded a low place. So though she is physically weaker than the man, at this time in society, she was socially weaker. Yet today we see advantages that men enjoy that women do not, although they are fewer. The husband is to understand whatever weaknesses she has and grant her honor as a vessel or instrument that is as useful to the Master as any man. She is a fellow heir of Christ and in Christ there is no less assets given to the woman, for there is neither male or female. Embitterment towards any weaknesses she possesses will become inroads for Satan and the KOD to enter the house through their world system and so his prayers will be hindered, meaning, more deeply, that his relationship with Christ will be hindered.

Gal 5:7

You were running well; who hindered [same word in 1Pe 3:7]you from obeying the truth?

Eph 5:29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

Eph 5:30 because we are members of His body.

Eph 5:31 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. [Gen 2:24]

And, very importantly, the husband and wife must understand how much their flesh, the world system, and the KOD fights against these godly marriage vows and forgive one another and bear up one another.

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

In the 1960's there was a great increase in the number of wealthy and middle class Americans. The struggles of the previous generation that was experienced in the form of the Great Depression and WWII was over and for the first time in American history, much of which was available through technological improvements, most people did not have to work so hard in order to survive. Food preservation, transportation, machines, etc. all made everyday living a bit easier and the children of that great generation didn't have to contribute the family economically in order to ensure its survival. Simply, it was the first generation to have it easy. Certainly this was likely a shock to most of the parents. Who could have seen it coming? If they weren't prepared with strict discipline and admonishing their kids in the right way, and apparently in many cases they either were not or the kids stood their rebellious ground vigorously enough, then the kids became spoiled brats. We had a generation of spoiled brats who rebelled against their parents and the tradition of their parents. They protested the Vietnam war [which war not much unlike the Korean war which was not protested and not near as bad as the world wars]. They gave into free love, rejecting traditional marriage and the family. Girls thought homemaking to be more like indentured slavery. Drug use got high. All of these things existed before but never to the extent that it did then and it all came about because of a generation that lacked true hardship.

These people have become professionals, teachers, professors, politicians, and they never grew up. They are adolescents still and still looking to vindicate their existence, which they don't understand. They fit nicely with progressivism and the post-modern thinking that there is no truth, for if there is not truth then who can determine their errors? These and others like them who have come after them in subsequent generations who have been taught and trained by them have caused tremendous heartache and damage to our society. It began with their choice not to obey their parents.

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

Eph 6:1-3

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.

2Ti 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2Ti 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

2Ti 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;

2Ti 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

Col 3:21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children [being too exacting], that they may not lose heart.

Tyranny never works. God is not a tyrant. God is just and fair and loving and there is no greater example of parenting than in Him. However, not all His children turn out well so a parent cannot be evaluated on the condition of their child. There is always the chance that the children may not respond to a good or even great parent. Yet it is abundantly clear in the scripture as well as empirically in life that parents have a tremendous influence over their children and if they operate in divine good towards their children with love as well as tough love or discipline when necessary it gives the children a great beginning.

Col 3:22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity [singleness as opposed to duality] of heart, fearing the Lord.

Sincerity means singleness, meaning that you have the same heart towards the good boss and the bad boss, which is, obeying authority as unto the Lord, working hard as unto the Lord, and not only when others are watching, but knowing that the Lord sees all.

Divine good always has proper motivation, as unto the Lord, in reverent fear of the Lord and not merely to please men.

Col 3:23 Whatever you do [all production in life], do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men;

Heartily [ek psuche] is literally "out of life," or "out of soul," and refers to vitality.

The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament says of this phrase in this and other verses: "it characterizes a person in the comprehensive vitality through which he really is himself, can find or lose himself, save or give himself up, hate or preserve himself."

God gave us the details of life in all areas so that we could exercise vitality as expressions of God through ourselves, being busy with production all our days.