Joyce Meyer - Ephesians 5 Bible Study [FULL] (08/21/2019)
This sermon focuses on Ephesians 5, emphasizing the urgent need for holy living. The preacher stresses that true Christian ministers must deliver challenging truths, not just pleasing messages, as believers are called to imitate God by walking in love and rejecting impurity. The core message is a call to awaken, live purposefully for God, and make decisive changes now because the time to stand before God is approaching.
The Duty of a Preacher and the Danger of Itching Ears
Just before I get into it, I want to read a couple of scriptures to you from 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Okay, I want you to listen to this, because we're living in these times right now. For the time is coming when people will not tolerate and endure sound and wholesome instruction, but having ears itching for something pleasing and gratifying, they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors that they hold. Isn't that pretty amazing? You know, if you don't like what I'm saying on TV, you can flip the channel and find somebody that you like. That's not hard to do. But don't ever refuse to listen to somebody because what they say makes you a little bit uncomfortable.
In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul told Timothy to herald and preach the word, to keep his sense of urgency, to stand by, be at hand and ready whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable, whether it's convenient or inconvenient, whether it's welcome or unwelcome. Now listen to this: you as a preacher of the word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong. Hmm. And convince them, rebuking, correcting, warning, urging, and encouraging them. Not just encouraging them, but all of it. The ministers that you have who really love you will take a chance on you getting aggravated at them, if that's what it takes to get the truth through to you. That truth will make the changes in your life that you need, changes that are going to bring you the things you say that you want.
Our Ultimate Accountability to God
I feel so strongly about that. It's not my job to make sure you don't get mad at me. It's my job to make sure that when I stand before God, I've done what he wanted me to do. And that's your job too. Amen. So, having said that, let us press on. In Ephesians 5, the first nine verses talk about pursuing clean living. Pursue means to crave and to go after with all of your strength. If you want to be an excellent person, you're going to have to really want it badly because we live in a very mediocre world. And people will fight you on it. If you want to be a really honest person, it's possible you could lose your job because somebody out there is going to want you to help them cheat or lie.
They're going to want you to do immoral things. But your responsibility is first and foremost to God. It's not to them. And if you do what's right, listen to me: God will get you a better job than the one that you're being threatened to lose. If you want to get out in the world that we live in today and serve God, I might as well tell you it's going to cost you something. But here's the thing. Romans 14:12 says every person will stand before God and give an account of his life. Every person. And I don't know about you, but that brings a reverential fear and awe to my life. This is going to be over. Things are not going to stay the way they are here forever.
The Urgency of Living for God Now
Everybody gets old. Everybody dies. There's nobody that can get away from that. And I know you don't think much about it when you're 15 or 20 or even 30. But let me tell you, I've been thinking about it a whole lot more lately. I had this eye-opening revelation a few years ago that I've already lived a good two-thirds of my life. And I don't have any time to mess around. And let me tell you something, a lot of you don't either. The day is going to come when we're all going to stand before God and give an account of our lives. I am spending my time now getting ready so I don't have to be ashamed then. Amen.
As a matter of fact, I love the scriptures, and I became very aware of them last year. There are several places in the Bible where Paul talks to people about their behavior and he follows it up with this statement: "for the Lord is near." So can I just say to you tonight, it's time to behave a lot better because Jesus is coming back soon. I think I'll say it to this group over here. Think about that. It's time to make those decisions that you know you need to make, but you keep putting off till another time. Do you know the most dangerous word that I know is tomorrow? I'm gonna do that tomorrow.
The Power of Obedience and Walking in Love
God doesn't want us to do it tomorrow. He wants us to do it when he tells us to do it. I told a group of people last week in Jacksonville that when God puts something on our heart to do or not do, there's an anointing on us then to do it. If we'll do it when God says to do it, we're gonna have supernatural help from him. But if we wait until it's our time, we're gonna end up trying to do it by ourself, and then it probably won't work. All right, Ephesians chapter five. Let's just read a few of these first verses to talk about clean living. I'm sure you can hardly wait. Here you go.
