No Partiality

Introduction

This past week, I was listening to a lifelong Muslim convert to Christianity ...give his testimony about coming to faith in the one true God...and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. His name was Nabeel Qureshi. At the end of his testimony gave his testimony of faith...he shared how he just told his parents of his new found faith...and how it crushed his parents...because in Isalm it is believed that God would never become a human being...and Jesus is just a prophet and nothing more...and to believe in Jesus as God (as Christianity has professed for 2000 years) is to go to hell...

So Nabeel tells how he is sobbing and asking God “Why didn’t you kill me? Rather than make me break my family’s hearts...why didnt’ you kill me?” He said in that moment...he heard God say to him… “Because this is not about you.” Nabeel said in that moment...his theology, his life, his whole world was just rebooted. He said the next day...everything looked different. Everything was the same but he was seeing it with new eyes...through the eyes of God...who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son...and whoever believes in him shall not perish....but have everlasting life.

Nabeel closes by saying of his new understanding of God...of his Christian understanding of God...this God was the God who spoke the universe into existence!

A God who took on human flesh in Jesus...and came into our messy...filthy world...and was betrayed by his closest friends and was willing to suffer an excrutiating death...in order to save all believers from their sins and grant them eternal life.

And as the Gdo who died for sinners...out of his great love...he commands his followers “As I have loved you...so you ought to love one another.”

The gospel of Jesus Christ changed Nabeel’s life.

The gospel of Jesus Christ changes...everything.

Paul has aruged this point throughout the book of Ephesians. (go to slides)

Difficult texts

So as we come to difficult texts, we must keep in mind Paul’s larger argument that our lives and our conduct must change as a result of God calling us to faith in Jesus the messiah ...as our Lord and savior.

To me...the most difficult text for our modern ears and sensibilities...are those around sexuality. Whether that be sexual relationships or the role that each sex (male and female) is to play in the family or the church.

To me...these texts are not to be ignored but faithfully engaged with...in the belief that the Holy Spirit uses all of scripture...as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16

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,

This includes the warm and fuzzy scriptures...as well as the parts of scripture that might give us pause.

Today is one of those passages.

The passage

Ephesians 5:21–6:9 ESV

...submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 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. 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.

To begin with, Paul privileges women by putting wives first. In a society where women were not even able to be witnesses in a court of law...Paul addresses them first. But beyond that the first submission statement is one of mutual submission to Christ Jesus our Lord.

Some who study the scriptures see in these verses a patriarchal system...reinforced here by Paul. The Greco-Roman household indeed had its own code for what a proper and respectful family (household) should look like. Male-dominated; wives, children, slaves...were to be kept in line.

But Paul flips this dynamic. The gospel has changed Paul's perspective.

While affirming submission as a part of family life...he says there is to be mutual submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In the Greco-Roman worldview...submission was to the more powerful...which was the father...

In the Christian view...submission was not servitude...is was salvation. It was linked to the love of God in Christ Jesus. All members of the household were to submit first and foremost to Christ.

__________________________________

In our culture, we have a hard time with the word submission. Indeed, our nation came about because of our forefathers and mothers refused to submit to England’s authority. It’s in our national DNA to rebel...but As I said last week...Jesus demands his followers to repent (turn around from the ways of rebellion against God) and believe in Him and in God’s eternal plan of salvation.

In the Christian sense...submission is not a dirty word...it is a word of obedience to God. It’s a high standard to live up to for all of us.

__________________________________

The world of Jesus and the first Christians was a world of honor and shame...We honor God by submitting to God’s will...as Jesus demonstrated in the garden of Gethsemane...Not my will but yours be done. As God said to Nabeel Qureshi… “it’s not about you.” It’s about God...and God is love.

Husband’s and fathers...were given strict guidance to remember in this passage...that they are to love their wives...as Christ loved the church. Paul belabor’s the point and lingers on how husband’s are to love their wives.

Ephesians 5:28–33 ESV

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.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

The appeal is to the oneness all believers have in Jesus...we are one body. But the appeal is also back to Genesis...God intended husband and wife to cling to one another...to become one flesh. Not one of you in here today...unless you’re suffering from a psychological issue...seeks to hurth themselves on purpose.

I was picking up a piece of plywood the other day with no gloves on (not smart) and I got a little tiny splinter. What did I do? I stopped immediately and tended to that splinter and took it out. I relieved the pain...I cared for my flesh.

God says that how husband’s ought to care for themselves and their wives and their children.

He goes on:

Ephesians 6:1-4

... Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go 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.

Again a restriction on Male dominance on unneccarily provoking your children to anger. FAthers...we must build up our children. Yes there is a place for discipline, that’s not what he’s tlaking about it...he’s saying to goad your children on...dont’ push their buttons...love them as Christ does.

And finally

Ephesians 6:5–9 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. 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.

Closing

Masters...are to treat their servants as under God’s supervision and God’s authority. Don’t take advantage of your employees or your servants. What did Jesus say to his disciples, “The greatest among you must be a servant of all.” Godly power...a godly household reflects this ethic. Mutual submission to Christ. Restrained power...just as God shows to an unruly world every day.

WE are to always remember our place under Christ; our oneness in Christ; our love should reflect Christ’s love.

The great reformer John Cavlin viewed the household as a microcosm of Christian society, where order promotes peace rather than oppression.

The goal is not rigid hierarchy but ordered harmony.

authority is limited by moral responsibility

submission is guided by conscience toward God

relationships reflect Christian charity

May it be so with all of us...in our relationships in the household, in the church, with God, and with our neighbors. All to the praise of the glory of God in Christ.

thanks be to God...AMEN.