Intro to "The Role and Priorities of the Wife" (Eph. 5:22-24)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/7/2019 8:42 AM

 

My Worship Time                                       Focus:  Intro to “The Role and Priorities of the Wife”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephes. 5:22-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.”

 

            We have a big problem in many of our churches today, and that problem is that many churches do not teach all that is in the Word of God.  As we come to what the Bible has to say about “The Role and Priorities of the Wife” we come to a part of this problem that the church has today.  If some churches actually read these verses they probably will think of them as being out of date with society and therefore do not believe that they are for our society in today’s world.  The problem is that in many churches today they are too worldly.

 

            The New Testament tells us over and over to another dimension of existence, a new way of thinking, acting, and living.  We are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called…and [to] put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:1, 24) is to fulfill the high calling to which we are called in a completely new life in a completely new, Spirit-filled way.”  That is the key to living the Christian life, “The Spirit-filled way.”  As mentioned in an earlier SD that is how our Lord lived while on planet earth.

 

            MacArthur writes “As was mentioned in the previous chapter, few areas of modern living have been so distorted and corrupted by the devil and the world and caused the church so much confusion as those of marriage and the family.  It is these issues that Paul confronts in Ephesians 5:22-6:9.  He expands and clarifies the general principle of mutual submission (‘be subject to one another in the fear of Christ,’ v-21) by giving several illustrations from the family, beginning with the relationship of husbands and wives.  As pointed out at the end of our discussion of verse 21, Scripture makes clear that there are no spiritual or moral distinctions among Christians.  ‘There is neither Jew, nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal. 3:28).  There are no classifications of Christians.  Every believer in Jesus Christ has exactly the same salvation, the same standing before God, the same divine nature and resources, and the same divine promises and inheritances (cf. Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; James 1:1-9).”

 

            However in the matters of role and function God has made distinctions.  MacArthur goes on “Although there are no differences in intrinsic worth or basic spiritual privilege and rights among His people, the Lord has given rulers in government certain authority over the people they rule, to church leaders He has delegated authority over their congregations, to husbands He has given authority over their wives, to parents He has given authority over their children, and to employers He has given authority over employees.

 

            “In Ep[hessians 5:22-24 Paul begins this list by outlining the role, duties, and priorities of the wife in relation to her husband’s authority.  First he deals with the basic matter of the submission, then with its manner, motive and model.”

 

            This is the outline that we will be following as we go through these verses, as we will begin with “The Matter of Submission” from verse 22a in our next SD, Lord willing.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that this is one of the most difficult sections to understand and to live out in my walk with the Lord and so it is my prayer that as I go through these different roles that the Lord will use them in my life to show me the great need of being filled with His Holy Spirit to live out the life that He has planned for me to live out from eternity past.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to live a life that will bring glory to the Lord as He continues to teach me more and more about humility.

 

Today’s quotation comes from Billy Graham “Knowledge is horizontal.  Wisdom is vertical—it comes down from above.”

 

8/7/2019 9:14 AM

 

           

PT-4 "The Necessary Foundation" (Eph. 5:21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/6/2019 11:54 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-4 “The Necessary Foundation”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:21

 

            Message of the verses:  “21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

 

            In our last SD we have been talking about the raising of children, and gave a couple of quotes from MacArthur’s commentary which has some very good resources for those who are raising children and are also grand-children.  This works because it is the way that God designed it to word, and God also has a plan on how the church should word, how believers are subject to their Spiritual leaders like their Pastors and even deacons.  Does this mean that they are better because they have a higher ranking?  Now it means that this is the way that God designed it to work.

 

            MacArthur writes the following about the role of the woman and in his next chapter he devotes the entire chapter to this subject.  “The submissive role of the woman was designed by God in creation and affirmed by His judicial act in response to the Fall.  Yet the balance of responsibility and blessing is found in woman’s bearing of children.  She is saved from seeking the role of a man and from identification as a second-class person by giving birth to children and being occupied with them, as well as by having the major influence on their early training and development.  Women who have children and pursue a life of faith, love, holiness, and self-control give their best to their family, and thus to society.  God has designed and called women to give birth to children, to nurse, caress, teach, comfort, and encourage them in their most formative years—in a way that father can never do.  That should occupy their time and energy and preclude their seeking a place of leadership in the church.”

