Interpersonal Relationships - Part 2 (Ephesians 6:1-9)

Daniel L. Arter

The Letter to the Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Ephesians 5:22–6:9

0 ratings

· 31 views

Notes

Transcript

Announcements

Tonight I just have two quick reminders before we jump into the Scripture

First off, remember that this Sunday we have a guest speaker coming in. Michael and Jessica Dunlop are missionaries to France and they’ll be visiting us Sunday morning. Let’s be sure that they have a decent crowd to present their ministry to and for Michael to preach for. That’s Sunday morning at 10:30am at the Moshannon Valley YMCA.

Secondly, don’t forget to worship the LORD through your giving, we have two digital ways for you to do so: (1) you can give by texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (2) you can visit us online at www.graceandpeacepa.com and select “Giving” in the menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

This evening’s sermon continues in Paul’s statements concerning interpersonal relationships and what Paul is doing, is essentially giving really practical application for the doctrinal statements that he made at the beginning of the letter to the Ephesians. And just for a light refresher on what those doctrinal statements were, let me remind you of all that we’ve worked through so far:

Starting in Chapter 1, Paul makes it abundantly clear that Jesus Christ has blessed those that believe with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We’re told that Jesus chose us before the foundation of the world, for us to be holy and blameless as sons through Jesus Christ.

In Chapter 2, Paul makes the statement that Jesus has made both Jews and Gentiles one as one body in one hope as fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. And this unity of the universal church has been accomplished in Jesus Christ. We discussed that unity for a while and we made it abundantly clear through Scripture that universal unity has already happened because of Jesus Christ because the universal church is made up of only those who truly believe, but local church unity is something that we need to strive for with only other people and other churches who preach and teach only the whole counsel of God. Unity for unity’s sake is unbiblical, but unity for right doctrine and the Gospel is to be expected. And this concept of unity is expounded on in Chapter 4.

In the third chapter, we discussed what Paul calls the mystery of the Gospel and I explained that when Paul says mystery, he doesn’t mean it as something that is confounding or confusing. What Paul means when he says mystery is that it is something that has now been revealed that wasn’t revealed before. And this mystery was how God included the Gentiles in the Gospel message; and then he prays for them to be rooted and grounded in love for the purpose of understanding the love of Christ and for them to be filled with all the fullness of God.

As I mentioned, Chapter 4 expands on the topic of unity within the body of Christ, and like I mentioned, this unity is only to be expected with people and churches that preach and teach right doctrine and Paul explains that by explaining how that unity should look. He goes further in that chapter to discuss how each person is gifted differently, but each person is needed because of their different spiritual gifts and that in a local church in which the people are unified doctrinally, they should be able and willing to utilize their spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up the church.

Chapter 5, which we worked through over the last two weeks, focuses in on right conduct in light of the Gospel—in other words, now that you are a Christian, this is how you should behave. And we can really sum the whole matter up like this—if you claim to be a Christian, then live like a Christian—as one who imitates God and walks in love, light, and wisdom. The last section of chapter 5 then focuses in on interpersonal relationships and that’s where we left off last week.

Last week’s message focused in on the interpersonal relationship between a husband and wife, which Paul himself, sums up in Vs. 33, “Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

This evening, we’re continuing in the line of interpersonal relationships; and in our passage for the evening, Paul focuses in on two very important relationships that we’re going to emphasize as well—the relationship between parent and child and the relationship between master and bondservant (or what we would call, employee and boss).

Let’s read together Ephesians 6:1-9.

Ephesians 6:1–9 ESV

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.

As we study this passage of Scripture together, we’re going to break it into two parts and I think it’ll be rather clear what those parts are: (1) Vs. 1-4, Children and Parents, focuses in on the relationship between a parent and a child. Paul really doesn’t give us much information here, because remember, he isn’t trying to give a comprehensive parenting technique, but he’s simply giving the main point of what the relationship should be like. And (2) Vs. 5-9, Bondservants and Masters, focuses in on a different kind of relationship and I’m going to suggest that this relationship in our modern-day world would be between a boss and an employee. Again, it isn’t a comprehensive statement on what those relationships ought to be like, but rather the main idea of what those relationships should be like. Both sections, will give us some insight into what some of our closes interpersonal relationships should look like; and it’ll give us an idea of what it means to live like a Christian.

