in conjunction with the YMCA, conducted a survey to find out what adults in the United States would like to study. They chose a typical town in Connecticut. They spent thousands of dollars and two years interviewing hundreds of people. They asked 156 questions like, what is your business or profession, your education, What do you do in your spare time? What is your income, your hobbies, your ambition, your problems? And what subjects are you interested in studying? After all of that time and money, they discovered that the number one subject people wanted to know about was health. And the second was understanding and getting along with people. Now that particular survey is rather old, but I suspect that what they discovered years ago is true also today. That one of the most difficult areas with which we have to deal is the whole area of human relationships. Rockefeller once told a friend, the ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. I will pay more for that ability than any other under the sun." Dale Carnegie said, dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are a businessman. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, an architect, or an engineer. Research made a few years ago under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teachers uncovered a most important and significant fact, a fact later confirmed by additional studies made at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. These investigations revealed that even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge, and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering, to personality and the ability to lead people. I dare say that if you and I could sit down personally and privately and we could talk about the things that are troubling you this morning, we would be surprised at how many of the pressures and problems you face have to do with people. Some of your difficulties may have to do with money. Some may have to deal with time. Maybe there are a few things that are bothering you right now that are mechanical in nature. But I dare say that the biggest problems you face, the ones that burden you the most, are those that have to do with people. Now, how do you deal with people? Is there any secret or key or clue as to how we can get along with one another? What is the insight that we need in order to deal with one another and even influence one another? Is the Bible of any help here? Well, my answer to that is yes, that the Lord has given us some insight into human relationships. It's that that I'd like for us to discuss this morning. You see, we've been going through the book of Colossians, and we've come now to the latter part of Colossians chapter 3. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that in this passage, the Apostle Paul is dealing with various human relationships. In verse 18, he says, wives. In verse 19, he speaks to husbands. In verse 20, it's children. In verse 21, it's fathers. In verse 22, he speaks to servants. And in chapter 4, verse 1, he addresses masters. It's rather interesting that he would choose those particular relationships. Hundreds of years before Christ, Aristotle stated that the three great pairs of mutual relationships of which a family consists, is husband-wife, parent-child, master-slave. You see, back in those days, a man was the head of his household. and that included his wife, his children, and servants. So it's almost as if the Apostle Paul is dealing with the three most basic relationships in his day, husband-wife, parent-child, master-slave. Now those same relationships exist today. We obviously still have husbands and wives and parents and children. We do not exactly have masters and slaves in the sense that Paul dealt with it, but we do have relationships at work. So in these verses, the Apostle Paul is dealing with the most primary, fundamental, and basic relationships of life. I'd like for us to look at what he has to say. I'd like for us to see the three pairs of relationships with which we all have to deal. Husband-wife, parent-child, master-slave, or maybe I should say to update that one a bit, employer-employee. At any rate, let's see what the Bible has to say about these human relationships. Let's begin with husband-wife. Paul says in verse 18, wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Now of all the things I'm going to have to say this morning, of all the verses that I'm going to have to deal with, that one is the most potentially explosive. I have to stand up here this morning and say to wives, the Bible tells you to submit to your husbands. It has been my experience that wives naturally resist that. And with the advent of women's lib, that has only poured kerosene on the fire. Now, I don't have the time this morning to deal with this like I would like to. I am of the opinion that this whole concept has been greatly misunderstood and abused. This fall, I'm going to do a series on the family. I'm going to spend one whole message on explaining in detail what the Bible means when it says a wife is to submit to her husband. I don't have the time to do that this morning because I want to cover the verses in this passage. But suffice it to say simply this. Let me just make a few preliminary observations about submission. Whatever your point of view, however you emotionally react to this statement, the fact of the matter is the Bible says wives submit yourselves to your own