Ephesians 6:1-9
Children and Parents. (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16)
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Bondservants and Masters
5 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
9 And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.
In Jesus Christ we now have the freedom to obey out of a willingness brought on by the knowledge of the price paid to make us acceptable in Him and holy in the righteousness of Christ alone. Gone are our endless futile attempts to earn deliverance from God’s judgment on our sin which we both inherited from Adam and perpetuate in our daily continued rebellion of our corrupt and shattered wills. This freedom needs reminding often as the apostle Paul wrote here to the believers in the bustling city of Ephesus. He began by reminding children to obey their parents in the Lord, in the things and ways approved by God according to scripture. This free to obey leads to a life of wellbeing as we honor our parents as we honor the Lord and is a commandment with this promise from Exodus 20:12 and repeated in Deuteronomy 5:16 to reflect on. Such willingness to obey gives us true freedom from adherence to following rules to earn favor as we instead obey in order to freely honor our parents as we honor God through these whom God had provided for us and our good. Likewise, we fathers whose children aim to freely honor us should be honoring them by avoiding spurring them into submission which only leads to wrath and not peace; by applying the principles of God’s word in loving discipline and guidance found there we train them in the grace and love of Christ to submit willingly to the Lord as well as to Him through us. This freedom to obey also appears to paradoxically apply to servants (or employees in the present day). We who serve are to be willfully obedient with fear and trembling before Christ in sincerity and not as an act with ulterior motives. We are to wholeheartedly serve and not just put on outward appearances just as we do not fake obedience to God in Christ with outward actions and appearances devoid of an inner heart backing our behavior. This is freedom in willing service of obedience as to God in our service to them. We receive good from God when we freely serve and those over us must take care that they treat us well without threats and as they would want themselves to be treated (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31). We all have a Master in Heaven and we understand there is no favoritism with Him, so we are to imitate the Lord and not treat others differently either (James 2:8-9). There is freedom to obey God as we do so with one another in all roles and standing in life. This is our true Independence Day in Christ which is for all days and in remembering the kingdom of heaven which we are citizens of by the obedience of Jesus Christ to suffer and die (Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:10) to gain us this eternal passport to true freedom (Romans 6:18, 22-23) to obey and serve God by serving our fellow man!
No comments:
Post a Comment