I love verse one: "Therefore, be an imitator of God. Copy him and follow his example, as well-beloved children imitate their father." And the next thing he says is, "and walk in love." Well, you know, love just really covers everything. I mean, to be honest with you, I can just tell you the absolute truth. You could forget everything that I said tonight and do nothing but focus on walking in love, and you'd have all the rest of it covered. Because love never does any harm to anyone. Love is always patient. It's always kind. It's always good. It's always humble. It's never jealous. It's never envious.
The Practical Call to Purity
It always believes the best. It never gives up on people. It's not haughty. It's not high-minded. It is not touchy. It's not easily offended. Amen? And that's 1 Corinthians 13, about verses 1 through 8. Something like that. And so honestly and truly, if you don't want to think about all these other behaviors, I've learned in my life to just study love a lot. I focus on trying to love God and love people, and it just takes care of so many things. Then I don't have to try to not say things that hurt people's feelings, and I don't have to try to get over being mad at people.
There are so many things we don't have to try to do if we focus on love. And you know what? As Christians, we're great about talking about love and theorizing about love. I mean, one of the worst-selling books I had was the book I wrote on love. Honestly. It was terrible. It was embarrassing how badly it sold. And it wasn't because it wasn't good. It's because people don't place a priority on that. It was about forgetting about yourself and doing things for other people. Well, you write a book like that, don't expect to sell many copies. I thought about writing one on dying to self.
Confronting Acceptable Sins and Coarse Talk
Listen, the Bible says the only way that you know that you've passed over out of death into life is by the fact that you love people. Until we learn how to love people, we're held in continual death. Our lives are just full of death. So, he talks a lot about love. And then, get this: "But immorality, verse 3, sexual vice, all impurity of lustful, rich, wasteful living" — and that doesn't say you can't have money, it says don't be wasteful — "or greediness." You know, some of these things have become almost acceptable sins. Covetousness. Well, I want what you've got. The Bible says it's wrong to want what somebody else has.
We should be thankful for what we have and trust God to give us what he wants us to have. "Greediness must not even be named among you." Verse 4: "Let there be no filthiness, obscenity, indecency, nor foolish and sinful, silly and corrupt talk, nor coarse jesting." Like, don't be telling dirty jokes. Okay, let's take it to another level. Don't even tell suggestively off-color jokes. You know what? God doesn't think they're funny. I'm glad you're here, brother. I read a story today about a group of men that were sitting around, church men, godly men supposedly.
Guarding Our Conversations and Media
There were some ladies there also, and they'd all had dinner together. The ladies got up to go in another room to do something else, and one of the men said, "Oh, now that the ladies are gone, I heard this story today that I want to tell you." One of the really godly men said, "Wait a minute, brother. If you can't tell it in front of the ladies, then don't tell it to us because God's going to hear you whether the ladies are here or not." I think that we need to get a little bit braver even with our friends and the people that we love. Just say, "You know what? I really don't want to hear that. I don't want to talk about that."
I don't want to keep going there. Somebody that I know got into some sin recently, and man, everybody was just asking about it, talking about it and talking about it. I finally said, "I don't want to talk about it anymore." We don't need to be talking about that kind of stuff. You talk about things if you need to, but you don't need to just keep talking about it and keep talking about it and keep talking about it just because it's gossipy. Because it fills you with death. It doesn't fill you full of life. And since I'm out in the deep water, I might as well just keep going.
A Biblical View on Sex and Marriage
Let's just talk about... Okay, listen, let's talk about sexual immorality for a little bit. Well, do you really think, Sister Joyce, that we should be talking about sex in church? Well, I think we better talk about it here. I don't care what modern culture says. The Bible says that you should not have sex until you get married. And I know marriage is not very popular today. People say, "Well, it's only a piece of paper." It's not about the piece of paper. It's about the commitment. It's about making that commitment. I really respect young people today who are taking vows to stay pure until they actually get married.
Now, listen, this is not under condemnation. If you've already made mistakes, there's forgiveness. But don't just keep making them over and over and over. We had a really beautiful thing happen in a conference that I did earlier this year. There was a couple who'd been listening to me, and they'd really been touched by the Word. They'd been living together for a long time. They came to my conference in Phoenix and made a decision that night. They said it's time for us to get things right. They went and talked to Pastor Mike and said they were going to make things right, stop living like that, make a full commitment, and get married right away.
