Spirit-Filled Households

If you will turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. We'll be reading verses 5 through 9. Ephesians chapter 6 verses 5 through 9.

Let's pray. Father God, we come not in our own worthiness or merit, but only in the merit of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, our Savior. And it is through him that we have access to you. And by all that he has accomplished, we receive your Spirit to empower and to enable and to equip us to obey and to follow your way. So Father, as we look at the scripture tonight, we pray that the Spirit would be our teacher, that you would open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, open our hearts to obey, receive your word, and to live in accord with what you have required. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. In September of 1962, back before a lot of you were even born, I was at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I had just begun basic training in the infantry, in the army, and I was given in those days an opportunity to learn a lesson in submission. Our first sergeant had noticed that as we returned that morning from our PT run, I had committed an infraction regarding the company street. And so as the rest of the troops headed up to the mess hall for breakfast, he handed me a toothbrush and told me to take my helmet and fill it with water.

And for the rest of that morning, I was on my hands and knees cleansing and washing the company street. It didn't make a lot of sense to me, but from the army's perspective, I was being trained to follow orders without question. And from God's perspective, though, I was given an opportunity to reflect the character of Christ and the way that I responded to the situation.

I don't think I did that very well, but there was that opportunity. The conditions and circumstances of life are not the primary concern for the Christian. Our primary concern is our relationship to the Lord, the one who controls our life in this world and to whom we are to respond according to his truth and his word. And so in tonight's text, we come to Paul's third illustration of the principle that he laid down back in chapter 5 verse 21 where he told us that we are to be submitting ourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ.

As is always the case, we have to look at the context in order to grasp the meaning of a passage. And this text is an illustration of that verse in chapter 5 verse 21, which also grows out of and is an application of the earlier verse in verse 18 of chapter 5 where we're told not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit. And then these things grow out of that and submitting to one another out of reverence for the Christ is a part of that.

And so all of this grows out of the larger context of the entire letter to the Ephesians, which the first three chapters have to do with the doctrine, the ground upon which this life of our practice of Christianity is built on the ground that he's established in the doctrine in the first three chapters. And so as we look back in chapter 1 verse 13, 14, Paul says in him that is in Christ you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance. So the Spirit is given as we are in Christ. In chapter 2 verse 18 he says for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Verse 22 in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. In chapter 3 verse 16 according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. In verse 20 and now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us.

Paul has been instructing the Ephesian Church and us regarding the spirit-filled life of the believer as it is expressed in households and family relationships. This has taken up the entire passage from chapter 5 verse 22 and now all the way through verse 9 of chapter 6. And we need to be careful that we don't just pass by these few verses here this final application just because slavery is no longer at issue. The principles that are laid down here are applicable to us to us all because we're all in positions of subjection to someone. We are under authority or we are over someone in authority over someone and so these principles that he lays down here are applicable to us as well. But before moving on to look at the text itself and how it applies to us let's deal with the fact that we could easily be distracted from the very pointed message that this passage has for us by getting distracted by the whole question of slavery, looking at slavery per se.

Let me just share some observations about this matter. Slavery as such is not addressed in this passage. In fact slavery is never directly condemned in Scripture and neither is it condoned. The principles that are given us in Scripture tell us how to deal with that but slavery was a fact in ancient society and it is regulated by Scripture.

God gave very clear instructions to his people about how they were to treat slaves and how they were to relate to that societal ill of their day. But societal ills are not the main task of the church. We look on our society and we see various evils and cultural depravity but we need to recognize that Scripture does not give the church as its main task and primary focus the correction of the culture around us and the ills that we see around us.

In fact we can say that from the perspective of the church these things are best addressed most effectively addressed not directly but indirectly by evangelism. We cannot correct the ills of society very effectively until the hearts of men and women are changed and that happens through evangelism as they come to faith in Christ and through conversion. So it's not the church's task to reform the world.

The world cannot be reformed. We don't come to Christ to be reformed. We come to Christ to be completely created new and that is what necessarily must happen if these things are to be changed and corrected in our society. Now granted individual Christians are providentially led and given opportunity to speak directly to the ills of society the issues of the world but that's not the primary role of the church.