Prayer for Illumination

Children and Parents (1-4)

The first four verses of Chapter 6, focuses on a relationship that everyone is part of and depending on what stage of their life their in, really depends on how this relationship works itself out. What I mean by that is this:

As a young child the relationship between a parent and a child is one way:

As that child grows and matures, the relationship adjusts—you don’t treat a teenager the same way that you treat a five-year-old.

That relationship continues to evolve as time goes on—at college-age, a parent shouldn’t treat their child like they’re in high school still

When the child is an adult, lives on their own, and gets married—the relationship between the parent and child changes again.

But Paul isn’t speaking about those types of changes between the parent and child relationship—Paul is focused on the underlying attitude between the parent and child that doesn’t change regardless of the age of the child.

What Paul is teaching in Vs. 1-4, supersedes age, in other words, how a Christian is to treat their child or how a Christian is to treat his parents overall doesn’t change—though how it might look in the practical day-to-day does change.

What Paul is teaching is the underlying attitude that a parent should have for his child and the underlying attitude that a child should have for his parents—just like he just explained in Ephesians 5:22-33, the underlying attitude in marriage should be that of the husband loving his wife and the wife respecting her husband.

So, what exactly is that underlying attitude?

Let’s start with the children: Vs. 1, “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.’”

This section of the passage, should actually sound familiar to you because it is regularly repeated throughout Scripture and it’s one of the Ten Commandments.

If you take a cursory look at the many times this command is repeated throughout Scripture

You’ll find it it Colossians 3:20, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

Proverbs 1:8, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.”

Proverbs 23:22, “Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.”

And of course, Exodus 20:12, which is the first giving of the Ten Commandments and Deuteronomy 5:16 (the second giving of the Ten Commandments both say, “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.”

Which is actually what Vs. 2-3, is quoting from, the Ten Commandments.

But before we get to the quote from the Ten Commandments, let’s take a closer look at the phrase, “obey your parents in the Lord.”

First off, what does it mean to obey your parents?—the Greek word that’s translated as obey, is ὑπακούω, which comes from the root ακούω, which means, “I listen” or “I hear.” In Scripture, whenever ακούω is utilized, it carries the connotation of not just audibly hearing, but hearing to understand. Which gives the impression that ὑπακούω means to not just hear what your parents are saying, but to hear to understand and then follow through.

Secondly, what does it mean to do this in the Lord?—Remember with me last week, that the husband is told to love his wife like Jesus loves the church and the wife is to respect her husband and submit to him as the church submits to Christ. I explained last week that this doesn’t mean that the husband takes the place of the LORD in her life, but rather that her submission to her husband ought to be done as part of her service to the LORD. In Ephesians 6, children are to obey their parents in a similar manner—not because the parents take the place of the LORD, but because part of their service to the LORD is obeying their parents.

A child is to obey his parents, for this is right and honor their father and mother.

So, obeying carries the idea of hearing to understand and then following through, but what exactly does the Bible mean by “honoring” your father and mother?

Merriam-Webster defines “honor” as a verb in which you are “to regard or treat someone with admiration and respect.”

Which means that a child should regard or treat their parents with admiration and respect.

Like I mentioned, Vs. 2-3 is a quote from the Ten Commandments, first written in Exodus 20:12, but there is a parenthetical phrase wedged in between the verses that actually isn’t from the Ten Commandments, it’s a statement by Paul.

“This is the first commandment with a promise.” The commandment being to Honor your father and mother, the promise being Vs. 3, “That it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

And I’m sure that that phrase has probably confounded you before, because if you don’t keep it in context, it almost makes it sound like it’s a promise that is applicable to everyone today

But read Vs. 3, carefully, “That it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Has God promised land on earth for every Christian? No, but he’s promised land for the Israelites who obey him. Thus, this promise isn’t a promise for every person who obeys his parents, but a promise to Israel for their obedience.

