Ephesians Chapter 5 review

This morning is chapter 5 summary, so there's a whole lot of verses here, 33 of them, that obviously since we've already gone through all of chapter 5 verse by verse, this is a review, but there's a whole lot of stuff in here that's worth considering and taking in.

I wanted to kind of call out, oh see, there's more. I feel like we should redispense almost, or distribute. There's some context for Chapter 5 that I think is important that we should remember. One is that Chapter 5 is inspired, but the numbering is not. As we've been going... We can spread out, or we can add more tables. You sure? We can redistribute if we need to. Nope, you're going to sit back there. Oh, she's got the comfy chair too. She knows what's good. The numbering is not inspired.

What's often common for us to do is break the books down into chapters so that we can find an address so we can talk about a certain verse or principle. But one of the things that's worth looking at is that chapter 5 is part of a longer thought. kind of between chapter 4.1 and 6.9. And I would argue that 6.10, which goes into the spiritual armor, is kind of its own other section. It's related, but when we take into consideration that chapter 5 is part of a longer thought, it can kind of help us remember some of what Paul is arguing towards and building to as he's reasoning through this. Remember, Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles, and so he's working with reasoning more specifically.

The Jews would just say, it's true, therefore I do it. That's right, the law. If it's the law, this is the rules, and I do them. So when we read James or John or Peter, sometimes those books come across as a little bit more terse and legalistic. And it's not because they're being legalistic, it's just because they're coming from a Jewish background.

So Paul is building reasoning as he's moving through chapter 4 into chapter 5. So we should remember that the fact that chapter 5 is a number doesn't mean it's inspired. The chapter itself is, but the number is not. So remember there's some greater context for this. The other thing to remember as we go through the whole book of Ephesians is that Paul has been putting position before condition. In chapter 1, he talked about a position a lot. In chapter 2, he continued with that some. By the time we get to chapter 3, we start to see some of the more practical imperative kind of language come out that is building on the fact, yes, the shoe leather or the rubber meets the road, the fact that these doctrines are true should impact our lives in some way.

So Paul is appropriating what he wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.16, that all of the scriptures are inspired for, what is it inspired for? Does anybody have that memorized off the top of your head? What is it? 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

And so he's established the doctrinal truth and the second part is reproving and correcting and training in righteousness. So Paul is actually already been using this paradigm in his letters and when he instructs Timothy he says this is how we should approach using the scriptures as well. So we see that Paul is teaching about application in the second half of the letter.

The other thing I wanted to kind of highlight before we dig in to the actual text itself is that there's this Old Testament principle of walking. The Jews would have known walking. The Jews would have said, oh, walking, that's what we do. But why did the Jews use the term walking to mean day-to-day life? Do we know why that is? Is it because it's just an ongoing, never-ending thing that you're doing? In great part, that's the case. There's consistency.

In Deuteronomy, and I've got a list here, in Deuteronomy and in the Old Testament, there's four major ways that walking is expressed. One is walking in God's ways. One is walking is taught daily interaction, which I think is an important variation there. Third is walking leads to blessing. And fourth is the Messiah's walk.

So walking in God's ways was important because it meant you had to understand who God was. and then be living out a life that reflected an understanding of God. This was evangelistic to a certain degree, although the Jews by the time Christ came had pretty much stopped being evangelistic. They had separated into the liberal and the conservative groups, and there were different court systems, and the evangelism had kind of lost a lot of its oomph. And then walking as taught daily interaction. And part of what's important there is we see this idea that how we live in front of those around us impacts them.

So one of the instructions here, and let's turn to Deuteronomy 11, 19. I know we don't spend a lot of time in Deuteronomy, so hopefully you can remember where that's at. That's a joke. It's in the Old Testament. If you've got your Bibles, 1119. I was going to say, the ones from the Sanctuary don't have the Old Testament. It's on page 281. I'm just kidding. So 1119.