Practicing Holiness in Thought and Deed
You know something? It's time for us to live the way God wants us to live, not the way the world says it's okay to live. Listen, young ladies, it's perfectly okay to say no. I don't care what everybody else is doing. My answer to you is no. And if that's what you want from me, you got the wrong person. Amen? I had to say that. Immorality. Use wisdom, ladies, in how you dress. Don't be dressing in some kind of provocative way. It's a shame when you got to get up in the pulpit in front of this many thousands of people and tell them how to dress. But here's the thing: we're too affected by the world.
Just because it's fashion, that doesn't mean I get to wear it. There's all kinds of pretty things you can wear and still not have half your body hanging out. Well, I'm sure I've gone to meddling now, but it's too late to turn back. Paul warns over and over against sexual sin, greediness, indecency. Come on, when something stupid comes on your television, don't wait to see how stupid it's going to get before you turn it off. Hey, listen, I do that too once in a while. I think, well, surely it's going to get better. You know what? If it ain't good in the beginning, it's not going to get better. It's only going to get worse. Amen?
Salvation: Grace Versus Practicing Sin
If I watch television, I'm not just watching a movie I've rented or something. I actually watch it with the remote control in my hand with my finger on fast forward. We have to protect ourselves from the junk that's out in the world. We don't need that kind of stuff coming into us. Well, now I know for sure that anybody who comes back tomorrow is really serious. Okay, let's look at verse 5. "Be sure of this, that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life..." You know, it's not just about not doing stuff. It's about not sitting around thinking about doing it, too.
"Or one who is covetous, who has lustful desire for the property of others and is greedy for gain, for he is in effect an idolater. That person, don't let him think that he has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." Now, boy, when you read that, it gets quiet. It's like, well, now, wait a minute. I'm not saved by my behavior. I'm saved by the grace of God. Yes, absolutely. You're saved by the grace of God, not your behavior. But I think I can also give you proof in the word of God that a person who is really saved... That doesn't mean that we don't make mistakes.
Living to Please God Above All
But I want you to pay attention to the word that I believe is the key word in this verse: practicing. There's a difference in making a mistake occasionally and doing something wrong and being sorry and repenting and being willing to walk away from it. There's a difference in that and practicing wrong behavior. I don't believe that we can have a right relationship with God and practice over and over all kinds of sinful behavior and say that we're saved. I don't believe that. We have to understand that there's a lot more to being a Christian than just praying the sinner's prayer.
If a person is sincere, that's not just a prayer that we pray, but we give our lives to God. Repentance means to turn around and go in the totally opposite direction from the way you are living. We can't just receive Christ and tack Him onto our mess and keep thinking that we can just keep living the way that we are living and now it's all going to be okay because we receive Jesus. He changes us. Into His image. From glory to glory to glory. I have not arrived. You have not arrived. But I'll tell you what, I am spending every living breath that I've got pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Awakening to Purposeful Living
I hope somebody in this room is being even a little bit challenged. "Learn in your experience, verse 10, what is pleasing to God and live accordingly." Can we learn to just live to please God? You know, wanting to please God should be our number one goal. God, I want to please you. I want to do what you want me to do. I want to represent you. I want to glorify you. Colossians 1:10: "That you may walk, live, and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing." Desire to please God and keep growing.
Are you a God-pleaser or a man-pleaser? Do you know if you're going to please God, you're going to have to not please people sometimes? You realize that? Like the thing with sex, you may not please your boyfriend, but let me tell you something: you will please God. And it's not going to be your boyfriend you're going to have to answer to when all this is over. You're not going to stand before your boss who wants you to help him steal something or lie to somebody and give an account to him of your life. You're going to stand before God, and I am too. And so now's the time to make the better decisions in our life.
