Yesterday’s service was about the passage in Colossians 3 and 4 about husbands and wives, parents and kids, masters and slaves, etc. It wasn’t what you might think though.
They emphasised the context of the day, how Paul was writing this list using a known formula of the time but putting a Christian spin on it. He was writing from prison and so had to be careful what he wrote. He couldn’t outright go against the societal norms and Roman religion of the time or he’d have been immediately executed so he used an existing framework to plant seeds of change.
There were already lists like Paul wrote saying how people should behave but they were written to support the patriarchy with men in charge and being head of the household and everyone else below the man.
Paul used those lists but rewrote them to include women, children and slaves, and emphasised that everyone should love and respect each other as much as possible.
So the whole point of the passage wasn’t to define roles, but to encourage respect and love so that society could start moving away from the old, rigid, patriarchal, controlling norms, and moving towards a society based on equality and based on loving and supporting each other and building each other up. This was backed up by emphasising Colossians 3:11, that we are all one in Christ.
It was a good reminder to keep in mind the context of the times, places and situations in which the bible was written to make sure we get the real message behind the text, and not just reading the text itself.