Imagine you receiving the law, and you've got 613 of them. Actually, this is one of them. 1119, you shall teach them to your sons, the laws to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them as long as the heavens remain above the earth. So the idea of walking was this, we live it, we talk it, we teach it, This is the law. So if you were Jewish and you grew up hearing walking, the idea is that even right there where he instructed in Deuteronomy, if you're going for a walk, you're talking. And you're talking about the law. And you're talking about God.

Now as it turns out, in my formative teenage years, my dad and uncle used to go for walks. And it was great because they talked about theology and I could just listen in. And I could sometimes ask questions. Sometimes the dumb ones. The ones that you go, oh man, how come he didn't know that? But it was really good because their talking and their walking influenced me immensely. When I actually did finally go to seminary, people were like, how do you know this already? And I was like, it's what we talked about.

So those principles still carry forward and are true in the New Testament. This idea of walking is to instill into the next generation the truth of what is the gospel, the truth of what is revealed in the text of the scriptures and should impact our lives on a daily basis. The point is not the law and the walking right, but the point is the communication and the living it out and being together with it. Alright, so let's take a look here and we'll actually dig into the text of the lesson here.

Now Paul starts out, he says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Now one of the things I was looking at here, we talked about being imitators, that was not a lesson I got to teach, but I was here for the class. But one of the things I got to thinking about in this that is kind of historically interesting is, do you remember in Acts, we've been going through Acts, do you remember in Acts Paul is warned in Acts 19.

He's warned by all the believers there. They say, don't go into the theater. Because he's like, I'm going into the theater. I'll preach the gospel and there's going to be a great audience and they can hear me better than if I was just out on the street or just in the synagogue. And so there's a riot that starts. And of course the people are yelling, great is Artemis. And they try to drag him into the theater.

I don't mention that because we are so concerned about what happened to Paul and Acts in this particular case, but it is important to remember that these people had one of the prominent theaters in all of the Roman Empire. What's a common thing that happens in theaters? Especially in comedy, I think. Group participation. But what do actors do? Have you heard of method acting? What do actors do? They imitate. Actors are part of the job of an actor.

So I had to play Herod in one of our Christmas plays. And I was the smiliest Herod ever, because I can't not smile. I've tried all the things where they're like, you need to think about somebody passing away, or think about something really sad. And I was like, still the smiliest Herod ever. I'm not a very good actor.

But in this case, Paul says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. The thing is that the people knew fake imitation. They knew how actors could pretend to be something. But Paul goes further and he changes why the imitation is happening. It's not theatrics. It's because we're beloved children.

Now, there's a whole bunch of things that could go off in a rabbit trail of parenting. And in fact, when we get into six, like we will next weekend, he says, children obey their parents in the Lord, for this is right. And he talks about children being obedient and parents parenting there. But what do we know about children and their parents and their understanding and their relationship of adulthood with their parents? Nora, you've been watching this for a while. We were talking about you having grandkids. Have you noticed that kids tend to look up to their parents and maybe observe some things? But this idea of being imitators as beloved children is a very different idea than mimicry.

I watched my dad and there were mistakes he made and he came and he apologized to me for those mistakes and that really made a big impact on my life because I knew through the apology that he knew that was not a good, well modeled behavior pattern and he didn't want to see me repeat it. I apologize to Abigail, hopefully not too often because I'm not screwing up that bad all the time, but when certain circumstances take place, I apologize because I know she's saying, okay, what does a dad look like? What does a husband look like? What does a mature male man, not a mature male man, a mature male, what does a man look like? And she's observing that. But the same is true that she observes Jessica in her household.

Sorry, I'm putting you on the spot. But the idea of God as the ultimate example is important. Now, let's ask yet another question in relationship to children and fathers. I'll first make a statement and then ask a question. I have a friend, Tony, whose dad due to his parents getting divorced was pretty much absentee. But he became a believer. Where does he go to for fatherhood? He goes to the Father, right?

