Ephesians 6

It is right for children to obey their parents.

Honoring your father and mother was the first commandment with a promise. Verse 3 was the promise. See also Exodus 20:12.

The father's responsibility is to not provoke his children to wrath but bring them up in the chastening and admonition of God. The word "chastening" in this verse meant "the whole training and education of children." The word "admonition" meant "exhortation." Paul just applied the Doctrines from the Meaning of Life to parents and children.

Paul applied the Meaning of Life Doctrines to servants. As servants, we ought to act as we would towards our master the same way we would act towards God. How we act towards our master is an expression of our will in how we want to be led. To bring this passage into our culture, you can look at servants and masters as employees and bosses. We ought to do our job unto God, not unto the people who pay us. Doing the will of God from the heart is grace.

As masters (bosses), we ought to lead how we want to be led.

Paul covered offensive spiritual warfare in 2 Corinthians 10. In that passage, Paul stated that when our obedience was made full, then we would do offensive spiritual warfare that is led by the Holy Spirit. The "Armor of God" covered defensive spiritual warfare. This is the place where we make our obedience full so that we can do offensive spiritual warfare. Remember, spiritual warfare is not physical, it is done according to words and thoughts. Likewise, the armor of God helps us stand against the devil's wiles (evil tricks). The devil will use deception – A right WHAT with a wrong or no HOW/WHY, which is made up of words and thoughts.

Doctrine: Spiritual warfare is just that: spiritual. It is made up of words and sentences. Paul identified levels of evil spirits: from principalities to powers to world-rulers to spiritual hosts in heavenly places.

This was defensive spiritual warfare. The goal was to stand, not attack or defeat the enemy. As we go through the pieces of the armor of God, notice the basic Doctrine that was represented by each piece...

Loins guarded with truth – The "loins" being the place of creation. Truth being "facts that create": a right WHAT with a right HOW/WHY.

Breastplate of Righteousness - The breastplate guards the heart where Righteousness comes from when we live by the divine influence upon the heart: grace.

Feet shod with the Gospel of peace - remember in John's Gospel Account Jesus said believers only needed to clean their feet to be completely clean because the feet were the only part of the body in contact with the "world/dust" (John 13:10). Also, peace referred to harmony: synchronizing with another person. So, our feet come in contact with the world, and what we ought to bring to the world is the Gospel and do it in a manner that harmonizes with people.

Above all, take the "shield of faith" - our understanding and experience which will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The fiery darts will be quenched if in your understanding and experience (faith) you have truth (a right HOW/WHY). Notice, darts have to be thrown from a relatively close distance. These darts were thoughts and circumstances the enemy wanted believers to understand and experience. Notice, there was no back armor on this armor of God. That was because it was defensive armor, meant to face the enemy and continue to stand.

Helmet of Salvation - Salvation comes by grace through faith, two things that we grow in by increasing our understanding and experience.

"Sword of the Spirit" - The Word of God. This was the only weapon in the armor of God that could be used in an offensive manner. Clearly spiritual warfare has to do with words and our offensive weapon is the Word of God. In verse 17, the word "word" was rhema - the revelatory and powerful word from God that has no precedent. This was the same sword that proceeds out of Jesus' Mouth in the Revelation 2:16 that gives Him victory over the enemy. This is a two-edged sword, which some people say is defensive and offensive.

Praying always, which is made up of words.

Paul asked the Ephesians to pray that he had boldness to continue to make the mystery of the Gospel known to others.

Paul was in prison during this letter. He asked for prayer that he would speak boldly, as he ought to speak.

This letter was delivered by Tychicus.

Theme of Chapter 6: Paul applied the Meaning of Life Doctrines to parents, children, servants, and masters. Then Paul presented the pieces of the armor of God. This was used to do defensive spiritual warfare.

The Book of Ephesians was written at the same time as Colossians and Philemon, with all three being delivered by Tychicus. These letters were written by Paul around 64 AD from Rome during his time in prison. While this was the fifth book of the section of the New Testament known as the Pauline Epistles and the second book of the section known as the Prison Epistles, it actually chronologically preceded the previous book (Galatians). Paul stated the purpose for writing this letter was so that the Ephesians perceived Paul's understanding of the mystery in Christ: Ephesians 3:4.

We have seen that Romans presented the most foundational Christian Doctrine: Salvation. We have seen that 1 Corinthians focused on the application of the foundational Doctrine towards a very new church. We have also seen that 2 Corinthians was a more mature application of foundational Doctrine. In the previous book (Galatians), we saw a review of these first three Pauline Epistles. For example, Paul revisited the lack of division between Jew and Gentile like he covered in the Book of Romans, as well as the need to separate from sinners and then forgive and receive the repentant sinner like he covered in both letters to the Corinthians. The Book of Ephesians was also referred to as "Paul's second doctrinal letter," with Romans being referred to as "Paul's first doctrinal letter." We have seen that each of these letters from Paul included Doctrine. Again, the Book of Romans presented the most foundational Doctrine: Salvation, which can be seen as "The Cause of Christianity." The Book of Ephesians was referred to as a Doctrinal letter because it dealt with the largest Doctrine, the Doctrine that was "The Ultimate Effect of Christianity: The Meaning of Life." This was the mystery "in Christ" that Paul referred to.

In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul implied that he had been to the third heavens and heard unspeakable words that were not lawful for a man to utter. It was possible that Paul saw the Meaning of Life, but could not blatantly speak it. Instead, we saw Paul presented the Meaning of Life indirectly, in much the same way Jesus spoke indirectly about being the Son of God as recorded in the Gospel according to John. Paul began his presentation with as little detail as possible, yet giving the entire picture. As Paul progressed through his letter, he gave more detail about the smaller portions of the entire picture in the absence of the rest of the picture. The best way to understand this letter during the first read is to begin with the last four chapters of the New Testament: Revelation 19-22. In those chapters, we see that all believers will spend eternity in the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem was referred to as the House of God, the Temple of God, and the Bride. The new Jerusalem is Christ's Bride. What is the Meaning of Life? All believers interact with each other as "cells in the body" of the Bride which is married to Jesus. Paul stated the same conclusion in the last half of this book. We saw that Paul referenced Doctrine from the previous Pauline Epistles covered in the New Testament.