God's plan manifests as Christ-like love (part 2)

We are in a series entitled Ephesians: Fitting in to God’s Plan

Last week we talked about how God’s plan is such an abstract concept for most people.

It’s like a construction blueprint, people who are trained can read it and envision the outcome.

But for the average person, they need a three dimensional picture of what God’s plan looks like.

What does it mean to bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ?

It looks like Christ-like love. - Jesus showed us what God’s love - and God’s plan looks like.

So last week we talked about how God’s love is transforming us back into the people that God created us to be.

Christ’s love renews our minds.

You have it all -

The light of the Holy Spirit.

A living relationship with God.

The knowledge of the Word.

Jesus in your heart.

Being renewed in your understanding means you know who God made you to be and you are moving toward it.

Christ’s love changes us like day and night.

It changes our character.

It changes our behavior.

It changes our life’s objective.

One little verse was left out of last week’s sermon because it would be the subject of this week’s sermon.

Ephesians 5:21 ESV

21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

It’s a short verse, but it makes a huge statement.

When we are personally, individually transformed by Christ-like love, it changes the dynamic of all our interpersonal relationships.

Christ-like love changes the way we relate to people

Ephesians 5:22-6:9

Ephesians 5:22–6:9 ESV

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 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. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 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. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. 1 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. 5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 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.

So God’s plan is to bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The part that trips up most people is the concept of “Lordship”

We are accustomed to using power in a way that takes advantage of others.

In one of their famous comedy routines, Bud Abbot says to Lou Costello. “Now listen here! I’m the king and you’re nothin’.”

Costello begins to chuckle.

Abbot gets angry and asks, “What are you laughing about? I said I’m the king and you’re nothin.”

Costello replies, “Yeah, well you just said you’re the king over nothing.”

But Jesus who is “God in the flesh” did not do that. And he taught his disciples not to do that.

But Jesus who is “God in the flesh” did not do that. And he taught his disciples not to do that.

Mark 10:42–45 ESV

42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In this passage we see three relationship dynamics in which there is an imbalance of power.

Costello begins to chuckle.

Abbot gets angry and asks, “What are you laughing about? I said I’m the king and you’re nothin.”

Costello replies, “Yeah, you just said you’re the king over nothing.”

Coming under the Lordship of Jesus is going to change how we exercise the power that we have in relationships.

It doesn’t mean that we become weak and give up our power.

It means that we assume responsibility for stewardship of God’s grace and use our power to demonstrate Christ-like love.

Christ-like love changes the husband-wife relationship.

First, Paul affirms that there is a God-ordained order in the home.

The word “submit” does not actually appear in verse 22. It is implied, or carried over from verse 21.

So wives submitting to their husbands is a clarification or extension of “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ”

The word “submit’ in the Greek refers to an appointed order - a role or position.

in the same way, “headship” refers to the order of authority.

However, Christ-like love changes the way we use our power and authority.

The husband is instructed to love (Agape) his wife.

The husband-wife relationship is compared to that of Christ and the Church.

The Church is called the Body of Christ both literally and figuratively.

Marriage is another area where we are called to be stewards.

In working through the grief of my marriage and preparing to make the announcement of my engagement to Karie, I prepared a sermon on marriage that considered why the Bible says there is no marriage in heaven. I came to the conclusion that marriage is a stewardship. We don’t have that person forever in the way that we may think. We have them for a time that we might produce increase for the Kingdom. That means producing children, but it also means producing the character of God in each other.

In our wedding vows and without knowing about the sermon that I had preached, Tim Sanger, our friend and minister, substituted the words,”until death do us part” with “and one day to give you back to God in better condition that what I found you.”

What would happen if a husband valued his wife and treated her with the same care as his own body?

In ancient times women were considered to be of lesser value than men.

If a man’s wife did not please him, he might abandon her and seek another.

In working through the grief of my marriage and preparing to make the announcement of my engagement to Karie, I prepared a sermon on marriage that considered why the Bible says there is no marriage in heaven. I came to the conclusion that marriage is a stewardship. We don’t have that person forever in the way that we may think. We have them for a time that we might produce increase for the Kingdom. That means producing children, but it also means producing the character of God in each other.

In our wedding vows and without knowing about the sermon that I had preached, Tim Sanger, our friend and minister, substituted the words,”until death do us part” with “and one day to give you back to God in better condition that what I found you.”

Genesis says that husband and wife are to become as one. So a husband who mistreats his wife actually hurts himself!

The profound mystery is that we also become one with Christ!

So we have already learned that the coming under the Lordship of Christ means knowing who you are in Christ.

Being transformed into that image of Christ-like love.

So that we look like what God originally intended us to be.

The husband is to do the same for his wife.

Wash her with the Word, not just the scripture but the truth of who she is in Christ. (Speaking truth, declaration)

He is to present her (give her recognition).

He is to cover (not point out) her blemishes.

He is to make her radiant. Christ-like love radiates.

When a husband loves his wife with Christ-like love she will radiate the same back.

Loving is mutual just as submission is mutual.

However, headship means that the husband has a responsibility to initiate.

