 All right, good morning. We'll begin with a word of prayer. If we can have anyone volunteer to pray for us, we can begin with today's session. So if we could have anyone person, please unmute and pray for us so that we can begin with prayer. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for this morning. We come together before you this time of learning. We submit this into mighty hands. We pray to God that you would bless us and help us to understand your word in a better way. You would minister to us, help us to focus on you, help us to fix our eyes on you God minister to us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right, so we have covered four chapters of Ephesians. So today we will do the last two chapters of Ephesians. So last chapter, chapter four, Paul gets into the practical details of our Christian walk. He spent the first two chapters talking about the riches that we have in Christ. He talks about the inheritance that we have, the status that we occupy in the first two chapters. Then last week we saw, he talks more about how we can access the inheritance which we have. And so as he's talking about that in the last portion of chapter four, he started talking about how we need to have certain attitudes which will enable us to gain our inheritance and enjoy our riches. So in the last portion of chapter four, he begins to talk about how we must put off the old self and put on the new attitude. And so we saw how that old self which we are supposed to put off is referring to the unrenewed mind, the old thought patterns that we have, the old worldview which we are still holding on to. So if we put off those things and instead become renewed in our attitude, in our thinking, then we would be able to access all the riches which are rightfully ours. So we saw that. So in chapter five, he continues with the same practical instructions on the kind of attitude we need to have to be able to gain access to all the riches which are ours. In chapter four, we talked a little bit about how believers should not lie to each other. When they are angry, then what is the correct way to handle the anger. We looked at how it is important to work hard and earn rather than stealing and cheating. So now in chapter five, he's continuing with these practical instructions of the way we are to live. So here in chapter five, if we could have someone begin with the verses one to five. Let's see what he has to say to us in verses one to five of chapter five is someone could read out for us please. Yeah, if you could have your Bibles with you even as we are covering this book of Ephesians. So if someone could read out for us Ephesians chapter five verses one to five please. Therefore be imitators of God as their children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us and offering him a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be even named among you as is fitting for the saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor cause justing which are not fitting but rather of giving thanks. For this you know that no fornicator unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolator has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Yes, thank you. So here we see that we are being asked to walk in the way of love. Just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. So all these things that we are supposed to be doing these instructions which he's giving to us. They should be followed with an attitude of love and what kind of an attitude of love. It talks about how Christ he loved us by giving himself up for us. So he was willing to make sacrifices on our behalf. So even as we follow these instructions which are now going to be given all of them must be practiced with the same attitude of love. Where we are willing to sacrifice and give up things so that we can practice these things in a compassionate, merciful manner with grace and with love. So it says here that Christ when he was loving us he gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. So the sacrifices that he made in serving us and serving the disciples in sacrificing his life for the church. All of these things that he did were like a fragrant offering to the Lord. So when we are walking in love, we too must walk in a sacrificial manner which will be like a fragrant offering to the Lord. So he goes on to say in verses 3 and 4 and 5, let there not even be a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed. And he goes on to explain in verse 5, immorality, impurity, greed, these things are equal to idolatry. So they are that serious in God's eyes. So we may never go and bow down before an idol, but if we are indulging in sexual immorality, if we are greedy for the wealth and the material things of the world, if those are our attitudes, it says that those things would be equal to idol worship. So we are called to live in a sacrificial manner, not even allowing a hint of these things to touch us. There's a lot of noise over here. Sorry, I hope too much of that noise did not come into your sound systems. So this sacrificial attitude where we keep ourselves so much away from greed and the things which the world chases and the immorality that the world indulges in, it will all involve sacrifice, it will all involve having to maybe give up mingling with friends who indulge in such things. It will mean having to keep our distance where people will consider us as being different and so they will not be as friendly towards us as they are towards others. So keeping ourselves so carefully that there isn't even a hint of immorality or greed, that will involve sacrifice. But when we take steps to make those sacrifices, then it will be like a fragrant offering to the Lord. That sacrifice that we are making will be a fragrant offering to the Lord. So it is with this attitude that we are supposed to get into the next few verses. So if we were to look at maybe verse 21 onwards, up to verse 26, if somebody could read out for us, verses 21 to 26 please. We talk to Ma. Efficiency chapter 5 verses 21 to 26 please. Submitting to one another in the fear of God, wives submit your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as the Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and clean her with the washing of water by the Word. Amen. So this submission which is being talked about over here would also involve walking in the way of love. In the same way Christ made sacrifices and his sacrifices were a fragrant offering to the Lord. When married couples live in submission to one another like it says in verse 21, when they do that out of reverence for Christ, the