Ephesians 6:1-9

(Ephesians 6:1-9)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

In Ephesians 5, the relationship between Christ and the saints is compared to that of a husband and wife, but Ephesians 6:1-9 explains the relationship between parents and children and the relationship between the master and the servant.『 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise 』 This word is related to the Word of Life. It is the parent who gives life to heaven, and when parents give the word of life, they must listen to it and act. It must be understood as a spiritual story, not a story of parents on earth. Of course, we should honor our parents on this earth, but there may be parents who do not have spiritual life. The words of parents who do not have spiritual life mainly tell the story of this world. Those are the main things to be blessed in the world. In Exodus 20:12, "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. So people accept it as the story of the world.

In Matthew 23:9, 『And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. This is the saying that the spiritual father is the true father. It is not to ignore the fleshly parents, but to say that the spirit parents are true parents. So, the words of Exodus 20:12 must also be accepted spiritually. By the way, if you talk about this worldly, you will be drunk. It is said to be the first commandment that promises to honor parents. The promise is that when a person who leaves God finds Christ and repents and enters into Christ, he will save. If the promise is fulfilled, those who were sinners to God will call God the Father in Christ. So the son honors God.

The father of the flesh gave flesh to the child. However, that life is not true life, because man will surely die. The Father (God) of those in Christ gives the Son heavenly life. That life is true life. The reason Jesus Christ came to this world and died on the cross as a ransom was "to save the spirits who left Heavenly Father." Because the spirit in man was dead, the spirit does not know who the true Father is.

『That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth』If the people of the Church think about this, think globally, and think they will live long on this earth, they do not know God's intentions too much. Looking at the land, the first man, Adam, came from dust. In Genesis 2:7, 『And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.』 If people do not know Heavenly Father and honor only the Father in the flesh, life on the earth will be prolonged. In other words, the period of meeting God is delayed (delayed). If it is too long, you may not meet God. Honoring the fleshly parents, realize that in Christ, Heavenly Father is the true Father.『 ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord 』 When is the parent angry with the child?

It means the time when God is angry with Israel. Idols did not leave Israel. So, looking at this idol, God is jealous of Israel. It is said to anger the people. In Romans 10:19, “But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. In Deuteronomy 32:21, 『They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.』 God made a covenant with Abraham, but God is jealous because the people do not believe the word of the covenant and still follow the idol. He made the people angry. So, God is saying that Israel is not the first, but the Gentiles are saved, and God makes Israel jealous and angry.

When are the children angry at their parents? The world's parents tell their children, "You must succeed in the world." So, most of the children follow the words of their parents and try hard and succeed in the world. However, it turns out later that it is the result of the act of leaving God. If the children are spiritually opened, they will be angry at the fleshly parents. "Doing not let your parents get angry at your child" means not doing "things that make your parents spiritually dark for their children."

『Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ 』 When the Apostle Paul was there, there were masters and servants in the church. The analogy is that the relationship between God and Israel is the same as the relationship between the master and the servant. 『Ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening』. Here, the master and servants are members of the world, and their true master is God. God does not treat people by appearance, whether they are servants or masters. All in Christ are the same.God does not discriminate in Christ for social status, occupation return, and difference between rich and poor.

『Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers 』. Christians do not act like people in the world do, ``but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men''. Here, the word "as to the Lord" means "to fear the Lord." The word "to fear" means believing the word of the Lord's promise with a pure heart. The Israelites did not believe the Lord's promises before the land of Canaan except for two. They were those who did not fear the Lord and were not afraid of God.

『The heart With good』, the heart means soul (life, life). It means to do it with all your life, the soul dies with Jesus Christ, and the spirit rises with the Holy Spirit. In the end, a happy heart is to remember and do that everyone is dead on the cross with Jesus.