Ephesians 6
v.1
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
v.2-3
“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—3”that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
v.4
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
(Greek and Roman society was even harsher on newborn children; because an infant was accepted as a legal person only when the father officially recognized it, babies could be abandoned or, if deformed, killed. Early Christians and Jews unanimously opposed both abortion and abandonment. This text, however, addresses the discipline of minors in the household.)
v.6
Obey them not only to win their favor when their is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
We render acceptable service to God when, from regard to his will, we perform the services which are demanded of us in the situation in life where we may be placed, however humble that may be.
v.7-8
Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8because you know what the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
v.9
And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
See 2022-08-16 22 33 Pages 1160-1200 for other references to slavery in the Bible.
v.10-11
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
In the day of battle, Roman soldiers were to stand their ground, not retreat. As long as they stood together on a flat, open field and did not break ranks, their legions were considered virtually invincible.
v.12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Some people in the Old Testament learned that the nature of their battle was spiritual (cf. Gen 32:22-32; Dan 10:10-21), although in both Daniel and Paul the battle was fought by prayerfully submitting to God and doing his will, not by directly addressing the hostile powers in the heavens [(Dan 10:12-13](Daniel10#v.12, 21).
v.13
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
v.14
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
v.15
and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Paul takes the image especially from the herald of Isaiah 52:7 who announces good news: sharing the message of *Christ advances God’s army against the enemy’s position.
The Gospel brings peace in the deepest sense of that word, and, primarily, peace with God, from out of which all other kinds of tranquility and heart-repose do come-and they come from nothing besides.
🔥For, if we are warring with the devil we are at peace with God; and if we are at peace with the devil we are warring with God. So the two states of peace and war go together. There is no real peace which has not conflict in it, and the Gospel is ‘the Gospel of peace,’ precisely because it enlists us in Christ’s army and sends us out to fight Christ’s battles.
The quiet heart will be able to fling its whole strength into its work. And that is what troubled hearts never can do, for half their energy is taken up in steadying or quieting themselves, or is dissipated in going after a hundred other things. But when we are wholly engaged in quiet fellowship with Jesus Christ we have the whole of our energies at our command, and can fling ourselves wholly into our work for Him. The steam-engine is said to be a very imperfect machine which wastes more power than it utilises. That is true of a great many Christian people; they have the power, but they are so far away from that deep sense of tranquility with God, of which my text speaks, that they waste much of the power that they have.
Often, we misinterpret the context of what kind of peace the gospel brings. The gospel does not make our life easier or alleviate us of responsibility. It tells the good news that we can have peace with a perfect and holy God.
v.16
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Because the Greek and Roman god of passion (called Eros and Cupid, respectively) was said to strike with flaming arrows, some of Paul’s readers may have thought specifically of the temptation of sexual desire in this verse, although Paul probably intended the image to cover more than that danger (cf. Ps 11:2; 57:4; 58:3-7; 64:3; perhaps 120:1-4; Prov 25:18).
v.17
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
v.18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
See more in prayerSpirit. See also Jude 20.
v.19
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,
oap
He was in Rome. He was almost alone. He was surrounded by multitudes of the wicked. He was exposed to death. Yet he desired to speak boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to invite sinners to repentance. A Christians in chains, and surrounded by the wicked, may speak boldly, and “may” have hope of success - for Paul was not an unsuccessful preacher even when a captive at Rome;