sacrifice that they are making will be a fragrant offering to the Lord. So in verse 21, it says submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. It may not be easy to always submit to one another. It may not be easy to always watch out for one another's interests, but the married couple would do that out of reverence for Christ to honour him, to please him, and so whatever they do will be a fragrant offering to the Lord. Now, if you were to notice in verses 22, 23, 24, we see that even though verse 21 says submit to one another, in these verses 22, 23, 24, it's talking about the wife submitting. There's no mention made over here about the husband submitting. So why does it say in verse 21 submit to one another and then go on to say in verses 22, 23, 24, that it's the wife who should submit to the husband. So we see that the wife chooses to submit because the husband has been placed as the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. However, the husband also submits in the sense that he is supposed to love his wife in the same way that Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church? He gave himself up for her and he served her. So in that sense, even husbands would be submitting to the wife in the sense that they would be serving the wife. They would be building her up. They are meant to look after her, cherish her in the same way that Christ has cherished the church and given himself up for her. So in that sense, both of them are submitting to one another and both of them are bringing glory to the name of Christ by doing that. So if we were to look at Mark chapter 10 verse 45, it talks about what was Christ's approach. It says in Mark 10, 45 it says, for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So that would be the attitude of service that the couple is asked to take up. So we see in verse 23, it says the husband is the head of the wife in the same way that Christ is the head of the church. So Christ being the head of the church in his position of leadership, he chooses to serve the church. So he does not use his position of authority to only get served but he uses his position of authority to actually serve. In the same way, the husband is very clearly the head of the home and the head of the wife. It's very clearly established in scripture that the husband would definitely be the head of the home and the head of the wife but just like Christ, he would not use his position of authority to just be served but he would also use his position to serve his wife and the rest of the family. So in that way, he would be walking in the way of love just as Christ did, just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve but to give his life as an answer in that same manner. The head of the home would also choose to give his life to benefit the family members. So therefore it says in verse 26 and 27. It talks about how Christ gave himself up for the church and it says in verse 26, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her foley, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church. So Christ in his role of giving himself, sacrificing himself for the church, what he does is he builds up the church, he washes it with the water through the word. I know the word over here is being compared to cleansing water and so Christ as he is serving the church, he does it in a way that the church is built up, the church is edified and so in verse 28 it says, in the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself. So the husband is meant to build up and edify the wife. Whatever he says, whatever he does, it should lead to her edification. It should lead to her growing benefiting. Now this does not mean that the husband would lecture the wife and say, oh you know you need to improve in this area and you need to be more godly in that area. So it's not just speech, it is not just giving off advice because that generally does not work. It's rather just as Christ showed in action how to be a true follower of the father in the same way the husband rather than lecturing would show by example how to serve and how to lead in a godly manner and by presenting those examples he would edify the wife and build her up. So there's a close parallel being drawn over here between Christ and his relationship with the church and the husband's relationship with the wife. So even as Christ always places the church first, even as Christ always serves the church and is always interested in edifying the church, the husband also is called upon over here to place the wife's interests first and to conduct himself in a way which will lead to her building up and lead to her edification. Now what if the wife is not really someone who is cooperating, who is submitting, what if she is the more rebellious type or you know she's very hostile towards the husband, then would the husband still be expected to serve the wife? What would Christ's attitude be? All the believers in the church are not automatically mature godly persons and yet we see Christ being very patient with the church rather than just using his authority to maybe punish the believers, rather we see Christ very gently continuing to serve the church, continuing to speak to her and edify her in a gentle manner. So the husband also would be expected to do that. So even if the wife is not submitting, even if she is not being cooperative, the husband would have to continue imitating Christ. Why? Because in verse 21 it says that the husband and wife are meant to submit to each other out of reverence for Christ. So out of reverence for Christ, the husband continues to be gentle towards the wife. He continues to conduct himself in a way which will maybe build her up, edify her. So he continues to do those things because he chooses to honour Christ. So he does it for Christ's sake and Christ who is seeing his attitude will cater to that home, will take care of the needs of that home because the wife is not cooperating, she is not submitting, she is creating problems in the home. Now it becomes the responsibility of Christ himself to bless that home and help the members of that home because the husband is being very, very careful about honouring and revering Christ even in this difficult situation that he is placed in. I remember reading a couple of books which talked about this aspect. One was the story of a person who married a very difficult person and she never really respected him, in fact kind of looked down upon him because he was not earning very well and so she was not really a good wife. But then she comes under some kind of illness and she in fact becomes invalid