Submitting to One Another in the Fear of Christ

In one paragraph

The pastor opened by grounding the practical commands of Ephesians 4-6 in the identity language of chapters 1-3, then worked through the household codes of chapter 5, arguing that mutual submission is the hinge on which all of them turn. He addressed wives and husbands, children and parents, and slaves and masters in turn, holding the whole section together under the call to be filled with the...

Read together

1. Ephesians 5:17 where the preacher left off before being away from the pulpit
2. Ephesians 5:18-21 the passage Van preached on the previous week
3. Ephesians 4:1 Paul urging believers to walk worthy of their calling with humility, gentleness, and patience
4. Ephesians 4:3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace
5. Ephesians 4:4-6 the repeated refrain of one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
6. Ephesians 5:1 therefore be imitators of God as dearly beloved children
7. Ephesians 5:2 walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up as a fragrant offering
8. Ephesians 5:15 be careful how you walk, not as unwise but as wise
9. John 17 Jesus's high priestly prayer, may they be one just as we are one
10. Ephesians 5:21 the hinge verse, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ
11. Ephesians 5:22-24 wives to their own husbands as to the Lord, with Christ as head of the church
12. Ephesians 5:25 husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
13. Ephesians 5:26 sanctifying and cleansing the church by the washing of water with the word
14. Ephesians 5:27 presenting the church in glory without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless
15. Ephesians 5:28-30 husbands to love their wives as their own bodies, as Christ nourishes the church
16. Ephesians 5:31 a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, the two becoming one flesh
17. Ephesians 5:32 Paul calling the mystery of marriage great, speaking with reference to Christ and the church
18. Ephesians 5:33 closing admonition for each husband to love his wife and wife to respect her husband
19. Ephesians 6:1 children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right
20. Ephesians 6:2-3 honor your father and mother, the first commandment with a promise, so it may go well with you
21. Ephesians 6:4 fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in discipline and instruction of the Lord
22. Ephesians 6:5-7 bond servants obey masters with sincerity of heart as to Christ, not by eye service
23. Ephesians 6:8 knowing whatever good one does will be received back from the Lord whether slave or free
24. Ephesians 6:9 masters do the same, give up threatening, knowing their master and yours is in heaven with no partiality
25. Galatians 3:28 cited as a key text the egalitarian view uses to argue there is no male and female in Christ
26. 1 Timothy 2 cited as a text complementarians use to argue for permanent gender distinctions in leadership
27. John 17 Jesus praying that they be sanctified by truth, your word is truth

Talk about it

1. Pastor Mark spent time reading aloud what Paul calls believers in the first chapters of Ephesians before getting to any of the commands in chapters four through six. Why do you think he did that, and how does hearing who you are in Christ change the way you receive the instructions that follow?
2. Pastor Mark described the word translated 'submitting' or 'subjecting yourselves' in verse 21 as a hinge that belongs both to what comes before it and to what comes after. What difference does it make to read the household codes as falling under that mutual submission rather than standing apart from it?
3. When talking about husbands, Pastor Mark pointed out that the instruction to love your wife the way Christ loved the church runs parallel to the instruction in chapter five verse two for all believers to walk in love. What does that parallel ask of a husband practically, and how is it different from how that role is often talked about?
4. Pastor Mark noted that Paul was writing into a culture where patriarchy was the unquestioned rule, where children were treated as property, and where a master could do nearly anything to a slave without consequence, and suggested that Paul was lifting those people up rather than simply reinforcing the existing order. Do you find that reading convincing, and how does it affect the way you hear these passages?
5. Pastor Mark acknowledged that this congregation includes people who hold complementarian and egalitarian views, and he asked that even those completely convinced of their own position lean toward those who disagree with grace and mercy. What does that actually look like inside a church where people read the same text and come to different conclusions?