Clothe Yourselves — Sermon 7 │ Open Door Christian Church │ Sunday, November 8, 2026

This Sunday Paul walks into the house.

For six weeks the letter to the Colossians has been about the inside of a Christian: what comes off, what goes on, how we forgive, what a Sunday morning is for. Now Paul gets specific. He talks to wives. He talks to husbands. Next week it's children and fathers, and the week after that, the workplace.

This week's text is two verses long. Colossians 3:18–19:

"Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them."

You have heard the first half of that. Most people have. It is one of the most quoted and most argued-over sentences Paul ever wrote.

But Paul wrote a longer version of these two verses to the church in Ephesus. Thirteen verses instead of two. And the longer version starts with a verse that almost nobody quotes.

It comes right before "Wives, submit." It is addressed to everybody in the room. And once you have read it, you cannot read the wife's verse the same way again.

That is where the sermon starts.

From there we will take the two commands one at a time. What Paul actually says to a wife, and what he does not say. The word he had available and chose not to use. What "in the Lord" puts around the whole thing. And then the husband, who gets one verse in Colossians and most of a chapter in Ephesians, and whose command turns out to be the harder one.

We will also look at the night before the cross, when the Lord of all things got up from the table, took off His outer clothing, and did the job of the lowest servant in the house. Jesus wore this one first.

If you are married, come and bring your husband or your wife. If you are not married, this is still your text. It tells you what to pray for, what to look for, and what to teach your children to look for.

Two verses. One Lord. And a house that runs the way Paul describes is a picture of something the neighbors can see from the street.

Join us this Sunday at Open Door Christian Church in DeLand, in the sanctuary or at the Drive-In Service in the Garden on FM 87.9.