Colossians and Ephesians both feature sections on the “household codes” or in other words how each member of the household should treat each other. In Colossians, husbands are supposed to love their wives without being harsh to them and wives are supposed to submit to their husbands. Children are supposed to obey their parents and fathers are not supposed to embitter their children. Slaves are supposed to work for their masters on Earth like they are working for the lord in heaven and masters should be fair to their slaves because the Lord shows no favoritism in heaven. The author of Ephesians expands all of these ideas in their own version of the “household codes” by saying that each member should follow the same directions, but to do so with respect to the Lord and his son, their savior. For example, Ephesians correlates husbands to being the head of the wife, just as the Christ is the head of the church and she should submit to her husband the same way the church submits to Christ. Each of the following sections that discuss the role of the husband, children, slaves, and masters, all make similar correlations directly back to Christ and the church. This is probably to allow the readers of Ephesians to understand that how they operate in this life directly connects to the church and that their actions here will be rewarded or disapproved by the Lord in heaven.

The authors of these two books write their “household codes” with obvious intentions that the end is not imminent and Christians should go on with their lives, creating families and serving the members of their household as well as those around them. The books do mention that they should do so with the same love and respect as if they were serving Christ, but the books do not specify that they should not have families in order to serve only Christ until their moment of death. This is very different from Paul who says that for those that are already single, should remain single because the end is imminent and those that are single should stay away from the lust and temptations of love in order to serve the Lord, Jesus Christ to cement their place in heaven and secure their salvation. Paul does mention that if one already has a partner, then it is best that they marry so that they do not act in sin by lusting or having sex outside of marriage because this is a terrible sin.