Now I'm going to do about three more verses, and then we're going to be done for tonight and pick this up again tomorrow. Verses 14 through 17. Now listen, I've got a whole book coming out in the fall that's based on these scriptures. And it's called Seize the Day. It's about how to take your life back. Amen? Don't give your life to your emotions. Don't give your life over to your mind. Don't let people run your life. Wake up, sleepy Christian. Stand up. Be strong. Don't let your flesh rule you. Now here's what it says: "Therefore, he says, 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine and make day dawn upon you and give you light.'"
"Look carefully, then, how you walk. Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and the witless, but as wise, sensible, intelligent people, making the most of your time, buying up each opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understand and firmly grasp what the will of the Lord is." Such powerful scriptures. Have a plan for your life. Plan to study the Word. Plan to pray. Plan it. Put it into your schedule somewhere. Don't try to work God into your life. Work your life around God.
The Priority of Personal Fellowship with God
How many of you would be honest and say that you have a very difficult time trying to discipline yourself to spend that regular time with God on a regular basis? If I could get down on my knees and beg you, I would beg you to pray through and make that a priority in your life because there is nothing more important than that. I would rather that you spend a half an hour of quality time with God, personal fellowship with God, than to come to my conference. I'm glad you're here and I want you to come back tomorrow, but I'm telling you what: nothing I say is going to stick or make any sense to you if you don't go to God.
Ask Him to put it together in your life. People cannot give us what we need. Only God can give us what we need. And a lot of people say, "Well, I don't know what to do. What do I do when I spend time with God?" Listen, I don't care if you go sit somewhere and just go, "Well, Lord, here I am. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but here I am. I love you. I'm a mess. Help me. If you don't help me, I'm done for. Well, Lord, I want to behave myself today, but it's not going to work if you don't help me. So I'm getting ready to go to work, and I know it's going to be trouble if you leave me alone for one minute."
See, this is what it means to talk to God. Don't get into what you think is prayer. Don't do this: "Oh, thou holiest, most heavenliest, most awesomest, amazingest Father." Just drop all the religious phoniness. We're not impressing God with that nonsense. Just talk to Him and tell Him like it is. Amen?
↓↓↓ Part 2 ↓↓↓
This sermon from Ephesians focuses on the call for mutual submission among believers, rooted in reverence for Christ. The preacher delves into the challenging but beautiful instructions for wives to submit to their husbands and for husbands to love their wives sacrificially, as Christ loved the church. She shares personal stories of struggle and growth, emphasizing that doing what is right before God is our protection and a powerful testimony to the world.
The Foundation: Mutual Submission in Christ
If this is your first session here, I've been teaching the book of Ephesians. And it's a wonderful book in the Bible. It's a well-rounded book that gives us not only great teaching about who we are in Christ, but then because of who we are in Christ and what He's done for us, it then teaches us how we then ought to behave in light of what Jesus has done for us. And I can never say this enough, so I'm going to say it again. You're not saved by good behavior. Being a Christian is not just about trying to modify your behavior. But if you develop a great relationship with God through Christ, you receive Him, you spend time with Him, you study the Word, you learn to do life with God. I love that phrase. We're not just going to church on Sunday morning. We are doing life with God.
We want Him involved in everything that we do. He loves you. You're forgiven. He's merciful. You have an inheritance. You're a joint heir with Christ. All the wonderful things in chapters 1, 2, and 3. Then chapter 4 says, therefore, because of all this good stuff that God has done for us, now we should live with behavior that is a credit to God's service. And so then in chapter 4, we found 16 different points and behaviors that we were told to be careful not to get into. And of course, we can't just decide that we're going to behave well. You have to lean on God all the way through. And in chapter 5, we talked about some more of those things.
Navigating the Call to Submit
And now we are at the point that some of you are going to groan and some of you are going to rejoice. Because we are at Ephesians chapter 5, verse 21. So I might as well just get this part over with so we can get on to some better stuff. Because it says, be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ the Messiah, the anointed one. I'm good with that. If we're all submitting to each other, that I can handle. And I do want to make a point before I read the rest of it that that is the first thing he says. That we should all submit one to another. And that's true.
