Ephesians 5:21-6:9

Updates:

Dalton Cox Worship

New Series coming up (Inosent, Worship in the Park)

Series Recap:

I have loved walking through this book with you all!

Who we are in Christ… Remember.

I have loved the encouragement and feedback we get.

Applying these Gospel truths to our life!

Introduction (Today):

One of the most controversial passages in scripture

Mention of Roles in marriage (Submission)

Slavery

This stuff causes us to get emotionally charged and here is my challenge this morning.

Avoid the soundbites.. deal with this passage a a whole

Do the best we can to read this passage in its original context and then apply it to our lives.

How do we need to contextualize this passage?

Taking something and figuring out how to appy it directly to the context in which we live.

Culture Gap: Biblical Truths… translated to the first century household.

We come into this passage with so much…

Cultural baggage, personal baggage.

We need to understand while Paul is giving instruction that we should apply to our lives… and yet ge is writing them to a specific group at a specific time.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Descriptive vs prescriptive

We have to do the hard work, alongside the Holy Spirit in us to determine what aspects we are suppose to apply.

Transition: Our Posture This morning: (Humility, No sound bites, My cultural Lense, Their Cultural Lense)

Intentional Structure by Paul:

Household Codes for those who are in Christ

Plato (republic) or Aristotle this was common practice in the ancient world.

Household Gospel.

Intentional Audience:

1) It is of importance we understand this massage is for believers in community. (Wives, Slavery)

2) 3 blocks (A/B) vs separate instruction. (Wives and Husbands, Kids and Parents, Slaves and Masters)

Yes Think about how you apply your section… but also recognize Paul is addressing the whole room.

“In the West, it may help if the church started thinking more in terms of we than me.” ― E. Randolph Richards, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible

This is so important… every week as I preach I wrestle with this (I sometimes do have you in mind, but the passage is not to single you out but rather move us all along in our journey with Christ together)

Transition: alright I think we have attempted to adequately prepare ourselves for this mornings passage, lets pray and dive in.

Read and pray

Ephesians 5:21 ESV

submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Big Idea: Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ

1) Submit

Duty vs Rights

Permissable vs Beneficial

1 Corinthians 10:23 ESV

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

Two other instructions in he following passage: Love and Obedience

I think this captures what submitting looks like.

2) To one another

one another….

A. Mutual Submission

Everyone Submits to each other.

The Trinity

The early church leaders described the Trinity using the term perichoresis (peri – circle, choresis – dance)

The Picture of a Dance. (It takes 2 to tango)

B. Who is the one another (Believers).

3) Out of Reverence for Christ.

Our submission is out of reverence for our love for Christ.

Reverence = Regard.

I do it because I recognize who is my submission ultimately too.

Transition: What God has said is that all people are equal in every way. Equal in value, Equal in importance, Equal in significance, Equal in privilege.) anything less than that is anti God.

but yet… we exist in relationship and their are dynamic at play…

in the first century world and today.

Now as we transition into individual instruction lets bring into it everything we have already said, and know we are going to fly through these and that is somewhat intentional…

This is one message underneath the idea of mutual submission.

1a) Wives Submit to your husband.

Ephesians 5:22–24 ESV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

What is this passage not saying:

This subjection does not mean inferiority. It is clear that male and female are both created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and that in Christ, where personal worth is concerned, there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

1. Its not Blind Obedience. – your husband is fallible. So don’t be passive if you sense your husbands leadership is abusive, or unloving, the wife should prayerfully speak the truth in love to her husband .

1) Submission does not mean agreeing with everything your husband says. 2) Submission does not mean leaving your brain or will at the altar. 3) Submission does not mean avoiding every effort to change a husband. 4) Submission does not mean putting the will of the husband before the will of Christ. 5) Submission does not mean that the wife gets her personal, spiritual strength primarily through the husband. 6) Submission does not mean that a wife is to act out of fear.

* If you are in a dangerous situation, we want to help you get out of a dangerous situation in a God-honoring way. email me [e-mail]

What is it saying:

the wife is to regard the obedience she has to render to her husband as an obedience rendered to Christ.

Own…

“In everything” not everything = posture vs decision. (Season vs every decision)

Is it hard for you to submit? Why? (I will ask good questions, because sometimes that is more helpful)

1b) Husbands Love your wives.