And so he told me that one time. He said, Randy, the only Father that I know is worth following is my Heavenly Father. I was like, man, you're doing better than average. But he said, if you ever see something I'm doing that seems off by some way you grew up with a dad and you grew up with a dad that loved you, let me know. As it turns out, following the Heavenly Father as your role model meant he was doing pretty good. And by the way, I have Tony's permission to talk about these things. I don't normally talk about other people's private lives other than he's given me permission to talk about these things.

So we see here, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And he says, and he continues on, and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. So we have the idea of imitation as children. And then he says, and walk in love.

Now, did we already talk about love in this class? Does anybody remember any particular places that we talked about love in Ephesians? I'm asking because the answer is yes, but I'm wondering if you remember where. We're going to see that at the end of chapter 5. He's going to emphasize that firmly, but also what I was hoping we would remember is in chapter 3, starting in verse 17, he says, I'm sorry, I'm starting in verse 16.

He says, and that he would grant you, and this is a prayer, and that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Holy Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." And so Paul keeps re-hitting on this relationship between who we are in Christ and the love of Christ and how that impacts our interactions together, which is really huge.

What is the secular world in pagan mythology understand about love at this point in time. And frankly still today we tend to think this way in our culture. The games people play. So there's manipulation, right? And there is often a merit-based attitude towards love.

I did some pre-marriage counseling only once so far, but I did some pre-marriage counseling, and to tell a couple, you cannot come to one another and expect, you give me these certain results, and I'll give you these certain results, and as long as those results exist, we'll have a happy marriage. If you do that, you will be totally disappointed. It won't work. Either there will be health issues, or there will be financial issues, or there will be larger family issues, life. Instead, if we come with love, and it's 100% into 100% rather than 50-50 or some other ratio, then we see this love principle carry on. And of course we'll get into that more at the end of the chapter.

So then Paul continues on and in three through six he wants them to not be imitating unrighteousness. So he says, but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."

It's worth calling out in verse 5, does it sound like somebody who is doing sinful things isn't saved? It does sound that way. But let's read it carefully. Let's double check our work on this. He says, For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Being an idolater is a key element there.

They are not worshipping God. They are worshipping a false idol. That doesn't mean people won't sin. Even believers still sin. I know each one of us in this room is probably more righteous than me, but I still sin. The idea here is not that somebody has lost their salvation.

The idea is that they have not believed in Christ. It would be improper for the believer to be living out something that looks like the idolater. The point is that we know the idolater is not saved and is not going to inherit the kingdom of heaven. So why would the believer be mimicking that? So this idea of mimicking is still in play here. And then he says in 6, "...let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."

What are empty words? Anybody ever have some empty words given to them? All the time. We just had an election. Of course there were some empty words there, right? In the Greek, empty word actually means like a box or a vessel that has nothing in it. So it has the appearance of substance, right? Like if I handed you a cup when you walked into the coffee room and it was empty, you could put something in it. If I handed you a cup and I put my hand over it so it looked like it had something in it, you'd be like, oh, what is Randy handing me?

And then you looked at it and it was empty. You'd be like, well, what did he do that for? It's what magicians do all the time, right? Magicians with sleight of hand. They hand you something that makes you think it's something and then it disappears, right? So the idea of an empty vessel or empty words here leading to deception is important.

When we talk about philosophy and worldviews, how many times when you watch the news, you have two opposing views, right? And they're opposing viewpoints and opposing philosophies. I'm guessing that based on how the news ratings work, they want you to identify with one of the two positions, right? Or if they have three positions, right?

You'll say, look at such empty words, and you'll identify with one of the two, right? In this case, with philosophy being the way it was in the Roman culture, they esteemed philosophy greatly. The Greek philosophers, the Roman philosophers were well regarded, but their words were based on human thinking and not God's revelation, and so they're empty words.

