Fabric does not come from a fabric tree. A woven tapestry does not grow from a tapestry seed, blooming into a beautiful creation on our wall. The coarsest cotton cloth has to be crafted from individual threads, one piece at a time.
Centuries ago, this was done by hand, each layer woven into the whole in a tedious, finger-numbing process that often took weeks to complete. Larger works? The timeframe could run to months or even years.
Today cloth is pumped out on massive weaving machines, giant automated automatons that work tirelessly day and night to produce the intricate fabrics that surround our every waking moment. Without these weaving machines, our lives would be coarser, poorer, and much less enjoyable. Centuries ago we might have owned one set of clothes, been lucky to have a sheet for our mattress, and a towel? Good luck there. Today we have closets stuffed full of textiles that only a king could have afforded in those days.
Our Christian life is one giant tapestry. Our weaving machine is God the Father in heaven, and we are his threads. He weaves us together in an intricate fashion, choosing just which threads go where, in order to create the most beautiful image possible.
We can see God’s weaving machine in action in Colossians 3:18-25. In this passage, Paul describes each thread in the tapestry and exactly where God needs it to go. If we follow God’s plan, we will become beautiful in him.
The Thread of Domestic Life:
In Paul’s day and time, women working outside of the home was more unusual than not. What we term “domestic life” was very labor intensive. A woman could not set the dishwasher for midnight, throw in a load of laundry before breakfast, and turn the vacuum on to automatically sweep the floors sometime during the afternoon.
Women were tied to household duties and also to their husbands. Knowing this, Paul instructs wives to submit themselves to their husbands. However, this by no means suggests lying down and being a doormat. Paul makes this clear when he explains in no uncertain terms that his words are only for those women whose husbands function in the spirit of the Lord.
The Thread Called Husbands:
Husbands and wives were held to different standards in the first century. A man had rights and privileges that a woman did not possess. Generally, although there were differences in actual practice, if a man found anything about his wife that was unacceptable, he could divorce her, and once divorced she was branded. No one would marry her. A wife had no such recourse, except in the most heinous of situations.
Paul compared the love of a husband toward his wife with the love that we offer unto God. We may not agree with God, may even become disgruntled with God, but we do not divorce God. Men are to be the same with their wives. Husbands are not to cast their wives aside carelessly. We must be there through thick and thin, and it is our love that will smooth the rough places.
The Children Thread:
Children do not grow up with a strong sense of values as an innate and intrinsic part of their core being. Values are not instinctual. They are learned. The crux is that the values children learn in the home are the same values that transfer to their adult lives and into their relationship with God.
Paul lays out his instructions for children in much the same way as he lays out his instructions for wives. He says, obey your parents in all things. Remember, though, Paul is writing to the church at Colosse, not to a pagan tribe in Britain or North Africa. When parents function in the spirit of the Lord, they present good models for their children to emulate. It is pleasing to God when children emulate and obey their parents in all good things.
The Fathers Thread:
The men of the household had all the power. Legally, men bought and sold, could marry and divorce, and when family property changed hands? The man’s fingers were all over it.
Paul does not tell fathers what to do. Culturally, in the timeframe in which Paul wrote this letter, fathers could do almost anything they wanted. Instead, Paul goes at this from a different angle, telling fathers what not to do. When Paul tells fathers to be careful and not provoke their children to anger, what he is really saying is that we must build our children’s respect with love and praise. If they only fear us, that will transfer into their adult lives, and we will paralyze their effectiveness to the Lord.
The Thread of Servants Everywhere:
Slavery was a reality in the first century, and a portion of those in the Early Church were in legal bondage to other men. Paul did not dispute the realities of his day. Rather, he advised that even slaves had a duty before the Lord, to present themselves in the light of the teachings of Christ.
In the modern world, we may not be legal slaves, but we find ourselves faced with many of the same situations Paul pointed out in this passage. We are not to do our jobs when the boss is watching, but play on our computers when he is away. If we do wrong against our employers, it will come back on us. We represent Christ, not only in our homes, but in our places of employment, too.
Paul winds up this passage telling us that even while God understands that we all have different roles in life, he does not hold one position up as more important than another. God does not play favorites, just because one is a wife, a husband, a child, a father, or a slave. We are all threads in his tapestry.
While we are all made from different threads, God uses each of us to weave this tapestry of life. If we play our parts carefully and faithfully, it will be beautiful.
We are woven into a whole by the hand of Jesus. It is the resulting tapestry that is beautiful.
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