I mean, even like, you know, you come in here, you need to be willing to submit to the authority in here at this conference. If I would come somewhere where you were doing something, then I would need to be willing to submit to what you wanted done in that place. And the world today is filled with rebellion. Nobody wants anybody telling them anything. But do you know what the Bible says in Thessalonians? That rebellion is the spirit of Antichrist. Yes. Rebellion is the spirit of Antichrist. And so we have to be very careful about these attitudes that we can develop toward authority where we don't want anybody telling us what to do.
And this is not about somebody pushing you around or running your life. It's about decency and order because surely we all know that in every situation every single person can't be in charge of what's going on. If you do that then you've got chaos. So he starts out be subject one to another. I particularly like the writings and I've read a lot by a man named Watchman Nee, a wonderful Chinese Christian. Anybody ever read any of his stuff? He's just I mean if you want to get into some stuff that's deep go get a few of his books.
You know you may not agree with everything he says but there's a lot of really great stuff in them. And he's written a great book on spiritual authority and he says that any person your first obligation when you walk into a room is to look around and decide who's in charge and make a decision that you're going to come under that authority. Hmm. Well we're all excited already aren't we? I'm going to need my friend down here to help me he's still clapping thank God. We do realize don't we that the rebellious attitude that the world has is not right. Thank you. Thank you.
Wives and Husbands: The Biblical Blueprint
Then it says wives be subject be submissive and adapt yourselves to your own husbands. I tell you Dave was so excited about this part today. And it says and do it as a service to the Lord. Now you know that makes it more palatable for me. Because honestly and truly there are things that you will do because of your love for God and because he asked you to that might be difficult to do otherwise. To be honest with you I don't think anybody wants somebody else telling them what to do. We'd all rather just do our own thing. But we need to come to the point where we are willing to do absolutely anything that God wants us to do.
Now Dave would tell you if I would let him come up here but we don't have time for Dave today Dave would tell you that I am a submissive wife. Right? Now you know I've got plenty of spunk and I got a mouth and I make a lot of decisions but I'll tell you the truth if it comes down to doing something that I would prefer not to do because that's what Dave really wants I will do it, because that's what I know God wants me to do, and it keeps peace in our home, and I believe it's the right and the godly thing to do. Now, the other side of that is to the husbands. Do you notice how quiet the women got on verse 22? Well, now they're shouting.
I'll tell you something funny that happened this morning. God always gives me stories to tell. I was sitting and studying, and I hurt my back a little bit last week, so I've been having to be careful with it. And I was sitting in a chair where I had my feet propped up, and Dave thought that was hurting my back, so he suggested I sit somewhere else, and that was a couple days ago. So then I was sitting out there today, and he said, how's your back? I said, it's been doing pretty good, and I had my legs crossed. I sit like that a lot. And he said, you know, you probably shouldn't cross your legs.
And I'm sitting there studying on wives be submissive to your husband. And I said, wait. And I said, you know, Dave, you really can't run my life. So if you don't need this, I'll just preach to myself today. Amen? Now, Dave and I kid each other a lot, but I have to do a lot of things because I love God, not necessarily because it's the most fun thing for me to do. So, that's the point that I need to make with you. Now, it says, now, husbands, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. Don't forget that second part, guys. As Christ is the head of the church, the Savior of his body.
As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church. And I love this part, and gave himself up for her. Now, you will notice, men, that this is talking about sacrifice. Jesus gave his life up for the church. And this says that a woman should submit to her husband, but he should love her as Christ loved the church, sacrificing for her. And I can tell you, if this is all working right, it's beautiful. If it's all working right, it's beautiful. However, most of us know from experience that we've had lots of times where it didn't work right.
Healing from Past Hurts in Relationships
And so, usually by the time we come into relationships, we've already got our mind made up that nobody's going to tell us what to do, and nobody's going to push us around, and nobody's going to run our life. And so, we've already got a wrong mindset before we ever even get started. And a lot of times, we're making this person here pay for what somebody over here did, and we don't even really give this person an opportunity to see how they would handle themselves, because we've already decided that we're not going to put up with it. And I know, because my dad sexually abused me, I watched my dad mistreat my mother.