The interesting challenge is the hook. Thomas Aquinas' imitation of Christ. So his law based versus spirit. That's interesting. It's a challenging hook sometimes to get that square way. Yeah, so we have some friends who are reformed. They're not dispensational like we are at Holly Hills and I was talking to one of them And he said, oh, you're against the law. I said, I'm not against the law. I'm after the law. There's a term, antinomianism, which means no law. Paul asserts the law.

So how do we know that we're not under the law anymore? Because of scripture. Well, because of scripture. But what does scripture tell us? It says that we're not under the law. He says we're not under the law, but why? What did Christ do? He fulfilled it and we are crucified with Him. We are identified with Him. So the part of us that could be under the law has been crucified and buried and resurrected and ascended. and seated. And so we're post-law, we're post-Nomian, if we're going to use these theological mumbo-jumbo words, right?

The idea here in this case, though, is that the emptiness of the philosophy and the emptiness of this idea that we're going to fulfill the law, or the law was written on our hearts in misappropriation of Jeremiah 30, that those things are not there. They're philosophical. but they're not what's revealed in the text. We have to know what's in the text of the scripture so that when someone comes to us with empty words we can identify that's a lie. That's empty words. It's deception.

We're going to go into Galatians in the main service starting next Sunday. What did the Judaizers do? Do you have a song for us, Tom? They brought back the law and they used empty words to justify it and they deceived and so Paul makes some very strong statements. Okay, now we have a song.

That meant no God, no grace, no Christ in that person's life. The law to the law. Alright, so we have this idea of imitation and the contrast between imitation and the establishing of the believer in Christ. And then starting in verse 7, Paul is going into verse 21. Paul has got three different ideas that he's going to talk about being involved in. The first one is partaking. The second one is participating or fellowship. And the third one is being.

Does this remind anybody of a psalm? Anybody remember Psalm 1-1? I'm going to turn there real fast. Psalm 1-1. See if this sounds familiar. Psalm 1-1 is a pretty powerful Psalm, because there are some principles here. He says, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.

So the first person is still moving, but listening. The second person has stopped and is taking it in. And the third person has now become fully integrated in the process of wickedness. When we take a look here in Ephesians 5, we'll see that Paul is warning them not to partake, not to have fellowship or participate, and to not be. So those same three stages, he's warning against here as well. So, starting in verse 7, he says, therefore do not be partakers with them, these people who are offering empty words and being deceptive.

For you are formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light. So that's the second time he's talked about children, right? Children of God, now children of light. For the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.

The fruit of the Spirit is described elsewhere in Galatians a little differently than that, but the principle is the same. trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And I thought that was kind of interesting. If you're Jewish, what's pleasing to the Lord? If you grew up in the law? Sacrifice? Perfection? Obedience? Right? Is that what's pleasing to the Lord in the New Testament? No, it's not. So they're going to have to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

But if you grew up with Greek mythology, what's pleasing to the gods in Greek mythology? Dionysus was the god of drunkenness. So if you want to make Dionysus happy, get drunk. Well, we're going to see in verse 18 that's not God's plan, right? But do what is pleasing to the Lord. We've got to find out what's pleasing to the Lord. It's pretty much counterculture. What's pleasing to the Lord isn't what the Greeks and the Romans and the Jews were doing. Then he says in 11, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. Now let's talk about this exposing evil deeds.

I was super legalistic, and Jessica knows how super legalistic I was. When we first started dating, I told her she had to get rid of all of her secular CDs because they weren't of the Lord. For some reason she complied with that, although in hindsight that was so legalistic.

It wasn't rooted in any way in the truth of the scriptures. It was rooted in a rigidity that I expected, and unfortunately I didn't understand grace. So I wanted to expose the evil, but it turns out I wanted to expose the evil in everyone else, but I hoped no one ever saw it in me. Does that sound familiar? Maybe no one else had that problem. What is the key issue here?

Is Paul talking about believers walking in judgment and legalism? He's talking about being a standard for righteousness and being a standard where when you're doing evangelism, You have to help someone understand that they're in a place that needs redemption. So that's going to be exposing darkness for what it is. But that's not the same as coming in with a sledgehammer of legalism and when they walk away they feel either that Christians are jerks or utterly broken but have still not responded to the gospel.