The primary role of the church is to make disciples and evangelize and to teach them what the Christ has commanded. So Ephesians here is not addressing the morality of slavery. It's telling us how to behave as Christians whether we're slave or free. Whatever our position in which God calls us we're to live the Christian life in light of that and to obey the principles that God has laid down. So let's look at some of these principles that we find here that apply to us as well as to slaves and masters. None of us are masters of slaves or none of us are slaves or masters of slaves today. That's something that is part of a bygone era but the principles that articulated by Paul in this passage are I think universally applicable to believers. We are all in subjection at some point to parents, to state, to an employer, whatever the position may be. We are all at some point in subjection under the authority of someone and what the Apostle requires of slaves and masters should be evident in the life of every believer a manifestation of that indwelling spirit of God. This whole section that we've been looking at from chapter 5 verse 22 right through to chapter 6 verse 9 it's showing us how to behave in the family relationships the household relationships and this is to be an outward expression of the inward power of God the Spirit the Holy Spirit that is indwelling believers. So let's look at this text together then. First of all the passage begins with a command a command to slaves what to do they are to obey obedience to earthly authorities is is not absolute but it is very serious and there are times when we must disobey their exceptions to that obedience to authority but these are rare and we don't need to rationalize our way out of obeying those that are in authority over us the exceptions to obedience in those situations should be when obedience would cause us to sin and would damage our relationship to Christ so this is what is required obedience and we need to think about the why the why the slave is to obey his master what what is to be the motivation for this obedience the principal motivation for all these family relationships that we've been looking at is given to us at the end of verse 5 here as Paul says slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would to Christ the way we live in these different circumstances and situations that he's dealing with here has to do with our relationship to Christ that is the primary motivation for our horizontal relationships with others is our relationship to Christ to God it he repeats this back in chapter 5 verse 21 he says we're to be submitting to one another out of reverence to Christ and as he begins to deal with the family situation he says wives you're to do this as to the Lord children are to be parents in the Lord and here in this passage Paul repeats this idea in verse 5 he says do this as you would to Christ verse 6 we're to live as servants of Christ verse 7 as to the Lord and not to man we are to be motivated by the our relationship to Christ that is what is to drive how we respond to these various circumstances and situations in which we live so the controlling principle the the first concern is our relationship to God that comes first Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind this is the great and first commandment relationship with God that love relationship is primary then relationship to others is important as well but it is secondary to the relationship to God Paul said in his letter to the Romans the one who loves another has fulfilled the law and so that relationship is a vital importance as well but it is secondary it the relationship with God is first now one other aspect of this motivation is that we need to have the mindset the perspective always that we are pilgrims we are strangers in this world this is not our home Paul says that we are to live like this in relation to our earthly masters or as the King James translated them that are you master according to the flesh he's talking about life in this world which is not our home it's a temporary dwelling for us and so all of the conditions and the circumstances that we face in this life are temporal there they are temporary they are momentary in light of eternity so whatever your position here whatever your your circumstances here your your situation is passing it's not eternal and so we are to obey our authorities because of our relationship to the Lord because of where God has put us as strangers and pilgrims in this world but how are we to do this in what spirit are we to do this what is to be our attitude as we obey those that are in authority over us in nearly always when Paul is giving instruction and application how we're to live he gives both a negative and positive command and he does that here in this passage in his command to the servants he includes in verse 6 this negative not by the way of I service as people pleasers whatever our position of service whatever we are called to do we are not to do it with an eye toward pleasing men many workers in our day if you look at the way people work you find them constantly looking to please the boss superficially they are they're not really concerned about the quality or a quantity of their work but they're just concerned about making the boss stay happy so they keep their job and they they really not committed to doing it well as to the Lord when I was between some schooling I had a summer that I spent working in a boiler factory and it was a union shop and those guys knew all the rules and the regulations you could check in to work at quarter of seven that's as soon as you could punch your card and so they were lined up ready when the quarter till seven came they punch your clock they go in and they would sit down on the toolbox until the bell rang at eight or at seven and then they would get their tools out and get ready to work and then when the break came about ten o'clock about 15 minutes beforehand they put the tools back in the box lock them up wait for the bell to ring to go to it and the whole day was like that they put in about six hours work in an eight hour a day and get paid for eight and a fourth hours because they checked in early that's kind of the mindset that we have sometimes you know that we just get it done to please people but our work should be done as to the Lord and we should be concerned about the quality of our work and and our service it's to be done to the Lord and not to man but turning then to the positive instruction the first admonition that Paul gives us here is regarding our attitude in service that it is to be with fear and trembling slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling and he's not talking about the kind of fear where you're cowering in terror before God but this phrase is used other places in the New Testament Paul in writing to the Corinthians he said I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling Paul knew that the weight of a gospel message the responsibility that he had to live as an ambassador of Christ in the world and and we need to have that sense of of the weight of what we are called to be and to do and to have that that attitude of you know I may fail in this I remember one professor up Southern Seminary taught homiletic and he would say to his students if your knees don't knock don't preach there has to be a sense of the weight of the responsibility that we have to be representatives of Christ of our Lord and to reflect him in this world so in writing to the Church of Philippi another time that Paul uses this this phrase he says therefore my beloved as you've always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling even in the absence of the master the Christian filled with the Spirit of God fears that he might misrepresent the Lord this is