ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry
SABBATH BIBLE STUDY
7-8
(2019)
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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com
Ephesianism
(The Family Church)
A study of Ephesians Ch. 5:22-6:9
Throughout this study of the doctrine revealed in Ephesians a great emphasis has been placed upon the “Beloved”, both the dear children of the father, as well as the beloved wife of the Son whom is to the father Beloved in first place, and by him the church as a wife receives her place.
The Beloved Son is he who gave up part of himself, that is of his own bodily substance in eternity past, that is before the foundation of the world as to have a portion or inheritance which is called the Beloved, they are adopted children by the father, but a beloved wife to the son, a scripture which came to me concerning this language was Exo_21:9 And if a father have betrothed a woman unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. Therefore the Law very much depicts the relationship of the Beloved of the son of a family as an adoption, as we even still communicate a daughter in law.
These “in laws” or adopted children are those whom have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. Eph_1:11-12
When that daughter is chosen to be the bride of a son, she is immediately chosen to have an inheritance in that Family she is adopted into according to biblical Torah law. This concept is yet with us in the wife taking the husband’s name, as if she were born of that family, though she is indeed not, but is treated as if she were a full member and of the same flesh and bone.
Ephesians 1 confirmed that this bodily relationship causes the Beloved family to consider their faith in this adoption, which is trust in this word of truth, as the first priority of life and existence, it is the good news or gospel of your salvation: made known after that you believed, it is the Family seal upon the heart, it is in fact that holy Spirit of promise in your heart by Faith confirming the riches of God’s Grace.
Beloved children were always known to God but did themselves have awareness of their status as Beloved to Christ, they once walked according to the course of this world, as the children of disobedience, whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Therefore, Beloved children know they have been made alive by the quickening of Christ and in the faith placed into the heart by the Holy Spirit through the operation of grace.
When this happens to our heart it is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. That is all we do is to Glorify he family name we are adopted unto.
Though this people of God’s Election and who are Beloved had been lost, blinded and dead in sin, they have been and some yet are scattered through the nations (Gentiles) of Abraham’s promise, they are predestined to be redeemed; though they were strangers to the covenants and to the promises of their redemption and salvation, not even circumcised by faithful parents and thus not even taught the laws of God as children, not born into the commonwealth of Israel and thus totally without the knowledge of Christ as comes from the scripture.
It is because the church is Beloved to the Father, it is because they are of the same eternal body of the Father’s Eternal Son since before the foundation of the world where this choice was made ‘effective forever’, that Christ the Son would even become sinful flesh as the son of man, yet as a perfect covenant member of the commonwealth of Israel, to redeem those under the Law, those who are his own flesh and bone, the body and bride he had covenanted for according to the laws of kinsmen redemption and marital headship.
It was by choice Christ took on the nature of the seed of Abraham to be like his kinsmen, he came as an Israelite concerning the flesh, Who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
This salvation In Christ is only received as Gospel by those who know their lot and inheritance is in Christ, where they find the refuge of salvation, the purpose of life and the hope of redemption in heavenly places to sit with Christ, to be in him and subject to him.
In recognizing that we are Beloved children and knowing we are adopted children to this family in heaven and earth, we are not to be children of disobedience, not to be children of wrath, not to be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive…
Beloved Children of light are the opposite of all of this; they are obedient and stable, rooted and grounded foremost in the love of God towards them as beloved, that is Grace moving through Faith unto good works as God’s workmanship they are made to be.
This means that one who is part of the Beloved Body of Christ WILL zealously desire good works as spoken of by the Scripture, in God’s Law for the commonwealth of Israel.
All of the Children adopted by the Father through Jesus Christ are called to be the Father’s light filled obedient children as members of his family. So it is, while our spirit is united to Christ as part of his body in an eternal marital relationship we are all the more called to resemble that relationship in our earthly and fleshly physical families, between husbands and wives, the husband as the Lord and the wife as the Church subject unto him. Husbands strive to be perfect and to be like Christ, and the wife strives to follow her own husband as the church strives to follow Christ.
And so it was said:
Eph_5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Eph 5:24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Eph 5:26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
Eph 5:27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
Eph 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
Eph 5:30 because we are members of his body.
Eph 5:31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
Eph 5:32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Eph 5:33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Straightly, the relationship of Christ with the church is as Adam with his very own rib, that is bone and flesh and body, created by YHWH for this understanding we have been considering in this revelation and to extend realistically to a man with his wife in a Christian or Godly marriage of Beloved men and women in union to create another Generation of Beloved Children in this earth in need of light.
This pattern is designed so that the church and beloved of the Father may consider this predestine relationship purposed in God since the foundation of the world, according to him works all things after the council of his own will. That is how you are reckoned in Christ even when He died after some were born and before others were born how it was that his Righteousness could possibly be reckoned for you.
That is the foundation of the great mystery we are contemplating, to wit Paul was made a minister, a teacher to us ward of the revelation of this relationship between the church and Christ.
And so we now move on to Children raised in a Beloved home between Beloved parents, parents who love one another like the relationship between Christ and the church prior described.
As I had said before, “the way a mother submits to her husband in the fear of the Lord is the first example a child will have of how they should obey the Word of God, who is Christ”, and the transverse is no different, the way a husband follows God as a beloved child and loves his wife as Christ loves the church is also the example of how they will do the same, regardless of a son or daughter.