Right? I've had that happen before where I was preaching the gospel and someone said, I don't believe that sin is real. I was like, okay, let's just go look at the news. Let's go to news.google.com and we will just see how many of these are righteous acts that the news is reporting on. Turns out, not a lot. Instead, it's problems and sin and shortcoming. I didn't even have to go into his own life at that point in time. He still ended up rejecting the gospel, which makes my heart sad still to this day. Still praying for the dude.

But when we expose what's evil, what are we focusing attention on? The evil? Yourself. Okay, we're exposing the sin nature on ourselves, but we're also at the same time, hopefully, if we're understanding this correctly, pointing to Christ, because He's the solution. So this idea of exposing what's happening in the darkness is not just so that we can be legalistic or condescending or any of those things, but instead that we would be looking at verse 14 here. For this reason it says, Awake sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. You're dead in your sins, but instead let's look to Christ and have his light shine on you and respond to the gospel.

In 15, he says, therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. Now, wisdom is knowledge applied. We learn and we know something and we walk wisely. That's what Paul's been doing through this whole book. He's saying here's who you are in Christ. Here's your position. Wisdom is applying that to your condition, applying that to your daily life. Now, if you were a Gentile, wisdom was a big deal.

But what did the Gentiles like to do with philosophy? Do we know what they liked to do with philosophy? They would twist it around for their own ends, but also what they would do, and this is really unfortunate, is they would run through things intellectually and then not appropriate them into their daily lives. What made, and I'm going to be very careful how I say this, what made things like science, amazing and modern technologies, we tested it out, at the time it was very theoretical.

Hey, I really think that 1,000 pounds of feathers will fall slower than 1,000 pounds of lead or whatever else might be there. That could actually happen that it would fall more slowly because of surface area. We could kind of argue why that is, but their weight difference might bring them to the same falling, but they would never test it out. They would never test that out. That wasn't necessary. It was just hypothetical and philosophical.

Alright, so they want to walk with wisdom, making the most of their time because the days are evil. So basically, don't do foolish things, but do wise things because the number of days that you have is short. And then in 17, so then do not be foolish, but understand. Sorry, I'm on page 3 if you're following along in the handout. learning what is pleasing with the Lord. Then he says, do not participate in leaven. So I wanted to make sure we covered that. Do not participate. The idea of participation is fellowship. It's a sun koinonia. That's the Greek. Sun is together like symphony. Koinonia is fellowship. So don't come together in fellowship with unfruitful deeds. Don't walk or partake. Don't stand. Don't fellowship. And he's going to continue on in 18. He's going to say, do not be And in 15, be careful, right?

So the idea of being, how we are being, what we're doing on a day-to-day basis matters a lot. Make the most of your time for the days are evil, so then do not be foolish, and there's that repetition of wisdom, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So what's the will of the Lord? This is an important question for us to be able to answer.

Grow to full stature in God's love, grace, and the Holy Spirit's teachings. And Paul already emphasized that for us in chapter 4, didn't he? When we were looking in chapter 4 we saw starting in verse 11 through 15 he says and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Now, we've already been over those verses, so we won't re-exposit those, but the principle of growth and maturity and coming together is a really big deal.

What happens if we just preach the gospel, somebody becomes a believer, and we do like has happened in some of these crusades where we say, go find a good church. What's the spiritual maturity of an infant in Christ? Almost nothing. They probably can tell you the gospel and that's about it. So what's a good church? If you're a babe in Christ, how do you know? You don't.

So as believers, if we look at chapter 4, the idea that we might preach the gospel and then bring somebody into the church, it's to prepare and equip and bring them in and help them gain maturity. If we look at what's going on here in chapter 5, these are babes being instructed with certain things about how their lives should be lived, but also mature believers being instructed about how their lives should be lived. As it turns out, how we appropriate that might change over time. As I've grown in my walk with the Lord, my understanding has deepened, and as I've re-read the passages of Scripture, I see things that I didn't see before.

