home, sweet home

Eph. 5.21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,  27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church —  30 for we are members of his body.  31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  32 This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church.  33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

6.1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  2 “Honor your father and mother” — which is the first commandment with a promise —  3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.  6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.  7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men,  8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Ephesians 5:21 – 6:9

There are some parts of the NT that leave the modern person scratching his or her head – and this is one of those sections.
It seems like the apostle Paul is trying to establish an order for the Christian household, and for us – living in a different time with different values, these words  – especially the instructions to wives and slaves – seem outmoded – out of date.
Is Paul putting his stamp of approval on slavery?  Must every Christian wife submit every decision for her husband’s stamp of approval?
Does God want us to take the household framework of husband, wife, children and slaves and try to replicate it here and now, or might there be another way to translate God’s words to our time?
How can we apply Paul’s words to early Christian households to the great variety of Christian home situations we have today – including single parent families, extended families living together, blended families, and more..
What I want to do is to treat this large section as a whole, which it is, and to treat Paul’s words fairly by examining:
•    The context – who was Paul writing to, how were they living, how was Paul writing to their particular situation?
•    The verbs  – what attitudes and actions does God want all Christian households to put into practice?
•    The values – what are the core values of the Christian home?

run to Sunday!

the bright side

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.  Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.  For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.  Therefore do not be partners with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)  and find out what pleases the Lord.  Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,  for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Ephesians 5:3-14

One of my favorite Van Morrison songs is called The Bright Side of the Road:

From the dark and lonely street
To the bright side of the road
We’ll be lovers once again
On the bright side of the road

Van the man contrasts walking on the dark end of the street – a lonely and destructive place – to “The Bright Side of the Road” – a place where two lovers walk hand in hand in the clear light of day.
Today’s passage from Ephesians contrasts walking in darkness with walking in light.

Paul’s encouragement to walk in the light is the fourth in a series of five walking instructions in Ephesians:

1. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to walk (live a life) worthy of the calling you have received.        Eph. 4.1
2. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk (live) as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.           Eph. 4.17
3. Walk in love (live a life of love), just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.          Eph. 5.2
4. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk (live) as children of light        Eph. 5.8
5. Be very careful, then, how you walk (live) — not as unwise but as wise,        Eph. 5.15

Thus far in Ephesians, we have learned to:

• walk in a way that is worthy of our calling
• not walk against God’s purposes, as we did in our pre-Christian days
• walk in self-giving love, as Jesus loves us by giving himself up for us

Now we come to a new walking instruction, in Ephesians 5:8, where the Word says:

• that we are to walk in the light because we are light.
• Light is who we are; in the light is where we belong.
• We no longer are darkness, so therefore we must no longer walk in darkness

Walking in darkness as opposed to walking in light is a contrast that is sprinkled throughout the Bible.  A couple of examples:

• The people walking in darkness have seen a great light… Isaiah 9:2
• Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  John 8:2

God’s great Old Testament heartache was that Israel never lived up to her true identity.  God created Israel to be His people, gave them the gift of His presence, and commissioned them to be faithful to Him, to act justly and ethically.  By walking in the light they would fulfill their identity as God’s light to the nations  (Isaiah 51:4; 60:3).

For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Ephesians 5:5

Israel’s first step into darkness, a step which led to all the others, was idolatry:
God’s people pursued other gods and neglected their own God.
The gift of God’s own presence wasn’t enough for Israel – they had to have more.  They were curious about the gods of the Egyptians, Canaanites and others.  Their own God, Yahweh, prohibited them from carving or painting images of what they thought God might look like, in order to preserve the purity of their union with Yahweh.  But the other nations made plenty of pictures and statues of their Gods – and so the Israelites often became envious of the artsy crowd down the road.

They went over and bought some little statues, worshiped the other gods, and gradually their lives became less and less filled with God’s light, and more and more filled with the dark and immoral lifestyles of the surrounding tribes and nations.

In the Ephesian believers, Paul saw the same sort of link between pursuing other gods, idolatry, and the behavior of some followers of Jesus.
Paul makes this link between bad behavior and idolatry in verse 5:
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Ephesians 5:5
So now we have both a central theme, walk in the light, and apowerful force that could keep is in the dark, idolatry.
Tomorrow, Sunday, we’ll explore all this further.

run to Sunday!