Household Code in Colossians

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Scriptures: Colossians 3

• Sermon Summary

  Summary: In the fourth sermon of our series, Cosmic Thoughts for Daily Life, Scott tackles the last portion of Colossians 3. He looks at Paul’s instructions for a variety of social and domestic relationships and how we might engage well with what he offered to the Christians of Colossae.

  What lies beneath: Scott begins by examining Paul’s list of household codes. The list, harkening back to Aristotelian thinking, outlines the foundation of civic society. Scott spotlights the challenges of reading these codes, and reminds us that ancient christian households weren’t monolithic. Regardless, our modern households need not be the same as ancient ones. Scott points out that in all the ways we work to undo harm in our families, we find the same spirit that inspired these texts at work in our homes.

  Attempts at love: Paul’s words are not meant to be understood as only spiritual but decidedly social. Scott shows that an awareness of Paul’s Christlike self-sacrificial relational model for first century households can guide us as we navigate “relational ambivalence” in our modern context. Whether partnered or not, an abandonment of power and a mutual Christlike submission toward one another, can give us a way forward in our daily attempts at love.

  The end of harshness: Scott moves our attention to the children in our lives and our methods of rearing them. By comparing Paul’s words to his contemporaries, we find a sensitivity in his instructions that doesn’t require a harshness of hierarchy to raise kids. The embodiment of our faith is played out every time we meet the children in our lives with kindness, humility, and gentleness; serving and loving children as Christ served and loved the world.

  Going further: Scott takes time addressing the complications of the presence of slavery in Colossians. But, he encourages us to take the ethics of Paul’s teaching beyond the pages. Our “going further” with the text, when it contains challenging cultural context, requires us to do the work of forming healthier communities. We can begin to tell the story well when we read these ancient instructions with care.

• Discussion Guide

  Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.

  Summer Discussion Guide 2025

  If your group is meeting this summer and wants to talk about the sermons, here are a few questions that you could use to engage with our teaching.

  • What specific part of the message resonated with you the most? Why do you think that particular part, or idea, or story caught your attention?

  • Did the sermon speak into a particular struggle or question in your life or your faith journey right now?

  • What did the message challenge or encourage you personally? And what do you think the application could be for our church community? Was there anything that could strengthen or stretch us as a church?

  How did the exposition of the scriptures used in the sermon provide you with a new perspective of deeper understanding?

  It is good to remember that the conversation experience in the group is shaped by the personal stories of those who participate in it and how willing the people are to be open and vulnerable in the group.
  
  So if you’re leading the discussion, feel free to model and encourage person-centred and story-centred sharing by reflecting on how some parts of the sermon resonate with you personally.

  Additionally, what contributes to a more authentic group discussion is when people can share not about the abstract and theoretical applications, but one or two practical things they are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion.

  So, you can end your time together with this question:

  • What is one thing you are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion we’ve just had?

• Service Songs & Prayers

  CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 62

  MUSIC Curated by Rebecca Santos
  Hope Darst - Peace Be Still
  Brook Ligertwood - Desert Song
  Hillsong Worship - Never Walk Alone
  Brandon Lake - Gratitude
  
  YOUTH GRADUATION PRAYER
  Written by Alexandra Chubachi

  May the students in this room look back with pride in how they have grown, and gratitude for everyone and everything that has helped them along the way.

  May the summer be a time of recovered rest. Calm each student’s mind and give them the ability to look forward with hope.

  Guide their intentions for where they choose to spend their energy: may they invest in life-giving friendships, in the satisfaction of hard-work, and how they can make the world a more loving place.

  I pray a special blessing of peace over the graduates in this room: Rebecca, Isabel, Sophia, Elijah.

  May they move forward into the world with dedication, creativity, wisdom, and adventure.

  Anchor them in the truth that they are deeply, incontestably loved by the Creator of the universe.

  Bless the families that are supporting their kids through graduation.

  Give them peace as they watch their children venture out into new stages of independence and physical distance.

  The feelings of delight and grief are so closely intertwined in these times of change.

  I pray they would find comfort knowing that they and their children are held by the same Divine love.

  Thank you God, for every child and teenager and young adult in this room. May we be a community that tirelessly celebrates them.

  Amen.
  
  SERIES BUMPER
  Cosmic Thoughts for Daily Life