Love and Respect – Ephesians 6:1-9 (NIV)
Love and Respect – Ephesians 6:1-9 (NIV)
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
I think the word “children” here doesn’t only mean young offspring. And the word for obey also means “listen” and “submit.” So this could be worded like “You should heed elders’ wisdom and advice – your whole life – and it will be better.”
Similarly the word “father” here could be “elder, older person, senior.”
More than those two things, I think the idea here is to respect others regardless of which side of the relationship you’re on. In fact, in our society, we could almost argue that this is just the way things should be. Maybe not always but I think these types of respectful treatment has permeated our society.
Of course, slaves and masters isn’t a modern relationship but we could use the same concept for employee and employer.
In all of these cases the overriding thought is that regardless of your position, God is above us all. We should live knowing He is watching and we need to live and serve Him in all the things we do. And we should treat others with the dignity His creation deserves: with love and respect.