LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS
The Life of the Spirit
Ephesians 6:1-9
INTRODUCTION
This passage is deceptive at first glance. Most NT scholars have reduced this section (plus the passages on the wife and husband) to be nothing more than instructions regarding the home and workplace. They give it the technical German name the Haustafeln, that is "House Rules" or better "House Code." This all sounds so sweet and quaint, conjuring up images of a German Lutheran family eating a scrumptious meal in front of a roaring fire place with a warm glow enveloping the entire scene. That is NOT what this section is about. The family is not just some quaint, weird part of society; it is the foundation of society. If the family unit is flawed, society itself is going to be shaken at its very roots.
In case you doubt this, just check out what is the source of nearly all our societal problems today. Most of the young people who are having some serious emotional and psychological problems come from broken homes where the father abandoned his wife and his children. If I ever share with a group of young male students in class about how I need to be the kind of dad I wish my dad had been to me, most shake their heads and tears well up in their eyes. They wish that they had had dads who cared for them like they want to care for their sons. It is really sad.
What is wild is that if you were to ask young people at most colleges whom they respect more, their parents or grandparents, many would claim their grandparents. In fact, they claim that their grandparents have made a more positive impact upon their lives than their parents. Why? Because of their stability and wisdom.
Right now our country is going through some seismic political changes. Most Americans feel, though, that the problem is that the government has overreached and that we need to restrict the size of government. Once we do that, they think, we will have prosperity again in our nation. That group is dealing only with the symptoms and not the root cause. The root cause is the disruption of the family unit. Some women with children really do need financial assistance because (1) their husbands have abandoned them or they with their kids have abandoned their husbands and (2) we have not been able to create jobs because money has been taken out of the work place in order to take care of the needy. It goes back to the home. Paul's comments have far-reaching implications, not only for your particular home, but also for your country, for your society.
But does a section on the Haustafeln really have a place in one of the loftiest writings in the NT, Ephesians, which soars in its description of the Messiah Jesus and His submitting the demonic forces beneath His feet so that He can bring reconciliation to the universe? Most definitely, YES, it does warrant a place in Ephesians. The Satanic attack upon the home in Christian society has been part of Satan's strategy to bring about all the disharmony we see in the world of men and which reflects all the disunity and disharmony in the spiritual realm. Part of God's plan of bringing unity to the universe involves and starts with the unity He desires to bring into the home by means of a proper relationship with Jesus the Messiah.
CHILDREN AND PARENTS (Ephesians 6:1-4)
| Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. |
Children, Obey Your Parents
Paul first commands children to obey their parents "in the Lord." We know what it means to obey our parents, but what does it mean to obey them "in the Lord"? It means to obey them because you value your relationship with Jesus. You obey your parents because you love Jesus, because Jesus whom you loved commanded you to.
This is tough for young people, especially teenagers to appreciate. They think that it is so unfair the way their parents treat them: ground them whenever they break curfew by only an hour, take away their cell phones because they failed a few tests, take away their car keys because they were caught drinking. Of course the young people can't legitimately and with credibility argue against such "harsh" treatment; however, there are times whenever parents do insist on some things that don't seem all that fair. In such cases, there is no real right or wrong; it's just the opinion of the parent versus the opinion of the child. Paul commands the children to obey them because of their relationship to Him, because they love Him who wants them to obey their parents.
Now it is easy to blow past these verses and just state that God commands children to obey their parents. More, though, is involved here. It really teaches us to respect not simply our particular parents but also those of the past which our parents represent.
In what I think is one of the coolest insights ever given, G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy promotes what he calls "Democracy of the Dead" (he is not referring to certain dead people voting after they died.) Today we highly value democracy. Look at how Chesterton spins this; it is truly brilliant:
"Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead." Chesterton goes on to say: "Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father." The age of a person doesn't mean his opinion is worthless. Neither is the fact that he is dead mean that his opinion or view was no good. Trust me, if Jesus doesn't return for another thousand years, students in philosophy classes will still be reading Plato who lived over 2400 years ago!
Some act as if all traditions were bad, that the thoughts of the ancients should be dismissed out right. According to Paul, though, not all traditions are bad. Your family Christmas and Thanksgiving traditions are not bad. Each Thanksgiving we make our annual trek to Longview to spend some great time with Nancy's sister and brother-in-law. Each Christmas, Nancy, I and the kids head out of town to spend Christmas night and the night following in a hotel so that we can have quality time alone with our children. Those are not bad traditions. Paul himself claimed that many of his teachings on right and wrong were based on tradition, the tradition being actually the teachings of Jesus Himself. Now those traditions would probably not be wrong either.
Look at how this principle of listening to the dead applies to so many different issues confronting our society today:
Edmund Burke, a great British statesman (1729-1797), uttered the famous words: "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Unfortunately, because our people either don't know the past or else know it but don't respect it, our nation is going to suffer terribly as a result.
What is the best way that the parents can teach their children to respect them? By THEM respecting THEIR parents, that is your children's grandparents. If your mom or dad is in a nursing home and you don't visit them, what are you teaching your children? If you make fun of your parents in front of your children, you are teaching your children to disrespect you later on in life. On the other hand, if you respect your parents in front of your children, you are training them to respect you in the future. (Don't be dismayed if they don't respect you when they are teenagers. That's just what teenagers do. We are preparing for the future when they once more regain their minds and common sense. Like Mark Twain advised, when your child turns 13 put him in a barrel, cover it, and then feed him through a hole in the top. When he turns 16, plug the hole.)