And that’s how it was meant when it was originally written in Exodus 20. The Israelites who believed and obeyed their parents were promised longevity of life.

Christians who obey their parents aren’t necessarily promised longevity of life and to utilize this verse to make that point would be to take the verse out of context.

However, I do want to point out that while the promise itself is specific to Israel, there is reason for a child to obey his parents today in light of this promise.

The general principle that obedience fosters self-discipline is important, because self-discipline brings stability in life and stability in life generally prolongs life.

However, that isn’t the main promise. So, don’t take this as a promise that if you obey your parents perfectly, you’ll have a long life, that’s not what this verse means.

So, children are to obey their parents for this is right as part of their service to the LORD; and children are to honor their parents.

Now that we’ve spoken about what a child’s attitude towards his parents should be, let’s look at what a parent’s attitude towards the children should be, Vs. 4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

While fathers alone are addressed in this verse, let me be clear that this commandment actually applies to mothers as well—just because it doesn’t say fathers and mothers doesn’t mean that mothers can provoke their children to anger. And just because it doesn’t list mothers as well, doesn’t mean that the mother isn’t also responsible to bring up the child in discipline and instruction.

More than likely, Paul only mentions fathers in this section because of Ephesians 5:22-33. In which Paul makes it clear that in the household, the husband is head.

Thus, ultimately, who is responsible for the children and how they are raised? The father. That doesn’t diminish the mother’s contribution to the raising of their children, that just means that the ultimately responsibility resides in the husband. Which means that in a biblical household, there’s no such thing as a deadbeat dad because the dad is to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the LORD. And in a biblical household, there’s no such thing as a deadbeat mom because the mom is to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the LORD.

And the first command given to the parents is to “not provoke your children to anger.”

Which is juxtaposed against what Paul has stated for children. In many ways, what Paul is saying is, “yes, children are to obey their parents,” but parents should not be cause their children unnecessary harm or provocation.

The idea is that parents aren’t to exasperate their children—some ideas of how parents exasperate their children is with with unreasonable demands, petty rules, and maybe even favoritism amongst the children.

There is a difference between being strict and then being unreasonable, there truly is a balance that needs to be struck. Parents should not be a source of frustration and discouragement to their children.

But rather, they are to “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the LORD.” Which is another part of this passage that should sound familiar, because the idea is repeated throughout Scripture:

Deuteronomy 6:4-7, “Hear, [Oh] Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.”

Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he grows older he will not abandon it.”

When Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15, one of the points that he makes is that “from childhood [Timothy has] known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” While that says a lot about Timothy, it also tells us that his parents endeavored to teach him the discipline and instruction of the LORD.

Now, you might ask, what does it mean to bring up a child in the discipline and instruction of the LORD?

And my suggestion to you would be to take a closer look at Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and I would suggest that you take a closer look at Matthew 28:18-20.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9, “Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may do them in the land where you are going over to take possession of it, so that you, your son, and your grandson will fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Now Israel, you shall listen and be careful to do them, so that it may go well for you and that you may increase greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, [Oh] Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. You shall also tie them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. You shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Matthew 28:18-20, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What does it mean to bring up a child in the discipline and instruction of the LORD? It means that you as a parent ought to do everything you possibly can to live in such a way and to raise your children in such a way that they love the LORD with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength.

It means that you as a parent ought to do everything you can to help your child learn to fear the LORD, to keep his statutes, and his commandments. It means that you as a parent ought to do everything that you can to make them understand that the LORD is such a vibrant part of your life that it causes them to want the LORD to be a vibrant part of their life.

That’s done by seeking to make your children disciples of Jesus Christ, by baptizing them when the confess their belief in Jesus, and by teaching them all of the counsel of God—not just the parts you like, but all of it.

Doing this will help them see how important God is, which will hopefully help them to continue seeking the LORD even as they grow up.

