The Household Rules

The NIV entitles this section “Rules for Christian Households.” Here Paul sets forth a series of reciprocal admonitions that are to govern the relationships between wives and husbands, children and parents, and slaves and masters. This list forms what has come to be known in academic circles as the Haustafeln, a German term meaning a list of rules or duties for members of a household. Similar lists to the one in Colossians are found in Ephesians 5:21–6:9 and 1 Peter 2:18–25, 3:1–7. The Pastoral Epistles (1 Tim. 2:8–15; 6:1–10; Titus 2:1–10) deal with the same classes of people but in a less structured and unified way.

The appearance of these “household rules” in so many NT epistles indicates that such instruction was necessary in the early church. People needed to know ho…