Respect Authority!
Ephesians 6:1-9
Focus: God calls Christians to submit to one another and respect authority out of respect for God.
Function: To illustrate how our submission plays out in the Parent-Child relationship as well as in our work world.
When Celeste and I first found out that we were going to have a baby three years ago, we were understandably very excited! And we
wanted to be the best parents we could be, so we went to the Baby Super-store and learned all about the baby paraphernalia. We got it all;
the safest car seat we could find, those plugs for electric outlets to keep little fingers from them; and all sorts of things. We wanted to learn
how to care for a baby and we did. Celeste drug me to the birthing class at the hospital where we not only talked about the birthing
procedure, but also some of the basics of infant care. We wanted to be prepared! What we DIDN’T talk about, though, was what to do
when the child turned two! Now we’re dealing with a two-year old and let me tell you, it’s a whole new ball game! We’ve learned a lot!
You can tell what we’re going through when you come over to our house and check out the bookshelf. We’ve got James Dobson’s entire
library: “Dare to Discipline”, “The Strong Willed Child”; “Parenting isn’t for Cowards.” I can’t tell you that I’ve actually read them all, but
Celeste has and she’s gone thru and dog-eared and highlighted the parts that I need to read! We’ve got others, “How to Make Your Kids
Mind, Without Losing Yours”; and (my favorite title) “You Can’t Make Me!” written by a self-professed & recovering strong willed child.
Get an idea of what life is like at our house these days? We’re trying to be good parents for our boys, and what we’re finding is that there
are some challenges! I came across this list of what another parent had learned . . .
1) There is no such thing as child proofing your home. 2) Baseballs make marks on the ceiling. 3) You should not throw baseballs
up when the ceiling fan is on. 4) A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way. 5) The glass in windows, even double pane ones, is
not strong enough to stop a baseball that has been hit by a ceiling fan. 6) When you hear the toilet flush and the words “Uh-oh”, it’s
already too late. 7) A six year old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a thirty six year old man says they can only do that in
the movies. 8) If you use a waterbed as home plate while wearing baseball shoes, it does not leak – it explodes. 9) A king size
waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 square foot house 4 inches deep.
You know my kids and I know yours– we could come up with quite a list of our own, couldn’t we? The bottom line here is that we want to be
good parents and teach our children how to get along in the world, how to treat one another, but ultimately how to love God and to respect
authority.
In today’s text that _________ just read to us, Paul continues his discussion on submission by turning to two other relationships. You
remember in 4:21 he has exhorted Christians to “submit to one another out of reverence/ respect for Christ.” He has raised the
standard! We don’t submit because it’s the natural thing to do; we don’t submit because the other person is always right . . . we submit out
of our respect for the authority of Christ! He illustrated that in the relationship of marriage. Wives are to submit to their husbands ‘as to the
Lord’ and Husbands are to love their wives ‘as Christ loved the church.’ Notice where the authority is in these passages . . . it is Christ, the
Lord! Keep that thought in mind as we move through the next two subjects Paul looks at in under this subject of ‘Submission.’
First, Paul looks to the Family . . .
Eph 6:1-4
1 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 "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your
children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (NIV)
Children, Obey your parents!
Sometimes preachers get in the habit of preaching lessons that he knows his own kids need to hear . . . I’ve been waiting to get to this
passage for months! This is so fundamental, so obvious that some of you might be thinking, “Why did Paul need to remind them of that?”
But this is something that every generation must be reminded of! Paul reminds the Ephesians that THIS was a part of the TEN
COMMANDMENTS in the first place- in fact the first one with a promise! "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in
the land the LORD your God is giving you. (Exod 20:12 NIV)
God knew that for the Israelites, part of living successfully in the land they were about to inherit was dependent upon obeying their parents!
And Paul knew that this wasn’t just for the Israelites, either. Part of living the Christian life is living in obedience/ submission to parents.
Why? Because ‘this is right’ he says! But, why is it ‘right?’ Notice he DOESN’T say, “Obey your parents, when you agree with them.”
When my Mom told me to come in for dinner and eat my supper when we had pizza- I had no problem obeying. But when she told me to
come in and eat when we were having Brussel sprouts and meatloaf- WHOA! I didn’t want to obey. She’d tell me, “Eat your dinner, people
are starving in Japan” to which I readily offered to send my plate of food! Its easy to obey when we agree with them.
