Coming Together

Coming Together

Question of the day: What brings your family together?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  I hope your stomach feels as stretched as mine does!  Oh the joys of thanksgiving! 

This morning we start chapter 6.  The last chapter in Ephesians.  As always we need to spend a few minutes reviewing what the author has been writing about up to this point.  This section is a continuation of chapter 5 verse 21 and onward.  So before we read it remember the key is, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." 

READ: Ephesians 6:1-9

6 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 go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”[a]

4 Fathers,[b] do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

So this is a continuation of chapter 5 starting with verse 21, the over arching theme.  Then the author speaks specifically about verse 21 in the wife/husband relationship and then today the parent/child relationship and slaves/masters relationship. 

What does the author say to these two groups?

CHILD/PARENT

Children

Parents

Before we get into this last section I want to make sure that we don't look at this as just something that is not for us here today.  How does this apply to us?  

SLAVE/MASTER

Slaves

Masters

If we take a moment and look back over this entire book, we see a beautiful theme that is becoming more and more clear.  This theme is that Christ has done this beautiful work of bringing us all together, Jew and Gentiles, Husbands and wives, Parents and children, Slaves and masters. He is our master and in Him there is no favoritism.  We are to be His and let Him be the head!  

Why is this message so important?

How does this message inspire us to live?

Are there somethings that we need to be careful about in light of this message?

How do we fall into beliefs or patterns of thought that keep us in a place where we find power, hierarchy, or position important, when clearly our MASTER is God.  We are ALL his children, and we are all here to serve and love one another.   Perhaps one of the most important lessons in this whole book is because of what He has done for us, we are too serve and love one another and no one is more important than another!  WE are ALL His kids!