husbands. The word submit literally means to place under. It is a military term, has with it the idea of obedience. Now I am aware of the fact that Lady Diana, Prince Charles, took obey out of their marriage ceremony. Now they can do that, they can take obey out of the marriage ceremony, but the sheer fact is you can't take it out of the Bible. And God said that wives were to submit to their husbands. But let me point out that this is not something that is forced upon a wife. Look at the passage. It says in verse 18, wives submit yourselves. That's not just an accident in the Greek text. I mean the English text. That is a clear reflection of the Greek text. Paul is saying that you are to do this yourself. In other words, this is a voluntary decision that a wife makes. Notice also that it says, wives submit yourselves to your own husbands. I think that is particularly crucial. You see, it is not that the Bible teaches that women as a class are to submit to men as a class. That is not the biblical viewpoint at all. Rather, it is that an individual wife is to submit to her own husband. But be all that as it may, the bottom line is this, the Bible teaches that a wife is to submit to her husband. But one other thing Paul adds in this passage is, as it is fit in the Lord, Now what does he mean by that? Why did he add that? Well, in Paul's day, there was no new revelation to tell a wife she had to submit to her husband. That was the natural order of things. Everybody did that. So that's not quite the problem. What Paul is saying by the addition of this little phrase, is that it is appropriate, that it is proper, that it is fitting for a wife to submit to her husband in the Lord. That the submission of a wife is appropriate in the spiritual realm just like it was in Paul's day in the natural realm. Now I find that statement intriguing. There is no statement in the Bible that is more up-to-date than that statement. There is no verse in all of the Bible that speaks to a more immediate current issue than that one. Let me explain. Since women's liberation has come along, some have decided that wives should not submit to their husbands. And some Christians have picked up on that. That frankly, to use the teenage expression, blows my mind. But some Christians are today arguing, to my knowledge, for the first time in church history, that the Bible does not teach that a wife has to submit to her husband. It's incredible, but that's what they're saying. They go to Galatians 3.28 and they say, that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female, and it is their contention that all distinctions in human relationships have been wiped out by the Christ and the cross, and therefore a wife no longer has to submit to her husband. Unbelievable. As a matter of fact, one author writing about this very current phenomena said this, According to the feminist, Galatians 3.28 teaches that God has created in Christ a whole new realm of relationships. The hierarchical view of social relationships is a product of the old order stemming from the fall. In the new order, now this is according to Christian feminists, In the new order, all distinctions based on race, economic status, or sex is to be eliminated. In Christ, they say, relationships between men and women should transcend the male-female division. Thus, gender becomes irrelevant in shaping social roles and relationships. One of these Christian feminists has said, and I quote, Galatians 3.28 does not say God loves each of you, but stay in your place. It says that there are no longer places, no longer categories, no longer differences in rights and privileges, codes and values. Men and women do not lose their biological distinctives by becoming Christians. But of course, in light of Galatians 3.28, all social distinctions between men and women should be erased in the church. You hear that? Did you know that now that you're in Christ, all your sins are gone? And according to this point of view, all your femininity is gone, and masculinity is gone too. Now, I believe that what Paul is saying in Galatians 3.28 is that as we stand before Christ, we're on equal ground. When it comes to the forgiveness of sins, that there is no distinction between bond and free, Jew and Gentile, male or female. Every individual human being, regardless of race or creed or color or whatever, stands before God as a human sinner that needs a Savior. But I do not think for one second that you could take Galatians 3.28 and abolish and obliviate the fact that a wife has to submit to her husband. But that is precisely what is being done. And if you would like a verse in the Bible that speaks directly and pointedly to that issue, it is Colossians 3.18. Paul says, wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, and then he adds, as it is fit in the Lord. Just being in Christ does not eliminate that responsibility. So the first thing Paul says is that a wife is to submit to her husband. The second thing he says is that husbands are to love their wives and be not bitter against them. Now, I think this has been misunderstood too, and again, without going into a great deal of detail, which I shall do later in the series on the family. Let me simply say at this juncture that the word love here is not an emotion. This is not telling a husband to run home, grab his wife, and smother her with hugs and kisses, though that's not a bad idea. Rather, this word means to do