Notice he DOESN’T say, “Obey your parents when you understand why they’re asking you to do something.” The toughest thing for me
was to obey my parents when I didn’t understand WHY they were asking me to do something. Rather, he says, “Obey your parents in the
Lord.” Again, God is raising the standard of what it means to obey; to submit. As wives submit to their husbands, ‘as to the Lord’ and
husbands love their wives ‘just as Christ loved the church’ SO kids, obey your Mom & Dad ‘as to the Lord!’ It’s a matter of our relationship
to God that we show honor and respect to our parents!
Fathers, don’t exasperate your children
I actually was hoping that Paul would continue talking to kids a little while longer. I was looking for the verse that says, “Children, don’t
exasperate your fathers!” THAT’S what I need to hear! Actually, not. I need to hear JUST what Paul says. God places a high
responsibility on fathers. WE are to be the spiritual leaders in our families! We are to teach our children the difference between right and
wrong. We are to teach our children to love God and to want to serve him. Its not the preacher’s job. Its not the youth minister’s job. Its
not the Sunday School teacher’s job. Its YOURS, fathers! Paul singles out fathers here because of that awesome responsibility! Too
many of our fathers have abdicated their role as leader and our kids see that. If Mom is always the one in charge, if Mom is always one who
pushes everybody to do the right thing, if Mom is who they see getting everyone ready for church and reading the Bible and praying, then
the kids will get the idea that Dad is a weak leader. And do you know why that is so terrible? Because when those same kids come to
church they will hear us talk about God as our heavenly father.
Dads, whether you like it or not, you are the ‘offensive line’ in teaching your kids about God. You are the first impression God gets to make
on them. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to love those kids and show them that you love them. Make sure that when they hear
the word ‘father’, they get a good image in their mind. And if that scares you absolutely to death, as it does me and you think you aren’t up
to the task, look at the best example to help you: God is the ultimate father. And he is the role model for dads everywhere. Some of your
translations may say, ‘don’t provoke your children to wrath/ anger.’ In other words, don’t push them so hard that they rebel against you
and against the church! How horrible that would be! I cant’ speak judgementally here, but how many of our kids have left the church
because of well-intentioned parents who just pushed too hard? I’ll be honest, this is something that scares me as a parent. Where’s the
line? What do I do if my teenage son tells me he doesn’t want to go to church anymore or wants to go to another church? What do I do
when my teenage daughter tells me that she doesn’t believe in God? Its something most every parent must grapple with and it depends on
each individual child. Instead, we are to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Our children are the greatest responsibility
ANY of us have! They are given to us by God for only a short time. And we are given the charge to teach them. Deuteronomy says,
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you
sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them
on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut 6:6-9 NIV)
How are we doing at these? How are children obeying their parents? How are parents training their children?
It seems to me that one of the problems we have in our society and as a result of the breakdown of the family is in the parent-child
relationship. Edward, Duke of Windsor said, “The thing that impresses me most about America is the way the parents obey their children.”
OUCH! This text should serve to force us as Parents to re-examine our family life; to ask the question, who’s in charge? Where does the
authority lay? Kids, it should remind you that it SHOULD be Mom & Dad. As much as you’d like sometimes, Mom & Dad are in charge.
You’re to obey. Now, it’s not a dictatorial or forced obedience . . . but you obey because that’s what God WANTS you to do! Teens, you
obey, because it’s a part of what you do as a Christian! The greatest witness you could be for Christ in your home (especially if your
parents aren’t Christians) is to show them honor and respect even when they ask you to do something that you don’t want to do! Have you
been looking for a way to lead your Mom or Dad to Christ? Been looking for a way to get them to take you seriously? Try that. Try humbly
submitting in obedience to their will out of your reverence for Christ! (Now, still don’t do anything that would be immoral or God wouldn’t
want you to do. He would never want us to go against HIS will to follow our Parents’ will.)
But, Next, Paul turns to what I’ll refer to as the Work Place. .
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 like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly,
as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is
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. (NIV)
We have a little more difficulty understanding this next section because of the time & circumstances in which Paul wrote, but he’s
still talking about submitting out of reverence for Christ. This time, he targets the Slave-Master relationship . . . a very common
and household relationship in that time.