I love what Darrell Bock has to say concerning this passage, “Children are not to have free rein, but are to be raised in the discipline and instruction of the LORD. The combination is probably . . . saying one thing with two similar words. Guidance in a certain God-honoring way of life is the point. . . Discipline includes the idea of reproof. There is an education here that stretches into life and behavior. It is about teaching wisdom with an eye to God. This all means that although parents possess authority over their children, it is not to be used without sensitivity, self-awareness or restraint. Parents shape children, and the raising up of a child should be intentional in what is modelled and moulded. On the other hand, direction is to be given, so there is not to be a kind of passive withdrawal from a child’s life, where the parents are so preoccupied with their own affairs that the children are left to their own devices.”

Now, all of this brings up two important questions:

First, what if a child’s parents aren’t saved, should he still obey his parents?

And that isn’t directly answered here, but taking into account what this verse says and what the Bible says elsewhere, my answer for this is rather simple.

Unless your parents are trying to get you to sin—if they’re trying to get you to lie on their behalf, if they’re asking you to steal for them, or if they’re asking you to do something contrary to Scripture in any way, you must obey God rather than man.

Which means that you must obey your parents if they aren’t trying to get you to sin—if they ask to see your cell phone, let them see it; if they don’t let you see your friends, don’t see your friends; if they want you to spend an hour on Friday evening for family game night, you are to obey. But if they ask you to sin, you are right in your disobedience because it is better for you to obey God than them.

Second, how long is a child required to obey his or her parents?

And this is again, not answered directly here, but taking into account what this verse says and what the Bible says elsewhere, my answer for this is rather simple.

As long as you’re dependent on your parents, you should obey your parents—if you live in the same house, if you rely on them to pay your bills, even if you’re away at college, if they still support you, obey them.

If you’re no longer dependent on your parents, use your best judgment in the LORD.

Bondservants and Masters (5-9)

The final portion of this passage is Vs. 5-9, which talks about a relationship between bondservants and masters. Let’s read Vs. 5-9:

Ephesians 6:5–9 ESV

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.

Again, the idea here is to not provide a comprehensive idea of what bondservant-master relationship should look like, but to provide an overall attitude for each party in order for each person to act as a Christian ought to act. But before we dig into what exactly that attitude is, let’s take a moment to discuss what the Bible is talking about when it speaks of a bondservant and master, because there are so many misunderstandings of what it actually means.

What is a Bondservant and what is a Master?

The word that’s translated as bondservant is the Greek word doulos, which very literally means slave or servant. Throughout the New Testament, it’s regularly translated as servant, slave, and bondservant depending on the context of the passage.

And we have to contextualize this, because they lived in a very different world than we do today. When we think of slavery today, we typically think of the slave trade that was part of the American South and the British slave trade that helped to build the British empire—and in those contexts, that type of slavery involved the kidnapping of people into forced servitude.

Don’t get me wrong, that type of slavery did occur in the Bible particularly if we consider a nation like the Assyrians who regularly conquered other nations and forced the conquered people to be their slaved, but that isn’t always the type of slavery that the Bible speaks of.

While it is impossible to distinguish between the different types of slavery in the Bible because they all utilize the same words in Hebrew and Greek, it is clear in history that there are distinctions between slaves.

You could be a slave because an empire conquered your nation and took you as a slave, or you could be what is sometimes referred to as a bondservant, which is a voluntary servitude in which you intentionally become someone’s slave in order to reap some sort of reward—whether that’s monetary, for land, for housing, or for protection.

So, keeping that in mind, what Paul is referring to here is technically that slave-master relationship, but because so many people in the Ancient Near East sold themselves into slavery for money, land, housing, or protection, it isn’t always like the slavery that we think of that proliferated the American South and the British Empire.

Now, after saying all of that, let me tell you that most slaves in the Ancient Near East still weren’t treated will, regardless of if they sold themselves into slavery or found themselves taken into slavery, they were still regarded as property of whomever their master was.