what is best for her, to seek her highest good. It is an act of the will more than an emotion. So what God is telling the husband is to do what is best for his wife. Now that's rather startling. That is a revelation. For you see, in the ancient society, the husband was almost the absolute monarch and dictator. His wife took a back seat, literally. She stayed in the back room most of the time. And he did not feel any compulsion or responsibility to do anything like love his wife. So when Paul said, wives submit to your husbands, that was no new revelation. But when he said, husbands love your wives, that was a great new revelation. It is as if Paul is saying in this passage, now that you are in Christ, there are some new responsibilities. As a Christian, you must love your wife. Then he adds, and be not bitter. That's interesting. How can you love your wife and be bitter at the same time? In my opinion, the only person that would even ask that question is either someone who's not married or someone who hasn't been married long. You've been married any time at all. You know how easy it is to be bitter towards someone you actually dearly love, right? You wouldn't dare shake your head on that, would you? But you know what I'm talking about. A word bitter means don't be resentful. Don't get irritated. You can express it with a frown. You can express it with a foul mouth, too. You can express it with a haughty attitude. But don't be bitter against your wife. May I speak as a husband for a moment? It amazes me It amazes me about me, how I can do something, and you know, I really am pretty sympathetic toward me. I understand that I am human and that I make mistakes. A few weeks ago, I, and I still don't know how I did this, but I lost my glasses. Now, I don't have to have glasses to read. I am nearsighted. I have to have glasses for distance, so I keep them in the car, and I don't even have to use them to drive. It's not on my driver's license, but I do have a bit of a problem, so every once in a while, I put them on when I drive. And one day, a month or so ago, we switched cars, and I took glasses out of one car and put them in the other, and somewhere in the shuffle, I lost my glasses. That was expensive. But you know, I understood that. I mean, I really did. I have a lot on my mind. You know, I understood. Made it through that experience fairly well. And then my wife lost the little passbook to our Christmas savings account. Now, I can't understand for the life of me how she could lose that. didn't cost me a dime. We just froze the account and they'll give us another book. Badoo! It irritated me. Now that's what Paul says you're not supposed to do. You're supposed to love your wife and be not bitter against her. Don't resent, don't frown, don't get irritated at your wife. Now those are the instructions for the husband-wife relationship. There is more, much more. Let's look at the parent-child relationship. He says in verse 20, children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. He says to the children, and by the way, I assume that children includes anybody that's still living at home. As long as Papa is paying the bills, you are a child. I know legally you get to be an adult when you're 18, but if your father is still paying the bills and you're still living under his roof, you are still under his authority. In the New Testament sense of the term, adults were under his authority if they were slaves and the like. There were plenty of adults under his roof that were under his authority. So it says children. And that goes from the cradle until you graduate and leave home. Children, obey your parents in all things. The word obey here has with it the idea that you are eager to hear and willing to do what your parents say. And the passage says that you're to do that in all things. The extent is all things. Now, somebody's going to come up to me afterwards and say, are there no exceptions ever? Well, in my opinion, there may be some exceptions. If your father ever asked you to rob the bank, you say no. But that's not the point. And to bring that up would be to miss the point. The point Paul is trying to make is that you are not to decide whether or not you obey. If there are exceptions, God decides those, but you can never decide those. You are to say, I will listen and I will do what is asked of me by my parents. I know what you're going to tell me because I've talked to teenagers enough. You're going to say, but if I did everything my parents told me to, what a bore. I mean, life would be dull. I couldn't do some of the things I do, and I couldn't have fun, and I couldn't do what the rest of the guys and gals I know do. Well, frankly, if you obey your parents, you just may not do all the things you want to do. I grant you that. But I will also suggest that you might, in the process, learn something that is more valuable than doing whatever it is you wanted to do. You might learn, in the process, one of the most fundamental, valuable life lessons in all of life, and that is obedience. Let me tell you the way it usually works. Some teenage kid decides he's sick and tired of not, of having to listen to his folks and obey them, so he leaves home and he joins the army. That's one of the jokes of life. Or some girl gets sick and tired of listening to mama and she can't wait to get away from home and so she gets married. That's worse than joining the army. Now let me tell