Jesus loved us and initiated grace toward us.

Headship means that grace flows down. We become a source, not a limit.

Wives can help their husbands by calling them into that place of authority.

Christ-like love changes the parent-child relationship.

Instructing children to obey parents is nothing new, but this one has a twist.

These verses sound exactly like many ancient document for instructing order in the home except for the words, “in the Lord”.

It calls us back to the idea of submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

It means that our obedience needs to be voluntary - out of Christ-like love.

Paul takes us back to the Fifth Commandment.

Deuteronomy 5:16 ESV

16 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

The original promise is that they would live long in the promised land.

Paul says it means to live long in the earth.

Why? Because the whole earth is coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The promised land was just the start.

The point is that the key to possessing the land (whether Israel or the whole earth) is successfully passing on knowledge, values and beliefs to future generations.

In light of that, obedience takes on a very special importance.

Obedience means “to hear and to do.”

If we “hear and do” what God has spoken to and through our parents we will not have to keep learning the same lessons over again.

When I was a kid I used to like to play with model rockets. I would build the rockets from a kit and launch them with little rocket engines that work like fireworks. One model that I had was a multi-stage rocket like they frequently use in our space program. The rocket takes off and then the first engine ignites a second engine and falls away launching the second stage from a higher place. God has designed the family that we should launch our children from a higher place.

The purpose of obedience is to steward the grace of God and make it increase with each generation.

Paul also has an instruction for fathers (parents) not to provoke their children to anger.

The word “anger” here refers to an impulsive anger, so calling it “provoked anger” is helpful.

Your kids don’t have to always “like” you.

We don’t want to cause hidden resentment that would cause them to “act out.”

Nothing is more damaging to a child them putting them in a “double-bind” a situation where they cannot do right regardless of what they chose.

Parents can frustrate their children by not clearly articulating expectations or by requiring something that they are not developmentally capable of doing.

Most often, we do this by simply venting our own anger or frustration which has nothing to do with them- perhaps because that’s what our parents did.

The point is this-

We can either pass along the grace and the goodness of God and have the knowledge of God and the deposit of the Holy Spirit increase with each generation,

Or we can pass down our hurt, frustration or bitterness and have it accumulate and increase with each generation as well.

Christ-like love changes the employer-emloyee relationship.

Christ-like love changes the employer-employee relationship.

The ESV uses the word “bondservant” here so as to avoid the term “slaves.”

The kind of slavery that we have most recently known in America is not what we are talking about here.

Yes, people in Bible times owned slaves, but they were not regarded so inhumanely as were the African slaves in America.

Servants ran the household and conducted business on behalf of the homeowner. They were often educated and highly skilled.

Just like today’s employees - you’re a “valued member of the company” - as long as you are productive.

In Ephesus, as in other early churches, the community of believers included people from all levels of society relating in a way that was not normal outside of the church.

You had masters and slaves, rich people and peasants all sitting around the same “table” metaphorically speaking.

In fact there was probably no table at all. People mostly sat on mats on the floor as they still do in most Asian countries today.

But where you sat in the room, or outside of the room as the case may be, would indicate status.

James instructed believers not to show preference according to social status but to intentionally break with social conventions.

James 2:1–5 ESV

1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

Just as with husbands and wives, children and parents, being “in Christ” does not necessarily change the way our society or our families are structured.

We still obey and serve on another, but we do so from a different motive.

Worldly structures are “power structures” that rely on fear and punishment for compliance.

Godly fear is inspired by reverent worship. It’s Christ-like love.

We are bringing everything into alignment with God’ self-revelation in Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is not just for the church - its for the marketplace.

Most of us spend the second largest (or perhaps the largest) part of our time in the workplace.

If we are going to bring that which is under our influence under the Lordship of Christ, then God is going to have to go to work with us.

The workplace can be a place of “office politics” and constant manipulation.

The best thing you can do to show Christ is to be “real.”

Paul calls it, “doing the will of God from the heart.”

What would is look like if our first obligation was to God, whether employee or employer?

Your boss may sign your paycheck, but God is your provider.

As a boss, your obligation is to see your employee as a person created in God’s image.

What if we worked together in Christ-like love which recognizes and calls forth God’s character in each other.

God’s plan is to bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

God’s plan is carried out when we radiate Christ-like love.

If we do this we will draw our spouses closer to God and we challenge each other to greater holiness and godliness.

If we do this we will provide a solid foundation of godly values for our children which will increase God’s grace and empowerment with each generation.

If we do this then every place that we have influence, whether as an employer or an employee becomes an extension of God’s Kingdom’s influence.

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Questions for Reflection:

How do you feel about Jesus being “Lord” of your life? Does the word “submission” have a negative ring to you? Are there any authority figures in your life that you need to forgive?

Is there order in your family relationships? Are you serving those whom you are responsible for? Are you honoring those whom you are responsible to? Is Christ glorified in your home?

How do you steward the grace God has given you? Are you using your influence to expand the kingdom of God? Do you take Jesus to work with you? How do you convey Christ-like love to your colleagues?