Christ at the Workplace and the Family (2)
Krisdos Cor/ady.iin
yv Undanikin Me]
(God's Magnificent Work through Christ)
Ephesians 6:1-9
We are going to watch some interviews I conducted last Sunday.
I asked our church kids the following two question:
-What do you appreciate most about your father and mother?
-How do you honor your father and mother?
Children
towards parents (6:1-3)
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” "Honor
your father and mother—which is the first commandment with a promise— that it may
go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."
Do you realize that Paul gives similar attention to children as he
does to parents? Unlike the Roman traditions at that time, Paul treats children
with dignity and respect. Jesus is our example: “Let the children come to me, and
do not hinder them, for to such belongs the
Obey and Honor
To obey means to listen and follow. It is a joy for any parent to I see their children obey Them. We read about obedience to parents in the fifth commandment, “Honor your father
and mother.”
I will address you, young people.
Honoring, respecting and obedience is part of your daily discipline.
It
shapes your character. Sometimes you need to obey your parents
without understanding why you should do this or that. I know that is hard.
However, many years later you can find out why it was
important to obey.
-I loved to play the piano but hated to practice. I did not understand
why my father and mother insisted that I practice. All of my friends played
outside and I had to practice. Many
years later when I was a music student in college, I wrote to my father
thanking him for his insistence to practice.
Paul is saying by obedience we do not just honor our parents, but
we honor God. We will
eventually “enjoy long life on the earth.” We learn
to obey Jesus. We learn to submit to each other. You see it starts from home.
Our children learn doing this by observing their parents who obey the Lord.
Parents
towards Children (6:4)
“Fathers,
do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and
instruction of the Lord.”
What
a terrible thing to do when we “break” our
children. How useful is it to provoke or exasperate them? We create hostility
and eventually lose our child.
Children look up to their father and
they visualize God through their biological father’s behavior. Do you see how serious is our responsibility? Whatever
we do they are watching us, they will learn from us.
Fathers
and mothers, we have a major role in the family.
We
need to understand that in the Old Testament children were taught about God at
home. Parents were responsible for their children’s religious education. Today
we think the Sunday school is the place. Perhaps it is true for the ones who do
not have Christian parents.
How
do we provoke or exasperate our children?
-We
provoke them when we mistreat them.
We think we are disciplining, but we are disciplining in anger. Nothing constructive
will be accomplished in anger.
-We
provoke them by having unreasonable expectations
from our children. We become too demanding, too restrictive. Too many things to accomplish, piano, trumpet,
ballet, softball…
Today
I was listening on the radio news to a broadcast two the recent teenage suicide
cases in
We
should help our children to do their best, not your
best, their best.
-We
provoke them when we neglect them. This
is the other extreme. Parents try to be providers but they forget the most
important thing, to be with their children. We forget to ask them how they are
doing; we forget to sit and talk with them. We forget to pray with them. No
time.
So what is Paul’s instruction?
“Instead,
bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
I looked to the Greek word
for “bring them up”. It means “to nourish up to maturity.”
This
word in Greek is so rich that it is used to translate many Hebrew words used in
the OT. Examples:
- Joseph’s story. When his land was in famine.
His brothers came. His remarks to them were:
“And God sent me before you to preserve for you remnant in the
earth, and to keep you alive by great deliverance… (Gen 45:7)
-In Psalm 23, “The Lord is our Shepherd. …leads me beside still
waters.” Which means He nourishes me, provides for me, helps
me when dangers surround me, he will lead me to find still water.
To keep alive and
lead give great images of
closeness and tenderness describing how parents should love and instruct their
children.
Train them, says Paul.
We need to enter to our children’s world to train them.
We I was in college, I had group of friends who ran with me 3 -4 miles
to help me pass the PE requirements. They entered my world, at my level of
running. They gradually built me up until I was able to run 3-4 miles.
Instruct them. You need to
know your “material” to instruct them, whatever one will instruct. It is strange
that we try to instruct them all areas of life, music, sport and education.
When it comes to Christian education, we think it is the role of the pastor or
the Sunday school teacher. That is not what the Bible teaches us. There comes
also the role of parents to instruct children in their Christian life.
How does Paul finish the letter? He talks about the Armor of God. He knew that life was
going to be tough. The Church, husbands and wives, children, workers, all of us
need the armor of God to be ready to face challenges of the world.
I hope these sermons nourished you and gave you Christian
instructions.
May the title God's Magnificent Work through Christ will be reality in our life.
Amen