you, one of the most basic, fundamental, primary lessons in all of life is obedience. You might as well learn it at home, because if you don't learn it from your parents, your peers will teach it to you. If you don't learn it from your peers, the police will get in on the act. So you might as well just make up your mind to learn the lesson early, and the earlier, the better. Now you're going to sit there and say, why should I do that? Glad you asked so politely. Let me tell you that this verse tells you why you should obey your parents. It says in verse 20, children obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Should you do it because you got the greatest set of parents in the world? No. Should you do it because your parents were always right and they never make a mistake? No. Should you do it because your parents are so understanding? No, you do it not for them, but for Him. You do it because it is well pleasing unto the Lord. You don't just please them, you please Him. Let me illustrate. I want you to imagine some teenage fella has fallen head over heels in love with some teenage girl. You know, they both look like sick cows when they look at each other. And one day she says to him, my family is having a get together. I want you to go. Now let me tell you what thrills the soul of every teenager is having to go visit the relatives. That is the last thing he wants to do. By the way, can I chase a rabbit for a minute? I don't chase many rabbits when I preach. Would you let me chase a rabbit for a minute? May I do that? How many of you are not married? Would you raise your hand? Wow, look at that. That's half the congregation. I was going to ask how many of you want to get married, but I won't do that. This is a rabbit trail, so can I just, can I share something? This is not in this passage. This is the pastor speaking as a person, not as pastor. Can I share something with you for a minute? Can I tell you something? If you're not married and you contemplate getting married, let me let you in on a little secret. You do not marry a person. You marry a family. Right? So when you go contemplating this little blue-eyed blonde, you look beyond that and you see what you're getting into. Now, so much for the rabbit trail. Let's go back to the passage. At any rate, back to the story. This little girl wants her boyfriend to go visit the relatives, and the last thing he wants to do is go visit the relatives and sit around. It's a staid, stiff affair, and he's all wanting to go play ball or go out with the guys or have some fun, and who wants to go to that kind of an affair? You know what happens in that kind of a situation? She flashes her lashes, Boy, I wish you could see the number of men that just shook their head, Jess. She gets that little twinkle in her eye. She says, pretty please? Just for me? Guess what he does? Like a lamb to the slaughter, off he goes. Now did he go visit the relatives for the relatives? Not on your life. He went to visit the relatives for her. Right? That's what the passage is saying. You ought to obey your parents, for it is pleasing to the Lord. Like a boyfriend would go visit the relatives of his girlfriend to please her, so every Every child, every teenager, ought to obey his parents to please the Lord. But there are two sides to this coin. Paul says in verse 21, fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they should be discouraged. This is a pair, this is a mutual relationship. It is parent-child. Now someone's going to immediately say, but verse 20 says, Verse 21 says fathers, it doesn't say parents. Why does he single out the fathers? Well, in the first place that doesn't necessarily mean that he meant to exclude the mothers. This same Greek word is used elsewhere in the New Testament of parents, so it can mean more than just the father. But technically, the word does mean fathers. And he probably singles them out because they ultimately have the responsibility. But be that as it may, I think verse 21 is talking at least to the fathers and perhaps to both parents. And he says that the fathers or the parents are not to provoke their children to anger. By the way, you notice the little word anger is in italics? That means, when a word is in italics in the King James Version, that the word is not in the Greek text. It was supplied to help us understand the thought of the Greek text. Technically, the Greek word here, that is translated provoked, means to stir up. And it can be used in a positive sense of to stimulate. Or it can be used in a negative sense of to irritate. And obviously in this verse Paul means don't stir them up to irritate them, to agitate them. And so it has been translated, provoke not your children to anger. It is don't get them angry. Now again this is a bit of a revelation. I mean after all in the first century the father was the absolute ruler of the household. And he could or could not be kind and courteous toward his kids, depending on his whims and caprices. And here God comes along and says to him, you are to see to it that you don't provoke your children to anger. But how do you do that? Well, frankly, the list is like mother's grocery list. It's long. There are dozens of ways you can do that. A parent can irritate his child by nagging him, constantly being on his back, or constantly fault-finding. I think that is particularly true when one of the children is most like you. As you know, I have