I mean, he would go out every Saturday night and get drunk, and make her lay his clothes out, knowing that he was going to go out and be with other women. He'd come home drunk in the middle of the night, ranting and raving, and make her get up and cook him something to eat. And she just cowered under that, and just did it. Well, I just got so, like, yeah. And I made my mind up, nobody was ever going to push me around like that. And because he was abusing me, nobody was ever going to abuse me again. And then I married the first guy that came along at 18, and he was a mess. He ran around with other women all the time and didn't work.
And I was supporting us half the time. And so, that's not the way it's supposed to be either. The Bible, how can a woman be expected to submit to a man if she can't respect him? And how can she, how can she respect him if he doesn't, you know, you're not the man of the house if you don't really act like the man of the house, you know? And being the man of the house doesn't mean you just boss everybody around. It means that you take care of things, you're responsible, you do what needs to be done. You get out, you work, you put your family first. You're a good parent.
And so, I'll just tell you, we've got a mess going on in the world that I'm certainly not smart enough to solve. All I can do is try to share with you what I believe God has taught me and hopefully it'll help us make some progress in these areas. And so, then he goes on to say, let's just look at verse 28. Even so, husbands should love their wives as being, in a sense, their own body. He who loves his own body loves himself. Verse 32 says, this mystery is great. And I thought, yeah, it's great, all right. You know. Says a man. Well, they got that part right.
The Mystery of Becoming One
Verse 31, it says, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one. It's the becoming part that we miss. It's like you leave your father and mother and it takes the rest of your life to become one. Now, you know, Dave and I get along great now, but I'll tell you what, we went through some stuff in the beginning and a lot of it was just my rebellion. I didn't want anybody to tell me what to do. Dave actually really was one of the ones that would have been really good to me, but I didn't even know how to let anybody love me because I brought all my junk from my past hurts into that relationship and I was trying to make him pay for what other people had done to me.
And so I'm just encouraging you, if you've been hurt in the past, try not to bring your baggage into a new relationship and try to make somebody else pay for what somebody back here did to you. You say, well, I'm afraid. Well, put your trust in God. A godly marriage is a great mystery because it represents Christ's relationship with the church. Now, I understand if it's difficult for you, but I also understand that no matter how difficult things are, we still need to do what God asks us to do. Now, you know, Dave and I don't agree about a lot of things and we talk things through and a lot of times if we don't, can't make a decision we both agree on, then if it's something we don't have to make a decision on, we just won't make any decision for a while.
We'll just wait on it. Just let it sit for a while and wait on it. Give God a chance to change somebody else's mind. But if it comes down, preferably Dave's, if it comes... If it comes down to a decision having to be made, then because I love God, and because the Bible says that I should do it as unto the Lord, even if I don't think it's what we should do, I will let him do it. Because here's what I believe. And I want you to get this part of this message today. If you do what's right, God will always take care of you. If you do what's right... Serving God is not about doing what I want to do.
It's about doing what God asked me to do, because I love Him, and I want to honor and glorify Him. And things are just not going to work right in our lives if we don't go back to some of these wonderful principles that are in the Word of God. We don't have the privilege of doing whatever the world does, because that's what the world is doing. And don't worry, the whole message is not going to be about submission to authority. Just a little bit more. Can you take a little bit more? All right.
The Call to Respect and Honor
So, then, well, I might as well read verse 33 in the Amplified. However, let each man of you without exception love his wife as being in a sense his very own self, and let the wife see that she respects, reverences, notices, regards Him, honors Him, prefers Him, venerates Him, esteems Him, and that she defers to Him, praises Him, loves, and admires Him exceedingly. I actually found an old notebook of mine. What did you say? Sounds good to you, right? Yeah. I found an old notebook back from, like, in the 80s, where I was studying, and God was trying to get me to do this stuff, and I was just fighting tooth and nail.
And I found that scripture one day, and I'm thinking, I don't even know what half of this means. And I wrote down every one of those words and looked up the definition for it in the dictionary, and I still got that on notepaper. I wanted to obey God, but I was having a hard time doing it because of where I came from. I didn't really have a rebellious spirit. I was afraid to trust anybody because anybody I had ever trusted that had authority over me hurt me. How many of you know that can certainly be the case in a lot of situations? Amen? But thank God I made it. And I'm actually, I'm actually pretty sweet now.