which means now she is restricted to the bed and now he has to literally look after her and serve her and he talks about how God teaches him that this is an act of service that he is doing unto the Lord where he begins to serve her even though she had not respected him when she was well now he treats her with respect and he looks after her and he provides for her and he does it as a honourable sacrifice unto the Lord and he talks about how that really built up their marriage how it made a great difference in their relationship because he chose to place God first and honour him in spite of all that was going on in the same way what if the husband is not a Christ like husband what if he is a very domineering selfish maybe even a very cruel person then in such cases would the wife still be expected to submit yes because in verse 21 it says that the couple should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ so she chooses to continue submitting to this very domineering husband because she honours the Lord and this is her way of showing respect to the Lord but continuing to submit to this person of course maybe if he were to ask her to do something that goes against Biblical principles then of course she has every right to refuse I mean if he were to say you know participate in idol worship or if he were to say you know let's not declare our taxes honestly or something like that which goes against Biblical principles she would obviously take a stand and say no I must honour the Lord but apart from that she would choose to continuing submitting to the husband because when she does that then the Lord will build up that home because she is honouring the Lord the Lord now it's the Lord's responsibility to bless that home and take care of it so the husband and wife choose to walk in the way of love you know that's the instruction that is given in the same manner when we move into chapter 6 the children and the parents are also asked to walk in the way of love so it says children obey your parents in the Lord and it says honour your father and mother so the children are asked to obey and honour and they obey with an attitude of love Christ like love they're supposed to honour with a Christ like love they're just simply obeying because you have to and there is no other choice in a crunching manner that would not be the way of love which Christ has set an example because it says right in the beginning of chapter 5 you know be imitators of Christ follow the example that has been set by Christ and walk in the way of love so the obedience which is being given to the parents must be done with the right attitude with an attitude of love and in the same way the parents over here are instructed in verse 4 it says fathers do not exasperate your children instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord so the correction which the parents bring would have to be done with the attitude of love in the same way Christ corrects us, disciplines us but does it with love you know because he says in Matthew chapter 11 he says I am a teacher who is humble and gentle in spirit so he never treats us too harshly beyond what we can bear and so in the same way the parents who are disciplining their children would have to train and discipline in a way where there is no way they don't create bitterness or resentment in the hearts of the children so instruction is being given to couples instruction is being given to parents and children and then we move into verse 5 now we are in chapter 6 so if you move into verse 5 here instructions are being given to slaves and also the masters if we could have someone read out for us in chapter 6 verses 5 to 9 please chapter 6 verses 5 to 9 born servants be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh fear and trembling in sincerity of heart as to Christ not with eye service as men please us but as born servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men knowing that whatever good anyone does he will receive the same from the Lord whether he is a slave or free and you masters do the same things to them giving up threatening knowing that your own masters also is in heaven and there is no partiality with him yes so now these are instructions being given to employers and employees of course here it's talking about actual slaves who would have been purchased by the master and so the master has invested in them he has spent a lot of money to purchase them and now these slaves must be must serve their masters sincerely of course now today we do not have slavery as such even though sometimes in some offices people may feel like as if they are being treated like slaves but yeah we don't have slavery as such anymore but the things which are taught over here can very easily apply to even today's employees look at the instructions that are given how is a Christian employee meant to serve he would have to serve his boss his manager the people lower above him the superiors obviously to serve all of these people the words that are used in verse 5 he is supposed to serve with respect with fear and with sincerity of heart we see that lacking in many of our secular offices people have no respect for their superiors in fact the first chance they get they stab them in the back but a Christian employee is supposed to treat his superiors with respect I mean in fact he would in fact he is supposed to treat even his subordinates with respect and his colleagues with respect so this attitude of respect becomes important for a Christian employee we cannot just smile in front of the person and then back stab them behind their back that would not be the way of love that would not be imitating Christ so employees are asked to show respect to the people that are under home they are working it also mentions the word fear and of course over here it's talking about a godly positive fear it's not talking about a negative fear so here the godly fear that is being referred to would be more in the sense of accountability so the employee works with the awareness that I am accountable to my superiors for the kind of work that I am putting in rather than trying to cut corners rather than trying to avoid responsibility the Christian employees decides I am going to hold myself accountable to my superiors I am going to work in a way which they would be pleased with so whether or not they ask for an account this person because he has his eyes on the Lord he chooses to work in a very accountable manner and of course it says since with sincerity of heart so the reason that the employee does this is because it says in verse 6 he is doing it as though he is doing