Right? Is that something that you have experienced? Is it just me? I hope not. But the idea here is that we have this wisdom and with this idea that we're not done. We're being conformed to the image of the Lord. God's will is that we're conformed to the image of Christ.

Then in verse 18, he says, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. So here's this be principle again. Don't be like the drunkard, but be like the person who's filled and fulfilled by the Holy Spirit. And the spirit moving in you is going to cause you to be speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. And we talked about the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

It's probably worth noting today we're used to a high literacy rate. And we have the internet. I don't know if everybody in this room constantly goes to the internet for new information or to re-look things up. But I find it's very common in our household, if you don't know something, you just quickly search for it on the internet. And you don't have to memorize as many things because you have this digital memory that can pull those things up again. But if you're in the church, in the first century church here, and you're waiting for this revelation from the Lord because the New Testament isn't done, how are you going to spread the doctrines?

Talk while you walk and sing them, because singing is a great mnemonic tool. So the idea of integrating that melody there is for sharing and disseminating. In today's modern vernacular, we talk about things being a meme or things being viral. The same idea here, if it's a melody that's worth singing, you're going to remember it, and you're going to remember the words, and you're going to be able to go sing those things and share them.

Then he says in 20, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Well, we can check that off our checklist. We had Thanksgiving Thursday, so we've got a whole year of not having to be thankful, right? Is that how that goes?

I have a comment. It seemed like from 18 where it said, fill with the Spirit, when we covered that, it seemed like there is this concept of being satisfied. Filled and fulfilled. I thought that was a good point that was raised at that time. Be fulfilled. Satisfied.

And then this kind of links into always giving thanks. And I wonder about being thankful for what? Everything in my ways, everything that's worldly. Thank you that I made that touchdown. Thank you that I got a good parking spot. And then I think, I don't know if you guys think like this, but what about spiritual things, being thankful for? It's a contrast between the goodies in this world. Are we to be thankful for those? It just seems odd. Is that really a spiritual thing to think, great, I won a jackpot. Thank you God.

He says all things. The funny thing is that the three letter word is the hard word. It's not any of the other words in there. He says all things. one of the biggest challenges because it's really easy to be callous or skeptical or say that's a coincidence. That's what the world says all the time, right? I like that you made a comment on that. All means all. That's all, all is. Well, and all is the bad too. Thankful for the bad.

So let's jump over to 1 Peter 1 verse 7. This is a challenging verse but I think it's really valuable to kind of see how the trials and the difficulties are are played out. We'll start in verse 6 just because that's where the sentence starts. So 1 Peter 1, 6 and 7.

He says, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary you have been distressed by various trials. So that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So there's a whole bunch of stuff in this verse, and if we properly exposit it, we will not make it to the second bell. But the thing that's important there is that this idea, the proof of your faith, is actually like an assayer testing the metal for quality. So he's saying there, even though right now you've got various trials, so that the proof or the verification of the value of your faith which is more precious than gold. So that's why he's using the assay word and gold. It's actually a parallel. He's trying to make an analogy there. It's tested by fire. You test the gold by fire. How much junk floats to the top, right? But what is left is valuable.

And so we praise the Lord that even though the trials can sometimes feel like fire, we praise the Lord that He's proved things out. Pat, you and I had talked about when our sewage main collapsed. I knew the word said, I need to praise the Lord and be thankful. So I did, with great wonder as to what the Lord was going to do in it. But there were several things that happened during that trial that proved out God's faithfulness. And I could only sit back in wonder and awe and go, why is God so loving and kind that even in the midst of this trial I can see his fingerprints in it? So the idea here of all things and giving thanks in all things isn't that it's easy, it's that we know who God is. And so that's a key distinction there. If we know who God is, then we can be thankful. If we are just relying on our own strength and our own wisdom and our own knowledge, then we'll be like the unwise people above, right? And so we go, this stinks. I don't like it. I don't understand it. I don't want it.

