Thursday 3 March 2022

Faith in action (Eph. 6:1-9)

Imagine that Christianity suddenly becomes illegal, and you are put on trial for your faith.  Now these people who are trying you know that Christianity is not merely a personal religion, it is a relational faith.  They know that if you truly love Jesus it will show in how you treat other people.

Now you are not allowed speak in your defence.  It is those who know you best that are asked to present the evidence.

So, they go to your workplace, and they ask a very perceptive question: ‘is your gentleness evident to all’ (Phil. 4:5)?  Then they go to where you live and start asking your neighbours, ‘do you love them the way you love yourself’ (Matthew 12:31)?  Finally, they call together your family circle, ‘do you put your religion into practice by caring for your family’ (1 Tim. 5:4)?

After they have interviewed these groups of people, is there enough evidence to prove that your life has been transformed by the love of Jesus?

This morning I want to plead with you.  I want to plead with you as we look at four sets of relationships—children to parents, fathers to children, slaves to masters and masters to slaves.  ‘Can we be consistent?’  Can we love people because we have experienced Jesus’ love?  Can we love all people?  Can we be as considerate to the person behind the counter as we are to our boss?  Can we please remember that while no one else may know about our feelings towards other people, God sees everything?

1.       Children—obey your parents to show the world that you love Jesus? (1-3)

Notice that in all four relationships mentioned in these verses there is a reference to ‘the Lord’.  Children, you are to obey your parents, ‘in the Lord’.  You don’t just obey them because you love them, you are to obey them because you love Jesus.

It is noteworthy that the apostle Paul addresses children rather than just sons.  It that society girls were not valued.  They didn’t receive the same level of instruction.  However, Christianity reminds the world that though there are self-evident differences between the genders, there is equality in both our being created in God’s image and being rescued in God’s son.

It is so important that children obey their parents (both mother and father) that this command was included among the Ten Commandments.  This is a command with a promise: ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’

Of course, this is not an absolute promise.  There are faithful children who die in tragic accidents.  It is a general promise.  You see your parents know what is best for you.  They don’t always get it right, but they do have more experience than you.  When you were an infant they shouted ‘don’t touch’ when you were about to put your hand on something hot.  Now they may say ‘be careful not your friends influence you towards harm.’  They may teach you that it is important to work hard and serve others.  Sometimes the most loving thing that they will say to you is ‘no!’

2.      Fathers—do not provoke your children to anger (4)

I prefer the translation that speaks of provoking to anger than the lesser word exasperate.  You might exasperate your children with how weak your dad jokes are or how embarrassing your sense of fashion, but this is more than that.  This is literally acting in a way that unnecessarily angers your children.

I think that it is important for our culture that fathers are mentioned here.  We live in a society that plays down the role of fathers.  Fathers and mothers have unique and complimentary roles to play in the raising of children.  Of course, there are many painful situations where a parent has to raise their children on their own, but society should aim at a situation where children are being raised by both a mother and a father.

The role of fathers is particularly noted in the passing on of faith between the generations.  I have a book at home called ‘The Faith of the Fatherless’.  In it the author looks at how the faith of many atheists was shaped by absent, weak or harsh father-figures.  It also looms at how the faith of many leading Christians was shaped by consistent and loving father-figures.

Fathers, your life influences what you children thing when they are told that God is our Father.  You are to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  The family is a little church, and you have been given the responsibility of lead pastor.  You biggest responsibility is to live and teach about how the cross of Jesus affects everything.

But there is a danger of exasperation or angering your children.  Bible commentator, Kent Hughes lists four ways that fathers commonly anger their children: unreasonableness, fault-finding, neglect and inconsistency.  If you can be pleased with what they do they will become disheartened.  Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Mount Everest but his son latter said that he would have much preferred to have a father that was at home more.  Sometimes because we feel more competent at work than at home we are tempted to be more ambitious for our work life that our home life.  You need to remember that when you say ‘yes’ to an extra work or church commitment you may be saying ‘no’ to time with your children.  Make sure that you have prayerfully thought that through.

