THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS
726
speak in regard to Christ and of the Church.” How in the face of this any one can deny that the Church is the bride, or wife of Christ, it is difficult to understand. Carrying out the thought of verse 32 with verse 31 as fulfilled “ in regard of Christ and of the Church,” ' we should bear in mind that Christ left the Father, who was the eternal object oi His love, to seek out and cleave to, or be joined to, His bride, the Church: “ This mystery is (indeed) great.” Now that Christ is gone back to the Father’s house and left the Church for the time being, ft is simply to prepare a place for us (John 14:2), and even heaven itself, in full fellowship with the Father, is a lonesome place for the bridegroom, and will be a lonesome plp.ee until His bride is there (cf. John 14:3; 17:24). Barth ought to be a lonesome place for ns without Him. The husband and wife “ become one flesh.” A literal trans lation of the word so rendered is sug gestive, “ they shall be; the two, into one flesh.” This too has its completest fulfillment in Christ and the Church. The complete oneness of Christ and the Church is something that defies descrip tion, even the oneness of the truest union between a man and woman as husband and wife falls short of it, and yet only a true husband or a true wife can understand at all these great les sons of verses 31 and 32. While the rela tion between any man and any woman will always necessarily fall short of the perfection of the relation between Christ and the Church,''.nevertheless, each several husband should love “ his own wife even as himself.” The wife on her part should see that she “ fear” Xi. e., hold in obedient regard— cf. Prov. 8:13) “ her husband.” SUNDAY, August 23. Eph. 6:1. Paul now passes from the subject of the reciprocal duties of wives and hus bands, to the reciprocal duties of chil dren and parents. He describes what it means for children and parents to walk worthy of the calling wherewith they have been called (cf. ch. 4 :1 ), or to put it in another way, he describes how Spirit-filled children and Spirit-filled parents act toward one another. Chil dren must “ obey” their “ paarents” (cf. Col. 3:20). The word here translated “ obey” is a different one from that used of the wife’s subjection to the husband (cf. ch. 5:21, 22), and the same one used of the servants’ obedience to their masters (v. 5). The force of the word here translated “ obey” is to listen to
and obey the parent’s voice. This obe dience should be rendered to both par ents, the mother equally with the father. The Bible everywhere exalts the moth er’s authority and places it on an equal ity with that of the father (cf. Prov. 1: 8; 6:20). Disobedience to parents is spoken of in the Bible as a sign of the most hopeless depravity (Rom. 1:30; 2 Tim. 3:1, 2). It is a marked charac teristic of the “ grievous times” in which we live (cf. 2 Ti. 3:1, 2 R. V.). The sphere of the child’s obedience to par ents is to be “ in the Lord,” i. e., out of regard, to the Lord and in His strength, in vital union with Him. This puts one limit upon ’ a child’s obedience to his parents, , i. e., if the parents command that which is manifestly contrary to the will of the Lord, in that case they should not be obeyed. Obedience “ in the Lord” of children to parents “ is right (rather, righteous, or just),” i. e., it is the thing that is exactly conformed to God’s will. MONDAY, August 24. Eph. 6:2, 3. Paul here backs up an exhortation of verse 1 by quoting the fifth command ment (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16). The saints in Ephesus were Gentiles (ch. 2:11), but Paul assumes their famil iarity with Old Testament Scripture; for when Gentiles became Christians the Old Testament became their study (cf. 2 Tim. 3:14-17). By quoting one of the ten commandments as authority for his command, Paul indirectly but clearly teaches the binding authority of the great moral principles of the Decalogue upon Gentiles as well as upon Jews. This very commandment is the one that Jesus quoted to show the Pharisees that they were “ making void the Word of God by”’ their “ tradition” (Mark 7:10-13, R. V.; see also Matt. 19:19,; Luke 18:20). Attention is called to the fact that this is the first com mandment that has a promise attached to it. As for that matter it is the only one that has. The promise attached to the fifth commandment is the promise of well-being and long life “ on the land.” The promise originally given has a clause added to “ on the land,” viz., “ which the LORD thy God giveth thee,” which clearly indicates that the land given to Israel is meant, but the prom ise as found in the original giving of the commandment is distinctly Jewish, and the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul omits that part, “ which the LORD thy God giveth thee” when quoting the promise here, and thus the Holy Spirit
Made with FlippingBook Annual report