Ephesians 5:21-6:9

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.! ! Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kindyes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one esh. This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.! ! Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and motherthis is the rst commandment with a promise: so that it may be well with 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.! ! Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render service with enthusiasm, as 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 to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.

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What a pleasing scene would the institution of slavery exhibit, were all our servants to yield their obedience in this spirit of the christian religion! It would commend itself to true philanthropy as containing the best system of labor which is allowable to fallen man. But alas! the bondmen whom we own and employ, while occupying the most favorable position for improvement and happiness that is possible to them, are, as yet, far from being imbued with that love to God, which alone can raise their lot to its highest dignity. We thank God that so many of them are pious--that from so many of their comfortable houses comes the voice of prayer and praise--and that so many of them are conscientious servitors of man for Christ's sake. But we ought to look forward to the time when they will all be what the Bible would make them; a race whose love for the Master above will spread through their rejoicing millions a measure of sanctication which will convert their services into the very rst of home-blessings, and their piety into a missionary inuence for saving the black man everywhere from the ruin of perdition. ! Pastor Joseph R. Wilson, Augusta, Georgia, Jan. 6, 1861! !
The scripture passage we read this morning is called the Family Code, or

Household Rules. It was long used as a defense of the institution of slavery, as it was in the sermon by Pastor Wilson. It has also been used as evidence that women, beaten by their husbands should return back to him and accept his beatings as ordained from God. This Family Code and others similar to it have
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been lifted up as support of the hierarchies in society. As society has changed and come to see the equality of persons, passages like this have made people question whether the Church has a voice worth hearing. Many have said that we are out of touch, that our book of scripture supports racism, slavery and domestic violence, and so they decide that it cannot be trusted. ! ! ! As I read this passage I can understand why people would walk away from this. I can understand why a woman whose husband is abusive would wonder why God wants her to submit to his abuse. She knows she is a person but he treats her as property, a possession with which he can do what he wants. I can understand the struggles of a young teen whose parent sexually mistreated them, betrayed all the trust they could ever have. That parent had told them to do these awful things, Does God really want them to do obey those commands? I could understand the struggle of a nation that was torn apart by the issue of slavery. What kind of God would authorize the capturing, selling, trading, breeding, whipping, chaining, and enslaving of an entire race of people. A god who asks for those things is not a God worth believing in. But that's not the God we believe in.! ! Let me ask you this, for four weeks we have been reading this letter of Ephesians. Have you been paying attention to it? Have you noticed any themes? Have you been able to gure out what this letter is trying to say? Does anything from the rst four and a half chapters sound as though it supports the practice of one human being owning another? In case you dont remember, No.! ! Lets recap what his letter has been about. Paul spent the rst half of the letter talking about what God has done for humanity. God has adopted us as his children and given redemption and forgiveness to all of us. We were made alive in Christ saved by grace; Christ became our peace, he broke down the dividing wall between us so there are no more strangers but we are all fellow citizens, built into one temple. Last week we saw that Paul said to live a life worthy of our calling, one that reects our unity. This whole letter is about God joining us us
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together in Christ- breaking down the walls betweens us and uniting us in a common love.! ! Then at the end of chapter ve we encounter some walls and barriers. These divisions were pretty common, ordinary things for the people living in Ephesus. This is how households were ordered. Families were stratied husbands and wives. parents and children. slaves and masters. All of them were part of the family or household but each had differing roles. On one side of the barrier was power. On the other side was obedience. Wives needed to treat their husbands a certain way. Children, even grown children, needed to treat their parents a certain way. Slaves needed to treat their masters a certain way. At rst glance, it might seem that the Family Code in Ephesians only lifts up the status quo. You without power just do what you are told. You with power try not to be cruel. That was the family code for most households. But Paul has been talking in this letter about tearing down barriers, how could his Family Code now uphold the barriers between us. It doesnt. In fact what this Family code is saying is the rst step of abolishing the barriers all together. Paul is not arguing on behalf of the status quo. Paul is making a case for revolution. ! ! Look at verse 21. Submit to one another, be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. If you read chapter 5 this week, then you will have seen that Paul said, Be imitators of God as beloved children, and live your life with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. Jesus gave himself up for us. He humbled himself and submitted to death for us as act of love. We imitate Christ by humbling ourselves and putting others rst. Paul is saying that the way slaves treat masters and masters treat slaves and the ways wives treat husbands and husbands treat wives Should be the same. Submit to one another in love. Love each other as if the other person were Jesus Christ. Husbands and wives submit to each other. Put each other rst. In these days, the husband was the head of the household. Most people took that to mean husbands had the power and everyone else did what was commanded. But Paul
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says love your wife like she is yourself. He harkens back to Adam and Eve and when Adam rst saw Eve he said Finally bone of my bone esh of my esh.1
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Adam saw himself in Eve. His equal his partner and helper. He did not see a servant. He did not see something he was greater than; he saw someone made with the same esh, with the same bones. Paul says love your wife as you love your own body. dont see your wife as something beneath you, see her as your equal, for Christ has torn down the barrier between us. When Paul writes to the slaves he tells them serve their earthly masters as if their master was the Lord. Serve and love your master as you would serve and love Christ. And in verse nine he tells masters do the same to them. He tells masters to treat their slaves as if their slaves are Jesus christ. ! ! Paul is writing to people who still view themselves on one side of a wall or another. He was writing to husbands and wives, he was writing to children and parents, he was writing to slaves and masters. They had had a family code all their lives, and then they heard the Gospel and so Paul offered a new Family Code, one that didnt emphasize power and dominance, but invited everyone to love each other, to submit to each other out of reverence for Christ.! ! Paul did not think slavery and the subordination of women was the way God wanted things. Paul knew that God was tearing down these dividing walls. It can be assumed from Pauls writings that he thought the return of Christ was happening soon, and that at when that happened all of these social power structures would be set right. Paul was not writing this letter to be an organized effort to change to social and economic systems in place because; Paul was hoping Christ would soon return and do all that and more. But this family code does show us that he thought the systems of dominance seen between husbands and wives, parents and children, slaves and masters were not consistent with a life worthy of our calling. ! ! This doesnt mean parents cant parent. Its important for parents to have that role. Businesses today wouldnt function if bosses werent bosses. Many
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relationships have an inherent power structure to them. In my relationship with my almost 2 year old daughter. I have all the power. Thats actually good. I should not abandon that, i need to fulll my role of father, but right now even though I have power, I have to submit to her. She decides what time my wife or I wake up. I used to love going to the movies but that is a thing of the past. Because I have to use my power, not to fulll my desires but to care for her, to put her rst in my life. If I were to wield my power over her, and not care about her needs or development, then I would not be following Pauls teaching. Sadly, lots of parents dont submit to their childrens needs. Sadly, lots of spouses dont submit to each other and their marriages fail to reect Christ and the church, they only reect our humanitys brokenness. Paul isnt saying its wrong for husbands to earn the money and wives should stay home. Paul is saying that whoever has power in a relationship, power of any kind, physical, mental, economic, whatever, wield that power not for yourself, but use it for the other person, as if you were caring for Christ, himself. ! ! Paul prayed for unity, that the grace of Jesus would change each believer so that everyone they encountered, a spouse, a parent, a child, a slave, a master, even if they were not equally powerful in society, would treated as a fellow child of God and image of God. Paul hoped we would treat each other with the same love and humility that Jesus modeled for us. That is what it means to be the body of Christ. When Christ walked the earth. His body did humble things. His embraced lepers with his arms2, he held young children on his lap3, and he
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got down on his knees to wash his followers feet4. If we are to be the body of
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Christ then we must take those same positions of humility. We must see each other not a the world labels us, but as God has named us. We must look at our families, our friends, our neighbors, and even our enemies and realize that in Christ they are esh of our esh and bone of our bones. They are our siblings. We must care for them like we would our own bodies, we must serve them as if

