Love and Submission [Part 3]

Love and Submission...part 3
The wife was regarded not as a person, but as a piece of property. She was not allowed to make decisions of her own, particularly in the area of religion. The father and husband decided what everybody's religion was going to be. She had no rights whatsoever. So as far as the women, the children, and the slaves were concerned, they didn't rate at all.
So when Paul came and preached the Gospel, this was a dramatic intervention in their culture because he told these people: You're all created in the image of God. God loves all of you. You slaves, God loves you. You women, God created you in the image of God, as much as He created your husbands in the image of God. Christ died for all of you. All of you are sinners, you have that in common – men, women, children, slaves, wives, husbands, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
He said: Christ died for all of you that you might be reconciled to God. If you're reconciled to God the Holy Spirit will come into your life, and He will baptize you into the Body of Christ, and He will give you gifts. In the Body of Christ, men, women, children, slaves, slave owners, husbands, wives, you will be all one in Christ Jesus. “For in Christ there's neither Jew, nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor slave owner.” We’re all one in Christ Jesus!
That's old hat to us; we've known that ever since we've known anything about Christianity. But this was a radical message to the people to whom Paul was preaching. The women couldn't believe their ears, "What is he saying about us?" The slaves couldn't believe what they were hearing. "What is he saying about us?" The men, they were having fits! "Wow, these women might start believing this crazy character. They might start to thing they're as important as we are. These slaves might get all kinds of big ideas about themselves. We will lose control, and if we lose control in the household, it's only a matter of time until law and order breaks down in the household, and then the whole of our society will collapse.”
That's why Christianity was regarded as dangerous and subversive at that time. How many of you think that the man in the street in America today regards Christianity as dangerous and subversive? Now the man in the street in America generally regards Christianity as fundamentally weak-kneed and irrelevant. That will give you some idea of the change in culture.
So the Apostle Paul is bringing a message to those women who are hearing something so exciting, so radical, and so emancipating that it's very important that he teaches them very, very carefully how to enjoy their freedom in Christ while living within their culture. Come to think of it, that's what we have to do today! How can we live uniquely free in Christ, within our culture, so that we don't become a scandal to the name of Christ in the culture of which we are a part?