3.      Slaves—our loving master sees everything (5-8)

When we hear about slaves in the New Testament it is not helpful to imagine the African slave-trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Slavery in the Roman world was far more humane.  It was not based on race, or even social class.  Few died as slaves for they could purchase their freedom.  About a half of slaves were freed before they were thirty.  A slave could be a manager or a doctor. 

People ended up slaves by birth, because their parents sold them into slavery, in order to pay off debts or even to improve their lot in life.  This is not to say that slavery was not evil.  The church had good news for slaves.  They were to be treated as equals in the church.  The church did not have the influence to end slavery in the Roman world, nor was that they most important item on their agenda.  However, the logic of the gospel would eventually led to people like William Wilberforce and John Newton toppling the slave trade in their time.

We should not be naïve about our own culpability in the modern slave trade.  The chocolate industry has long been associated with slave labour.  The fashion industry with sweat shops.  If you want to show your concern about slavery then learn how to be an ethical consumer.

What the apostle Paul says to slaves here could be our guiding principle for all workers.  Who are we trying to please?  Do we only work when our boss is watching us?  Do we realise that being a good employee is actually a form of worship to our God?  Notice that whether you are the master or slave, the employee or employer, God will reward you for honest work.

That is so gracious of God.  He owes us nothing.  He rescued us when we wanted nothing to do with Him.  He is the one who has given us a heart that wants to please Him.  We serve Him imperfectly.  Yet when we serve him he delights to reward us for what we do.  There is a present joy in living for Jesus and an eternal reward that awaits us.  Jacob messaged me a number of weeks ago to mention a text that was encouraging him.  ‘God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for serving the saints, as you still do’ (Heb. 6:10).  Your employer may show little interest in how you work and may never express appreciation to you.  But your heavenly master sees it all!

4.       Masters—obey the golden rule

Masters, do the same to them.  The golden rule of Jesus is that we are to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  Well here the apostle Paul gives us the managerial golden rule—you are to respect your employees the same way you demand that they respect you.

We might not be the boss of any company but every day people serve us.  There are the waiters and shop assistants.  We might have authority over someone by being their teacher or project manager.  How do you treat the sales person who calls to the door or rings on the phone?  Jesus is watching!  Is our gentleness evident to all in these situations?  Do we treat people with respect?  Are we sincere?  If someone serving you found out that you are a Christian, would your behaviour make Jesus attractive to them.

Remember that God shows no favouritism.  He is not influenced by how high up the pecking order you are, and he is not put off because other people think you are a nobody.  I love the Proverb that says, ‘whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but those who are kind to the needy honour God’ (Prov. 14:31).

Conclusion

All that Jesus asks us to do is to respond to His grace and be empower by the person of the Holy Spirit.  At the beginning of chapter four we had a ‘therefore’.  Given that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ we are to love a life worthy of the calling we have received.

Jesus laid down His life for us.  He has forgiven our failings as parents (and I know that we all feel inadequate for that task).  He had forgiven our harsh words spoken to many.  He has forgiven the fact that we are often people-pleasers rather than God-pleasers.  Jesus died for these sins.

Jesus also models how we are to live.  He obeyed His heavenly Father.  He invites us to enjoy the Father-heart of God (maybe you have a father-wound).  He came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.  He is gentle and lowly of heart.

Finally, this letter tells us that we have received the person of the Holy Spirit.  I don’t have it within me to be a consistent son, a selfless father, to do my job seeking to please God rather than people and to treat those who serve me with respect.  But God calls us to go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.  Give up depending on your own strength.  Humble yourselves.  Ask Him to change you in a way that you cannot change yourself.  Then when they ask you family, neighbours and workmates, ‘was his gentleness event to all?’ They will reply, ‘all the evidence showed His love for Jesus!’

  

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