a fear of failing our Lord of bringing reproach on his name of being a hindrance to the proclamation of the gospel because of what the world sees in our response to difficulties of life and and to the way we conduct ourselves in this fallen world living I ran a church one time where there was a retired missionary elderly lady who on occasion the pastor would find in the pew after everybody'd left just weeping and he would come to her and miss Sarah what's wrong and she her response would be I fear I have offended my Lord we need to have that sense of the weight of responsibility that is on us to live the life of godliness and of character that is evident in the way we respond to the situations and the circumstances in which we live so Paul says slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would to Christ a sincere heart the word there literally means singleness of heart it is focused and and not distracted its own task not not letting your mind wander or taking time from work to deal with personal matters and but focused on what you're supposed to be doing and doing that as to the Lord with singleness of mind and heart giving myself wholeheartedly like I would if Jesus were physically present you know just looking over my shoulder as a matter of fact he is isn't he nothing in this world is hidden everything is open to the eye of him that with whom we have to do so Christ is actually seeing what we do and how we do it and also the very attitude of our mind and heart as we're doing it he knows it all another aspect of our attitude is seen in verse 7 where he says that we are to be rendering service with goodwill a good mind or understanding that the attitude with which we serve is something we choose it we decide we make a choice with our will to serve with a right spirit and this attitude involves the whole being how we approach our responsibilities in our work in verse 5 he talked about a sincere heart or singleness of heart in verse 6 he talked about doing from the heart verse 7 he says would you do it with a goodwill actually in in the Greek the the words that are translated heart are two different words the first word is the word cardia which is normally translated heart a second word is the word it's okay which has to do with the soul of the mind the whole being and then the word noose the mind the intellect so we have here this threefold description of man's entire being heart soul and mind all of that we are to do what we do with all of our heart soul mind and strength just as Christ said in in that command where he spoke of the great and first commandment he said love God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind now another thing that comes to my mind as I look at this is that our Lord makes a connection between obedience and his commands and love for him in John chapter 14 Jesus said if you love me you will keep my commandments whoever has my commandments and keeps them he it is who loves me and so there's a correlation between our obedience to what God says to do and our love for him and so our attitude is to be one of doing what we do with all of our heart soul mind and strength as to the Lord and finally our attitude is grounded in the unchanging character of our Lord in verse 8 he says that we are to do this knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will receive back from the Lord whether he's a slave or a free man whether you're a slave or master we can trust the Lord that he is just and faithful and we will receive from him reward for what we do we'll receive the fruit of our service in this life and in the life to come because as Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil this leads me to the final characteristic of Paul's instruction and indeed this is something that is true of the entire Bible and that is a this perfect balance God is never out of balance in his instruction for us in his requirements of us and so in closing this passage that we were looking at tonight in verse 9 Paul turns from the slaves to address the masters and he says masters you do the same to them masters are under the same responsibility and the same principles as the slave the principles that applied to the attitude and the motivation and the actions of the slaves applies to the master as well this balance is seen throughout teaching concerning spirit filled households wives submit and husbands love children obey and parents bring it up slaves obey and masters treat them as they would want to be treated and as the Lord treats us knowing that both the slave and the master are under the same heavenly master the ones in authority as believers indwelt by the Spirit are to live as servants to Christ doing the will of God from the heart and so are the Masters the Masters to fulfill his role not like an earthly task master that's threatening but to have an eye to eternity recognizing that both their master and his master in heaven and there's no partiality with him so thinking about what this means to me how I am to live it out and how it applies to me just some quick observations Christ is my Lord and I'm his servant whatever my task in this life because he is my Lord I am to work and to serve with all my heart and all my soul all my mind this approach to life is not possible left to myself it's only by the power of God's Spirit dwelling in me that I can fulfill God's command to obey obedience to authority like all obedience to God's ways is an expression of my love for him if you love me Jesus said you'll keep my commandments what about when I'm in the position of leadership my attitude and whatever role of leadership must include the perspective expressed by the Roman centurion came to Jesus and he said I too am a man under authority those that are under my leadership I myself those that are in leadership over me we're all under the lordship of Jesus Christ and just as my work is always to be done as unto Christ so my leadership of others is to reflect the grace the mercy of my master the ideal of a spirit-filled household a spirit-filled home that will be characterized by joyful submission to God-given roles whether a child to a loving parent or a servant to a harsh master the spirit-filled home will be characterized by joyful submission it will also be characterized by self-sacrificing love in those who lead others and again this is only possible for husbands and wives children parents servants masters it's only possible for those who by faith are in Christ filled with the Spirit submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ so once again here's the principle that he laid down back in chapter 5 and has been expounding it for almost two chapters do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves and Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing making melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always to God the Father through Jesus Christ submitting one another out of reverence for Christ let's pray Father in the beginning you required obedience you gave one simple prohibition and Adam and Eve were not able to keep that they failed and ever since we have been incapable because of our sin nature because we are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve we cannot live according to your way but through what you have accomplished in Christ through the spirit and power that you have sent to indwell through the instruction of your word that spirit is inspired we are able now to live a life that manifests the truth the beauty the wandering goodness of a home a family that is led by the Spirit empowered by the Spirit manifesting the truth the way the life that is in Christ other grant us grace to grow daily in the manifestation of that practice that way in our homes in our churches and in our witness to the world we ask in Jesus name amen