00:00:00:01 – 00:00:22:59
Clint Loveall
Everybody. Thanks for being with us. As we close out the week, we’re beginning a new chapter in Ephesians, going into chapter six, trying to get a couple of sections done today. To start with, I’m just going to read the first four verses. Just a reminder. Late in chapter five, Paul has kind of started with some words that have to do with family relationships.

00:00:23:04 – 00:00:47:00
Clint Loveall
And it may surprise people in general to know how little the Bible really concentrates on family stuff. There’s not as much in there for, for as much as Christians have made of the importance of family and family relationships. It it is not a high priority in regard to what Scripture says about it, but this is one of the exceptions.

00:00:47:00 – 00:01:10:14
Clint Loveall
And so, yesterday we heard a word about marriage, husbands and wives under a word about community, be subject to one another. And now, we continue to look sort of, I hate to say, down the ladder, but maybe further out in that relational tree. So, read a couple verses here. We’ll come back and talk. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

00:01:10:19 – 00:01:36:38
Clint Loveall
Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise so that it may be well for you, and you may live long on the earth. And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. I think one of the misunderstandings that we might have right away is when we hear the word children, we tend to think of very young children, and that’s probably included in this.

00:01:36:43 – 00:02:08:43
Clint Loveall
But this, the family idea, the relationship between child and parent in Jesus world is often characterized by adult children. And so this may not be Paul may not primarily have in mind here six year olds. He may primarily have in mind here 26 year olds there. And there is that expectation in the first world Jewish culture that your family has to remain in essential relationship throughout your life.

00:02:08:43 – 00:02:39:43
Clint Loveall
And so when he says, honor your father and mother, this doesn’t just have to do with young children. This is something that is an expectation. And I think, a teaching for kids of all ages. Which makes it, makes it relatively rare. Michael, I’m trying to think if I can, off the top of my head, even think of another place in Scripture that is addressed to children.

00:02:39:48 – 00:02:50:49
Clint Loveall
There may be one, but I think if there is, there’s only one. And I’m not sure there is a second one that this this might be unique. And, you know, it’s an interesting word.

00:02:50:54 – 00:03:09:45
Michael Gewecke
So there’s a lot of assumptions, actually, that you might be surprised by in a text like this. Because first of all, we’re going to have to put this in its context where it fits within this book. But before we do that, I just want to remind you that the commandment being referenced here is one of the Ten Commandments.

00:03:09:45 – 00:03:37:39
Michael Gewecke
And so the idea that this is the commandment with a promise is really assuming that there’s an awareness of what those ten commandments are, which is a fascinating conversation to be had in a context where we know there is Jewish and Gentile faith discipleship questions happening. So there is a reference here to what would have been a very well known commandment that comes from the Big Ten.

00:03:37:44 – 00:03:59:17
Michael Gewecke
And so the fact that it is delivered as a kind of source for this directive, I think, does bring with it some interesting connotation that there’s an assumption that whether or not you’re a Jew or you’re a Gentile, we’re teaching the Ten Commandments. This is something that is valuable. It’s important. This is after Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

00:03:59:22 – 00:04:29:20
Michael Gewecke
And yet we’re still making sure that this is clear and that’s being made known. I also want to point out the fact, I think that it’s striking that when we move from the marriage conversation and we move that into a family conversation, a parent and child relationship, that once again, we’re going to have conversation both about the ordering of it, but also about the mutual commands within it, that both are given expectations.

00:04:29:20 – 00:05:09:02
Michael Gewecke
And I think what’s really striking here is in verse one, you have the direct reference given to children, and then you move to verse four, which is the direct command given to fathers, which is a fascinating way of pointing once again to the fact that this is all about the mutual responsibilities to one another. And that is an essential, I think, point here, Clint, because what it does is it serves to help us understand similar movements that we saw in yesterday’s text that, once again, marriage reflects in the ordering, but also the equal self-giving.

00:05:09:07 – 00:05:20:01
Michael Gewecke
Moving into this text, there’s a correct ordering and yet correct. And and right mutual self-giving expected at every level. These family relationships.

