Ephesians 6.1 - 9Good Questions Have Groups Talkingwww.joshhunt.com

Creative Element

Email the group and ask everyone to bring a picture of themselves at work. Alternatively, ask them to email the pics to the group. Great way to get to know each other a little better.

Ephesians 6.1 - 9

ACCOUNTABILITY

What three fellowships do we have scheduled for the next three months? Who will invite every member? Who will help invite every prospect? Who will help plan the party?

OPEN

Let’s each share your name and what kind of work you do.

DIG

  1. Are adult children to obey their parents?

I think the sense of the word children means that eventually you get on your own and you don’t obey your parents any more. Truthfully, I don’t think it appropriate that the parents try to get you to obey.

  1. Do babies come into this world good, bad our neutral?

The Minnesota Crime Commission, demonstrating the truthfulness of the biblical view, issued a report which said, in part:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toys, his uncle’s watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He’s dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist. — MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Ephesians.

  1. What is the difference between honor and obey?

Tekna (children) does not refer particularly to young children but to all offspring. Sons and daughters still under their parents’ roof are to obey and honor them. Obey has to do with action, and honor has to do with attitude. Although, as Paul has just mentioned, men and women are no longer under the authority of their parents once they themselves marry (5:31), special respect and concern for their parents should continue as long as they live. The child who is brought up to obey and honor his parents will always be sensitive to their wisdom, counsel, and welfare. — MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Ephesians.

  1. What does it mean to obey, “In the Lord”?

In the Lord does not mean that children only need to obey Christian parents. Rather, it means that they are obeying the Lord when they obey their parents. Sadly, we are living in a day when child abuse is on the rise. This causes us to mention that the same exceptions which wives have from obeying their husbands, children have in obeying their parents.

When children are asked to do something unethical, illegal, or immoral, or when they are harmed or in danger of being harmed, the command to obey would be superseded by higher biblical principles of “obeying God rather than man.” — Holman New Testament Commentary – Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians.

  1. I draw your attention to the words, “that it may go well with you.” Is it true of all commands? Are the commands of God given so that it may go well with us?

It is always in our best interest to live the Christian life. Sometimes it will cost us in the short run, but it will go well with us in the long run. I have never regretted following God.

  1. What benefits come to those who submit?

Driving down a country road, I came to a very narrow bridge. In front of the bridge, a sign was posted: “Yield.” Seeing no oncoming cars, I continued across the bridge and to my destination.

On my way back, I came to the same one-lane bridge, now from the other direction. To my surprise, I saw another “Yield” sign posted.

Curious, I thought. I’m sure there was one positioned on the other side.

When I reached the other side of the bridge, I looked back. Sure enough, yield signs had been placed at both ends of the bridge. Drivers from both directions were requested to give the other the right of way. It was a reasonable and gracious way of preventing a head-on collision.

When the Bible commands Christians to “be subject to one another” (Eph. 5:21), it is simply a reasonable and gracious command to let the other have the right of way and avoid interpersonal head-on collisions. — 750 Engaging Illustrations.

  1. Verse 4. How do we discipline children without exasperating them?

It is a strange thing that Paul repeats this injunction even more fully in Col 3:21. “Fathers,” he says, “do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” Bengel says that the plague of youth is a “broken spirit,” discouraged by continuous criticism and rebuke and too strict discipline. David Smith thinks that Paul wrote out of bitter personal experience. He writes: “There is here a quivering note of personal emotion, and it seems as though the heart of the aged captive had been reverting to the past and recalling the loveless years of his own childhood. Nurtured in the austere atmosphere of traditional orthodoxy, he had experienced scant tenderness and much severity, and had known that ‘plague of youth, a broken spirit.’“ — Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).

  1. How does anger destroy the love in a home?

In Scope Shirley Belleranti shows the negative impact of anger on our most important relationships:

I remember one summer day when my ten-year-old son and a friend were getting a pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator. I’d spent hours that morning scrubbing, waxing, and polishing the kitchen floor, so I warned the boys not to spill anything. They tried so hard to be careful that they innocently bumped a tray of eggs on the door shelf. Of course, it fell, splattering eggs all over my clean floor.

The boys’ eyes widened with alarm as I exploded angrily. “Get out of here—now!” I shouted, while they headed for the door.

By the time I’d finished cleaning up the mess, I had calmed down. To make amends, I set a tray of cookies on the table, along with the pitcher of lemonade and some glasses. But when I called the boys, there was no answer—they’d gone somewhere else to play, somewhere where my angry voice wouldn’t reach them.

Anger separates us from those we want to be near. Anger shatters intimacy. — 750 Engaging Illustrations.

  1. What is one fond memory of life with your parents growing up?

Practically speaking, how are parents to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? “How To” books are helpful but are lacking. Material gifts fail to work. The only way Christian parents can obey this verse is to actively build a relationship with their children. Christian child psychologist, Dr. James Dobson, shares a story from his childhood with us:

My dad and I would arise before the sun came up on a wintry morning. We would put on our hunting clothes and heavy boots and drive twenty miles from the little town where we lived. After parking the car and climbing over a fence, we would enter a wooded area, which I called the “big woods” because the trees seemed so large to me. We would slip down to the creek bed and follow that winding stream several miles back into the forest.

