Live Long and Prosper =)

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Well, I think Jordan and Scott have said it all and said it well. It is a command that leaves no room for discussion or excuses. Obey is defined in Webster’s: to comply with the commands…of a superior; to submit to the government of; to be ruled by; to submit to the direction. Yep, that’s pretty clear. Honor is defined as: to revere; to respect; to treat with deference and submission; to manifest the highest veneration for, in words and actions (had to look up “veneration” :) : it’s another word for respect and reverence; respect mingled with some degree of awe); to entertain the most exalted thoughts of; to worship. Well…ok, some of those definitions go a tad beyond what we’re called to (i.e. exalted thoughts, worship, etc :) but they definitely leave a mark in the sand that I have SO often fallen waaay far away.

Not having kiddos but still having the opportunity to watch various ones grow up and be a part of their lives, I can see how it can be easy to “provoke your children to anger.” How often I have experienced the temptation to esteem my preferences over their own and to selfishly get my agenda done over what may serve them better. This in turn can provoke kids to anger. …and this is just from my limited observations! I so respect parents. =D

And how grateful I am that God does NOT provoke me to anger!! Oh, how glorious that He does not! He doesn’t exalt His plans above me without giving thought to how it will affect me – He has intricately woven His plans to include becoming His BEST for me. I have only to look at Scripture to see how He leads, guides and cares for His children. And this in turn encourages me that no matter what I go through, it is not the result of His provoking me but part of His plan to more conform me into the image of His Son, discipline me and instruct me in His ways. What an incredible example parents have to follow!!!

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Well…this is an interesting concept. Thinking about Paul’s writing this to the Ephesians and, seeing as there was most likely slaves in the church who would hear this letter, I wonder what their reaction was to this. As a slave, your only way to “better” your life was by almost groveling to your master – by doing as much as possible as well as possible so that you might be noticed and moved “up” in the realm of a slaves’ life. So to be told to obey their master (was he kind? Or cruel? Foolish or wise? It didn’t matter according to what Paul says) with a sincere heart and not to people-please must have caused some of them to sit back and think. What did that mean doing differently? Perhaps it was those tasks no one wanted to do – the ones the master never cared to know about and so were never considered worth doing by those who were eager to get out of their current position. Perhaps it was in beginning to actually love those whom they served rather than pretending to love them.

I cannot begin to imagine what this must have been like and how it would have rocked their world…. “Love Christ? Sure! He died for me!! Love my master? No way – he locks me up each night like an animal.” However, I do know what it is like to people-please. I do know what it is like to serve someone with the motive of how this best serves me or makes me look good. And I do know what it is like to show partiality to someone. Yet Christ has called me to live the opposite of what my sinful nature immediately drifts to and what, as Scott pointed out, is so popular in our culture right now.

Christ came into the world not to be served but to serve. (Matthew 20:28) He, as Master, showed no partiality – inviting even the littlest of children (Matthew 19:14) and loving the unlovely expecting nothing in return (John 4; Luke 19).