Obedience to Our Father

Good evening gentlemen. Once again it is my honor and privilege to come here and to share with you all the Word. I wasn’t here last month with you all, I believe I was leading Bible study at my church, Hurstbourne Baptist Church. But I am here today and glad to be here and I hope the Lord uses this time to open our minds and our hearts to what He has for us.

If you have your Bible with you, go ahead and open that up to Ephesians chapter 6. We will start in verse 1 and read through the first 9 verses. And some of you are probable going to be wondering as you get to that spot, “What is this going to have to do with me?” Well, it is actually much more prevalent than you realize. So trusting that you all have found your places in the Scriptures, I will go ahead and read.

Legacy Standard Bible CHAPTER 6

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

2 HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise),

3 SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG IN THE LAND.

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

5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the integrity of your heart, as to Christ;

6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

7 serving with good will as to the Lord, and not to men,

8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

9 And masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

Let’s Pray.

So let’s do this first. By a show of hands, how many of you here grew up with your parents. Both of them? How was home life for you? Many people I have talked to over the years have very interesting views of home and family life. There’s people I know well, even family, that doesn’t have a very positive view on family. And it could be because they have been hurt in the past by family, or they just don’t care. Maybe not even on purpose, but they just don’t care. It’s not something they find that important.

Well as you all saw from the previous days in Ephesians 5, Paul has something different to say. You can tell he has the family on the mind as he is writing this letter to this church. He is making it an intentional point to make sure this is read to the children in the church too. Many times we don’t explain things to children because we don’t believe they will understand. And I think many times we are correct, but we must teach them hard truths and have them obey even if they don’t understand.

Paul starts in verse one very plainly, echoing the fifth commandment. He is explaining to the children “you must obey, because the Lord commands you to.” How many of you all have kids? How many times have you told them, “don’t do this, or do this” and they didn’t listen? I have a kid on the way and I already know that it’s going to happen. It also was about 20 years ago that I can remember being that little kid who didn’t want to listen.

Kids sin when they don’t obey their father and mother. And they weren’t taught to disobey…right? They just do it! This is the ultimate sign that sin is in us at birth. Nobody had to teach us to lie, or to disobey, or to steal cookies when we were told no more. It is in us already from birth. It is the unfortunate reality of life. But even when you look back and authority tells us not to do this or that. Don’t do drugs. Don’t get drunk. But nobody is holding us at gunpoint and telling us to do it, we just do it, right?

When we do these things, we are sinning against God. Just the same as the child who disobeys his earthly father and mother, he also sins against God. Though the child doesn’t think about it this deeply, this is the reality, and that child needs his sins paid for too. More on that later.

As we move on, we see the other side of this family dynamic. We see Paul address the children, but we see the other side of that same coin where Paul is telling the fathers, “Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” So here we see the instruction to the Father. In these times, the father was the head of the home and nothing could budge that. Everything ran through him, so typically it was the family’s job to cater all things to the father, but here Paul is stating the sort of revolutionary statement. He is telling the father, this is your responsibility. Yes, the mother is the nurturer and to raise the child at home, but you, dad, must raise them in the instruction of the Lord.

There are many statistics out there that look at the outcome of children who had a father present and who didn’t. Then you can peel back the layers and take a look at the fathers who were present and how actually present they were. And more times than not the homes that didn’t have a father present had children who typically wound up in jail and sometimes dead from violence or drugs or what have you. The influence of a father has a lasting impact. The influence of a father who disciplines and instructs there children in the ways of the Lord also has a lasting impact.

Paul then has this random turnaround it seems then. He goes from the family dynamic to addressing the slaves. Well it isn’t nearly as random as we might view it today. The Roman Empire was actually 1/3 made up of slaves in population. And when we read about slaves in the text, we also must understand that it doesn’t mean the same thing as we understand slavery. A slave in these times would be anyone who was subject to another person. However, it would be more like how I am subject to my boss. He has authority over me in my work. And many times men would subject themselves to another person who had loaned them money or resources. They would pay it back in labor.

But much like any job or work place, sometimes there are masters, or bosses, who are not great people. They are unfair, unjust maybe, corrupt. And what Paul is addressing to the slaves is that regardless of the master you serve, you are to be obedient to them. Not to please the master that you are serving here, but rather to serve and please your Master who is in Heaven.