 

            When churches, families and governments go away from the design that God has given them to operate on then their naturally will be troubles.  It all begins in the home and if the home is following the ways of the Lord, then the churches will be doing the same thing, and thus governments will also be doing the same things too because of the people who come out of the homes and churches are all following God’s design.  There is another aspect of this and that has to do with workers and those who they are working for.  Even back in the early NT times when there were many, many slaves this meant that the slaves who were believers along with the owners of the slaves who were believers were to follow God’s design for how to treat those who work and those who they are working for, and in some cases when slave owners who had slaves who were believers that those slaves could actually have a higher calling in the church, perhaps to be a Pastor or another form of leadership, and in that case the slave will actually have authority over the slave owners in the role of the church.

 

            John MacArthur concludes this chapter by writing “All believers are spiritual equals in every sense.  ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal. 3:28).  We submit to one another as the Holy Spirit influences us to do so.”

 

            So in the end it all has to do with being filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

The verse that goes along with the quotation from Phillips Brooks is from Job 22:27-28 “You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.  What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways.”

 

8/6/2019 12:15 PM

PT-3 "The Necessary Foundation" (Eph. 5:21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2019 9:04 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-3 “The Necessary Foundation”

 

Bible Meaning and Meditation                                                         Reference:  Ephesians 5:21

 

            Message of the verse:  “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

 

            In the last several weeks we have been looking at the drinking of alcohol, when it comes to believers, and then we took some time to talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit.  Now we move onto looking what it looks like for believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and this will continue as we move through verses 5:22-6:9.  This verse, 5:21, is what we call the necessary foundation as we transfer between what the meaning of being filled with the Spirit to what it looks like.  I suppose that I could go out on a limb and say that being filled with the Holy Spirit is the most important thing that believers can do, and when believers are not filled with the Spirit then they really cannot be a great witness to the lost or live a life that is really pleasing to the Lord.  I have struggled with what it means to live a humble life before the Lord and have been asking the Lord to show me what that is and all of the time it is something that I should have realized what it is all about as there are two things that I have been learning from my study of Ephesians to help me solve what was a mystery to me.  The first is that of the example of Jesus Christ as Paul describes in the 2^nd chapter of Philippians, and the second is being filled with the Holy Spirit which leads to the third thing and that is that I cannot do it on my own.  I have mentioned what Ephesians 2:10 means to me in that I believe that God has planned things for me to do way back in eternity past and the only way that I can do things that are pleasing to the Lord is in the power of the Holy Spirit, that means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength and what I do on my own for Him will end up at the judgment seat of Christ as wood, hay, and stubble.  So once again in order for me to do things that please the Lord I must be filled with His Spirit continually as the verb in Eph. 5:18 shows us.

 

            John MacArthur writes “James said, ‘What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?  Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?’ (James 4:1).  Conflicts in the church, in the home, and in marriage always result from hearts that are directed by self rather than by the Spirit of God.  When self insists on its own rights, opinions, and goals, harmony and peace are precluded.  The self-centered life is always in a battle for the top, and pushes others down as it climbs up in pride.  The Spirit-centered life, on the other hand, is directed toward lowliness, toward subservience, and it lifts others up as it descends in humility.  The Spirit-filled believer does ‘not merely look out for [his] own personal interests, but also for the interests of others’ (Phil. 2:4).”

 

            MacArthur has many good things to listen to in this section, so much that I only want to take a little bit at a time, and so I want to finish this SD with one more quote from him and then, Lord willing, pick up on some more in our next SD.

