“Ephesians 6”

Friday, May 12, 2017

There are numerous relationships that most/many people sustain in life. Ephesians 5:22-33 dealt with the husband and wife relationship. In verses 1-9, Paul describes some of the duties and obligations of four groups – children, fathers, bondservants and masters.

Many of these responsibilities can be summarized by a look at the verbs used in each situation – obey, honor, do not provoke, bring them up, be obedient, and do the same.

Children are taught to both honor and obey their parents, as God would have them to do.

Fathers, while rearing their children as the spiritual head of the family, should be careful not to anger them, in case that might cause them to rebel against both the Father and God. The New International Version says that fathers must not “exasperate” their children. A father’s goal is to train his children to love and serve God, not to run them away by harshness and inconsideration.

Bondservants are encouraged to obey their masters in all things that right and good. He uses words like sincerity, with fear and trembling and tells them not to be men-pleasers, but willingly and freely serve their master on earth. He does tell them that they will receive a good reward for being the kind of servants the Lord would have them to be.

And he admonishes masters to treat their workers properly. He reminds them that they (the masters) also have a Master in heaven to whom they will answer some day.

The next section of the chapter, verses 10-20, calls us to be faithful and true soldiers of Christ, in the spiritual battle we wage against sin and wickedness.

It is not easy to be a Christian. Sin, the world, temptation, and Satan are very real and very difficult to overcome sometimes. We are in a war against the devil and all of his forces of evil. In another place, Paul reminds us to “Fight the good fight of faith” (1Timothy 6:12).

Left to our own defenses, we don’t do very well (Romans 3:10,23). However, we must never forget: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). When we learn to properly utilize “the whole armor of God,” there is no evil power that can overcome us. We can win every battle. We will be victorious, eternally.

Verses 21-24 close out the book with some compliments about Tychicus and a prayer that God’s peace and grace will be with them.

--Roger Hillis

Share