Jer. 18-19
God is sovereign. He is the Creator, and He is in the right to do whatever He wishes with His creation. Like the potter in Jeremiah 18, He can crush the vessel He is working on and shape it into something else. I think we sometimes have a problem with that concept because we relate to it through a human perspective. Any human being who gets anything close to “absolute power” over something abuses that power. As Jesus told His disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them” (Matt 20:25, Mark 10:42). But that isn’t God. God is righteous and merciful in His sovereignty. He is a good God.
I think it also helps to keep in mind that God is our Creator. If you have ever created something, you know that you put a piece of yourself into it and that it should reflect something of who you are. If, as you are working on it, it isn’t turning out as you desired, you keep working with it until it does. The whole process is a labor of love, and the created object is something intended for purpose and joy. It is something that you, as the creator, take pride in. The same is true for God with respect to us, but even more so. Because He is more than just a Creator and we are more than inanimate objects.
Col. 3
In this passage, Paul expands on what it means to be circumcised in heart – to remove the flesh from you. He says to “put to death” the fleshly, earthly desires and to “put on” that which is from God. When looking at the earthly things Paul mentions, it is easy to see that the flesh is self-serving. This is why he says that when we are in Christ, we die to self. And so we put on a new self, which, Paul says, “is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col 3:10b). This goes back to what we just saw in Jeremiah. The creation should reflect the Creator. God reworks us through Christ so that we do.
Paul then goes on to tell the Colossians the same thing he told the Ephesians. Wives submit; husbands love; children obey; fathers don’t provoke; bondservants serve with sincerity. Looking at these instructions, or admonitions, in light of this idea of removing the flesh, I see that Paul is hitting the typical trouble spots. Those who are subject to authority, such as wives, children, and servants, would struggle with being submissive and obedient to that authority. And those in positions of authority, like husbands, fathers, and masters, would be inclined to lord it over those in their care. These are the fleshly behaviors. But as servants of Christ, we should do things differently.