Walk in Wisdom Within

Introduction

Spiritual Blessings (v1-14)

Paul’s First Prayer (v15-23)

You Were Dead, but Now Alive (2:1-10)

You were Far Off, but Now Nigh (v11-22)

What was Mystery is Now Known (3:1-13)

Paul’s Second Prayer (v3:14-21)

We began a new phase in Paul’s letter this past Sunday night.

The first three chapters dealt with ‘Who we are in Christ’

Now he’s writing on ‘How we live in Christ’

And the first thing that he addresses is for the church to Walk in Unity.

Walk in Unity

A Plea for Unity

The Shift (v1a); The Standard (v1b); The Spirit of Unity (v2-7)

A Parenthetical Thought

Jesus the Leader and Giver (v8); Jesus the Liberator (v9-10)

A Plan for Perfection (Completion)

Placements Established (v11); Purposes Stated (v12) [Completeness (v12a; 14-16); Completion (v12b); Until the Consummation (v13)]

Walk as a New Man

In Premise

Walk Differently than Others (v17-19); Walk Distinct to your Teachings (v20); Walk with Diligence (v21); Walk Deliberately (v22-24)

In Practice

Speak Truthfully (v25); Control Your Spirit (v26); Secure your Space (v27); Steal Not but Labour (v28); Safeguard your Mouth (v29); For you’re Sealed by the Spirit (v30); Therefore Show it (v31-32)

Walk in Love

The Manner to Walk (v1-2)

The Mess to Avoid (v3-4)

Be Mindful of the Difference (v5-7)

Walk in the Light

Illumination (v8-9)

What they Were; What they Are; Why they Are; What to Do; What it Produces

Separation (v10-14)

A Proving; A Reproving; The Illuminant; The Alarm

Discrimination (v15-17)

Be Wise in our Walk; our Time; in God’s Will

Inundation (v18-20)

With a Godly Filling; by Giving of Thanks

As we approach this next passage, we see that Paul begins to narrow the focus. He starts to address particular roles - primarily in the home.

This message is titled ‘Walk with Wisdom Within’.

Now I’ll state the obvious - Ch. 5 leads into Ch. 6 - which ends with the famous passage of the ‘Armour of God’.

I said that to say this: If you’re going to put on the Armour, you got to have your haouse in order first.

So tonight we’re going to speak on the Environment - as we look at the various relationships that Paul addresses

The Environment

I. The Environment

Ultimately, we will find at least one role that we fill here - and we certainly can’t expect to wage a Great Spiritual War against our flesh and Satan if we don’t understand our role, our place in the home and in the body of Christ.

There are a few things to note:

First - He begins with the relationship between a husband and the wife. This is not by accident. So goes the marriage, so goes the home. So goes the home, so goes the church. So goes the church, so goes the Cause of Christ. Many children have suffered a distorted view of what the home should be by experiencing a wrong relationship between mommy & daddy. Many little boys have grown up to forsake their families and run off with a harlot because that’s what daddy did. Many little girls are critical and bitter against their husbands because that’s what she saw mommy do.

Secondly - the relationship between husband and wife is constantly illustrated as the relationship between Jesus and the church. This is no small fact to overlook or gloss over. You can’t get any greater of an image that you can compare to.

Lastly, in his instruction he does not present it with conditions. In other words, he doesn’t say ‘wives submit yourselves unto your husbands, AS LONG AS THEY LOVE YOU LIKE CHRIST. Do you know what you’re supposed to do? DO YOUR PART ANYWAY.

Christ covered this principle when He said: Mat. 5:43-45 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Now if Jesus instructed His followers to love their enemies & do good to them that hate you - how much better should you treat the one you married?

In the book of wisdom we are told: Pro. 25:21-22 “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, And the Lord shall reward thee.”

Now that we see the ‘how’, let’s look specifically at the ‘what’.

Instruction unto the Wives (v22-24)

The key principle is for the wife to submit unto their husband. He instructs Submission in v22, he declares the husband is the ‘head’ of the wife in v23, and that the wife is ‘subject unto’ their husband in everything in v24. In short, the wife is ordained by God to submit herself under the authority and leadership of the husband. The sub-points I will give in short order: SUBJECT (def) subordinate; obedience; put under; subject to

The Manner of Submission

As unto Christ Himself

The Method of Submission

Willingly

He says to the wives to: Eph. 5:22-24 “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”

In case you didn’t get the comparison in v22, he repeats it in v23 and again in v24 - do you think he’s trying to say something?

The wives are to submit themselves unto the authority of their husbands. They are to willingly place themselves under the leadership. You see, God did not setup marriage to have competing views and visions of the direction of the family. God setup the order of the home for the husband to lead, and the wife to submit to that leadership - as if she were submitting to the LORD.

Some will say that they are ‘co-leaders’. But that’s not God’s plan for the home. There certainly needs to be cooperation, but not co-leaders. Let me ask you something. Do you think it’s the Christians place to be co-equal leaders with Jesus? No. The Christian is to submit themselves under the authority and leadership of the LORD - and IN LIKE MANNER, the wife unto her husband.

This is not an question of VALUE, it’s a decision made by God of ORDER and AUTHORITY - and it was dictated as such for reason: 1Tim. 2:11-14 “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (Men and women are different - created differently, for different purposes).

So the direction / role of the wife is to be in subjection to her husband

Instruction unto the Husbands (v25-33)

Next we move to the husbands. And the first thing that we see is another comparison to the relationship between the LORD Jesus and the Church that He died for.

The Manner of Love

Two comparisons given in this point:

As Christ loved the church

This is the gravity and expectation upon the husbands to which they love their wives.

As they love themselves

God gives further instruction - because we hard-headed men need it. He gave a Spiritual example in how Christ loved the church, now He’s given a physical example, how we love ourselves.

