Godliness: How to Work LIke are Jesus and Working For Jesus

Godliness: How to Work Like You are Jesus and Working For Jesus

Read Ephesians 6:1-10
There are better more experienced men and women who can teach us life lessons on how to have a fulfilled marriage, or how to raise great children and be an ethical employee/employer. But then preaching was never meant to be life lessons- preaching is worship that magnifies the Lord to our hearts and minds causing us to magnify him from our hearts and minds.

That doesn’t mean that life lessons shouldn’t flow from biblical preaching. The danger is that we might fall into the trap of many Evangelicals in which Jesus has effectively become a functional saviour and nothing else; a saviour who saves us from a functional hell (like loneliness, unfulfilled dreams, a bad marriage, or poor self esteem) resulting in functional preaching that is all about ‘how to’s’ as though the cruelty and violence of the cross should in the 21st century translate into 7 steps to successful parenting by dating your daughter or Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Christian.[1]

Paul ran the risk of playing into that by writing such a highly practical letter to the Ephesians. That risk is compounded by the preacher who carves the letter up into bite-sized chunks and preaches it over weeks or months so that we lose the flow and flavour of the thought in the letter; the urgency and immediacy of Paul’s thoughts, which likely took less then an hour to put into writing, becomes stale.

To that charge, I must confess, I am guilty as charged and therefore propose to remedy my culinary mutilation of this soul food by briefly reviewing the menu to remind us how we arrived at today’s feast. Let’s look at Paul’s argument so far: Macarthur lists some of the key themes of Ephesians[2]; they include:
our riches in Christ [which] are based on His grace… His peace… His will… His pleasure and purpose… His glory… His calling and inher-itance… His power and strength… His love… His workmanship… His Holy Spirit… His offering and sacrifice… and His armor….

Some of the key words include words like:
“riches” is used 5 times in this letter; “grace” is used 12 times; “glory” 8 times; “fullness” or “filled” 6 times; and the key phrase “in Christ” (or “in Him”) some 12 times.

In the first three chapters Paul deals with God’s purpose for the Christian life: Predestination; Redemption; the Riches of our Inheritance; our new life and unity in Christ. The first half of the book is doctrinal and the second half is about how that doctrine works out in day to day life. Beginning in chapter four we are told to walk worthy of our calling with humility, gentleness, tolerance, and love (4:1-6). Then Paul describes the organization of the church as well as its spiritual nature in the context the spiritual gifts (4:7-16). Finally, in chapter 5, which we began three weeks ago, Paul commands us to imitate God by becoming like Jesus and submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord.

At this point Paul offers 3 relationship doublets about practical ways of submitting to one another:

1. Wives submit to husbands and husbands to wives;
2. children submit to fathers and fathers to children;
3. slaves submit to masters and masters to their slaves.

This is where we get into tips for practical living and are tempted to turn to secular theories and cultural concepts. Such preaching finds the solution to today’s dysfunctional family in returning to the good old days when father knew best. Or it may surrender to our culture’s stereotype of Christianity with sermons on How Ned Flanders is a Model Christian Father. Either solution misses the fact that the purpose of Paul’s exhortations is not our own success, but the success of the gospel!

But why not successful living tips- it grows churches; it’s what Christians want to hear; it’s relevant. Right? I don’t think so. I think that if we are to be truly relevant and successful in our marriages and parenting and work ethics as well as in our preaching about it, then we will inevitably and increasingly make ourselves irrelevant to an unbelieving world in which serial monogamy, illegitimate pregnancy, rebellious youth, extended adolescence, worker disloyalty and contempt has become high fashion.

What makes the Bible relevant to the 21st century family and work? Christ makes it relevant, and without him, all our family values and all our work ethics, all our functional Christianity are irrelevant. But Ephesians chapter 5 will not allow that to happen if the text is preached and lived in a way that is faithful to what the Holy Spirit intended. And that is that in each admonition to submission, Christ is its object and subject (not husband and wife, not father and child, and not worker and employer). That’s what makes this message relevant.

So when Christ is the center a wife’s submission, it’s worship as unto the Lord; when Christ is the center of the husband’s submission onto his wife it’s love as Christ loves; when Christ is central to a child’s submission to his parents it’s life-extending honor; when Christ is central to a father’s submission to his children it’s wrath-evading nurture and instruction; when Christ is central to our submission to our employer it’s liberating obedience; when Christ is central to our submission as employers and supervisors, it has a great equalizing effect turning master and slave into brethren in Christ who is their true master.

