p. 9 | Studies in Ephesians

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 10, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 23.

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Studies in Ephesians

Relationships — Family and Commercial

Chapter 6, Verses 1-9, A.R.V.

Questioning the Text

1. What admonition is given to children?

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” Verse 1. Note 1.

2. By what command of God is this injunction enforced?

“Honor 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.” Verses 2, 3. Note 2.

3. What solemn duty is laid upon fathers?

“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.” Verse 4. Note 3.

4. What duty is laid upon servants?

“Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.” Verse 5. Note 4.

5. What should be the spirit of their service?

“Not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men.” Verses 6, 7. Note 5.

6. From whom may they know that they will receive the reward?

“Knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether he be bond or free.” Verse 8. Note 6.

7. What duty is laid upon the masters?

“And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with Him.” Verse 9. Note 7.

Note and Comment

1. “Children.”—There is a duty laid upon children, and their religion consists largely in that,—“Obey your parents,” especially if the parents are godly people. There may be times when it is the duty of the child to obey God rather than the parents, but this is never true unless the parent demands of the child that which is sinful, immoral. The apostle does not leave it unmodified,—“Children, obey your parents,”—but, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” It is assumed that the godly parent will teach the child godliness, as the Lord has taught it in His word; and as it is the duty of the parent to teach it, it is the duty of the child to obey.

2. “Honor thy father and mother” is the fifth commandment spoken by the Lord from heaven, setting forth the duty of children. It should be instilled into their minds from the very beginning. If there were more reverence for the father and mother, more strict, prompt obedience taught in the home, there would be a great deal less of disobedience to God. A child that was taught to revere his father and his mother would much more quickly learn to revere and obey God. “Which is the first commandment with promise” is a parenthetical clause thrown in by the apostle regarding the commandment itself. Note that obedience brings life. “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.”

3. “Ye fathers.”—The fathers have a duty. They may not treat their children as brutes or animals. The children themselves have rights, and one of those rights is that they should be treated reasonably. They are not to be provoked to wrath. Their naturally wrathful or revengeful disposition is not to be stirred up. The fathers should seek to guide and teach by reason. Children are usually and generally amenable to reason, after the burst of passion is past. They should be taught, nurtured in the chastening and admonition of the Lord, from the time that they are old enough to understand anything,—nay, from before their birth. They may need chastening at times. There is such a thing as sparing the rod when it ought to be used; but it never ought to be used with a spirit of impatience and anger. They should be warned betimes, and admonished as to duty. Sometimes their hearts may rebel against the punishment; but if the punishment be justly administered, with the proper spirit on the part of the parent, it will bring the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and the child will come to see that father or mother did right.

4. “Servants”—literally “bond-servants” (see the margin).—This is set over against masters, or lords. It will be noted, by the careful reader of the New Testament, that neither our Lord nor His apostles sought to change social order or conditions. They were not doing politics in the world; they were not forming parties, they were not Republicans, nor Democrats, nor Progressives, nor Socialists; they were just simply Christians from another kingdom, another empire. They were bringing down the life of God into the world, and endeavoring to spread abroad the mystery of the gospel of Christ, stronger than all the power of Rome or all the civil governments that have existed. And these very servants—or bond-servants—living out the life of the Master even in their slavery, might be the means of winning souls to Christ that they could not have won in any other position in life. Consequently they are enjoined to be obedient to the masters according to the flesh. “With fear and trembling” does not mean that they are to be cringing in their service; but understanding their duty, they should go about it diligently and with earnestness, keeping before them the great fact that duty is the most solemn and sacred thing that a soul can know. They are to feel that they are not serving some human master, they are to look beyond him, recognizing that when they gave themselves to the Lord Jesus they became His servants, and the service is to be wrought as to Christ.

5. “Not in the way of eye-service.”—That is the way that many in the world serve. If the thing looks well, if they can be seen seemingly to do right work, that is about all that is demanded on the part of the servants. If they can slight their work easily, the work is slighted. They do not know that God sees the part that is slighted, sees behind the hedge, sees where little work and wrong work and imperfect work is done, however it may be covered by men. It is not eye-service, as men-pleasers, but doing the will of God from the heart that God wants. A carpenter was asked, one time, why he finished the pickets of a fence that he put up against the hedge. The one that asked the question remarked that “no man will see that; and the man that you are doing it for will never know it.” The only reply was that “God sees it; God will know that those pickets were not finished at all in that place.” The true Christian needs no watchman or overseer. He has one thing that he wishes to do, and that is to serve God.

6. “Knowing.”—His master may ill-treat him. He may pay him insufficient wages. He may even cheat him out of the wages that he agrees to pay. But the servant may know that whatsoever good thing he has done he shall receive again from the Lord, whether he be bond or free. In the judgment to come every wrong will be righted, every deed of iniquity punished.

7. “Ye masters, do the same things.”—If they are Christians, they are to cherish the same spirit. They are to do as Philemon the master of Onesimus was enjoined to do,—receive the slave not as a slave, but as a brother. Philemon 10-16. They are to remember that their own Master, as well as that slave’s Master, is in heaven, and that He is “no respecter of persons.” The masters who did this were friends to their slaves, and the slaves themselves have loved such masters. The recognition of the one great Master and His love softens and sanctifies all true human relationships.

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