00:05:20:06 – 00:05:51:46
Clint Loveall
I think that maybe we would be surprised some some people would be surprised. Michael, you know, we live in, you know, time and maybe you could even argue an area regionally that is family centric. I think that we in our culture pay a lot attention to children. You know, both in terms of keeping them happy. But in terms of their the part they play in fulfilling.

00:05:51:46 – 00:06:31:13
Clint Loveall
I mean, we’re we’re on the eve of Halloween when kids will dress up and they’ll go out and I, I think it’s a little difficult to relate how how differently the ancient world saw children, which was essentially non people, that they, you know, that they were going to be helpful, that they were going to be useful. But, but we have an affection for children and maybe a place for them societally that historically I think was not often was not true in many cultures.

00:06:31:13 – 00:06:59:04
Clint Loveall
And so, this idea that parents and children, fathers specifically, and children have a mutual accountability to one another, that children are to obey and that fathers are to bring them up in the discipline, in instruction that there is a, that there are two sides to that coin and that they both matter and the word provoke. Here. My Bible does a pretty good word.

00:06:59:18 – 00:07:28:14
Clint Loveall
It means to anger, to incite. So it has to do with this idea, you know, fathers don’t cause problems for your children or, don’t wind them up, but do something better. Discipline and and instruct them in the Lord, the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And so, that that is a commendable goal for any parent.

00:07:28:19 – 00:07:48:33
Clint Loveall
The, you know, the word father here, but I think it applies to both to any parent, to seek to raise their child, to know and follow Jesus clearly. We have embraced that idea in the church. Paul doesn’t go all the way to say that in the way that we would say it, but I, I think it’s behind the scenes here.

00:07:48:37 – 00:08:24:51
Michael Gewecke
There’s very quick transitions happening here. You’ve got marriage. You move into this conversation about parents and children and the key connector to the next text. Clint actually is that comment you make about children, because children don’t represent a blank slate in the ancient world, like we think of it in our own time. The children represented possible people who might make it to carry on the family task, whatever that task was.

00:08:24:55 – 00:08:47:13
Michael Gewecke
And so there’s a an expectation that one needs to hold children lightly, and there’s an expectation that someday there’s going to be a return on that investment. That’s not the language that they would use. But the time, energy care that went into caring for a child would ultimately result in them being able to be part of the family task.

00:08:47:13 – 00:08:54:28
Michael Gewecke
And so here we’re going to see that as that continues in Paul’s speaking of the right ordering of our lives.

00:08:54:28 – 00:09:18:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I think not only that, Michael, but in assumption that one day it will be the child returning that care toward the parents. Yeah. You know, the next section, I’ll just be honest with you guys. The next section is tough. Paul continues with household relationships. And he mentions slavery. And this is kind of, a struggle.

00:09:18:57 – 00:09:48:54
Clint Loveall
If if you have ever paid attention to online debates where Christians and atheists argue, atheists will almost always bring up the idea that the Bible doesn’t condemn slavery or that it condones slavery. That that’s an uncomfortable reality that those of us who live in this day and age and try to be fluent in Scripture just have to live with, there are some reasons for that.

00:09:48:54 – 00:10:23:13
Clint Loveall
But the but the takeaway is that there really is no voice in the Old or New Testament that questions the arrangement or the presence of slavery. It is omnipresent. Somewhere between 20 and 30% of the residents of Rome are slaves. It is everywhere it is established. It is unquestioned and most of the early Christians just saw it as something that they it didn’t even occur to them, probably to think about could it be changed?

00:10:23:13 – 00:10:44:58
Clint Loveall
It simply was a part of the culture in which they lived. A they’re not a political movement. B they have no particular power. See, they have this expectation that the world is not going to be around much longer. But for whatever reason, the Bible doesn’t say the things we wish it did about slavery. It doesn’t say, end it now, give up.