Estimates suggest that at this time, one-third of people in the Roman Empire were slaves and slavery wasn’t a matter of race, but of social standing because of war, kidnapping, poverty, or sometimes you were born into it.

Slavery in the Ancient Near East was by no means pleasant and because they were considered property, their masters considered them their property.

The very fact that Paul is writing to bondservants in this way, tells us that the Gospel still considers slaves as people rather than property and that’s of note, because the society around them didn’t.

So the question then is, what is our modern-day equivalent of a bondservant and a master?

I would argue that the closest that we get to this in our modern-day Western World is the relationship between an employee and an employer

And honestly, that’s pushing it a little bit because even if sometimes we feel like it, as an employee, you don’t belong to your employer

And if your employer treated you the same way that a master in the Ancient Near East treated their slaves, you could win quite a few lawsuits.

But arguably, that’s about as close as we get to a master and bondservant relationship, which still makes this passage applicable to us today.

Knowing that our modern-day equivalent of a bondservant and master could be comparable to an employer-employee relationship, what attitude should an employer have and what attitude should an employee have towards one another? As we dig into this section, be aware, that since the text utilizes bondservant and master, I’m going to continue utilizing those terms:

Let’s start with bondservants—Vs. 5, “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.”

Bondservants are told to do two things, which are then broken down into further detail:

They are to “obey [their] earthly masters” And they are to “Render service with a good will”

As they obey their earthly masters, Paul explains how they are to do that:

With fear and trembling, which sounds a little odd, but the idea is that they are to obey with deep respect and even honor

They are to obey with a sincere heart, like they would obey Jesus, not by eye-service, but like they were servants of Jesus.

A sincere heart means that they are to obey authentically, they are to do their work as if they were working for Jesus himself

They are not to simply make it look like they’re doing their work, but they’re to actually do it well

And they aren’t to do this to please their masters, but rather as part of God’s will for them.

And they are to render service with a good will as to the Lord.

Paul then turns his attention to Masters—Vs. 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.”

Paul turns to those who have slaves and he tells them to do two things, “do the same to them” which would refer to them rendering service with a good will as to the LORD, and they are to stop their threatening

Because both the servant and the master have an ultimate master in heaven and in that master’s eyes, regardless of if you are a slave or a master, you’re both going to be accountable to him.

One point that I want to make abundantly clear before we jump into application about this two-part interpersonal relationship series is this, in every situation—a husband and a wife, a child and a parent, or a servant and a master, Paul makes it abundantly clear that all of the earthly interpersonal relationships are to be done “as to the Lord.”

Which tells us that part of your service to Jesus Christ is for you to live like this:

Husbands love your wives, wives respect your husband; children obey and honor your parents, parents don’t provoke your children and train them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord; and servants obey your masters and render service to them with good will, and masters do the same to them and stop threatening them because God shows no partiality.

This tells us that you are to act like a Christian concerning every interpersonal relationship that you have as part of your service to the LORD.

Application

Children and Parents (1-4)—the first four verses of Chapter 6 are written about the relationship between a child and a parent and again, let me explain that none of these are meant to be comprehensive lists of how a relationship should function, but more of the overarching attitude that the individuals should have. So what type of attitude should a child have towards their parents? One of obedience and honor. What type of attitude should a parent have towards their children? One that doesn’t seek to provoke them, but rather raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. So, my application here, is actually quite simple: take a look at your relationships between you and your parents and you and your children.

As a child—do you honor your parents? And do you obey your parents? Like I mentioned earlier, what exactly this looks like changes as you age, so let me help you with that:

If you are a child who is still dependent on your parents—whether that’s financially or in any matter really:

As I mentioned earlier, unless your parents are telling you to sin, you should obey them. So, when your parents tell you to do something, do you do it without complaining? Or do you complain until they make you do it?

For example, if your dad told you to take the garbage out would you whine and throw a fit or would you humbly submit to his authority? If you would whine and throw a fit, that’s not honoring to your parents

What Ephesians 6:1-3 tells us is that if you are a child who is dependent on your parents you are to obey them and you are to honor them.