three kids, and one of them has my personality, and one of them has my wife's personality. The one that has my personality is the one that is most likely to irritate me, and I constantly be on her back. The one that's most like my wife is the one that's most likely to irritate her, and she's constantly to be on her back, and we constantly have to remind ourselves not to do that. You see, when you've got a child that has your temperament and your personality, then you see the mistakes that they're about to make, because you know them well, you made them. What you're really trying to do is prevent them from making them, so you're constantly picking at them, nagging them, and finding faults. And that, of course, simply motivates them to go do it that much more. Paul says be careful that you don't irritate them, stimulate them, irritate them to anger. You can do it all kinds of other ways. You can do it with a look. You can do it with a word. And I suppose one of the easiest ways to do it is to constantly compare one child with another. If you really want to provoke your child, and just constantly compare him to his brother or sister. And you will do it quick. If the oldest child has all the brains and the youngest child happens to be more interested in something else, makes only acceptable grades, you can provoke him real quick by constantly saying, your brother made better grades. What's wrong with you? Dummy, why don't you study?" Now that's the very kind of thing Paul says, don't do. And he tells you why. Lest they be discouraged. Don't provoke them to the point where they get discouraged. That is, lose heart. I think I have met people whose parents kicked the heart right out of them, and they no longer had a heart for living or achieving or succeeding, but rather they'd become sullen and listless, discouraged, disgruntled, bitter, and angry. Now, Paul says, don't do that to your child. The twig is to be bent. not broken. So Paul has some very pointed things to say about the parent-child relationship. There's one other pair of relationships. He deals with servants' masters. In verse 22 he says, servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart fearing God. one word that Paul gives to the servants is that they are to obey in all things. Now that is all, that is really interesting. You realize what Paul's doing? He's telling them to do something they had to do anyway. A slave in Paul's day didn't have any rights, he was property. As a matter of fact, one of one ancient writer referred to him as an animated tool. Some questioned that some slaves were even human in some instances. He had no rights. He was the property of the master. He had to obey and could be beaten if he didn't. And yet Paul comes along and says, servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. He is simply saying that now that you are a Christian and you're in Christ, you're still obligated to obey your master. And obviously to us, this is talking about our employer, our boss. Notice he says, don't do this with eye service as men pleasers. What is eye service? It's an interesting term. The answer is simply, it is service that you can see with the eye. So that when the boss is around, you work real, real, real, real, real hard. when the cats away the mice come out and play." That's eye service, that's working simply and solely to please men. He says don't do that. Verse 22 says, but in singleness of heart fearing God. I think he amplifies on that in verse 23 where he says, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. The singleness of heart is with unity of purpose and direction that you do your job as if the Lord himself were your boss. So don't do it as to please men, do it as unto the Lord." There was a sculptor in the ancient world who was commissioned to produce some statues, some statues that would line a wall. And the sculptor came along and he worked very meticulously on these statues. And he was as careful to produce good work on the back part of the statue as he did in the front. And someone saw him working and said to him, why do you spend so much time and effort on the back side of the statue? It's going to be against the wall and no one will ever see it. And the sculptor replied, these Statues are going to stand in the temple and the gods will see them. Now his theology is all wrong, but his attitude is right on target. What Paul is telling us to do is do our job as unto the Lord. He sees the backside of the statue as well as the front. Now in order to reinforce this, He adds in verse 24, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. And on top of that he says in verse 25, but he that doeth wrong shall receive of the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons. He adds that you ought to know that you will be rewarded. He also adds you may be punished. Now this is an interesting statement for the simple reason that slaves did not have any kind of inheritance. They were property and when they died they were buried and that was it. Whatever they owned was their masters. And so Paul says to them, ultimately you are really serving the Lord and it is of the Lord that you shall receive an inheritance. If you do this job is under the Lord. Whether you are a preacher or a plumber, you will receive a reward when you stand before the Lord. So do it as unto him." And then he adds, and if you don't, you will receive the wrong done and God is no respect of