Ephesians 6 Part 1 – Christians At Home And At Work!

by Michael Robson

Paul continues in this chapter his “focus on the family, on the theme that he had began to write about in Eph.5:22-33, to husbands and wives. In this section he talks to children, parents (fathers), bondslaves and masters (or employers and employees). This is important because, “…whenever there is a breakup of family value, where there is disrespect and disobedience of parents, and authority, that society will not last long” (IVP Commentary on Ephesians).

Also, as Dale put it, “Parents should care more about the loyalty of their children to Christ than for anything besides, more for this than for their health, their intellectual vigour and brilliance, their material prosperity, their social position, their exemption from great sorrows and great misfortunes.”

There are always going to be the critics who say things like, “Paul supported slavery”, or “Why doesn’t the Bible say something against the slave trade?” They should read the little book of Philemon, in which a “former slave” had become a Christian, and returned home as “a brother in Christ”! Philemon would never look on Onesimus in the same way again! And the same goes for all employer/employee relationships, especially when both are Christians.

Michael Robson