So the instruction for the man was doubly emphasized so that we would prayerfully get it.

The Method of Love

Sacrificially (v25)

Christ GAVE of Himself. He gave everything. He was willing to bleed and die for the church. He was willing to feed, pray for, nourish, guide & direct His church - at the expense of His own comfort. At the expense of everything He had.

Christ loved the church Sacrificially - as husbands should love their wives.

So they Shine (v26-27)

I think that this is an important distinction that often goes unnoticed. You know they say ‘Behind every great man is a great woman’, This is certainly true as those women are subject and supportive - the help-meet God intends. However, it’s equally true and Biblical that the husband provides his wife with all things necessary so as they shine like the true jewels they are. Husbands should provide for the wife as Christ does for the church: Leadership, instruction, wisdom & knowledge - so as they grow and shine as lights in the world.

Christ loved the church so that it would shine in the world - as husband should do for their wives

Supplying all (v29)

Supplying her needs (nourisheth)

The husband needs to take responsibility to provide for his wife the things that she needs physically, Spiritually & emotionally

Showing her affection (cherisheth)

Husbands ought to love on their wives. Make them feel like the treasure they are.

In a Special Way (v31)

Here we see something: Prior to being wed, the closest relationship a man should have is that unto his parents. They are the ones who have taught and nourished him all his life. But we see that once he is married, the relationship that he’s enjoyed a lifetime is to take on a secondary nature. It cannot be the same as it once was in prominence in his life.

The problem with many marriages today is not that the ‘leave and cleave’ ideology is forsaken, but instead of leaving their parents and cleaving to their wife, they are leaving their wives and cleaving unto strange women. The Bible tells us: Pro. 5:15 “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well.”

Bottom line is this should be a unique relationship. They are to become ONE flesh. This relationship is more special than the one with your children. One problem today is that too many parents love their children more than their spouse. If you fall into that category, I submit to you that you are approaching both relationships wrong.

‘Well, you don’t know what my husband has done’ or ‘that woman is just mean sometimes’, yeah… let me just say that I’m glad that Christ hasn’t treated me the same way I’ve treated Him. I’m glad He shows me Grace.

To close this out, we see the summary in Eph. 5:33 “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”

Instruction unto the Children (6:1-3)

Unto them he speaks of a reverence that they are to have unto their parents.

They are to Obey (v1)

They are to behave toward them with Respect and Reverence (v2)

Strongs (def) to prize; revere

Oxford (def) great respect or esteem

This dictates they manner to which children are to behave toward their parents. Children notice this: He gives no conditions concerning the way they are to behave towards their parents. The children are to prize their father & mother, they are to revere them. Not just when they feel like it, not just when their parents are nice to them and buy them things - they are to honor them (period).

We also see a reason attached to this: Eph. 6:3 “That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.”

There’s reason for this: First off - if a child does not respect his earthly father and mother, he most certainly will not honor their Father in Heaven. Secondly, you should do so, because it’s right.

So he speaks unto the Children

Instruction unto the Fathers (6:4)

In his instruction unto the fathers, we see that it’s very short - but so vital and profound.

Our Bible uses the word ‘Fathers’ but this instruction is just as important for mothers. However, the father is the leader of the home and it falls upon him to lead.

They must Govern with Wisdom and Care

The Bible says to ‘not provoke them unto wrath’. Here’s what Matthew Henry said concerning that: Though God has given you power, you must not abuse that power, remembering that your children are, in a particular manner, pieces of yourselves, and therefore ought to be governed with great tenderness and love. Be not impatient with them, use no unreasonable severities and lay no rigid injunctions upon them. When you caution them, when you counsel them, when you reprove them, do it in such a manner as not to provoke them to wrath. In all such cases deal prudently and wisely with them, endeavouring to convince their judgments and to work upon their reason.”

This is the first admonition. Arguably the second is greater as it says ‘but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the LORD’. With this, God is telling us how to raise our children.

They are to Train them Warn them & Lead them in the things of God above all else

Two things that God stresses here:

Nurture (def) tutorage, education or training and environment as an influence on or determinant of personality

Admonition (def) call attention to; rebuke or warning

What this means is that we should be training, educating and creating an environment in the things of God. We should instruct them, call their attention to and warn them concerning the things of God. THIS IS HOW WE SHOULD BE RAISING OUR CHILDREN. But for probably 90% of Christian parents, this is not our focus at all. We place much more emphasis on the things of this world in the eyes and minds of our children, than we do on the things of God.

We’ll make sure they go to school 90% of the time, while we do good to get our kids to church 30% of the time.

We’ll make sure our kids are at their sports practice, but not at the house of God. And for most, if there’s a conflict between sports and church, which do you choose? What are you teaching your children???

You can’t live a Spiritual life if these relationships aren’t founded correctly! You can’t live a Spiritual life if the closest relationships in your life are carnally based. They bear too much impact on your life!

So we see the family relationships mentioned here.

Secondly, we’ll not spend time on it, but there are two more groups and the relationship between the two that Paul addresses.

Instruction unto Servants and Masters (6:5-9)

The reality is that he’s addressing slaves / bondservants and their masters.

While we have no such positions in America today, I believe the principles that are given can be applicable to any position of authority or subjection dynamic - such as a employer / employee relationship.

Servants are Called to Obedience

If you are in subjection to another, you should serve with obedience - as you were doing it unto the LORD Himself

The reason being is that while we work to serve others, we may be getting wages, but the LORD is the one who will pay! (v8)

Masters are Called to be Servants

As for the masters, we notice that Paul did not say for them to be highminded, lording over them - but to do the same things unto them! Though a master may be above, he’s not to act above.

Reason being is that we all will give answer unto the LORD. And God is no respecter of persons.

Conclusion