Colossians 3

Paul again warns the Church agains't the heresy that was being promoted, thus reminding them to stand firm in the gospel that they were initially taught.The church was instructed to imitate Jesus, thus behaving differently than other men. Earthly habits such as lust, passion, anger, revenge and lying are to be thrown away in favour for kindness, humbleness and communion with other believers. The subject is then moved onto family roles, the wives should behave in submissive manner towards their husbands and husbands should love their wives, not abusing their spiritual authority for selfish gain. I guess it would be safe to say that both the husband and the wife submit to each other, because they submit to God first and foremost. Then Paul then talks about how fathers should treat their children as they should encourage and love them, and children should honour them back. The Servant and Master relationship is discussed afterwards which can easily be applied to the duties for our modern Employee to Employer relationship. Servants should obey their masters in sincere manner, not just when they're under a watchful eye. The master should be fair to their servants. By doing this they both acknowledge their true Master in heaven. While scripture never advocates slavery, it recognises its relevance in society at the time and demands that it be transformed to the point in which it becomes unrecognisable to the standard 1st Roman culture. In the workplace we should reflect Christ!

The verses regarding marriage reminded of my parents. My father is cold and hardened by the immigrant struggle, my mother is endearing and has grown up sheltered. My mom is emotional, my father is not. My mom is Arminian, my dad is a calvinist. They have too many differences. There are so many reasons for them to divorce but their love for God somehow leads them to love each other. My mom has recently gotten sick, very sick. Submitting under her husband is routine, but she can't do anything in this state. My father has been taking a lot of care of her, going out of his way to do cooking, doing all the normal house routines. He has never complained in his life and he still doesn't complain now. He now wakes up earlier than usual at 6am to discipline himself before the word of God so he can serve my mom, submitting to her needs for the rest of the day. I guess this unsympathetic asshole can very well indeed sympathise from what I can now see, but at the root of everything he loves my mom and submits to her because he loves God. And so he will submit to her without grumbling. I want to be nothing like him except regarding two things, his work ethic and his submission to Jesus.

Prayer/response:
- Mom to get better
- Continue to serve Cheil in this period of rest
- Honour woolies customers more, stop with the bitter thoughts.