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we were serving the Lord. We must put their needs before ours and we must submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.! ! One more note. If you nd yourself behind a wall, if there is someone with power over you who is not treating you as an equal or as child of God worthy of love and grace, that is not what God intends for you. God has chosen you to be one his Children. God loves you and sees worth in you. Paul told fathers to love their children by bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Saying no to that abuse and getting help can instruct your abuser in Gods ways. You can more effectively show them Gods love by getting help than by pretending that this abuse is OK. Please, get help. Talk to someone, nd a friend you can trust, call a hotline, the number for the Domestic Violence Coalition of Greater Chattanooga is on the back of our bulletin. If you need to call that number, or pass it on to a friend, please do.! ! If you are one of those who uses your power to get your way, then it stops today. Do not control your spouse with guilt or harsh words or violence. Dont force your way onto your parents or onto your children through manipulation or threats. Dont wield your power at work over employees or coworkers. Living that way is not living a life worthy of your calling. That may be the way you were raised, That may be how your family growing up did things, but God has invited you into a new family. We were adopted into this one family by the gracious acts Jesus Christ and his humble love. We remain in Gods family by our submitting to each other in love, and by offering grace and mercy to all. That is what it means to be Gods family. That is our family code.Thanks be to God, Amen.!

!
" 1 " 2

Genesis 2:22-23 Mark 1:40-41 " Mark 10:13-16 3 4 " John 13:2-5

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