persons. Christians will reap the same punishment as unbelievers if they don't do what is right. God is no respect of persons. Frankly, when I first saw that verse, I wasn't sure I understood it, and I'm still not sure I totally understand that verse. Matter of fact, I went to one professor at Dallas Seminary the week I was there and said to him, would you please explain this verse to me? He suggested that this is a reference to the natural laws of sowing and reaping. Several of the commentators have taken a similar approach. In other words, if you do not do a good job, you will reap the natural consequences of not doing a good job. In our society, that may mean not getting the promotion, or not getting the raise, or not getting another job because of a bad recommendation. But at any rate, whatever the verse means, the passage is clearly saying that you need to work as unto the Lord and He will reward and He will punish wrong. Now it's clearly saying that. So the point is you need to do it as unto the Lord because you are accountable unto Him. Many years ago, there was a small boy named Harry, who worked for a shoe cobbler. Part of their job was to take leather and soak it in water and then take it out of the water and beat it until it was flat, stretch it over the sole of the shoe, and repair it. It was a tedious process and Harry grated under it. One day he happened to notice that a competitor down the street was repairing shoes. And as he stopped to watch him one day, he noticed that he took the leather straight from the water and stretched it over the shoe and put it on. He didn't go through that laborious process of hammering it out. And so Harry asked the competitor, why do you not hammer it out? He said, uh, is it as good to do it that way as the other way? The competitor with a bit of a twinkle in his eye said, well, uh, well, it isn't as good, but the customer comes back quicker. So Harry ran down to see his boss and he said, oh, I've learned something. He said, if we don't, if we don't beat these things out, we can save time and they'll come back quicker. And the boss said, oh no, son. Matter of fact, that boss took Harry to this passage and read it to him and said, I'm a Christian and I'm cobbling these shoes as unto the Lord and I believe that every pair of shoes I mend will be at the judgment seat of Christ and I'll have to give an account for how well I did them. No, we're not going to do that. We're going to do it unto the Lord." That boy named Harry grew up to be Harry Ironside, the pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago. And you need to adopt that shoe-cobbler's attitude toward your job and do it as unto the Lord. There's one other relationship. In verse 1 of chapter 4 he mentions masters. Masters, give your servants that which is equal and just, or just and equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven." Again, this is rather startling, because as I have pointed out, the masters had absolute authority over the slaves. They could do what they wanted to with them, and yet Paul comes along, addresses Christian slave owners and says, give your slaves that which is just, equal. The word just means to do what is right, and equal here has the idea of doing what is fair. Don't mistreat them, don't abuse them, but be fair. He also gives him the reason why, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. You see, masters ought to treat their servants fairly because masters have masters. Masters have a master, the Lord himself. So Paul is saying, contrary to common practice, you don't have absolute authority over the slaves. So you need to remember that, that you will give an account for those under you You need to therefore treat them fairly and justly. Now, a rather long passage, isn't it? Well, that just covers just about every relationship. The only relationship, one of the only relationships that isn't in there is mother-in-law. I wish you'd put that in. I want to sum up what I have been saying. There's a sense in which I have been talking about six relationships. I've been talking to wives, husbands, children, parents, slaves, and masters. There's another sense in which you could look at this passage and you can see the duty of each. The wife is to submit, the husband is to love, the father is not to provoke, the children is to obey, the servant is to obey, and the masters are to be fair. But I think if you looked at this passage and that's all you saw, you would miss the point of the whole passage. There is a thread that is woven through this passage that is of a different fabric and perhaps a different color than all the other statements in it. There is one thing that we've come back to over and over and over again, and that is the key to the whole thing. Have you picked it up? Some of you look like you have. Some of you look like you haven't. Let me share it with you. Look at the passage. Wives, verse 18, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, now here it is, as it is fit in the Lord. Look at verse 20. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Verse 22. