In the latter part of chapter five, the apostle Paul dealt with Christian marriage, and now in the beginning of chapter six he deals with the relationship between children and parents in the Christian home. I believe it is given in that order on purpose. The best thing we can do for our children is have a strong Christian marriage. It is very sad to think about the fact that most children today, even in churches, are being raised in homes that do not have both a godly father and mother.
[1] Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
[2] Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
[3] That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
[4] And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
• Children (vs.1-3)
The children were in the assembly with their parents because Paul speaks directly to them knowing that they would be present when this epistle was read publicly. Children must be trained to listen to the word of God with respect. Families should not be split up every time they come to church. It is good for the whole family to be together in the assembly.
To obey “in the Lord” means to obey as unto Him, recognizing that He set them in authority over you. Disobedience to parents is SIN (characteristic of the last days, 2 Tim. 3:2). Of course, all authority is conditioned on God’s authority.
It is not enough to go through the motions of obedience. You are to HONOR your parents. The Bible doesn’t say obey and honor them if you think they are worthy of it. You are to do it as unto the Lord. WHY (the favorite question of children)?
1) It pleases Him (Col. 3:20)
2) It is right
3) It will be well for you. It is the first commandment with a promise attached to it (Ex. 20:12). Notice that Spirit changed “the land which the LORD thy God give the thee” to “on the earth” since Paul wasn’t writing to Israel.
• Parents (v.4)
The fathers are addressed because they are the head of the home. The father and mother must work together as a team, but the father must take the lead in bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There is a negative and positive admonition here.
1) Provoke not – by harshness and hypocrisy
2) Bring them up – purposeful and active, not passive
a) Nurture – discipline that builds and is motivated by love
b) Admonition – words of correction and instruction
It should be the goal of Christian parents to lead their children to Christ and help them grow strong in a real relationship with the Lord (2 Tim. 3:15). Concerning the salvation of children, we must be very careful. The goal is not getting them to ask Jesus into their heart (where's that in the Bible?). They must know they are a sinner under the condemnation of God and trust Christ alone to be reconciled to Him. We must faithfully give them the gospel of Christ and trust God to use it in their hearts.
[5] Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
[6] Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
[7] With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
[8] Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
[9] And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
All believers have the same spiritual standing in Christ, but while on earth there are still distinctions that matter. That is why Paul, in this epistle that emphasizes the spiritual unity of the Body of Christ, is careful to exhort wives to submit to their husbands, children to obey their parents, and servants to obey their masters (standing, Eph. 1-3; state, Eph. 4-6).
Have you ever noticed all the scripture in Paul’s epistles in which he exhorts servants to be good servants and to serve their master as unto the Lord. He also exhorts masters to be good to their servants and to remember that they have a Master in Heaven (Col. 3:22-4:1; 1 Tim. 6:1-5; Titus 2:9-10; Phile.). Paul never tells servants to run away or masters to get rid of their servants. In the epistle of Philemon, Paul writes to a faithful believer who owned servants. He had led one of his run away servants (Onesimus) to Christ while in prison. Paul sent him back to his master with a letter in which he beseeched Philemon to receive Onesimus back. Since the fall of man slavery has existed in this world and it still exists today. Many people groups have been enslaved. Some historians have estimated that half the population of the Roman Empire was composed of slaves with no personal rights. No doubt the message of true liberty in Christ appealed to the servants that heard Paul and his co-laborers preach the gospel. Many servants trusted Christ and were in the churches that Paul wrote to. More than likely, they were tempted to use their newfound freedom in Christ as an excuse to disobey and defy their masters.
The Bible uses the word "slave" once, and "slaves" once. It does not use the word "slavery". However it uses the word "servant" 460 times and "servants" 441 times. If you study all that the Bible says about this issue you will learn that there were some things about it that were different from what we might think with our modern and western mindset.
According to the Law of Moses, God allowed Israel to have servants, but they were not to be mistreated (Lev. 25:39-46). This proves that having servants was not evil in and of itself, otherwise God would have prohibited it. We should not judge an institution by its abuses. For example, governments often abuse their authority: does this prove that the institution of government is evil? The word of God does teach that it is evil to "steal" a man and sell him as a slave (Deut. 24:7; 1 Tim. 1:10; Rev. 18:8-15). The Body of Christ is not a nation, we are all servants of the Lord and should not desire to own servants.
The apostle Paul did not preach a social gospel. The church has not been called to make the world a better place to go to hell from! This world cannot and will not be a righteous and peaceful place until the Prince of Peace comes and establishes His righteous kingdom! This present evil world will come to an end when Christ comes again. We are called to get sinners saved out of this present evil world. Paul didn't try to overthrow the Roman government (Rom. 13:1). If Paul would have told servants to run away it would have been against the law, endangered the servants, and worst of all HINDERED the gospel. Paul considered the furtherance of the gospel to be much more important than his rights or even his life. For Paul, it was all about personal responsibility and not personal rights (1 Cor. 7:20-24). We have been BOUGHT with a price (1 Cor. 6:20) and we are to be servants of God (which is much better than being a servant of sin). By sending Onsesimus back to his master Paul knew that he was not obeying the Law of Moses (Duet. 23:15; Rom. 6:14).
Believing masters that were kind to their servants and treated them well would have a great opportunity to lead them to Christ (Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1). Believing servants that diligently served their master well (even if mistreated) would be a powerful testimony for Christ (Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22-25). A saved servant has spiritual freedom and contentment in Christ and that is what matters most (1 Tim. 6:1-8). When the Lord comes all believers will be glorified with Him!
We can apply the passages concerning masters and servants to employers and employees.
Employees:
1) Obey your authority at work
2) Seek to please your authority
3) Do not disrespect your authority
4) Do not steal from your employer
5) Be a faithful and honest worker
6) Serve your employer with singleness of heart, as unto Christ and not as men-pleasers
7) Whatever you do, do it heartily
Employers:
1) Always keep in mind that you too are under authority
2) Do not threaten your workers
3) Give to your workers what is just and equal
No comments:
Post a Comment