00:10:45:03 – 00:11:04:33
Clint Loveall
You know, let your slaves go. And that would be great if it said that it doesn’t. And so then our task becomes, how do we hear what the Bible is trying to say in the midst of it? We don’t make excuses for the Bible. I don’t think the Bible needs us to defend it necessarily. But but again, we get into some material that’s a little uncomfortable.

00:11:04:33 – 00:11:38:42
Clint Loveall
So let me read it. Then we’ll try to to come back and address it. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ, not only while being watched in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render service with enthusiasm, as if the law as if to the Lord, and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free and masters do the same.

00:11:38:47 – 00:12:04:04
Clint Loveall
Stop threatening them, for you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality. It may be helpful to go backwards here, Michael, because again, we see this pattern that we’ve seen in this section, a word to both sides of the coin, right? Word to the slaves, but then a word to the masters.

00:12:04:04 – 00:12:32:55
Clint Loveall
And this is a fascinating thing. At the end, Paul says that both of you have the same footing before God. That’s a stunning statement. If you think of the culture, if you think of the idea, there’s literally a master and a slave, a property owner and a property. And the slave had very few rights that the master had almost carte blocks to do what they wanted.

00:12:33:00 – 00:13:05:29
Clint Loveall
There were very little expectations of what needed to be, how slaves needed to be treated, and bad masters got away with all kinds of of horrible stuff. And yet here is the book of Ephesians saying to the masters, be good to them, and do not threaten them. For you know that before God you stand on equal footing, or that you stand as equals, that again, hard to hear in the context of it not saying what we wish it did, but a stunning statement.

00:13:05:29 – 00:13:08:39
Clint Loveall
When you think about it through the lens of that day.

00:13:08:43 – 00:13:40:22
Michael Gewecke
It gets really practical really quickly. In the book of Ephesians here, because we start dealing with the so what question about how does this unity, how does this shared life, how does it actually show up when the rubber meets the road and in actual human relationships? And so whether you’re talking about marriages, whether you’re talking about parent child relationships, of which a vast percentage of human tumult and trial happens in those relationships, now you get to the master slave relationship.

00:13:40:22 – 00:13:57:27
Michael Gewecke
And the only thing I want to add to all of your comments, Clint, which helpful set up is that Americans actually need to do a little bit more contextual work, even because in the ancient world, slavery was not directly connected to race in the same way that it has been lived out in our own.

00:13:57:27 – 00:13:58:14
Clint Loveall
Not at all.

00:13:58:19 – 00:14:27:34
Michael Gewecke
Events. Yeah, because it was an economic reality. So slavery would often happen due to debts. You couldn’t repay your debt. So therefore, the only collateral you had left was yourself. It would happen when nations were, conquered. The losing nation. You might become a slave. The the reason why this matters, I think in interpreting a text like this is because, fundamentally, there was an economic relationship between master and slave.

00:14:27:39 – 00:14:52:58
Michael Gewecke
There’s a whether or not it was that you were owned because of a debt. There’s always a relationship because you have an expectation of producing for the sake of the other. And when it comes down to that reality, what you have here is something being said about mutual accountability. Even in that context. So in other words, it’s not, well, because you have legal rights over your slave.

00:14:53:00 – 00:15:20:34
Michael Gewecke
You can do whatever you want. No, it’s fundamentally stop threatening them because remember, you both have a master, right? That’s striking words. Then of course, we’re uncomfortable in the words that come before. But realistically, if you follow the point which we followed both times, once again, it’s if you’re the slave, you do have a responsibility to live out that life in such a way that it two shows mutual self-giving.

00:15:20:34 – 00:15:42:03
Michael Gewecke
Don’t just do the work, but render service with enthusiasm. You see, it’s a call to come to the center first for the slave and then for the master. We just had that with child. We just had that with parent. We just had that with husband and with wife. And and I want to just point out, Clint, every single one of those is couched underneath Jesus Christ.

