Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. We got two chapters of Colossians today, and I'm going to challenge you just like I challenged you yesterday, just like I challenged you with Philippians to go ahead and read all of Colossians today, just like you read all of Colossians yesterday. Now, if you wanna just stick to the plan and read Colossians 1 and 2 yesterday and then 3 and 4 today, nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying if you wanna take it up a notch, take it up a level. Let's go. Okay. All right. If you haven't done the reading, then just go ahead, pause, don't watch, don't listen, and I'll see you right here in like, 10 minutes after you do the reading. For those of us who have done the reading, let's jump on in. I'm actually going to say my. My timeless truth for the day is going to come out of chapter three. So we're actually going to skip chapter three for a moment. We're going to go straight to chapter four, actually, like the. The end of chapter three into chapter four. So let's go to chapter three, verse 18. It says this in. Then I'm going to give us some context clues. Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents and everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters. The other word for that is slaves. Slaves. Acts is probably a better word. In verse 22, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. Come on. Everybody with a job needs to memorize that verse. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ, not just church employees. Okay, that's everybody with a job. Okay? And Paul was talking to people who are enslaved, and he's saying, hey, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for Men. I went to five guys maybe like nine, nine months ago, and this dude was in there mentoring people and he was, you know, flipping burgers, doing fries. And you would have thought, man, he was painting the Sistine Chapel like he was doing it with all of his heart. Here's what I firmly believe. Whatever you're gonna do. I hate walking into a fat food, fast food restaurant. And people are in there acting like they don't like their life. And they didn't. They don't want this job. If you're faithful with little, that's when you get exalted to be, to be a ruler over much. You're never gonna get to doing the big thing if you don't handle the small stuff like it's a big, big deal. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done. And there's no partiality. Masters treat your bond servants or your slaves justly and fairly, okay? Knowing that you also have a master in heaven. So this household code, this is called a household. A household code, we get one in Ephesians, but the one in Ephesians that we studied a couple of days ago is way longer, way more robust. This is a more succinct version of that household code. And these household codes were common in the Greco Roman world. So Paul is not inventing anything here. Okay, so that's our context clue. Okay? Paul's not inventing anything. He's reimagining something that already exists. He's taking something that already exists. In culture, everyone would have been familiar with these household codes. Okay? But what he does is he infuses these household codes with a different spirit and a different ethic and a different dynamic between the members of the household. In a normal Roman household code, it's called the pater familias, the head of the household is at the top. That's the husband, father, slave, master is at the top. Then beneath him would be the wife, and then the kids and then the slaves. Okay? So Paul keeps all four of these intact, but he fixes the relational dynamics. He says, I'm going to keep the structure, but I'm going change the spirit. So structure versus spirit. It's funny because I've never met any married couple that asks these questions. You know, are you complementarian? Are you egalitarian? You believe in a hierarchical marriage? These are kind of the three ways to interpret Paul. Me and my wife have never used those three words ever. And I don't personally think these questions are even helpful. I don't Care if you're complementarian. I don't care if you're egalitarian, and I don't care if you believe in a hierarchical marriage structure. I really don't. Because here's the reality, okay? There are toxic complementarian marriages and healthy complementarian marriages. There are toxic egalitarian marriages and talk and healthy egalitarian marriages. There are healthy hierarchical structured marriages and toxic hierarchical structured marriages. I hope I said the right things with the right ones. You get the point. There are healthy and toxic versions of all of these structures. The thing that makes the structure work is the spirit of the relationship. Do you agree in mutual submission or do you agree that wives need to submit to their husband? I agree that everyone needs to be loved, respected, cared for, supported. The number one question I would ask anybody in a complementary marriage is this. I'd ask the husband, do you feel loved? Do you feel supported? Do you feel safe? Do you feel honored? Do you feel respected? Do you feel cared for? Do you feel edified? Do you feel encouraged? And I'd ask the wife the exact same questions. If in an egalitarian marriage, I would ask the husband those questions, I would ask the wife that question. In a hierarchical marriage, I would ask the husband those. Those questions. Not now. How do you define your marriage? That's a dumb question. Here's the question I would ask. Do you feel loved? Do you feel supported? Do you feel safe? Do you feel honored? Do you feel respected? Do you feel cared for? Do you feel edified? Do you feel encouraged? We spend so much time arguing about the structure that we forget the spirit. Because guess what, ladies and gentlemen, the structure that Paul doesn't mess with is a structure. We're slaves, are still slaves. But what does he inject? A spirit in which the slave master, what treats their slaves justly and fairly, with an understanding that you may be the master down here on the property, but Jesus is your master and you will have to answer for every way in which you treat your brother in Christ. Paul doesn't jack with the structure. He really didn't care about the structure. He would rather have a toxic structure with a healthy spirit than create this perfect structure but have a toxic spirit put in that perfect structure. So often we find ourselves in debates about structure. Well, I mean, is my wife submitted to me? Am I submitted to her as who's in charge? I really don't care. Now, this also comes down to my personality. You know, Elijah leads ARMA with me. He's the director of operations for Arma and the org chart matters A lot to him. I don't care about the org chart. I don't. Just as a, as an entrepreneur, as a boss, I don't care about the org chart. What I care about is everyone should listen to everyone, regardless of where you fit on the org chart. If a janitor at the church has a great idea to me, I'm like, sure, let's roll with it. I don't need you to have a certain pecking order in the org chart to have a good idea. I believe that the janitor is full of wisdom. He's got the spirit of the living God living on the inside of him. Why would I not listen to the janitor just because of where he falls on the org chart? The structure doesn't matter as much as the spirit that gives that structure life. And Paul takes us secular structure. He takes it straight out of Romans because he understands this, that if a Roman family doesn't