Without, those principles of family being firmly established the next level of Ecclesiology in the Beloved Family as found in the home church will full upon deaf ears.
The principles of Husband and wife must be consistently believed and obeyed before fruit is ever expected to grow upon the seedlings of the next generation of Beloved Children, and so it is fitting that we fathers and mothers must as well take heed to this next admonition from the law of God as if it were also speaking to us as Beloved Children of the father.
Eph_6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Eph_6:2 Honor thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
Eph 6:3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Paul quotes the 5th commandment verbatim from the LXX of both Exo_20:12 and Deu_5:16 τίμα τὸν πατέρα σου καὶ τὴν μητέρα Identically; but it is prefixed with the admonition to hupa-koueteh which is literally to ‘under-hear’, and probably best signified in the way we ask ” Do you ‘understand’ what I am saying?”, that is, obedience is to hear attentively, to listen as one under the authority, that is it is ‘right’ as a child to listen obediently to your father and Mother, because it is right or just. That is it is equitable for the creation to listen to the creator, children obey your parents!
Honour thy father and mother means literally to esteem or value you mother and father like a precious metal is weighed, that is when lawful money of Gold silver or brass/copper was weighed out to purchase something with it the just or right or equitable value of that thing was the price agreed upon, and in this case we and our children are purchasing “That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” by the honor, esteem or value we have in this first commandment with promise.
Listen you children to Beloved parents who are also Children of God the way you obey the words of those before you will render a just reward to you, therefore you need to value your mother’s words because she submits to your father as unto the Lord, and you need to submit to your father because he follows God as a Child as perfectly as he can and because he loves your mother like Christ loved the church and is willing to die to redeem her unto himself if needs be, as well he is willing to die for you if needs be and it needs be as every father and mother in the beloved family give their lives in the rearing, raising and providing for their children, which is in fact the giving of their life for you to be redeemed from this corrupt and filthy world.
And while Paul is directly dealing with obedience in the form of listening to instructions in this instance, I will point out that Godly homes will also teach God’s Law as it resembles Rebecca and Isaac’s words to Jacob:
Gen_27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
Gen_28:1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
Gen 28:2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother.
Gen 28:3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
Gen 28:4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
Gen 28:5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
Gen 28:6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;
Gen 28:7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; (Ekousen: this is the result of hupo-kouseh, that is obeying is the result being one who obeys)
Our fathers lived in a world and land that was polluted with fornicators, unclean and covetous people no different than we have today, and Children need to listen and obey to the marital directives your Father’s and mother’s give you as a Beloved Child and if you to, like they, are a child of the Promise and Covenant of the Commonwealth of Israel you will find the blessings of listening to what they charge you with as well as understanding the importance of avoiding bastardized relationships with the inhabitants of the land who are not of your people, who are not of your flesh and bone and body, both eternally and on this earth the lord has promised to preserve us on if we obey our Father’s and Mother’s Beloved advice.
Eph_6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition (child-instruction) of the Lord.
In appling your words father we need to be sure to not provoke or entice our children in any angry behavior. Many take this verse as to prod or tease a child to make them angry, but I am afraid that this reading is from our modern foolish society, rather the direction of the language is specifically dealing with bringing one up in the sense of pulling one up with nourishment and instruction verses one who uses anger or rage to encourage growth.
In ending on this sentiment as well as it’s common use of the word εκτρεφw which Eph_6:4 translates εκτρεφετε into nurture I’m going to offer proverbs 23:22-28 to help understand the nurture Beloved Parents are to exert in child-rearing towards obedience for Beloved Children:
From the Brenton LXX
Pro_23:22 Hearken, my son, to thy father which begot thee, and despise not thy mother because she is grown old.
Pro 23:24 A righteous father brings up his children well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
Pro 23:25 Let thy father and thy mother rejoice over thee, and let her that bore thee be glad.
Pro 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
Do you see how the Parent offers his ways to his son as an example while not coming down beside him as his equal? This is important to notice, because becoming a child or as we often hear, a friend to your child without being a parent foremost is frustrating or angering to one who needs to grow up! It provokes anger, children need an example of what a child of God should be and that comes from Beloved parents worthy of honor. Consider Rebecca and Isaac, they did not pretend or vacillate on if it were wrong for Jacob to marry a Hittite Canaanite girl like his fornicating brother Esau did openly, rather Rebecca was direct to Isaac about her spiritual concerns in regards to her Beloved son’s marriage , that it would make her life worthless! And Jacob didn’t just directly disallow Jacob from marriage with the ethnically polluted daughters of Heth but he also gave him a godly and nurturing direction to grow in, a godly goal, that is the nurture and admonition of the Lord…and Jacob Obeyed his father AND his mother!
But look at the alternative Solomon also conveys concerning the multi-faceted disobedience of an household or oykos that is ‘strange’ and it’s resemblance to the opposite of the 5th commandment and that which Esau had received in his fornication verse what Jacob received in his obedience.
Pro_23:27 For a strange house (strange family) is a vessel full of holes; and a strange (whore / strange woman) is a narrow well.
Pro 23:28 For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
So,
Eph_6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Eph_6:2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
Eph 6:3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Now to Servants and masters
Eph_6:5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
Eph 6:6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
Eph 6:7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
Eph 6:8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
Eph 6:9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
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