Eph. 5:21-6:9 | Households
November 5, 2023

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called —Eph. 4:1

Great teachings earlier in the chapter
One faith, one baptism - all are one in Christ

Put off old


Stealing, lying, bitterness, wrath, slander, sexual immorality
Secret lives - material/spiritual

Take up your new self
Honest work, kindness, conversation that builds other up, faithfulness

Easy to

; hard to
Envision it with strangers
Driver, customer service person

Paul pushes through that and goes right to our households
Hard
Confession:

Forgive us, O Lord, for everything that spoils our home life:
for the moodiness and irritability that make us difficult to live with, for the insensitivity that makes us careless of the feelings of others, for the selfishness that makes life harder for others. —Prayer of Confession

Easy to do with people who don’t know you - but people who do?
Guard down - when you know their list of wrongs and they know yours

Secret lives - no more! Paul wants this worked all the way through


Different for them than for us
We have separate spaces for school, work, home
They did not
Farm, Manufacturing, Education, Sales
And still chores, sleeping, cleaning, homework

Roman Paterfamilia center of power
Children, their families, slaves

Slavery
Different than American slavery
Ours - initially it was other ethnicities but over time is was just kidnapped Africans
At a time when people were getting more rights - the distinction was great
Theirs - very few people had rights, you could get out more easily, sometimes you chose to go into slavery

Paul offers household codes
Very unsurprising - Aristotle, Plato

How he does it - very surprising
Aristotle - paterfamilias
Paul, starts with those without power first - Wives, children, slaves
One baptism - treats all six as agents who can make choices

All under this picture painted in 5:18b-21

..be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. —Eph. 5:18b-21

Father in heaven is the paterfamilias
Following the example of Jesus

Jesus
Had the

but set it aside for our sake
Submitting unto death to lift us up
Example that is given for all six roles

All six roles have the capacity to be faithful and glorify God - not just one or two

What does that submission look like?

Marriage
Wives and husbands
Mutual self-giving

Odd for the times
Marriage in the Roman empire
Love was there - tombs
But mainly status, advancement of family
You each stayed under your family of origin’s paterfamilia
Marriage wasn’t working - either one could pull you out of it

Our time looks different
But in some ways it is the same
Love as self-expression
I’m not able to be myself
(not abuse, that’s terrible)
But I’m in this only as far as I get something from it

Paul -

idea

Did he?
Husband is the head of the wife
Head - authority or source
Butt dial or booty call?
Either way - Christ’s leadership is self-sacrificial

Wives and husbands giving themselves to the


Lifting each other up

Reflects Christ and the church

Children and Parents
Children -

your parents
Parents - don’t them
exasperate

Slaves - work diligently as for the


Masters
You also have a master - don’t ever forget that
No partiality in heaven with God

Low person on the payroll
Hard (stories?)
Value - God sees you, repays you

Paul calls us to avoid living a bifurcated life
Public and private
Old self and new self

This week - how are you

at home in private?
Where does the old self need put to ?

We are free to do this because of who we are in Christ
Come to the table
Remember who Christ is for us
Come as one body - jew, gentle, man, woman, slave, free
Christ’s body was broken and with it was our old self
Selfish, power-hungry, use others
Now we live into our new life in him
Free to love - build others up, allow others to build us up
All to the Praise and Glory of God