I told Dave this morning, I might be sugar-free sweet, but I'm sweet. Sometimes I'll get a little feisty, and he'll say, there's my girl. All right, now, verses 1 through 9 in chapter 6. And actually, you have to understand that Paul didn't break all this up in chapters. This was one long letter. So, the part that ends with all this stuff about husbands and wives goes right into, children, obey your parents in the Lord as his representative, for this is just and right. Honor, esteem, and value as precious your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that all may go well with you, and you may live long on the earth.
Honoring Parents and the Christian Testimony
Now, I want to say a little bit about that. If you have parents, you're no longer living at home, and you don't ever pay any attention to your parents, you don't go see them, you don't call them, you don't ever do anything for them, then you need to really think over what God says about how to treat your parents. And it's not a good enough excuse to say, well, my parents didn't treat me right. Mine abused me, and the time came when God said, I want you to take care of them and take care of them well until they die. And it cost a lot of money, and it cost a lot of time, and it wasn't something that I wanted to do, but we don't have to want to do everything that we do. We do it as unto the Lord. Amen?
And you know, this is, it's very important to me that you get this part. If your parents were dishonorable, you may not have all the gooey feelings toward them that you would like to have, but love is not about how we feel, it's about what we decide to do as far as how we treat people. Come on, I've been preaching a lot this weekend. So we're to do these things as a service to the Lord. Now let me say again, if you do what's right, because it's right, and because you want to honor God, now listen to me, God will always take care of you. He will always take care of you. We don't get to be good to people because they're good people.
We're going to look at Matthew 5, 44 through 47 for a second. We'll put it up on the screens for you. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you to show that you are the children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the wicked and on the good, and he makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers. For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that. And if you greet your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles and the heathens do that.
So he's saying, you don't get to be good to people just because they're nice people and they're good to be good to. You do it because of your love for God and to show that you're a child of God because that's the way he treats us. How many of you, God was good to you before you were good to be good to? And still is. Okay, verse... six. Not in the way of eye service as if they were watching you and only to please men, but as servants and slaves of Christ doing the will of God heartily and with all your whole soul, rendering service readily with good will as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that for whatever good anyone does, he will receive his reward from the Lord whether he is slave or free.
So you've got a reward coming if you're doing what's right. Doing what's right is a protection on your life. It slams every door in the devil's face. Did you hear me? It slams every door in the devil's face if you do what's right. Verse nine, it talks about... I mean, this talks about how children should submit to their parents. Parents should not take their angry, undue chastisements out on their kids. Any of you ever have a bad day and take it out on your kids? Yeah, well, four. That's good. We got a lot of holy people here today.
The Christian Family as a Powerful Witness
Let me read you something that was in a commentary that I read on Ephesians. He said, you'll notice how these verses talk about submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. This is a principle of Christian living which applies to believers in every relationship of life. And now that the Apostle Paul turns to consider the Christian family, he shows that it even needs to apply there. Now listen to this. Did you ever stop to think what a wonderful institution the Christian family is? In reading a letter from a missionary who was working in a heathen land, I was struck by this paragraph that he wrote.
This missionary wrote this letter. How we wish that some of our Christian people could come and settle down among us, even if not to engage in missionary work, there are different ways by which one may make his living among these semi-civilized people. For instance, we would like to have a Christian dentist and his wife, or a Christian worker in leather, a shoemaker, a harness maker, and his wife and family. Now listen, it would mean a great deal to us to have a harmonious family here, for we can conceive of nothing that could so commend Christianity to our people as just to see a Christian family functioning according to the New Testament.
He's saying that there is no better testimony to the world of Christianity than to just witness a Christian family, moms, dads, children, husbands, wives working together in society and behaving themselves as Christians. Isn't that amazing? You know what the bottom line is? If we'd all get out and act like what we say we are, it wouldn't be very long and Jesus could come and get us and we could get out of this mess.