the will of God from his heart so this employee is not just working to win the favor of the boss when the boss is watching but he is doing his work as though he is literally doing the will of God so with that attitude he serves wholeheartedly that is why verse 7 says serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord not people and when an employee works in this manner whether or not the employer whether or not the boss appreciates his efforts whether or not that boss is just person or a fair person the reward will come from the Lord so whether or not the boss rewards the employee or not the Lord who is watching in his own way in his perfect timing he will reward the employee so these are three things that we need to keep in mind couples they walk in the way of love submit to each other and serve one another parents and children the children obey in a loving manner the parents discipline in a loving manner and coming over here to the third instruction for employees the employees serve wholeheartedly knowing that whether or not the boss appreciates what they are doing the Lord will reward because it says in verse 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do whether they are slave or free so whether you are an employee who is treated with respect and you have freedom in your office or whether you are treated like a slave in your office the Lord who is watching he will reward and so the final instruction is given to the masters and the masters are told that they too must walk in the way of love and so they must not threaten their slaves or in our case they must not threaten their employees in the sense they must not do anything that would harm the interest of their employees rather they must see to it that they benefit their employees and rightfully pay them for their services and treat them with respect so why must the bosses and the managers and the superiors be careful in the way they treat their employees because it says over here that the Lord is the master of these managers and these bosses and he does not show any favoritism you know because a worldly person may favor with the rich they may favor those who are in authority but God does not care whether you are the boss or whether you are the employee God does not have favorits so if the boss is being unfair then the Lord will definitely take the side of the employee so the manager or the boss needs to be careful they need to you know a Christian manager a Christian boss needs to be careful and make sure that they are not harming the employees interests in any way because their heavenly master who is does not you know feel any favoritism towards the rich or he does not feel any favoritism towards those in authority he will take action against them in his own way so therefore masters are warned to be careful in the way they treat their employees so these are all relationship related instructions all these things that Paul is urging the believers to do they would do it with an attitude of love sacrificially doing it to bring honor to the Lord because they revere and respect the Lord and when they do that it's like a fragrant offering to the Lord so in their office in their offices these Christian believers are offering a fragrant offering to the Lord in their homes in the way they are interacting with one another the family members are interacting with one another from that home there are fragrant offerings offerings rising up to the Lord having talked about those things now Paul moves into the final section where he says in verse 10 finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power because now he is going to start talking about the warfare which the believer will have to engage in because there is a great inheritance awaiting the believer there are spiritual riches in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and the enemy will not want us to access any of those riches the enemy will not want us to become spiritually rich or in fact even do well on earth so the enemy is going to bring a lot of attacks against us and so even as we watch our attitudes and guard our attitudes by walking in the way of love we must also get ready to fight battles against the enemy so now he is coming to the final point where he is going to start talking about how we need to stay strong in God and resist the enemy and defeat whatever schemes the enemy tries to bring against us so moving into that in verse 10 he says finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power so in this final section the first opening instruction which is being given us on your own you may not be strong but you can be strong in the Lord with that mighty power which he makes available to us through that you can be strong so this battle that is going to be fought all these attacks which need to be dealt with which need to be overcome all of that does not need to be done in the human strength of the believer we need to be strong in the Lord and that word that is used over there the Greek word is endunamu so that you know it's from the truth word dynamo and so you know that's basically you know the dynamite was you know when the dynamite was invented that word was used for that particular you know weapon because it talks about power the man Alfred Nobel who made the dynamite who invented the dynamite he wanted a word for his creation which would indicate how powerful it is and so he chose this particular Greek word dynamo he chose that Greek word to name his invention to show off how powerful it is only thing of course the dynamite is destructive power it's not power which builds up or edifies or strengthens it's rather very destructive and negative but over here in verse 10 when it's saying be strong in the Lord it's talking about using this mighty power of the Lord to build ourselves up to build up the church to build up the kingdom of God so even though Nobel ended up giving this word a very negative connotation in the original Greek it was meant to have a very positive connotation it was supposed to be a power which will help, which will build which will you know break down evil but which will strengthen good so in that sense it was meant in that sense so he urges the believers to be strong in the mighty power of God and so having put on the power of God with his power through his enabling they go on to put on the full armor of God so in verses 11 onwards he begins to provide an introduction regarding the armor if we could have someone read out for us verses 10 to 14 yeah verses 10 to 14 please finally my brethren be strong in the Lord in the power of his mind