have this structure, they're not going to be respected within Roman society. And if they're not respected within Roman society, then they're not going to be able to win Roman citizens. If they don't, if outsiders don't respect the church or respect Christians. And you can guarantee your, you can bet your bottom dollar on whether or not people are going to get converted. Paul 1000% cares that yes, the message of the Gospel is countercultural, but the methodology that we use to win people should be trying to be all things to all men. And so Paul does not address slavery from a political perspective. He doesn't say, everybody, free your slaves. He doesn't address slavery in a political way. He addresses slavery in a pastoral way. He says if the inter dynamic, if the inside dynamics of the actual relationship between slave owner and slave, slave master and slave actually changes, then you know what'll eventually happen? Slavery as an institution will get abolished. But I'm not a politician, so it's not my job to protest the fact that there are slaves in the Roman Empire. My job is to hold you accountable as a spiritual leader and to say, regardless of whether you're a slave master or a husband or a son or a father or whoever, I'm going to tell you the spirit in which these relationships should be carried out. So Paul doesn't jack with the structure. He does not care actually about the structure. But he says that the dynamics between the people in these relationships, that needs to change radically. And I agree with this. I don't think there's some holy, perfect way to like do family. And if you do it egalitarian you're wrong. Or if you do a complementarian, you're going to hell and you're not in the will of God, man. Do what works for you. I know women who are visionaries. I know husbands who have a more docile personality. Like, so you're just going to force a person into a leadership role when their personality doesn't necessarily fit? That. That, that's illogical. That doesn't even make sense if there's a woman who's a visionary. Yeah, man. Like, and sometimes I think that we do a lot of talking in church and there's a lot of women who have unrealistic expectations of what it looks like for their husband to be the leader. I think that we need to. Here's what the Bible means by leader, servant. Okay, so if you got a husband who's willing to serve you and, and your kids, then you know what? Who cares if you came up with the idea to have a Bible study or he came up with the idea to have a Bible study, man, if that dude's a servant, then he's a leader. And who cares if you are an initiator? You may be an initiator based just on your personality. That doesn't mean that now he's no longer the leader. Again, I think we become legalist about the structure of marital relationships and families when the big thing that Paul's focused on is not the structure. He takes the structure from secular society. There's nothing holy inherently holy about this structure. This is straight Christian appropriation. He sees a structure in Roman society, Straight takes it and baptizes it in Christianness. He just straight Christianizes it and says, the thing that's going to make it holy is not that I invented it or that Christians invented it. The thing that makes it holy is that the dynamics of the relationships are completely countercultural. But to the outside world, it looks like a normal Roman household, looks like a normal Roman family. And that image matters because you want to be all things to all men so that you can win some. What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by arma. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we designed to help people, everyday people learn the Bible for themselves. We, we started ARMA so that anybody anywhere could have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible on theology topics and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community. A community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire armor team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure you to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible nerd. Now let's get to our timeless truth for the day. All right, man, I beat that dead horse. All right, let's get to our timeless truth of the day. Remember how we were talking about Gnosticism yesterday and Gnosticism is a big deal and essentially Paul says, hey, all this harsh treatment of the body, it does not stop the indulgence of the flesh. That's kind of where we left off at chapter two. Well, chapter three, verse five. Here's what Paul does now say put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. You don't suppress that stuff. You don't behavior modification that stuff. You kill that stuff. If there's sin living in you, you don't use Gnosticism or asceticism to get rid of that. You crucify the flesh. For Paul, there are three things that Gnosticism does. It denies our humanity, it suppresses our humanity, and it leans into behavior modification. For Paul, none of these things actually bring real transformation. For Paul, there's a difference between pleasure in sin and there is awesome, magnificent pleasure that God has actually created and ordained. And Paul does not agree with throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But sin is so serious that he would dare not suppress it. Sin is so serious that we would dare not just modify our behavior. Sin must be killed. Sin should not be suppressed. Sin should not be hidden. Sin should not be swept under the rug. Sin should be put to death in us. So actually Paul has a high view of the body, but also a high view of sin. That sin is serious and we don't just suppress it like the Gnostics. We actually crucify our flesh. We die to ourselves. We pick up our cross and we follow Jesus. And that's a timeless truth. There's A big, big difference between people who suppress their sexuality or suppress their sexual urges or suppress, you know, their humanity, and then people who crucify their flesh that transform from the inside out. So now it's not just that you stopped watching porn, but that you don't even want to watch porn. One is suppression. The other is a crucifixion of the flesh. And crucifying the flesh cannot happen. Outside of surrendering yourself to the lordship of Jesus and being full of the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has no interest in what you can do in your own strength. Jesus says, the only stuff that counts is my life living through you, my resurrected life, empowering and infusing the human, and you being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and living a life that you're not able to live in your own strength. All right, that's Colossians, baby. And if you go to the end of the book, you're going to see two names in chapter four, verse seven and nine. You're going to see Tychicus. You're going to see Onesimus. Tomorrow. We're going to spend a lot of time talking about these two guys, Tychicus and Onesimus, because Onesimus is a runaway slave. And Paul's going to write a letter to his slave master named Philemon, and is one of my favorite books of the entire New Testament. And we're going to dive in tomorrow right here. Let's go. Let's keep the streak going. I'm so proud of you. So proud of you for watching these videos. Proud of you for making a commitment to read the Bible this year. You're never going to be the same. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram at the Bible Department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.