Lovers of God

Children need to obey both, their father and their mother. I say this because sometimes, children get the notion that they can ignore what their mother says, but should only obey their father. But God wants them to obey their father and their mother.

The obedience needs to occur even when your parents are unbelievers.

The obedience needs to occur even when you don’t agree with the direction, and even when the direction doesn’t make sense to you.

However, there are exceptions – if the parent is abusing you sexually or putting your life in danger, or asking you to worship other ‘gods’ or contradicting God’s word, then you don’t need to obey.

This verse applies to children who are staying with their parents in the parent’s home and who are therefore under their authority. Even when the children are old enough to stay on their own they should still honor their parents, which means that children should not speak evil about their parents to others (God promises such children a long life) but they don’t have to obey them. We see that Jesus obeyed His parents while He lived in their home, but when He was in Cana He didn’t obey His mother when she asked Him to deal with the wine shortage at the wedding.

When Jesus was a child He submitted to His parents even though they were imperfect and He was perfect (Lk 2:51).

Having said that, I should also say that this doesn’t mean that we should ignore the advice of our parents when we have moved out. They still are most likely among the very few people who will have your best interests at heart, and so you should at least consider what they have to say.

On the other side of the coin, fathers are to not provoke their children to anger. Instead, we are to bring our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

A father can provoke a child to anger when he is partial to his other children, or when he does not keep his promises, or when he belittles, ignores, or mocks his child. A father also provokes anger when he punishes the child for things the child had no control of and when he sins against the child and does not ask for forgiveness.

It is the father’s responsibility to instruct the child in the things of the Lord and to discipline (i.e. train) the child in godliness (praying, Bible study, fellowship, being kind to strangers, speaking respectfully to elders, learning humility, learning to control feelings and emotions, learning to speak graciously, and so on). Don’t delegate this to your pastor or your wife.

People who mistreat a child, or warp their minds in such a way that they make it difficult for the child to believe in a heavenly Father who loves them and cares for them are in great trouble with God. Jesus once said that it is better for such people to have a heavy stone tied around their neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea than for them to cause the little ones who believe in Him to stumble.

5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;

6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

We should be obedient to our employers as long as they are not asking us to do something that contradicts God’s word.

Our attitude should be to do stuff from the heart and not just when they are watching.

We are to render our service with good will. Our attitude should be to work as if we are working for Christ. This means high quality work. We can have such an attitude if we realize that whatever good we do will be repaid by God to us.

If we are employers, we need to realize that God (our Master) will treat us in the same way that we treat our employees (because He is not partial i.e. He does not prefer us to our employees). With that in mind, we should not abuse our power to threaten or manipulate our employees.

Taking a step back, we see that God is very interested in how we deal with those around us: our brothers and sisters in the church, our spouse, our parents, our children, the people we work for and the people who work for us. Even if you aren’t a manager at work, when you get a contractor to come and do something in your home, you have the position of being a manager (or master) in that situation. So be fair and gracious as you deal with those around you, knowing that God deals with you the way that you deal with others.

Finally, why does God require submission to authority – wives to husbands, children to parents, employees to employers, church members to elders, and so on? I think it is for the same reason that God allowed the Jews to get enslaved to the Egyptians, and allowed them to be blocked by the Red Sea with the Egyptian army racing after them. It is to teach us to walk with Him.

For example, when a wife wants something, and her husband rejects her request, what can she do? She can submit to her husband’s decision and leave it to God to change his mind. If she prays to God, and God answers her and changes her husband’s mind then she knows that God is on her side.

But what if God doesn’t change her husband’s mind? Then she knows that her request is not in accordance with God’s will, or that there is something wrong in her connection with God. She can then examine herself, and if she finds that she has done something to hinder her relationship with God then she can fix that, and be blameless once again, and thus walk with God once again. On the other hand, if she is unable to find any wrong thought or deed on her part, as evaluated by God’s word, then she can be at rest that her rejected request was not in accordance with God’s will, and therefore she would not want it to be granted anyway.

If a wife tries to manipulate her husband or ignores her husband’s decision and does what she wants anyway then she takes matters into her own hands and may end up going astray. Such a person isn’t walking with God at all.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

In our times, Bruce Lee is widely known as the martial arts expert. If you were an avid martial artist, and Bruce Lee said something about fighting a hand-to-hand battle, you would pay attention, wouldn’t you?

