In communicating with our spouses, we learned last time in Colossians 3 that we are to daily put down anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language and to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  To clothe means to cover something up: to obscure or conceal something as if wrapping something around it.  Now I know you are wondering how do we clothe issues with our husband, right?  Here’s an example.  Your spouse is angry with you or something happened at his job and you are the recipient of the anger. You have the choice of reacting to what you are receiving and possibly extending “life” to it, or concealing it or “smothering it” with compassion and killing it.  See, one thing I have learned in gardening is that cucumber vines will grow and take over everything in the garden if they are allowed to because that is their nature.  After they have established the vine, then they produce fruit.  So it is with negative thoughts.  They will go in any area of our lives that we allow them to unless we smother them and as it says in verse 5 and put them to death.  If we don’t deal with negative thoughts either about ourselves or our spouses, that vine will start to produce fruit and the harvest will be bountiful: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language. Once this vine is left unattended, it will take over your thought pattern and lead to destruction of not only your marriage, but your very life.

Later in verse 13 it tells us to bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances we may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  Hmmm.  Put on love.  Interesting concept - to choose to love.  Amazing, isn’t it?

So what do we do with our anger, negative thoughts, and bad attitudes?  We give them to God.  Verse 15 says let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.  That doesn’t mean we walk around like zombies not having emotion or not getting upset.  It simply means that we choose not to let the anger rule us.  It means we thoughtfully respond and not react.  How? Verse 16 says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.  It continues by saying whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.    All you do – do it in the name of the Lord Jesus – and then God, with all wisdom and knowledge, leads right into admonishing the wives to submit to their husbands.

And we will conclude there next month…..

Posted under Marriage