 

            “Be subject’ is from hupotasso, originally a military term meaning to arrange or rank under.  Spirit-filled Christians rank themselves under ‘one another.’  The main idea is that of relinquishing one’s rights to another person.  Paul counseled the Corinthian believers to be in subjection to their faithful ministers ‘and to everyone who helps in the word and labors’ (1 Cor. 16:16).  Peter commands us to ‘submit [ourselves] for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.  For such is the will of God’ (1 Pet. 2:13-15; cf. Rom. 13:1-7).  A nation cannot function without the authority of its rulers, soldiers, police, judges, and so on.  Such people do not hold their authority because they are inherently better than everyone else but because without the appointment and exercise of orderly authority the nation would disintegrate in anarchy.”  (In light of what we have seen over this past week-end what MacArthur has written is very insightful.)

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The Bible always has the things that helps us to live a life that will end up in a peaceful way of living, and I am always thankful for better understanding what it has to tell me.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to be filled with the Spirit this day so that my life will be humble before the Lord and others I associate with today.

 

Today’s quotation comes from Phillips Brooks who stated “Pray the largest prayers.  You cannot think a prayer so large that God in answering it will not wish you had made it larger.  Pray not for crutches but wings.”

 

8/5/2019 9:40 AM

PT-2 "The Necessary Foundation" (Eph. 5:21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/4/2019 9:05 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “The necessary Foundation”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:21

 

            Message of the verse:  “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

 

            We continue to look at the transition between what we have been looking at about begin filled with the Spirit and then the things that will happen to us when we are filled with the Spirit as we will see in verses 5:22-6:9. 

 

            In John MacArthur’s commentary he spends a lot of time talking about marriage in the beginning of this chapter that we are looking at, and talks about things like how easily it is for believers to get a divorce and the fact that the church in most cases does not look at this as being a big problem because it happens so often.  Things are much different in the church in our country at this time as compared to 50 years ago, and things are not very good as far as following things that the Bible has to say about marriage and even having children.  It is not uncommon for believers to live together with one another before getting married, and this kind of thing happening in the church 50 years ago hardly ever happened.  Bottom line is that the church in our country is becoming worldlier and as we look around at things that are happening in our country and around the world we see the fall out of now following what the Bible has to say. 

 

             John MacArthur writes “God will forgive, cleanse, and restore the repentant believer, but He does not change His standards of righteousness and purity and does not promise to remove the often tragic consequences of disobedience.  If the church seeks to accommodate those divine standards to the foolishness and sinfulness of its own members, it not only offends and grieves God but undercuts its testimony to the world.  If marriage cannot be right in the church it can hardly be right in the world, any more than it was in Paul’s day.”

 

            He writes latter “Families are the building block of human society, and a society that does not protect the family undermines its very existence.  When the family goes everything else of value soon goes with it.  When the cohesiveness, meaningfulness, and discipline of the family are lost, anarchy will flourish.  And when anarchy flourishes, law, justice, and safety cannot.  The family nourishes and binds society together, whereas the anarchy that results from its absence only depletes, disrupts, and destroys.

 

            “The unredeemed can benefit greatly from following God’s basic principles for the family, but the full power and potential of those principles cann be understood and practiced by those who belong to Him by faith in His Son.  Paul speaks to the Ephesians as fellow Christians, and apart from the divine life and resources that only Christians possess, but principles for marriage and the family that he gives in this letter are out of context and thus limited benefit.  The basic principle of being subject to one another finds its power and effectiveness only in ‘the fear of the Christ.’ The family can only be what God has designed it to be when the members of the family are what God has designed them to be—‘conformed to the image of His Son’ (Rom. 8:29).  Just as an individual can find fulfillment only in a right relationship with God, so the family can find complete fulfillment only as believing parents and children follow His design for the family in the control and power of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18b).”