The Holy Spirit is the expert spiritual martial artist, and we are His students. His assistant Paul tells us how to fight a spiritual battle, so let’s pay attention.

Some cultures send their kids to learn how to fight physically, but in church, we train to fight against spiritual forces of darkness. Every believer should be a competent spiritual martial artist.

In the first five and a half chapters of this book Paul told the Ephesians what our salvation is about, and knowing that salvation, how we should behave. Now Paul tells us about the war that we are in and how we can survive it and do damage to the enemy.

You do realize that, as a believer, you are at war, right? That realization itself will put you in the correct mindset, for the mindset of a person at war is very different from the mindset of a person at peace. A person at war is at a different level of alertness, and feels the need for armor and weapons far more acutely.

That is why you must internalize an important truth – the devil is scheming against you! He is going to do whatever it takes to prevent you from being saved. And if you do manage to get saved – genuinely saved – then he is going to do whatever it takes to get you to lose your salvation. And if he isn’t able to do that, then he is going to do whatever it takes to get you to get minimal reward in heaven and to be as ineffective as possible in building God’s kingdom and damaging his (Satan’s) kingdom.

You must be aware that you are in the midst of a battle with spiritual forces of darkness that reside in heavenly places. You must realize that you will be a target of Satan the moment you set your face to obey God’s new direction, just as in war, where places of military importance are the first targets. This should not scare you, because God is on your side. However, knowing this should cause you to walk wisely and be watchful of the traps that Satan tries to get you to fall into.

When you decide to turn away from a new sin, or when you decide to make a new effort to build the church after listening to God’s voice, you can be sure that Satan is going to oppose you, and try and discourage or dissuade you. You have to expect that, and be prepared for it.

If you have not felt the opposition of Satan in your life recently it just means that you have been slacking. Satan doesn’t bother to oppose Christians who are not a threat to him.

You must remember that Satan is like a roaring lion seeking to devour you (1 Pet 5:8,9). When Satan opposes you, you have to resist him (1Pet 5:8,9). To resist him you have to be strong in the Lord, in the strength of His might. You can do this by putting on the full armor of God.

For this reason, Paul’s first point is that you need to be strong in the Lord. You need the strength of His might. Satan is smarter and mightier than you. If you battle him alone, you will not succeed. You must use the Lord’s might in your battle.

You can’t fight Satan with the weapons of men. You can’t destroy Satan with guns and tanks and missiles. That is why Paul tells us to be strong in the strength of His might. How do we do that? By putting on the full armor of God; not your armor, but the armor of God, and not just a part of it, but the full armor of God.

What does a man who realizes that he needs the Lord’s help do? He prays – asking God for help to overcome Satan. That is why, in verse 18 Paul tells us to pray, and not just to pray, but to pray in the Spirit, and not just for ourselves, but also for others.

One of Satan’s strategies is to get you to fight against other people instead of him. Don’t fall for that. It is really important to not waste our time and our energy fighting against the wrong enemy. Satan will eagerly try to get you to do that, but don’t you let him.

When you fight a war, you must know who the enemy is and fight against the enemy, not against a friend or a neutral country. In World War II, if Britain began fighting against France instead of Germany, that would have been a tragedy. In the same way, if you are fighting your spiritual war against people, and have complaints against people, or spend time trying to take people down, you are fighting against the wrong enemy. While it is true that some people knowingly or unknowingly serve the devil, God wants all men to be saved, and so when we desire evil for other people (even those who harm us) we are going up against God.

Another thing to understand is that the spiritual walk is not on a flat surface but on an incline (because you have a flesh). And further, there is an active enemy trying to push you down. If you don’t supply an upward force you won’t keep your position but you will lose ground. You need to supply an upward force just to keep position.

When you are at home, your godly parents (if you have them) or the godly people in the church you are part of, can protect you, and so you might survive without using the full armor of God. But when you are on your own, or in leadership (like Paul), you must be able to survive on your own. For this, you will need the full armor of God, and you need to be an expert at using it.

