«Children, obey your parents In the Lord, for this is right» (Ephesians 6:1).
PAUL BEGINS the last chapter of Ephesians by giving an assignment to the children: that they obey and honor their parents (Eph. 6:2). Honoring is more than obeying. To honor is to dignify and respect; while obeying is complying with standards. We can obey without honor, but we cannot honor without obeying.
However, the apostle also gives a command to the parents: Do not provoke your children to anger but seek to educate them in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). In other words: respect your children’s feelings; and may that respect be guided by God’s will.
In the context of slavery, Paul tells the servants to obey their masters. He is not promoting subordination, but respect. The idea is: everyone must learn to live well with others: the employer and the worker.
In addition, in Ephesians 6 he talks about wearing the armor of God. This means making God our only security. The armor is itself a clear illustration of what the believer needs to be victorious.
Paul emphasizes a message for the four groups present in this chapter: believing children, believing parents, believing servants, and believing masters. Paul’s message is one of harmony. How can we achieve harmony if today, even more so than in Paul’s day, we have division between parents and children, between workers and employers?
Harmony is the correct balance, proportion and correspondence between the different components of a whole. That is to say, it is a relationship of peace, harmony, and understanding between two or more people.
In 1899, two people died: Robert Ingersoll and Dwight L. Moody. The first was a lawyer, speaker, politician, and agnostic. He argued that the Bible is an obscenity. He died without hope. The family did not want to bury him for several days. They had him there in their house, until the police forced them to do so. Without faith, it was all anguish and despair. The second was a great preacher. In one of his last sermons he had said: «One of these days you will read that Moody died. Don’t believe it. I was born of the flesh in 1837 and the spirit in 1855. He who is only born of the flesh dies, but the one who is born of the spirit, although he is dead, will live.»
This is the true harmony that only the presence of God can give: harmony with God, with ourselves, with our family, and with others.