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to flesh, not with eye service as men pleases, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Whatsoever you do, do heartily as unto the Lord, and not unto men. Chapter 4, verse 1, masters give your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. You get it? In four of the six relationships, he clearly, categorically says, do this unto the Lord. This is fit and proper for a Christian. It's unto the Lord that you do this. By the way, in the two in which he left it out, it's still present by implication. That phrase, or something similar, is not added to the husbands or to the fathers, which is rather interesting. But if you understand the context out of which this was written, the whole point here is that fathers have to do their job and husbands have to do their responsibility as to the Lord. Because in the ancient pagan society, The father and the husband had absolute authority and now by the very statement of the case, Paul is saying, God is telling you that's not true, you're accountable unto him. By even giving responsibilities to the husband and fathers, Paul is putting restrictions on them and putting them under the authority of the Lord. So, I think the key to this whole passage and the key to all of human relationships is Jesus Christ. If the Bible has any information and insight as to how you handle human relationships, it is simply stated in this one statement, do it as unto the Lord. Wives are to submit to their husbands as under the Lord. Husbands are to love their wives because the Lord said so. Children are to obey their parents because it pleases the Lord. Fathers are not to provoke their children to wrath because that's the word of the Lord. Servants are to obey in all things their masters and do whatever they do heartily as under the Lord. And masters are to remember that they have a Lord in heaven. The Lord is the key. It's significant that that kind of observation would be made in the book of Colossians, where the theme and the topic of the whole book is that He might have the preeminence. He is to have the preeminence. He is the sovereign Lord of the universe. He is the Savior and Reconciler and Head of the Church. He is to have the preeminence in everything. Not only in my heart, but in my home. Not only in my relationship to him, but in every other relationship of life. He is to be all in all. He is the key to human relationship. You see, without Jesus Christ, we humans are sinful and selfish. And without Him, we bite and devour one another because of our selfishness and our sinfulness. But with Him, with Him we are new creatures. And we can grow, and we can become godly, and we can love. Without Him, familiarity breeds contempt because of our own sinfulness. But with Him, the closer the better. Home can become a little bit of heaven, and work can actually be wonderful. I say the key to human relationships is do it as unto the Lord. When I was in seminary, I worked for the John E. Mitchell Company one summer. John E. Mitchell is now with the Lord, but he founded the John E. Mitchell Company in Dallas, Texas, manufacturing company that made a number of different things, and he was a Christian. Matter of fact, I remember very well Every Monday morning, the whole company shut down for 30 minutes and we had chapel. And the company chaplain ministered the scriptures to us. And we were paid for it on company time. There is a story about Johnny Mitchell that had to do with something that happened many, many years ago, but illustrates very well what I'm trying to say this morning. Many years ago, there was a clerk in that company named Matlock. There was a janitor named Washam. Now Matlock did a pretty good job with his job, but he had a tendency to be a bit perfectionistic and particular with other people's. Now it was Washam's job to clean the spittoons, and Matlock chewed tobacco. His aim wasn't always perfect, and Washam didn't particularly like his missus. And so he didn't wash that spittoon to please Matlock. It didn't take long for a rift to develop between them. Matter of fact, the rift got so bad that they weren't speaking to each other all over a spittoon. John Mitchell found out about that, And one night he stayed after everyone else went home, and he found Washam, the janitor, and he said to him, I understand that you and Matlock are having a bit of a problem, and I understand it's over the spittoon. He said, now, you and I are members of the same church, and we both know the Lord, and I would like to suggest that we clean the spittoon as under the Lord, and I'm going to stay tonight and help you. When Matlock came in the next morning, he was floored and flabbergasted at the way that spittoon shined. And it didn't take long for them to become friends. Matter of fact, Mitchell called them both into his office, and they became friends quick. But you see, the point is simply this. All over the John E. Mitchell Company, there are little plaques which say, Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord. If you will pardon the suggestion, I'm not sure about what we shouldn't take a picture of a spittoon and hang it in a prominent place so that we can remember to do whatsoever we do, including cleaning spittoons. as unto the Lord. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for the relationship that you've given us with yourself. We thank you for the possibility of growing in grace and in knowledge of your Son. Lord, I would pray and ask this morning you would remind us and reinforce in us about the necessity to do everything that we do in our work, everything that we do in our relationships, as unto you. Lord, speak to us about that in this hour. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.