What if you’re a child who isn’t dependent on your parents?

In some ways, you get a little more leniency when it comes to obedience to your parents—what I mean by that is that because you are independent, you aren’t necessarily required to drop everything if you dad wants you to take his garbage out, because you no longer dependent on your parents

However, that doesn’t mean that if your dad asks you to take the garbage out, that you shouldn’t take his trash out. Use your best judgment.

You aren’t under the same obligation as a dependent child to obey all that your parents say; however, you are still under the obligation to honor your parents—so be sure that what you say and how you live still respects them.

As a parent—the Bible tells you not to provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the LORD.

First off, are you unnecessarily provoking your children to anger? This would include issues like being intentionally overbearing or being unnecessarily strict. This would include changing rules and expectations without telling them and yelling at them before explaining the change.

This would include being petty towards them, being vindictive towards them, and otherwise being unsupportive of them. Let me encourage you to take time to consider whether you are provoking your children to anger and then repent from doing so.

And then let me encourage you to seek to do everything you can to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the LORD.

Which includes teaching them all that Jesus has taught you, seeking to show them Christ’s love for them, and helping them to become disciples of Jesus Christ.

This includes you loving the LORD with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and teaching them to do the same.

And this includes you supporting them and encouraging them in the LORD to follow learn Scripture for themselves and to seek the LORD.

Put another way, the Bible calls us all to honor and obey your parents (which looks different depending on your age) and if you have children, the Bible calls you to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the LORD.

Bondservants and Masters (5-9)—the last five verses that we covered are written about the relationship between a bondservant and master and I’m suggesting that in our modern-day era, the closest relationship that we have to a bondservant and master would be that of a employee and employer, though it’s not identical. So what type of attitude should an employee have for their employer and what type of attitude should an employer have towards their employees. The application here is two-fold, (1) consider your relationship with your boss or your employees and then consider the Scripture. And (2) seek to live according to the Scriptures.

First off, let me help you consider your relationship with your boss or your employees. We’ll start with those who have a boss and then we’ll look at those of you that might have employees:

If you work for someone, which I think is the vast majority of people, consider your heart as I remind you of what this passage says:

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.

When you are at work, are you disobedient towards your boss?

Are you disrespectful towards your boss?

Are you flippant, irritable, or only people-pleasing towards your boss?

Or are you seeking to serve the LORD by serving your boss? Are you seeking to do the will of God from the heart? Are you seeking to render service with a good will?

I recognize that most people are working for individuals who aren’t saved and don’t pretend to be religious whatsoever, and yet, in Ephesians 6, that doesn’t matter to Paul.

It doesn’t matter if your earthly master is a believer, what matters is how you respond to him and what your attitude towards him is

If you are disobedient, disrespectful, flippant, irritable, and only a people-pleaser, let me encourage you to repent

And seek to serve your boss with good intent and seek to render service to your boss with good will as you would to Jesus Christ. Maybe through your good intent and attitude towards your boss, you might win him to Christ.

If you’re a boss or employer, you are to have the same attitude—your employees aren’t less than you and neither are they worth less than you.

So don’t treat them as less than you. Remember that you serve Jesus and so do they

And Jesus doesn’t care if you’re the boss or the employee, he expects you to live like a Christian ought to live.

Put altogether, Ephesians 5:22-6:9 teaches us to consider all of our relationships and do all of our relationships as to the LORD.

We serve Jesus by loving our wives and respecting our husbands

We serve Jesus by obeying and honoring our parents

We serve Jesus by bringing up our children in the discipline and instruction of the LORD

We serve Jesus by obeying our earthly masters.

And we serve Jesus by doing all of this with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.

Put simply, Ephesians 5:22-6:9 teaches us that in all of our relationships we are to (1) treat each other as Christians ought to treat each other—husbands and wives in love and respect, children and parents in honor, obedience, and discipline and instruction, bondservants and masters with authentic service and a sincere heart; and (2) we are to do all of that as part of our service for Jesus Christ.