That’s the theory, that’s the doctrine, but here’s where it all breaks down: If I come home from work every day and the conversation around the dinner table is all about how I told off my supervisor or my boss today. Or suppose I come home and all my conversation is about knocking the decisions that my boss made and portraying him in a demeaning manner- what have I done? For one thing I have violated scripture, “Let as many bondservants… count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed” (1 Tim 6:1).

And in doing so, I have effectively modeled how to ignore scripture to my wife and children. “If Dad can violate the command to submit, without fear of blaspheming God, then why should I listen to what the Bible says about submitting to my parents… or believing that Jesus is the only way for that matter.”

If my wife sees me lacking obedience to my boss as though he were the anti-Christ, how can I ever expect her to be in submission to me as though I were Christ? As a result of my rebellion, I lead my family away from godliness possibly ship-wrecking their faith.

And this doesn’t just happen when servants disobey their masters, it also happens when parents lack submission to others (disobeying Paul’s command in 5:21): if every Sunday after you leave church disparaging the pastor, tearing apart his sermon, criticizing the worship, disapproving of the Sunday school teacher and the deacon or whomever; and all that is before your wife and children- then you have set the stage for your children’s rebellion not only against you, but possibly also against God.

So it all begins in the work place and works backwards; work ethics set the pace for the whole family. Let’s look at how Paul describes Christian work ethics:

1. Fear and Trembling
This is not fear and trembling of your employer. It’s fear and trembling of God that translates into a certain level of reverence for your superior. I think many Asian cultures do this well. Even their languages are generally geared towards respecting others. We North Americans are sometimes too familiar, too casual with our seniors and with people who deserve honor and it becomes an attitude and a lifestyle of complete and utter disrespect.

One the other hand, fear and trembling does not mean we should submit to an abusive employer. If our safety is at risk, if we are being miss treated or under paid and over worked, then we ought to find another job and leave in a Christ like manner.

2. Sincerity (simplicity) of heart
This has to do with liberality of pureness of heart. It means mental honesty; free of hypocrisy and pretense. In other words, be genuinely in submission. People can see through flattery and fakery- remember Eddy Haskel from Leave it to Beaver? Your motives are Christ, not reputation, not climbing the corporate ladder, not anything else- submission with a simple heart.

3. Not With Eye Service
Eye service has to do with your integrity- what you do when no one’s looking. Character is not who you are when people see you doing good. True character… true integrity is doing good when no one is there to reward you and commend you. Don’t let the presence of your employer cause you to put on an act; your coworkers will hate you and he will soon find out. Work in such a way as to be motivated by Christ who is always present.

4. Not as Men Pleasers
This has to do with ambition; working hard in order to be advanced rather then working hard to please God and trusting him to advance you. Daniel is an example of someone whose labour was not as men-pleasing. When a Law restricted him from praying, Daniel showed true submission and honored his superiors by honoring his obligation to God, and he continued to pray. It resulted in him being convicted of the death penalty. In the end though, Daniel outlived his enemies and became the number two man in all of Persia.

5. From the Heart with Goodwill
This is about having a pure heart. Jesus said, “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mat 5:8). True character comes from a heart that is full of good will towards others- goodwill towards coworkers; good will towards your supervisor or employer; goodwill towards God.

Conclusion:
The point is that these commands are not simply life lessons, they are about how to be a living sacrifice- the odor of Christ; how to worship Christ in your marriage; how to incarnate the gospel in loving your wife, how to fulfill the Royal Law by loving your neighbour and your parent as yourself; how to nurture your children so that they will know and trust Jesus; how to obey Christ by obeying your boss.

The sad thing is that Christians sometimes have the worst reputation, both as employers and as employees. What does that do for the glory of the gospel? I think it’s because they’ve lost heart. They’ve “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man” (Rom 1:23). They forgot who they were doing it for and their submission became servitude rather then worship, love, honor, nurture and fraternity to Christ. “…glory, honor, and peace [is] to everyone who works what is good” (Rom 2:10); “he who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (2 Cor 10:17). Let’s do it for Christ.

[1] In this functional gospel, if our hell is therapeutic, then we want to hear sermons about our psychological saviour; if our hell is financial, we want to hear sermons about our economic saviour; if our hell is relationships, want sermons about our friend saviour. And so preaching has become a means of doling out weekly messages about a functional saviour and three steps on how to stave off the hell of unfulfilled felt needs.
[2]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) Nashville: Word Pub.