put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wills of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual halls of wickedness in the heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand then therefore having girded your rest with truth haven't put on the brisk blood of righteousness yes so we are meant to fight the battle in the mighty power of God not in our own strength so relying on his mighty power we choose to put on the full armor because it is only by putting on this full armor that we will be able to take our stand against the devil's schemes it says over here so the only way to be able to withstand all these clever cunning schemes that the devil is going to come up with the only way we are going to be able to handle and deal with Satan is going to be by putting on this full armor and in verse 12 he explains what kind of powers are going to be attacking us it says for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms and that word that is used over there for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers that word struggle over there was the word which the Greeks used for boxing and wrestling in those days when they had these boxing and wrestling matches it was sometimes a battle right up to death only one man would survive they would wrestle each other till one man is dead and the other man stands victorious because they were involved in a lot of blood sports so over here when that word is being used it's talking about a fight unto death you know so the devil wants to completely destroy us so we may not physically die but his aim is that our life should be completely destroyed all these riches which are available to us in Christ we should not be able to access even man of them or enjoy any of them and build ourselves up in any way in the Lord that is his aim so when he you know brings his schemes against us this is his goal to destroy us completely to finish us so this struggle that we are engaged in is not just something light we are literally struggling for our lives we are fighting for our inheritance we are fighting for the riches which belong to us Jesus has freely given us all the spiritual blessings of heaven but for us to access it and to enjoy it we literally have to fight a life and death battle on a daily basis and that is why this is not something that can be done in our human strength it is something that we would have to do in the mighty power of the Lord which is why the opening line then he says finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power put on the full armor of God so he talks about four different levels of demonic forces which would be engaged in this battle against the church so the first word that is used now in our English translations different versions would use different wordings but in the original greek let's look at what these four levels of demonic forces are so the first one I am just following the NIV over here it talks about how our struggle is against the rulers first of all so that word over there the greek word is arkas it is talking about the archaic we are more familiar with the archaic archaic all those words, the english words which come from this greek word arkas it is basically talking about something ancient something very very old so here Paul is saying first of all our struggle is against the ancient ones the old ancient ones why are these demonic powers called that maybe these are the ones which originally partnered with satan in the rebellion against god so these are the ancient ones the most powerful ones which took a stand against god and which were thrown flung to the earth because of their rebellion so these are the most powerful demonic forces under them you would have what the niv calls the authorities so these authorities are authorities which are holding delegated power the ancient ones have given this second line of authority they have delegated some of their power to these they are called the exusia in the greek bible so the rulers the ancient ones delegate and give some of their authority to these exusia and they are very very powerful and the third level of authority they are called the powers of this dark world the greek word that is used over there is kosmo kratos kosmo means world kratos means ruler so these are your world rulers so this third level the third level of demonic forces the world rulers are probably the rulers which you have over different territories of the earth so because i am in the oldest when we are talking we are reading the daniel passages we kind of get to know that certain demonic forces have control over certain territories so this third level of forces are the kosmo kratos the world rulers and they have been allowed to have authority over certain regions of the earth and under them you have the last the least powerful forces which are just your basic evil spirits so the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly realms are just basically your evil spirits which go about doing the bidding of all the higher demonic powers we have these four levels of demonic powers fighting against the church and when we say that they are fighting against the church they are not just fighting against an institution they are attacking people believers, individual believers groups of believers, communities of believers wanting to break them apart bring disunity among them bring confusion distract them lead them away anything so that the kingdom of God will not be built that is their goal and so they have very personal hatred towards each individual believer we are up against such forces and so the average Christian goes through the day being so unaware of what they are up against which is what makes it so sad here Paul is urging us to take these things seriously because the attack is powerful the attack is great and Christian should be on the alert so rather than taking our spiritual work so casually assuming that the spiritual riches of heaven will just fall into our laps rather we should understand that the spiritual forces of darkness do not want us to gain our inheritance they do not want us to access our blessings even though we have been made so rich in Christ they are fighting on a daily basis to stop us and prevent us from gaining those riches so we should understand the seriousness of the battle and be strong in the Lord and use his mighty power to seriously put on the full armor and engage in battle so that we can gain all these things that Christ has gained for us which he has acquired for us through his sacrifice so when we come back from the break we will look at more details regarding this warfare so yeah alright then thank you