If you gave me a choice between a million dollars in the lottery and having my sewage main collapse, I'd pick the million dollars every time. But God's like, you need to grow in the sewage main collapse. So I'm going to be thankful. As it turns out, I know enough people with money that I know I don't want that problem right now.

So anyways, let's keep going. Our time is limited, but we'll keep going here and we won't get to finish. But since the last several weeks were 22 through 33, I won't feel so bad about it. So Paul says, And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. This is huge.

In any culture, of the day, either modern time American culture or even in the biblical times, which is of course when Paul was writing this, who loves humility? God loves humility, but nobody else, right? When was the last time you saw a tweet from the president that showed humility? Right? That's not normal. And I'm not saying that to make a political statement. I'm just saying that's not normal, especially for somebody in a position of leadership.

But Paul says, hey, serve each other. What did Christ do at the very end of his ministry? He washed their feet. Which Peter was like, Lord, no. And God said, I have to do it. And he goes, OK. Wash my whole body then. Jesus was probably shaking his head like, you goober. But the idea of subjection or submission to one another in the fear of Christ is huge.

I've had people ask me, when I do music, why do certain things happen? And the answer to that question is most often, if somebody doesn't like something, it's because I'm trying to serve someone else in the body. This person doesn't like this, so I'm doing this. Now it turns out I can never make all the people happy all the time, but the idea of serving in music ministry to be subject to other believers means that we don't have all kinds of things that you might find in a church down the street with the big fancy sound stuff. Because it would be a stumbling block for some people. So we don't do it. That's just one example.

Now, he takes this principle of subjection or serving or submitting to one another and he continues on to talk about marriage in that light. So if you turn to page 505 there in the handout, I did the terrible thing of making a grid This is the most engineering thing.

I don't know why I have two after the word verse there, so you can scratch that out or ignore it. But 22, he says, wives submitting to husbands as to the Lord. 23 and 24, husband is head of the wife, Christ is head of the church. So I tried to draw out the parallels that are being illustrated there. But there are a few places where there are gaps. In 33, he says, husbands love your wives as yourselves. Wives respect your husbands.

He says those are things we talked about in the earlier verses, but they should still apply to you. They're not just the church and Christ. The marriage principles presented here are very practical for the marriages of believers, but think about this. They're also, because this is about Christ and the church, These principles are not just about marriage, they are about how we serve in the body.

If Christ is our head and I'm supposed to submit to you, or be subject to you, and I know that Christ is your head as well, then that's less of a deal, isn't it? That's not political. Politics is when we try to make it personal and not about Christ. When we have politics in the church, That's because we have not made it about Jesus, we've made it about ourselves.

But if I look and I say, everyone in this room is subject to Christ and I'm subject to Christ, then my interaction with you can be in humility. So it's easy to look at this from the marriage side, and you'll hear this in weddings, you'll hear this in pre-marriage counseling, or in marriage counseling. But the principles that are here about Christ and His love for the body, the principles that are here that are about us and our walk together, still reign. Christ nourishes the church as His own body.

That's you. That's me. We're being nourished, or we should be. And if we see somebody not being nourished, what's that an opportunity for? That's a big deal. Our time is up. I do want to emphasize that these chapters are kind of arbitrary. Because when we pick up next week in 6.1, and I'll be teaching again there, he's going to be talking about parenting. In 5, he's going to be talking about slavery, which is actually one of my favorite topics to have to cover. That's sarcasm.

But the idea that's there is there's some great depth that's continuing on this idea of subjection. Any other thoughts or questions before we close in prayer? No? Alright. Heavenly Father, we come before you. We're super grateful for chapter 5 and how it relates to chapters 1 through 4 and chapter 6. We just pray for a loving in Christ sort of attitude in our own lives that we may be able to encourage and edify one another through you. In Jesus name, Amen.