This is a letter full of joy. The words “joy” or “rejoice” appear in some form 16 times in 14 verses. Unlike many of Paul’s letters, this one was not written to correct problems, but mainly as an expression of love and thanks to a church that partnered with him in the spread of the gospel.
Sometimes submission to God requires submission in earthly relationships. In those cases, whether we are in authority or under authority, we need to fulfill our God-given roles as if we are directly serving Him.
We are now firmly into the application section of Paul’s letter. Not much deep theology here. Paul tells us very straightforwardly what is right and what is wrong. The only proper response to this passage is to believe it and act accordingly. At the end, however, we’ll talk a bit about why Christians so often don’t seem to get this right.
Genuine faith in Christ ought to cause a noticeable change in the life and conduct of the believer. In this section shows us how our transformation takes place: Put off, put on, put away.
Central Reflections 