July 3, 2023
Ephesians 5:21-6:9
EXTRAVAGANT FAMILY
The extravagant love God showed us in Jesus has to show up in our everyday lives. In today’s passage, Paul explains how love plays out in our closest and most ordinary relationships: kids and parents, bosses and workers, husbands and wives. For Christians, love means submission. Submission means choosing the other over ourselves. We submit to each other because Jesus did it for us, and the power we have to do it is His Spirit alive in us.
Listen to an audio version of the message
Songs for this week: Spotify
Ephesians 5:21-6:9
- What does submission in relationships include, and what does it not include? Is there a story from the Bible that best displays submission?
- Wives and husbands are called to submit to each other. What does that look like? Is a Christian supposed to guard herself or himself against being abused or taken advantage of? If so, how would they know when to do that?
- Children and parents are also to submit to each other “out of reverence for Christ.” Is submission a word that would describe your childhood or your parenting? Explain.
- Parents are to “bring up their kids in the training and instruction of the LORD.” Give specifics on how best to train up children.
- What does submission look like in the workplace? How might both Christian employees and employers live out this command at work?
Share with a friend
Recent Sermons
James 5:13-20 - A life of faith is a life of prayer. It’s also a life lived with others. When we follow Jesus, we belong to Him and to one another as brothers and sisters. As a family, we care for one another in weakness, confess our sins to each other, and gently confront one another.
James 4:6-10 -James knows that the heart of the Christian message is grace. God gives us good that we couldn’t ever deserve. The truth is that we earn and deserve justice and punishment. Thankfully, Jesus took both of those for us and gave us the good he deserved. As powerful as grace is, there is one thing that can re
James 3:1-18 -James is at it again! He has a real concern for the words that Christians use on themselves, with each other and with the world. Our tongues (James' favourite image for our words) can cause such destruction, and they are nearly impossible to control.
James 2:14-26 -James continues to press deep into the muscles and tissues of our faith. Is your faith doing what it was designed to do? Just like you might go to the doctor for a physical check-up, James offers a self-administered faith check-up in this passage. Where do you see signs of life in your faith?
James 1:19-27 - James is direct: angry words, thoughtless words, and religious words don’t have a place in a life of faith. Our words don’t work … but God’s word does! Our job is simply to cooperate with his word.
James 1:1-8 - James gets right down to business! For everyone not currently soaking in a hot tub, suffering is a first order of business. In just a few verses, James explains how trials can grow maturity, how wisdom helps the journey, and how to avoid wasting a suffering experience.