The Greek word we see in the Bible here for slave is doulos. And this word also appears in the New Testament around 125 times. Why does this matter? Well it matters because as we drill into that word, we see the true meaning of it and it is exactly what Paul is talking about here. In verse 6 he explains it to us that we are not simply honoring our masters by way of eye service, right? It’s not so others can see how good we are being, but because we seek to honor the Lord and do the will of God.

It isn’t a matter of doing it just because we should and we begrudgingly to the task assigned us and spend the day thinking and dwelling about how terrible a master we have, but we do it with a heart that seeks to honor the Lord, and do it for Him. Not that He needs us to do His work, but because this is the work He has given us to do right now.

I know some of you probably get annoyed with the stuff you are required to do or not do in here, right? Well look at it as an opportunity. You are doing what you are supposed to be doing as you take the proper steps to get your lives back on track. And the the Lord sees that. Verse 8 tells us that. Whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord.

Verse 9 then concludes by telling the masters do be much like the fathers in the verse 4. Be a fair leader. Be righteous and treat your slaves with respect and humility. Just because you are in a position of power doesn’t mean you have to inflict that on those who are working for you, but rather be fair. Pay a just wage, or if it is a debt being paid off then do not change the terms to your agreement.

Now, what does this mean for us today? Well, for anyone that is a father in here, take heed to Paul’s wisdom from verse 4. Be a father that is not only striving to honor the Lord, but train your children in the same manner. Those of you who have jobs or who are coming up on getting a job soon, be a good laborer. Work diligently.

But what does it all mean if you don’t have Christ? If you work hard, but don’t have Christ, then it’s meaningless. If you treat your children well and respect your parents even today, what is it all worth? Nothing. Sure, you might be able to stabilize some relationships for however much longer we will be here in this life, but one day this life will end. All our good work, all our kindness, all our treating people well will pass away too. People might talk about you for a little while after, but your eternal soul will be perishing.

That is why the only way any of this all makes sense is if we have repented of our sins, turned to Christ, and are following in obedience to Him. If that is not the compass that is guiding our hearts and minds, then this is all pointless is it not? There’s no standard of morality if we don’t follow Jesus. Or even worse, we become the standard of morality.

Paul is urging these Ephesian people to do these things because they are right and good, and they are right and good in the sight of God, not just Paul. But there again, the Ephesian church knew God and were obeying Him and following Him. Brothers, today is the day. If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, don’t wait any longer. Tomorrow is not promised. And I know you have heard this time and again, but it is the truth. I watched a friend jog from one spot to another for a sport we were playing, maybe 20 yards is all, and he fell over dead on sight. Healthy kid. Never did drugs. Didn’t have any prior health issues, didn’t drink. He just died. Nothing in the autopsy to explain it. Just some crazy freak accident so it seemed.

That could be any of us today or even tomorrow. I have seen family members live to their mid 80s and others who were taken at 21. Nothing in life is promised. But there is something that is true. Truth is a lost concept in our modern world. It’s whatever you say it is. Or it’s whatever this person on tv says it is. Or it’s what this other person on social media says it is. Here’s the truth guys. There is one objective, constant, and consistent truth, and it is the Word of God. The Bible.

Some have tried to argue that its full of contradictions or that the government has changed it. The copies of the Bible you have before you today are english translations of the original languages, Hebrew and Greek. And within those Bibles is a God who is good and kind and loving. So loving that He sent His own Son, Jesus, to come to this world to save it. To save us. He did that by death. The ultimate sacrifice so that we didn’t have to die if we only put our faith in Him and repent of our sins.

Without this, we have nothing. Our biggest problem in life is and will forever be the eternal state of our souls. And if you have put your faith and trust in Christ, then your biggest problem is solved. Everything else after it is nothing compared to this. The Lord sustains and takes care of His children. In return we obey and follow our loving Father, just as verse 1 says. We raise our children to follow Him as verse 4 says. We work hard and respect our employers as verses 5-8 tell us, and we treat those who might be beneath us in rank or power with that respect and we treat them fairly.

It is all connected. In our minds to be a slave sounds terrifying and wrong, but friends it is the only true way to freedom. Become a slave to Christ today.

Pray with me.