Now before children despair over the idea of having to obey their parents, they need to remember this: this is the only command in the Ten Commandments in which God attaches a promise:
Fathers, Do Not Irritate Your Children
One of the most effective ways of producing good children is being a good parent. Too often parents will say things to their children they wouldn't even say to a dog. Too many children walk around with crushed spirits because of the way their parents treat them. Paul commands dads (and moms) to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. In other words, we are to discipline our children the way Jesus would discipline them; we are to teach them the way Jesus Himself would teach the children. The children are not your slaves. You have the primary responsibility of developing them into mature young adults so that they will be able to handle the world when they leave the home.
What could motivate you and me to raise our children the way Jesus would raise them? By remembering that when it is all said and done, they are not yours: they are God's. In fact, the key role of the parent is to guide their children into a saving, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. When I see my children, I should not view them as mine but rather view them as God's sons and daughters.
Now just think for a moment how you would feel is somebody mistreated your son or daughter. I have tried so much of my parenting life to stay uninvolved whenever my child is in a conflict with somebody else. I don't like it when they are in that conflict, but I have learned that for the most part they need to learn how to deal with these kinds of situations. On 2 or 3 occasions, though, I found it necessary to interject myself into the situation. I felt my children were really being mistreated--beyond what they should have to handle, and I didn't like it. As good a parent you are to your children, you don't begin to compare to God as a Father. If certain things tick you off as a parent ebcause of the way your children get mistreated at times, much more so does God get ticked off whenever somebody mistreats our children, whenever even WE mistreat our children. Remember that they are not yours; they are His.
EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES (Ephesians 6:5-9)
| Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him. |
Introduction
At first glance it appears quite strange to use these verses about the relationship of a slave to his master to comment on the way a modern employee should respond to his employer. Yet, if Paul were writing today, what he says here would apply to our modern situation. The reason is that slaves for all intents and purposes in the Roman Empire carried out the same function our modern employees carry out. In the Roman empire at the most only 1/3 of the population was free; the rest were considered slaves. Many of the slaves were some of the most highly educated people in the Empire. In fact, many slaves served as educational tutors for the children of wealthy and prominent Roman families. Moreover, many of them were the artisans, the construction workers, the administrators of the empire. As a result, Paul's instructions to them and their masters here would apply to the modern-day work force.
The Attitude of the Employee to the Employer
There are several elements in these verses which should dictate the way the Christian employee should treat his employer (whether he is a Christian or not).
The best way you can determine whether or not you are being sincere is by observing the way you think about him in your thoughts or what you say about him when he is not around. Those 2 tests can help you determine whether or not you are being sincere.
At first blush, it seems weird to think of Christ as being your ultimate employer. But remember that the Lord Himself is the One who created work, not your human employer. Work was not forced upon man because he sinned in the Garden of Eden. Work and jobs and employment go all the way back to the garden BEFORE man sinned and was driven out. The Fall of man in the garden just simply made work harder and less fulfilling, but work was an inherent part of living in paradise (Gen. 2:15--"Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it"). As a result, we are to view our employment as coming from the Lord; as a result, we are to work as if we are working for Him.
What is true, though, on an earthly level is especially true on the spiritual level because whereas many times a human supervisor can be fooled by insincere behavior, the Lord is never fooled by such behavior. He knows exactly what you are doing and make sure that such good, hard-working behavior is actually rewarded. It really is going to turn out good in the end for the Christian, maybe not here on earth but definitely in heaven when all final rewards for what you did here ON EARTH will be given out.
One sad thing which has emerged in the American workplace has been the attitude of entitlement. Today people feel like they are entitled to a home, whether they can afford it or not (this specific entitlement has brought our economy to its knees). Others feel that they are entitled to health care whether they can afford it or not. They are entitled to the latest cell phones.
If you don't believe me, just address a group of college students and ask them if they feel mistreated if they don't have the latest cell phone. They feel it is unfair for the rich to enjoy the luxuries they are not enjoying. I show them, though, that I have yet to see a poor person in America. Some of the poorest people I know in America still have cars. They can travel in one day farther than Julius Caesar could in a month. Their cell phones can reach places around the world it would have taken months for Caesar to contact. Moreover, if they think they are poor, they need to go to Ethiopia, one of the wealthier nations in Africa and observe those people, most of whom make less than $1.00 a day--and where gasoline is $4.00/gallon! This entitlement attitude pervades our society. It is an attitude the Christian should not display. Instead of displaying that attitude, we shoudl take seriously what Paul said: "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?" (1 Cor. 6:7).
The Attitude of the Employer to the Employee
Invariably, whenever an employer reads the above verse about the employee, he licks his chops, seeing a real opportunity to take advantage of that employee. That employer needs to beware of taking advantage of the employee. The relationship between the employee and employer is not a one-way street; it is a 2-way street.
According to Paul here,
In one of the harshest parables in the NT, the employer also has an employer, the same employer the employee has—Jesus. Just like a human employee has to report to a human employer, so the human employer has to report to an employer, this one though being divine, Jesus. Jesus, the divine employer, is going to hold the human employer responsible for the way he has treated his human employee.
Jesus uses the example of a cruel employer to illustrate how harsh judgment can actually be for that employer. –"But if that evil slave [in this case the head slave or employer] says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 24:48-51).
As if that is not enough, just look at what James, the half-brother of Jesus, says about employers who mistreat their employees: "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter" (James 5:1-5).
God is deadly serious about His agenda of bringing peace, order and unity to His universe. Right now He is focusing on make that agenda work in the church, eventually in the entire world, and finally in the entire universe, spiritual as well as physical. The Christ-centered relationship between parents and children and between employers and employees is part of the way God is bringing that unity, order, and peace into the world.