Christian Households – Ephesians 6:1-9

Context

Thus far in Ephesians we’ve seen the depth and the beauty of Christian doctrine. The doctrine that makes known God’s amazing grace to us in and through His Son who loved us, lived for us, died for us, rose again and ascended on high in power to ever intercede for us. Jesus, the Son of God, has shown Himself victorious over sin, Satan, and death. And that same victorious power, the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, dwells within us, empowering us to live for Him. And that’s what we’ve also been seeing in Ephesians.

We’ve seen the depth and the beauty of Christian doctrine, but we’ve also seen the importance and all encompassing nature of Christian duty. Christians are those who are united to Christ. We are in Christ and thus we are the bride of Christ and the body of Christ, and as such we are to live for the glory of Christ. We are to bring every area of life into joyful submission to the Lordship of Christ, starting in the church, then the home, and then the world. We want to seek to apply all of God’s Word to all of life in all the world for God’s glory, the good of God’s church, and the life of God’s world. And because we have the Holy Spirit within us, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead to gospel-victory, we are empowered to do so. We can live out our identity in Christ by the power of the Spirit of Christ. And so far in Ephesians we’ve seen how to do that in the church, and last week we started looking at what that looks like in the home, and that’s what we’ll continue today. So look with me at Ephesians 6:1-9.

Ephesians 6:1-9

Starting in verse 1 Paul says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” So we’ve gone from husbands and wives, to the children. Paul is intentionally addressing each member of the household, and that’s because God generally deals with His people by household. Our households are to be Christian households, because our households are in covenant with the Lord. A covenant is a solemn bond that is sovereignly administered with attendant blessings and curses. And that’s how God deals with His people, via covenant. God deals covenantally with households because households are a microcosm of the church and the state—one is supposed to reflect and set the pattern for the others. 

Going all the way back to Genesis 3:15, we see that God does not just deal with Adam and Eve, but with them and their whole household, promising blessings to their children who walk by faith in His promises. The same happened with Noah and his family. Out of all of humanity, only Noah found favor in God’s sight, and so God confirmed and reestablished the Adamic covenant with Noah. But, in God’s grace he saved Noah and his whole household from the flood, and extended His covenant promises to all of them. This is how it was with Abraham as well. In Genesis 17:7 God said, “I will confirm my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” To you and your household.

Notice the language of everlasting covenant… That same language was used with Noah as well. And God makes it clear that He’s not making a new covenant with Noah, but confirming the one He already made with Adam, which is what he’s doing with Abraham as well. And this is what the Reformed Church has always believed. God gives one grand Covenant of Grace that extends and reforms over many administrations. As we have seen preciously, “God’s Covenant is the free bond of union, communion, and love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, into which God sovereignly and graciously brings believers and their children (households) to live with Him in mutual love and faithfulness” (John Barach). It’s an everlasting covenant that gets clearer, better, and more