Paul for Everyone

The one thing we can certainly say about the parts of the world that have claimed this 'freedom' is that relationships between the sexes, and especially within marriage, are more confused and destructive than ever. All too often 'freedom' has meant the same thing as the freedom of the drivers to drive all over the road without looking. Short-term freedom, maybe, leading to long-term captivity - slavery to chaos, injury and death. Nobody who drifts into a sexual relationship, let alone a marriage relationship, remains 'free' thereafter. We are formed by the relationships in which we live, whether they are wholesome and lifegiving or ugly and destructive. How long does it have to be before someone comes to the conclusion that we need a new Highway Code for family relationships?

For this reason, from the day we heard it, we haven't stopped praying for you. We're asking God to fill you with the knowledge of what he wants in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This will mean that you'll be able to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, and so give him real delight, as you bear fruit in every good work and grow up in the knowledge of God. I pray that you'll be given all possible strength, according to the power of his glory, so that you'll have complete patience and become truly steadfast and joyful. And I pray that you will learn to give thanks to the father, who has made you fit to share the inheritance of God's holy ones in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. He is the one in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1 9-14