Title: Living Together / Ephesians 6:5-9
Description Essay on Ephesians
life with title
Text Ephesians 6:5-9
1. The Lord requires us to be faithful.
Ephesians 6:5 “Slaves, obey your masters of the flesh with fear and trembling and with sincerity in sincerity, as to Christ.”
Fear and trembling in the text refers to a sincere attitude to perform duty (1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7 15; Philippians 2 12). Sincerity means serving with all your heart, without hypocrisy or other intentions.
The principle of life that Christians, whatever they do, should do it as to the Lord (Rum 14:7-9) is also being applied to the service of servants and masters as to Christ.
Verse 6 says, “Do not be like a pleaser by blindfolding.” 'Blindfold' (Ophdalmoduleia) is a compound word of 'eye' (ofdalmos) and 'slave state' (duleia) derived from 'to perform the duty of a slave' and 'serve' (dulyuo). It has the meaning of 'serving only blindfolded. If you work hard only in the eyes of a person, you will be able to please that person. But as a Christian's slave (servant), he has an obligation to please God. To do this, we must do God's will, and God's will is for the saints to always live an honest and sincere life, not a life that is false and blindfolded. This is where the fundamental difference in view of life between man's slavery and Christ's slavery appears. The saints are not to be slaves to men, but to be servants of Christ to please God.
Serve with a sincere heart, as to the Lord and not to men. Dan heart has the meaning of 'goodwill', 'passion', and 'favor'. Therefore, this verse tells us not to force ourselves to do things we do not want to do, but as if we are serving God with joy and joy. When you serve your master with joy and passion, that servant is already a servant of Christ, not a servant of man.
2. Think of things above.
6:8 “Knowing that whatever good each one does, it will be received from the Lord, whether slave or free”
This is the basis of Paul's exhortation to slaves. When Jesus judges at His Second Coming, regardless of his status on this earth, he will be evaluated and rewarded according to how much he has served the Lord in his position and has pleased God through that work. Even if you do not receive it, you must do everything with sincerity as if you were doing it to the Lord.
Therefore, as Colossians 3:2 says, “Think of the things above, not the things of the earth” should be heeded.
3. God looks at the heart.
“Masters, do the same to them and stop threatening them, for you know that they and your master are in heaven, and there is no respect for him.” (9)
‘Likewise’ means that the admonition of a servant to ‘do as to the Lord’, ‘do God’s will’ and ‘do it with a pure heart, applies to the master as well. And ‘stop’ in ‘stop threatening’ is the present active participle of ‘niemi’, which means ‘to slow down’ or ‘to release’, which means ‘stop threatening’.
The reason for doing this is that both the first servant and the master are 'the master is in heaven'.
Another is that the masters in heaven never say, “You know that people do not rest because of their appearance.” because it says This is the reason why masters should treat their servants well and not blackmail them. In other words, masters and servants are not only those who have Christ as their master, but they do not discriminate according to their status on this earth, but will judge each person according to what they have done. is. When we stand before the judgment seat, God does not ask about our positions, but He asks 'How faithfully did you do your job on the spot?'