00:15:42:03 – 00:16:02:15
Michael Gewecke
Every single one of those is about the one who gave himself for the sake of both parties. So if you see them that they it’s not going to erase the trouble with the language. It’s not going to erase the fact that Christians have found, and rightly so, that human property is not within the vein of the freedom that comes in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:16:02:20 – 00:16:15:11
Michael Gewecke
And yet we see in the relationship of these two parties the point that’s being made, which is that we’re called to give of self and we’re called to do that in practical, real human relationships.

00:16:15:16 – 00:16:45:01
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And, and I think an idea that is important, even if we don’t think it goes far enough that in the midst of a difficult situation, one can dedicate themselves to glorify Christ, that those who live as slaves can do their work, knowing that their work and how they do it is pleasing to God. Now could that be abused?

00:16:45:01 – 00:17:12:48
Clint Loveall
Does that have some problem? Of course. But behind that is this idea that your situation is in. Life is not an equivalent to who you are. It’s not the summary of who you are, a child of God. You are a son and daughter. You are in Christ. And therefore, you know, we’ve already seen it in Christ. There is no slave or free.

00:17:12:48 – 00:17:59:07
Clint Loveall
And while that isn’t spoken of in terms of physical or political realities, it certainly is the spiritual reality that guards this. And then, you know, Michael, just as a way of acknowledging how difficult it can sometimes be to read Scripture. Well. Almost nobody. Right. We would say only people with a very suspicious theology and a very suspect reading of Scripture would try to maintain from this passage that there should be masters who have authority over slaves.

00:17:59:07 – 00:18:42:14
Clint Loveall
As if the Bible is advocating this pattern. We we have we have come to say, while we understand these words, this is not a good pattern by which humans should live. And yet, when we come to the idea of wives and husbands and husbands having authority and power and control, we somehow say, but that must be so a great number, more people would comfortably read literally the first part of this passage, though almost none of us would comfortably read literally the last part of the passage.

00:18:42:14 – 00:19:03:46
Clint Loveall
And I just think that that that speaks to sometimes how difficult it is to hear a word written in a different time and place and try to make sense of it for the moment in which we live, that that’s always a difficult task that Christians undertake when we seek to hear Scripture in our own, in our own context.

00:19:03:55 – 00:19:36:12
Michael Gewecke
I think one way into that conversation is when we come to Scripture expecting for it to teach us the exact habits and words that we need to model today. We forget that all of Scripture is relational. This is a letter written in relationship from from a pastoral leader to congregations. Jesus Christ was relational with his disciples. He gave his life that we might be in relationship with him.

00:19:36:12 – 00:20:08:43
Michael Gewecke
The language we’ve already had in this book to be in the body of Christ fundamentally, the Gospels relational. And so when you look to distill it into single sentence maxims, what you are in danger of doing is you make the words more important than the connection. And that is fundamentally what Christians proclaim when we proclaim that Jesus Christ took on flesh, we mean that God entered into the real world and therefore shaped and changed, how that world is.

00:20:08:43 – 00:20:36:38
Michael Gewecke
And that if we are going to live in that new kingdom, we have to live in relationship with him. That’s mysterious, that requires faith, that requires patience and humility. It’s not as simple as boiling it down. But when you come to a text like children, father, parents, when you start talking about masters and slaves, what you discover is God entered into those relationships in concrete ways and it transform them.

00:20:36:43 – 00:20:54:38
Michael Gewecke
And we have our relationships in the world in which we live. And I guarantee you, if you look, God has transformed them. And the question is, will we be part of that? Or will we resist it? And I think that’s a fundamental task of reading Scripture that we might be attuned to how we can be part of what God’s doing.

00:20:54:43 – 00:21:03:15
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it is it is not a it it’s a powerful word. It’s not a static word, and it’s not an easy word.

00:21:03:19 – 00:21:16:58
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us. There’s a lot this week. And certainly if you, are behind, you can catch up. We’ll be back next week on Monday. Subscribe for more videos like this. Like this video if you found it helpful and encouraging. We look forward to seeing you next week. Have a.

00:21:16:58 – 00:21:17:16
Clint Loveall
Good week!