Then my dad would hide me under a fallen tree, which made a little room with its branches. He would find a similar shelter for himself around a bend in the creek. Then we would await the arrival of the sun and the awakening of the animal world. Little squirrels and birds and chipmunks would scurry back and forth, not knowing they were being observed. My dad and I then watched as the breathtaking panorama of the morning unfolded, which spoke so eloquently of the God who made all things.

But most importantly, there was something dramatic that occurred between my dad and me out there in the forest. An intense love and affection was generated on those mornings that set the tone for a lifetime of fellowship. There was a closeness and a oneness that made me want to be like that man... that made me choose his values as my values, his dreams as my dreams, his God as my God.

Are you making memories that are nurturing? —Practical Illustrations – Volume 9: Galatians-Colossians.

  1. Verse 5. Is Paul condoning slavery?

Paul neither condemned nor condoned slavery in these words. On one hand, Paul was not interested in starting a revolutionary movement to attempt to destroy the sanctions of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, Paul was starting a revolutionary movement although he was not a political organizer. Paul’s revolutionary zeal was developed in the context of the church, where selflessness and love constituted new relationships based not on power but on mutual affirmation. (See also 1 Corinthians 7:20-24; Colossians 3:22–4:1.) — Life Application Bible Commentary – Ephesians.

  1. How has Christianity affected social issues like slavery? Should we as Christians care about social issues?

The word “servants” undoubtedly refers to Christian slaves, but we may certainly apply these words to the Christian employee today. There were probably 6 million slaves in the Roman Empire in that day, and slavery was an accepted institution. Nowhere in the New Testament is slavery per se attacked or condemned, though the overall thrust of the Gospel is against it. Paul’s ministry was not to overthrow the Roman government or any of its institutions, but to preach the Gospel and win the lost to Christ. Certainly the results of his evangelism ultimately led to the overthrow of the Roman Empire, but that was not Paul’s main motive. Just as the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield resulted in the abolition of slavery and child labor, the elevation of women, and the care of the needy, so Paul’s ministry contributed to the death of slavery and the encouragement of freedom. However, he was careful not to confuse the social system with the spiritual order in the church (1 Cor. 7:20-24). — The Bible Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 2.

  1. What do you know about slavery back in the day? How did this compare with slavery in America before the civil war?

We also must understand that being a slave did not indicate one’s social class. Slaves regularly were accorded the social status of their owners. Regarding outward appearance, it was usually impossible to distinguish a slave from free persons. A slave could be a custodian, a salesman, or a CEO. Many slaves lived separately from their owners. Finally, selling oneself into slavery was commonly used as a means of obtaining Roman citizenship and gaining an entrance into society. Roman slavery in the first century was far more humane and civilized than the American/African slavery practiced in this country much later. This is a sobering and humbling fact! — Preaching the Word – Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ.

  1. What is the application of this principle of slaves obeying their masters for us?

There can be no place in the Christian employee’s life for subtle insubordination toward his employer or for cleverly concealed contempt or sardonic humor. God’s Word says that as employees we must conduct ourselves “with respect and fear” toward our earthly employers - not because we think they have earned it, but because they are in that position. I once strolled through the Army War College with a colonel who was serving as Chief of Staff at that elite institution. As a civilian, I was amazed at the respect he was shown and quipped, “Now I know what God must feel like!” The respect, of course, was for his authoritative position, for many who so ceremoniously snapped to attention did not even personally know him. There are some good lessons here, I mused, for “the Lord’s army” as it serves in this world. — Preaching the Word – Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ.

  1. Agree or disagree: I should be obedient to my boss as if he/she were Christ.

There is a responsibility put upon a believer who is a laborer and also a responsibility put upon one who is a capitalist or an employer. This is the employer-employee relationship. In Paul’s day it was an even sharper division than it is now -- it was really master and slave. Remember that this entire section began in chapter 5, verse 21, which says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” That sounds all right for Sunday, for the church service, but what about Monday morning when we go to work? Christian workers working for Christian owners of the factory will not need a labor boss to go to the capitalist and tell him what to do. I know of several businesses run by dedicated Christians. They have chapel service on company time, and they pay their workers while they are attending chapel. They are prosperous -- God has blessed them. They don’t need a union. An employee in one of these companies told me, “If we were under a union, we wouldn’t be making what we are making right here.” We are talking about Christians, Christian workers and Christian owners. There are both sides to the coin. This gets right down to the nitty-gritty. — Thru The Bible with J. Vernon McGee.

  1. What benefits come to those who work hard?

Proverbs 10:26 (NIV) As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him.

Proverbs 12:27 (NIV) The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions.

Proverbs 13:4 (NIV) The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.