Ephesians 5:25–31 ESV

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

The word for “love” here is agapoō (ἀγαποω), referring to the love that God is (I John 4:8), that God showed at Calvary (John 3:16), and the love that the Holy Spirit produces in the heart of the yielded believer (Gal. 5:22). This is a self-sacrificial love, a love that impels the one loving to give himself in self-sacrifice for the well-being of the one who is loved.

How Does Jesus show love:

○ He came down ○ He emptied himself ○ He had no place to lay his head ○ He came to serve, not be served ○ He took up the towel and the basin and washed feet ○ He submitted himself to the father ○ He absorbed the scorn of humanity ○ He subjected himself to the flogging ○ He took up his cross

Question: Husbands how do you show love to your wife? (l love yah honey) (Jesus vs Al Bundy)

2a) Children obey your parents

Ephesians 6:1–3 ESV

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Children are recongnized which means they are present in the gathering

“Obey” is hupakouō (ὑπακουω), the simple verb meaning “to hear,” the prefixed preposition, “under,” the compound verb meaning, “to hear under,” that is, “to hear under” authority. It speaks of the one hearing as being under the authority of some one else.

When you obey your parents you are obeying Jesus.

Paul is quoting from the 10 commandments.

A small fun note is his mention of the promise attached to this section…. (Its like offering a kid M&Ms for going on the potty)

You will live a long time if you obey your parents.

2b) Fathers do not provoke your children.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

“Provoke” is parorgizō (παροργιζω), “to rouse to wrath, to provoke, exasperate, anger.

Consistant parenting

Do not provoke but… bring them up in disciple and instruction… of the Lord

Parents: How do you parent out of Reverence to Jesus? (Who’s approval are you after)

3b) Servants obey your masters

Ephesians 6:5–8 ESV

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

This one has the most attached baggage.

160 years ago Slavery was happening in this country.

and sadly many christians were using this passage to defend it… not all of them but many.

This is terrible.. and we should lament this.

However? Ancient slaver and Modern slavery were a bit different.

The big difference is the origin of ancient slavery vs modern slavery.

How is first century slavery different?

30-50% of population was enslaved.

Not an ethnic or racial issue.

slaves could hold positions in society

(some prisoners of war)

Most… were Bond-servants (Bankruptcy)

Still a terrible practice that rips someone of dignity… but me must recognize its differences from What happened in our country and many countries in the modern world.

Here is the questions you are probably wondering? Why would God not abolish slavery right here… (IDK)

William Wilberforce

Martin Luther King

Another important contextual Key… Small House churches in ancient world…. (Ceasar vs democracy)

Dealing with Pauls challenge to servants:

These can be applied to all people who submit to authority

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Chapter Six

“Servants” is doulos (δουλος), “slaves.” These were Christian slaves working for the most part for pagan masters. Vincent says, “In this appeal, Paul was addressing a numerous class. In many of the cities of Asia Minor, slaves outnumbered freemen.

- This subjection does not mean inferiority. It is clear that male and female are both created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and that in Christ, where personal worth is concerned, there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

The Command:

Obey your master as if you are obeying Christ…

Who does your life actually belong to?

Four times he references your serving your master in response to serving Christ.

The Lord is the one who rewards you.

This is so subversive….

The Cross is where violent accomplishment stops….. We declare our identity in Christ and yet we submit to authority out of submission to God.

3b) Masters stop your threatening.

Ephesians 6:9 ESV

Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

The words, “do the same things,” do not mean that the masters are to render service to the slaves as the latter do to them, but that they are to treat them with the same Christian principles and consideration that the slaves show to the masters.

Masters… treat those under you… as Christ treats them.

again Mutual Submission.

In the first century church even the master sacrifices for the slave.

Master… You have a master…

No Partiality = God does not show favoritism to you because you are a master.

When you begin to understand how big God is you begin to recognize how small you are.

Treat all people with diginity and respect because they are Gods.. You do not actually own them…. they belong to their Maker.

Closing:

In Christ we are one

Our entire Identity is shaped by this new status.

How do you treat the people you are in your household (So saddened by the way I hear about Christians acting with each other in their home)

There is still order and authority… but How we engage in it is completely redefined by Jesus.

Your marriage should be shaped by your identity. (It takes 2 to tango)

You Parenting.

How we relate to leadership and lead.