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
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
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 -
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 -
Parents - don’t
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
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