14 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,

15 and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE;

16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The loins are the portion of your body around your reproductive organs. We need to gird, or cover them, with truth. When we teach someone spiritual things we are essentially reproducing our theology in them, and vice versa. Metaphorically speaking, to gird our loins with truth means to make sure that we are teaching people the truth, and that the theology we receive (or is reproduced in us) is also true. Only spiritual truth goes in, and only spiritual truth goes out.

Satan’s martial strategy is to deceive – that is, to get people to believe what is false. If we teach people false theology, then we are not fighting against Satan but for him! If false theology gets into us, then we are compromised.

So, Paul’s point here is to make sure that we are not fighting for the enemy but against the enemy!

In a physical war, if a soldier has a wrong understanding of what his country stands for, or a wrong understanding of how to use his weapons, or a wrong understanding of who his enemy is and what his enemy stands for, or what his enemy’s tactics and strategy are, then he is in a very bad position.

Similarly, having and using good information about the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses, and strategies, tactics and plans, is very valuable. If we understand Satan’s strengths and weaknesses, and strategies, tactics and plans, we can wage war successfully against him.

This may sound basic, and you may be tempted to disregard this point as minor, but I urge you to not be too hasty in doing that. There are a lot of people teaching exactly what Satan wants them to teach, and they have ended up unknowingly fighting on Satan’s side instead of against him.

The Pharisees are a perfect example – they went about teaching that Jesus was not the Messiah, which is exactly what Satan wanted them to do.

Teaching and receiving the truth is an important piece of the armor because one of the schemes of the devil is to suppress the truth (Rom 1:32, 2 Tm 3:8). Jesus said that the devil was a liar from the beginning (Jn 8:44) and is the father of lies.

If the truth is suppressed it is easy to get people to believe a lie. For example, if the church never proclaims that pre-marital sex is a sin then it is easy for the devil to get young unmarried couples to have pre-marital sex. Therefore, we should constantly proclaim the truths found in God’s word (the promises, the conditions, and so on) as well as the moral standard that God has set for us, as well as the defeat of Satan, so that all may know the truth. In the times of Christ, a man working without his loins girded was clumsy. It was even worse while fighting because then he had to be agile and move quickly. In the same way, without truth the Christian soldier is weak and ineffective before the devil.

Next, righteousness (i.e. doing what is right) is like a breastplate that protects your vital organs. God’s domain is righteousness, and Satan’s domain is unrighteousness. If there is any area of your life where you are not practicing what is right, then you are like a British soldier in World War II whose wife is a German. You can’t effectively wage war with an enemy if part of you is loyal to the enemy.

The devil would love to wound your vital organs so that you become and remain ineffective for God’s work. To do that all he has to do is to get you to do something wrong and to make it publicly known. That ruins your testimony and therefore your ability to serve God.

Moreover, if there is an area of your life that you haven’t submitted to God, then that is an area that he has power over you. When you give him power like that you are giving him the ability to control your life and mess it up. He will then have control of your time and your location and your thoughts. How will you then be able to effectively serve God? Whenever you are stirred up to serve God he will tempt you in the area that you have given him control, causing you to fall. Thus, you will never be able to do much for God because your vital spiritual organs are wounded.

For example, if you have a problem with being righteous in the area of sex then Satan will use it to pull you down repeatedly and hinder your testimony and your ministry.

Next, to shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace is to use every opportunity to go and give people the gospel. In a war, if your army is small and the enemy’s is big then you are at a disadvantage. Further, if there is a country that is currently neutral it is to your advantage to have that country join you. In the same way, there are many people out there who are not saved (i.e. not on your side). If you give them the gospel and they get saved (truly saved) then you have just made your position stronger and Satan’s position weaker. That is why part of your armor, and martial strategy, is to proclaim the true and full gospel everywhere so that your position is stronger and Satan’s is weaker.

Next, the shield of faith is what prevents Satan from crippling us and rendering us useless for the kingdom of God. We are crippled when we doubt God’s love for us, and when we are discouraged or in despair, and when things haven’t gone according to what we thought they should go.

Satan puts in our mind all sorts of thoughts that challenge what God has said. He did that right in the beginning to Eve, and he did it to Jesus. So you can be sure that he will also be doing it to us. These thoughts are like fiery missiles – if we allow them to touch us they will wound our spirits just as physical fiery darts would wound our bodies. Faith is like a shield that can render those darts harmless. In times of trials and temptations, when we choose to believe God’s word (and particularly His promises) rather than what our eyes and feelings tell us then we effectively quench those fiery missiles.

