Jesus, Lord of My Home
Title:
Text:
Speaker:
Jesus, Lord of My Home
Colossians 3:18-21
Greg Pollak
Jesus, Lord of My Home.
Colossians 3:18-21
Introduction
Genesis 2:18
Genesis 2:24
Ephesians 5:31-32
Revelation 19:7
How does Jesus become Lord of My Home?
1. Wives submit
Colossians 3:18
Ephesians 5:22-24
Colossians 3:1
1 Peter 3:1-5
Colossians 3:18
Ephesians 5:22
2. Husbands Love
Colossians 3:19
Ephesians 5:25-33
Colossians 3:19
Ephesians 5:25-27
John 3:16
Ephesians 5:25
Colossians 3:1
Ephesians 5:25-26
Application
Fall in love with Jesus
Repent and follow Jesus
Ephesians 5:18
Colossians 3:1
Jesus, Lord of My Home
Colossians 3:12–21
Big Idea: Because Christ is our life, His character should become visible in the way we treat the people closest to us. So, what does it look like for Jesus to actually be Lord of our homes?
1. Warm-Up
Why is it often easier to be patient, kind, and gracious around people at church than with the people we live with?
What is it about being around family that tends to reveal the parts of us that still need to be transformed?
Transition: Paul has spent the first part of Colossians 3 talking about our new identity in Christ and what it looks like to “put on” the new self. Now he takes those qualities and brings them into the most ordinary and sometimes most difficult place home.
2. Read Colossians 3:12–21
What words or phrases immediately stand out to you (Don’t try to explain anything yet. Just make observations about the text)?
3. The Foundation: Put On Christ
Read Colossians 3:12–14 .
Which of these qualities is easiest for you to practice at home? Why?
Which one is hardest for you to practice with the people closest to you?
What does verse 13 mean by “bearing with one another”?
Insight: Marriage and family relationships don't create our need for Christlike character. They reveal it.
4. Wives: Submission Under Christ's Lordship
Read Colossians 3:18.
What do you think the phrase “as is fitting in the Lord” adds to Paul's command?
How is biblical submission different from believing that a husband is always right?
Can a wife disagree with her husband and still honor him? What might that look like?
Look back at 3:12–13. How might humility, gentleness, patience, and “bearing with one another” shape the way a wife submits to her husband?
5. Husbands: Love Without Bitterness
Read Colossians 3:19.
Transition: What kind of love is Paul talking about? Let's stay in Collossians and let Paul show us.
Read Colossians 1:15–20.
What does this passage tell us about who Jesus is?
If anyone has the right to authority, position, and honor, who is it?
Read 1:20.
What does Jesus do with His position and authority?
Read Colossians 1:21–22.
Were the people Jesus reconciled to Himself easy to love? Explain.
Now read Colossians 3:19.
With that picture of Christ in mind, what do you think Paul means when he tells a husband, “Love your wife”?
Transition: Now consider the second command. “Don't become bitter toward them.” The Greek word is πικραίνω (pikrainō), meaning to become bitter or embittered toward someone.
What's the difference between being hurt or frustrated by something your wife does and allowing that hurt to become bitterness toward her?
Insight: Bitterness begins internally. The flow looks like this. hurt → resentment → bitterness → withdrawal → harsh treatment. Paul isn't merely saying, “Don't be mean to your wife.” He's warning husbands about allowing resentment to take root in their heart and change the way they see and treat their wife.
Read Colossians 3:12–14
How would these qualities protect a husband from becoming bitter toward his wife?
Which of these is hardest to practice when you're frustrated with your spouse? Why?
Read Colossians 2:13–14 and 3:13.
What did Jesus do with our debt?
How should the way Christ has forgiven us change the way we respond when our spouse hurts or disappoints us?
Insight: A Christian husband doesn't measure his leadership by how well his wife serves him. He measures it by how faithfully he serves her. Ultimately, the husband isn't called to become the lord of his home. Jesus already is. The husband's calling is to let the character of the Lord become visible in the way he loves his wife.
6. Christ Is the Model for Both
Read Philippians 2:5–8.
What does Jesus' example teach us about the relationship between authority and servanthood?
Why is Jesus the model for both the wife and the husband—not merely the husband?
What does “dying to self” actually look like in a marriage?
Insight: Christian marriage isn't ultimately about two people demanding their rights from one another. It's about two people learning to surrender themselves to Christ. So, the husband doesn't get to say, “I'm the leader, so you serve me.” Christ’s example shows the husband because He is Lord, he gave himself for you. Likewise, the wife doesn't get to say, “I'll submit only when I agree.” Christ’s example shows the wife, because Jesus is Lord, I will honor Him in the way I relate to my husband.
7. Bringing It Home
Read Colossians 3:17.
If Jesus really is Lord of our homes, what is one thing that should look different?
Husbands: Have we allowed disappointment, frustration, or hurt to become bitterness toward our wife? What would loving her like Christ gave Himself for the church look like this week?
Wives: Can w disagree with our husband without allowing disagreement to become disrespect?
Where might humility, patience, or “bearing with” need to become more visible in my marriage?
Everyone: Are we more concerned with getting our way or becoming like Jesus?
Closing Challenge
Complete this statement: If Jesus were truly Lord of my home this week, I would…
Possible closing prayer:
“Jesus, You are Lord—not only of our churches, our Sundays, and our beliefs, but of our homes. Teach us to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love. Teach husbands to love sacrificially without bitterness. Teach wives to honor You through willing submission. And teach all of us to follow the example of the One who, though He was Lord, became a servant and gave Himself for us. Amen.”