|
Bible Study -
Devotional
|
|
Contributed by Phil Spadaro
|
|
Friday, 30 December 2005 |
Honor,
obey and submit are three unpopular words. Giving yourself to another
or love another as yourself are foreign to our culture. Human nature
defaults to selfishness and disrespect. Conditional relationships are
the norm. Paul challenges the default mode of each us in these passages
in Ephesians. Paul calls Christians to obey and submit.
God’s command is not to only submit and obey those who are worthy and
deserving of respect but those who are not. The spousal expectations in
Ephesians 5 leave no room for conditions. Unity (“one flesh”) is to be
attained by each party looking to the interests of the other. Slaves
are to obey because they work for God.
Children are to
obey their parents. God also calls fathers not to exasperate their
children. Once again, a mutual respect and love is commanded. Once
again, there are no conditions on obedience or honor. Relationships are
a two way street, but God expects us to follow his commands even if the
other party is not worthy of respect or unresponsive. What
does this have to do with unity? Everything. If we, as members of the
body of Christ, look to the interests of others first, there is better
soil for unity. If we can respect because it is what God commands and
not because the other person deserves it, we can plant seeds of unity.
If we can embrace learning from one another and not exasperate each
other we grow unity. These are the challenges which require those
in Restoration churches to be faithful and obedient. We can till, plant
and grow unity with obedience and submission to one another and honor
for one another.
Powered by Components Lab Tag Mambot
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 January 2006 )
|
Bible Study 
