From living and walking to standing

Ephesians 6 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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 so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.

⁴ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

⁵ Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; ⁶ not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. ⁷ With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, ⁸ knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

⁹ And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴ Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints…

²³ Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.

In today’s text Paul continues writing to the Ephesians about what the Christian life should look like, speaking today of relationships, he says:    Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.     In our culture children are no longer taught to honor their parents, particularly fathers. Schools teach children that it is right for them to question, even challenge authority. The role of fathers in entertainment media, television and movies, has been reduced from respected head of the household to bumbling idiot, laughingstock or the one who failed, disappointed and abandoned the family. The problem is children need family structure. People are not meant to be like many animals, who bare their young, nurse them, raise them for a few months and then release them to navigate the world on their own. The breakdown and destruction of the family, particularly the devaluing of fathers is not a random occurrence and it certainly is not part of the process of human evolution to a higher more enlightened form. It is instead part a plan, part of a scheme to take the authority and responsibility for raising and teaching children out of the home and into the world system.

Paul says: Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.   This nation was once a nation where most people were raised under and taught Christian values. The Bible and Biblical values were the foundation of curriculum in schools. Most Colleges and universities were founded as centers of religious training along with any other curriculum they offered. We can easily trace the falling of our nation’s schools in comparison to the rest of the world to the time when God and the Bible were removed from them. Our schools and our young people now lag behind much of the world in education. There are basically two reasons that fathers no longer bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. The first is as noted, the role and respect for fathers has been diminished if not eliminated by our culture. Second is that we are now seeing a third generation of people who have not themselves been raised with basic Biblical knowledge. Along with being removed from our schools, Biblical values and stories from the Bible itself were once part of our entertainment media. Movies, television, books, music and art all portrayed Christian teaching, values and stories in an accurate and positive light. Most people today have less knowledge of basic Biblical stories and people than a 4^th grader would have 50 or 60 years ago. How can fathers today possibly teach their children something they themselves have no knowledge of?

Paul continues:    Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.     Those who want to devalue or detract from the Bible will say that the Bible is outdated, that it even condones slavery. In truth Paul is not condoning slavery. He is speaking to a factual societal structure and how Christian values should influence what exists. The Bible does not depict life as some unrealistic fantasy where there are no problems. The Bible speaks to how those who follow God should respond to the realities of life, the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. We may no longer have slaves in our society, but the notion that people are all equal in every way, as the progressive thinkers would like us to believe and embrace, is the fantasy. There are and always will be some who are rich and some who are poor, some who are strong and powerful and some with much less power. There will always be those who rule and those who are ruled. What the Bible, and Paul in particular in this passage, speaks to is how followers of Christ should act and respond, regardless of their social standing or position. What is critical in this passage is not that there were slaves and masters, but rather:   knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.  God is not concerned with social standing. There is no partiality with Him. Jesus gave His life for the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak. God’s love and His grace are for whoever; regardless of social standing, believes in Jesus Christ, His Son.   

Finally, Paul says:  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints     It is the schemes of the devil we are to stand against. It is the scheme of the devil which has led to the breakdown of our families and schools. It is not the teachers in our children’s schools, it is not the out of control perverted media which we need to stand against, but rather the spiritual forces of wickedness which influence and control them.

In last year’s post for this date, I focused on the application of the armor of God Paul encourages us to put on. I won’t take the time now to revisit it, but invite and encourage you to if and when you can. I’ll say only this for now. The first item of the armor we are to put on is the belt of truth. The outcome of any and every battle we face is contingent upon knowing the truth. We need to know what God says, what His promises are for every situation and circumstance we face. Paul says we should pray at all times in the Spirit. Jesus says: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26)  When we pray in the Spirit, we can remember and pray the promises of God, what He says about the situation. 1 John 5:14-15 says:  This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.   When we pray God’s word and His promises, what He says, we pray according to His will. We can and for the sake of our children we must stand firm and pray against the schemes of the devil.

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.  How can we have peace in the midst of so great a battle? Romans 6:20 says:  The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Thank You Lord God for Your grace, that on the cross You already crushed and defeated the devil. All we need to do is to stand in the truth of the finished the work of the cross.  Amen.