We may get SO hung up on the language of slavery that we don’t hear God’s word for us today in this text, but it is there! You might ask,
why would Paul mention slavery and NOT condemn it? Paul is Not addressing the rightness or wrongness of slavery. Look at the rest of
the NT. He never focuses on reforming human systems because they are never at the root of the human problem. The issue is always the
heart. Paul’s message here ASSUMES that slavery is a reality (which it was at that time) and writes to change the heart of those involved.
And again he raises the standard!
Slavery was a common thing in N.T. times, very much UNLIKE today, and also very much UNLIKE what we typically think of as
slavery that existed in America in our past. Some scholars estimate that as many as 1/3 of the people in Greece and Rome were slaves.
One got to be a slave thru any number of circumstances: birth, parental selling or abandonment, captivity in war, inability to pay debts, and
even voluntary attempts to better one’s position. Race was NOT a factor. They were involved in every area of society, not just the menial
labor. Many were educated. Many could own property- even other slaves. They were allowed to save money that might eventually buy
their freedom. While the situation wasn’t exactly ideal, it wasn’t the slavery that existed in this country. For Jews, slaves still existed but
were somewhat better off. The O.T. prohibited Jews from holding other Jews as slaves for more than six years, after which they had to be
freed. For all, it was an institution that was simply not questioned. It was the norm for society. But what wasn’t the norm was what Paul
called slaves & masters to . . . The gospel came and leveled the playing field, so to speak. Paul speaks elsewhere about there being ‘no
slave nor free in Christ’ because we are ALL slaves to Christ! (Gal. 3:28; Romans 7:25) The gospel created a situation where Master and
Slave could now be brothers in Christ together and so Paul feels the need to address Christian slaves and Christian masters.
Slaves, obey your Masters!
Just as you would Christ! Again the standard is raised! Obey them, treat them with respect, with fear and dignity NOT just to win them
favor, NOT just because you have to . . . but because you’re REAL MASTER is Jesus Christ! Work, Serve . . . as if you are serving Jesus
Christ!
Masters, treat your slaves in the SAME WAY!
With respect, fear and dignity, certainly not because you have to, but out of your reverence for Christ! You, too, are a slave to Christ! “Treat
them well because you know that Christ is both their master and yours!”
Why even spend time in these verses? None of us are slaves or masters today, are we?
Perhaps not, but I do think that these verses have a real application to our lives in the work place. Most of us have bosses that we answer
to. And many of you have employees that work under you. What does this text have to say to those relationships? Ever had a boss you
just couldn’t stand? Sure you have! Wouldn’t God say to you, ‘Keep working hard- and NOT just when the boss is looking- but work as if
you’re working for the Lord and He will bless you for it.’ Christians work hard because they know who they are really working for. Paul told
the Colossians that whatever they did, in word or in deed, they were to do it all in the name of the Lord (3:17). You may have an eight hour
boss, but you have a 24 hour Lord. No matter what the boss sees or doesn’t see, Jesus sees it all Bosses, have you been guilty of putting
too much on an employee, of pushing too hard or of being too hard-nosed? What would your employees say? What would God say to you
about how you should treat them?
Did you realize that if you spent 40 hrs a week on the job between age 18 and 65 that you would amass an incredible 97,760 hours
on the job!? What would God want you to do with all that time? Don’t you think he cares what you do with it? Are you using your position
in the workplace to bring honor and glory to Him? To point others to him? Bosses, are you as concerned about the needs of your
employees as your bottom line? Employees, are you giving your boss your best as a witness/ a testimony as to what your Master, Jesus,
gave you?
Part of living the Christian life is submitting to one another. God raises the standard of that submission!
We don’t submit to our husbands because they are the man and we’ve got no choice.
We don’t submit to others because of what they’ve done for us, or what they CAN do for us.
We don’t submit to our Parents because we agree with them, or even that it may be in our best interest.
We submit to one another because by doing so, we show our reverence and respect for God!
We respect authority, because of our respect of the ultimate authority!
In Romans 13, Paul writes,
1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The
authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has
instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. (NIV)
Have you submitted to that ultimate authority this morning? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? Have you allowed him to re-order your
priorities, yet? If you haven’t we encourage you to do so this morning!
Maybe this text has touched you and convinced you that you’ve not been living your life in the correct manner of ‘submission to the Lord.’
Maybe you need to confess sin your life that is keeping you from the fruits of relationship with God? We want to encourage you to make
that right with God right NOW while together we stand and sing . . .
