Life & How to Live It: Ephesians 5-6

Life was never meant to be compartmentalized.  Yet many of us separate our lives into categories, organizing our souls like we do our inbox.  Family related?  That goes over here.  Work?  Separate folder.  Church?  Over here.  Personal spirituality?  Need to create a folder for that one.  Kids?  That's a subfolder of "Marriage", right?

And on it goes.

But God designed us to be ONE.  One person.  One soul.  One follower of Christ.  Everything in our lives is related...the way we relate to our family impacts our work, our work impacts our spiritual devotion, and our spiritual devotion impacts our friendships.  There are no "compartments."

I find that many people who choose to follow Jesus Christ have the right beliefs, and perhaps even some of the right habits, but their spirituality doesn't spill over into their relationships.  That's exactly what Paul addresses in the Ephesians 5:21-6:9.  Knowing Jesus changes everything - including our marriage, parenting, and work habits.  It's worth meditating on, particularly verse 21, which is the key to understanding the whole section.

"...submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Here's what that submission looks like, practically:

"I care more about your needs than my own."
"I choose to treat you as if you were Jesus."
"In this relationship, my motivations are spiritual, not selfish."

Displaying these attitudes toward others has nothing to do with whether or not they deserve it -- it has to do with how much we honor Christ.

You can find the audio & notes from the message I preached here.

Something to Comment On:  This part of the Bible only references a few types of human relationships.  How might we apply these principles to all the others?  Teacher, friend, authority, pastor, congregation, government, neighbor, student, business, co-worker -- comment below with your own ideas about how to include Christ in these relationships and biblical "submission".

Comments

[Dan]

We could apply these principles in business relationships by paying invoices on time, seeking the success of others, and treating our customers the way Jesus would treat them. I suppose that this way of doing business would be counter-intuitive to many, but if we do our business for Christ first, others second, and self last, we'd probably find far more fulfillment (and perhaps more success) in the things we do.

[Susan]

Jesus wants the best for us, so we should want the best for others. That means our employer too. I think a good employee makes the "boss" look good. Also, if we want the best for our boss, he'll want to keep us around...so everyone benefits.

Also, as we look at the key Bible verse and it mentions words rarely used in American relationships (submission and reverence) we can see why the divorce rate is so high, and people hop from job to job. We've lost those two qualities in our culture. Woe to us!