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It Is Written

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Eric Flickinger

Clinton Wahlen

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

06 Confidence Only in Christ

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

03 Life and Death

04 Unity Through Humility

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

07 A Heavenly Citizenship

John Bradshaw

Great Characters of the Bible: Abraham

08 The Preeminence of Christ

09 Reconciliation and Hope

10 Complete in Christ

11 Living With Christ

12 Living with Each Other

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We are taking a look at an incredible study, the writings of Paul in the book of Colossians, seeking to understand how God wants to unite heaven and earth.

This week is lesson 12 of 13, and we are looking today at how we can live with each other.

If you have noticed that there are some problems in the world with people living well with 1 another, this lesson is for you.

Father, thank you for drawing us together again this week as we continue our study of the writings of Paul in the books of Philippians and Colossians.

This week we want to understand how we can live better with 1 another, even though we may have differences and we may have challenging opinions that conflict and contrast with 1 another, help us to understand how we can live together with 1 another for your honor and glory.

We're grateful to have you with us, but we are also grateful to have with us once again the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson, that is Dr.

He is an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute.

Clinton, once again, thanks for being here.

We're rapidly closing in on the end of this quarter, but this week we are in Colossians once again, and we're kind of in the middle of the book of Colossians.

We're spending a little bit of time in the latter part of chapter 3 and getting into chapter 4.

And this week we're looking at living with each other.

Now that can be a bit of a challenge seeing as how most of us are human beings.

And human beings don't always get along real well with 1 another.

But in this chapter, the latter part of chapter 3 and getting into chapter 4, we're going to find some ways that we can live better with 1 another.

Speaking of the family, because Paul kind of starts with the family and then he builds outward from that, the home has sometimes been called the family firm.

What is this term, this phrase referring to?

Well, it's an interesting phrase, isn't it, Eric?

It means that the family operates in some ways like a business operates, like a firm, a business would operate.

So for example, running a business and running a household, it means that there should be general agreement on the values, the goals, and the objectives of this family firm.

That is, you know, the importance, of course, if the values are in agreement, that hopefully those then would be Christian values, biblical values, that we would be in agreement in the home on these things.

That's very important our goals and objectives You know that that our goal ultimate goal, of course is heaven and heavenly things So that should be uppermost in our mind.

It also means that processes should be, there should be agreement on processes for decision-making, for handling finances for example, and how to settle disagreements so that there is a smooth operation of this family firm.

It's also helpful for the family to have a basic plan for day-to-day operations, similar to the way a business would operate.

And it begins with family worship in the morning and evening.

That would be a wonderful way for these operations to be structured.

And throughout the day, various times for checking in with each other.

So in our passage this week, Paul talks about how we relate to each other and he begins with the home, which is the most important relationships we have.

So if we find that the family unit is broken down, that's going to have wide-ranging implications on larger parts of society breaking down.

And maybe that's 1 answer to why we're seeing society in the situation that it's in right now is that family firm is not functioning as a well-running healthy business.

So let's go and take a look at what Paul has to say about the family here.

It's interesting you mentioned the larger society.

It reminds me of a statement in the book Adventist Home, page 15, where it says, the well-being of society, the success of the church, the prosperity of the nation depend on home influences.

The health of the society begins with the health of the home and the family.

And Paul talks about that here in the book of Colossians, which you just mentioned.

In verses 18 and 19 of chapter 3, here's what Paul says.

He says, wives, submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

So we'll start with verses 18 and 19, the husband and wife relationship, and then he's gonna expand on that in the next few verses.

Now, verses like this have been used offensively, is maybe 1 kind way to say that.

What is Paul trying to get across here as he shares these verses?

Well, yeah, they don't have to be offensive, but they can be used that way.

Often, you know, where you just stop, where it says, wives submit to your husbands, period.

It says, wives submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

That means that the wife, their first duty for wives is to the Lord Jesus.

And the husband should not ask the wife to do anything that would be contrary to the Lord's will, first of all.

Sometimes wives have a hard time understanding submission when their husbands are not very reasonable.

As husbands, we need to make reasonable requests, not to be unreasonable.

But sometimes it's simply a matter of, you know, different wills, you know, a struggle of wills.

And I will share an incident that my wife actually has shared publicly more than once, because she wondered about this passage.

And she was thinking, of course, especially of Ephesians chapter 5, where Paul says the same thing in verse 22, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body." So you know it's very strong statement.

And she prayed, Lord what does this mean?

Well shortly after she prayed that prayer we were having a discussion of our family finances and we have an expense for additional supplemental insurance for cancer coverage that is above our regular health coverage.

And she, and even my accountant who does our taxes said, you know, that's an expense probably you don't need.

And so she said, you know, why don't we just, let's just eliminate that expense.

We don't need to pay that." And I said, no, I think we need to.

And she wasn't convinced, but she remembered her prayer, and she decided that this was an opportunity for her to submit to my decision on that, even though she didn't agree with it.

And it was only a few weeks later where she had a problem that she had doctors exam for and came down with cancer, a form of cancer, endometrial cancer.

And fortunately, it was caught in the early stages.

But this cancer coverage, we were very helpful for us.

She was very happy that She submitted to my decision that because it paid for everything, it gave us money, additional money for, you know, other out-of-pocket expenses that were unexpected.

We did actually all the coverage then that we received totally free.

There is some biblical advice, biblical counsel that had a real-world application and worked out amazingly well.

Yes, and there were other examples that she has also mentioned from time to time.

Then in verse 19, it's very important for us husbands, it says, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

In Ephesians 5, it says, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

This is the kind of self-sacrificial love that we're to have.

We are to put our own interests, our own desires, we should set them on 1 side and look at what is in our wives best interest.

And that is the way we should make decisions.

So this picture that Paul is describing of how the household should run is, if we understand it correctly, a very healthy, very balanced approach to it, which would probably solve a lot of problems if husbands and wives and others would understand this in its correct context and correct application.

Yeah, and it's a process of learning and growth.

Just like any business, you know, grows and learns from mistakes.

Family, the family firm learns from mistakes and hopefully, you know, it's a work in progress.

But in the end, it's very satisfying, very fulfilling.

So we're gonna broaden this picture just a little bit now and we're gonna go to break soon, but I wanna at least touch on this before we do.

Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

12 Living with Each Other

Transcript

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