If you don’t know God’s promises then it is like going into battle without a shield – it will not be too hard to get you discouraged and to give up.

If you can’t recognize a fiery missile for what it is then you won’t even try to stop it and it will go right into you and do its damage.

Next, if you go into battle without a helmet, then the enemy can kill you with a single blow to the head. But if you had a helmet on, even many blows to the head will not take you out. Even if he doesn’t kill you with a blow to the head he can still hit you hard enough to confuse you and render you ineffective.

If you are not saved you still belong to Satan. God cannot use you. You are useless for God’s kingdom. Salvation takes us from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God. It takes us from the total power of Satan to the total power of God. Once we are saved Satan cannot touch us unless God allows him to. Salvation is like a helmet that prevents us from receiving a knockout blow on the head that kills us.

The present salvation is not the only aspect of our helmet. The hope of future salvation is also part of our helmet (1 Thess 5:8). As we look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus and the glorified body that we will get at that time we can withstand all the trials we may currently encounter (Rom 8:18).

Further, the helmet protects our head. Our head holds our brain and most of our sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose and mouth). With our sensory organs, we receive information that our brain uses to make decisions. With our brain, we know things. You must know on whose side you are on, and who is for you and who is against you. In particular, you must know that God is on your side.

If you are in a war, and you don’t know who your friend is and who your enemy is then you are going to be very confused, and you will not be a very effective soldier.

Our salvation is the deciding factor concerning who our friend is and who are enemy is. If you are saved, then God is on your side, and Satan and his demons are your enemies.

In war, there can be a lot of confusion, and what you see and hear can sometimes make you wonder whether God is really on your side. That is when the helmet of salvation comes handy – it lets you know for sure that, because you are saved, you are a child of God, and because you love God He will cause all things to work together for your God. So even if your eyes and ears seem to tell you otherwise, you can be steadfast in your knowledge that you are on the winning side.

The entire armor so far was for defense. We also have a part that can be used for offense. This is the Word of God, and it is likened to the sword of the Spirit. The Word of God is unbreakable (Jn 10:35) – i.e. it will come to pass. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to counter Satan and destroy him. Jesus used Scripture to counter Satan when He was tempted (Mt 4:1-11).

Satan’s kingdom is built and maintained via lies and deceit. When we preach the truth of God’s word and how to use that truth in our personal lives we damage Satan’s kingdom. When we expound the Word of God to give people a true understanding of God and of Satan we give them the tools they need to make themselves great warriors for God and against Satan.

18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,

20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

We are to pray at all times, in the Spirit.

This doesn’t mean that we are to pray continuously but that we are to pray at all times that there is a need to pray.

To pray in the Spirit means to pray with the Spirit’s help. If you have the gift of tongues it is a perfect way to pray in the Spirit (Rom 8:26-27).

We are to persevere in prayer, not giving up until an answer is heard (Lk 18:1-8).

We are to be alert when praying because the devil, who doesn’t like to see us praying will try to send all kinds of distractions to stop us from praying. He will even get us to start yawning and believe that we are feeling sleepy (1 Pet 4:7).

We should not just pray for our friends and family, but for all the saints whom God puts on our minds. This verse cannot mean all the saints in the world as then we would never stop praying.

We need to pray for those who lead the church and preach the word (Col 4:3-4), that they may do so with boldness and not have the fear of men. This is because they are special targets of Satan.

21 But that you also may know about my circumstances, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you.

22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts.

Paul sent this letter with Tychicus, and he tells the Ephesians that Tychicus will tell them all about his condition and circumstances. Paul considered Tychicus beloved and faithful. That was quite a commendation coming from Paul who was not afraid to say what he thought about people (1 Tm 1:20, 2 Tm 1:15-18, 2 Tm 4:10,11,14).

Even in his trials Paul was mindful of the Ephesians’ affection for him and he sent Tychicus to comfort them with information about him.

23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.

Just as at the beginning, Paul closes by wishing the brethren peace.

Paul also wishes them love that accompanies (or comes with) faith. Real peace and genuine love originate from God.

Paul also wishes grace to all who love God with an incorruptible love – a love that cannot be destroyed.