Illuminating Relationships

Ephesians 5:18–6:9 ESV

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting 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. 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. 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.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 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.

Introduction: Cindy and I dancing....

Ephesians 5:18-6:9

26-Relationships are the fabric of society

The Roman/Greco House Codes

Native American Home Structure -

African Church started - After hearing the Gospel realized that they should have their wives eat with them....

Our Relationships may have some similarities, but are different. There is no slavery, but instead we have bosses and employees in generally capitalistic society. We are much more egalitarian. We actually have laws against child labor, and treating children in ways the Roman/Greco society saw children. Much of that is due to how the Gospel has impacted our society.

It is in our daily relationships where the Gospel rubber meets the road.

What is revolutionary about Paul’s House Code is that it addresses Women, and Children, and Slaves as people of worth and in the Kingdom as equals. In Greco/Roman house codes it is directed only to the free man and how everyone else is to be subservient to that man.

Rather than codifying the specific structure of society, I think Paul more importantly codifying Gospel attitudes within those structures.

27-We are called to be light in our relationships

vs 18 through vs 23 is all one sentence. Verse 18 - 21 then is both the contrast of living in darkness as we talked about last week, but also the positive statement of how to live as light in the following relationships (Marraige, Parent/Child, Master/Slave). So we are called to in these relationships to be filled by the Spirit characterized by...

speaking to your spouse, your child, your parents, your boss, your employees, your teachers, students with uplifting spiritual songs.

Giving thanks for your spouse, your child, your parents, your boss, your employees, your teachers, your students.

By voluntarily submitting to your spouse, your child, your parents, your boss, your employees, your teachers, your students.

We can assume that the attitudes we talked about in Chapter 4 are also included (Love as expressed in humility, gentleness and speaking the truth in love)

Also the sacrificial attitudes in Chapter 5 of (Speaking the Truth, compassion, working through our Anger so as not to sin, kindness, forgiveness)

Mutual Relationships: There is not hierarchy - and you navigate the give and take of submitting. Friendships

Here there Paul lists the person who in society is generally the subject first, and then the one considered in authority by society first.

Position of Submission: When we are in that position, Paul calls us to submit in the same way Jesus submitted to the Father, or in the same way the Church is called to submit to Christ. (Not to be a people pleaser, but to serve Christ…)

Position of Authority: Are reminded of two things, one how Christ’s rulership was by way of sacrifice for the benefit of the Church and the Cosmos, and second the reminder that they only have that authority “In the Flesh.” In Christ the one in submission to them is of the same infinite value as they are.

Stories: Cindy and I dancing story reviseted.

Meeting ridiculous expectations - Conversation with my boss & application to Teacher Student Relationships.

Children and Parents

Parent/Child Relationship - Kids moving from obedience to honor and dependence to interdependence, and Parents moving from instructing, providing, directing, to empowering.

Conclusion: What areas in your relationships are you shining God’s light? In what ways does the Holy Spirit want you to grow?

Reference the Reformed Confessions: The Reformed Confessions are statements of faith written to clarify the Gospel at times when the Church was in crisis. Heidelberg Catechism: Q&A 79, 104-109 Belgic Confession: Articles 24