 

Bible verse that goes along with D. L. Moody’s quotation is from Matthew 26:19 “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

 

8/4/2019 9:31 PM

PT-1 Intro to "The Necessary Foundation"

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/3/2019 7:29 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “The Necessary Foundation”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 5:21

 

            Message of the verse:  “And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

 

            We began to look at the background for this section in our last SD as we will begin to be prepared with what Paul has to say about our relationship with wives and husbands and also our children, and then those we work for after this statement found in 5:21 as this verse is a transition to what we have just written, and this subject will be discussed between Ephesians 5:22-6:9.

 

            One of the greatest problems we face in our country is the breakdown of the traditional family.  God families will ultimate make a good country, but when we see the millions of families who grow up without a father involved, and then this makes it necessary for the mother to work to fend for the family, which means that the children are many times unattended and so grow up pretty much on their own.  In my family of five my father worked full time, and my mother stayed at home to care for us children.  I remember a time when I had a friend whose mother worked outside the home and she asked my mother to care for her son.  My father would have nothing to do with this as he said that the mother should stay home and care for her own child.  In my family there were two children to care for and my wife stayed home to care for them.  I on the other hand had to spend many hours at work in order to give our children a good Christian education, and then a good college education.  In some ways this was hard on our family, but it was far better than having my wife work outside the home.

 

            John MacArthur writes the following from his commentary which actually came from his many sermons on the book of Ephesians, and those sermons were given sometime in the late 1970’s.  “Among the worst tragedies of our day is the progressive death of the family as it has been traditionally known.  Marital infidelity, exaltation of sexual sin, homosexuality, abortion, women’s liberation, delinquency, and the sexual revolution in general have all contributed to the family’s demise.  Each one is a strand in the cord that is rapidly strangling marriage and the family.”

 

            He goes on a little later to write “Without a proper basis of authority for relationships, people grope for meaningful, harmonious, fulfilling relationships by whatever means and arrangements they can find or devise.  Experimentation is their only resource and disintegration of the family—and ultimately of society in general—is being disclosed as the inevitable consequence.”

 

            We who are believers need to stand up and tell others about what the Bible has to say about how families are to operate.  I realize that in our day and age we live in that we are subjected to ridicule, but that comes with the territory of being a true believer.  

 

            Another problem is that these confusions about how the family should operate is making its way, and has been for many years, into the church.  It is not uncommon to have a gay woman “pastor” in churches today.  This breaks two rules of what the Bible has to say about being a Pastor.  One is that women are not to be Pastors, and to find out the truth of this one needs to go to the qualifications of being a Pastor that Paul writes in what is called his “Pastoral Letters,” as seen in his letters to Timothy and Titus.  The other rule is about homosexual relationships, which are prohibited in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.  Remember the story in Genesis of God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.  Also Paul writes about this issue in the first chapter of Romans1: “26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (Rom. 1:26-27)   In the MacArthur Study Bible he writes about what is meant by this highlighted portion from verse 27 and states that Aids fits into this statement.  If these verses are not bad enough to explain the downfall of the family and thus a country we then read verse 32, which is where we will end our discussion for today:  “32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I realize that things in our country are looking not so good, and I have to say that it truly bothers me very much, but the best thing that I can do is to pray about it and tells others the good news of the gospel.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will keep me filled with His Spirit today in order that I can demonstrate humility in my life today.

 

Today’s quotation comes from D. L. Moody who stated “If you pray for bread and bring no basket to carry it, you prove the doubting spirit which may be the only hindrance to the gift you ask.”

 

8/3/2019 8:07 AM

The consequence Toward Fellow Believers-Submission (Eph. 5:21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/2/2019 9:42 AM

 

My Worship Time                 Focus:  “The Consequence Toward Fellow Believers:  Submission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:21

 

            Message of the verse:  “21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

 

            I promised in our last SD that today’s SD will be very short.  We are in the process of finishing the outline from John MacArthur’s 20^th chapter entitled “Be Filled with the Spirit—part 2,” and looking at the very short 21^st verse in this 5^th chapter of Ephesians. 

 

            I have mentioned that one of the things that I believe that the Lord desires me to work on this year is humility and one of the huge things that I have learned about this subject is that a humble person is a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit, the subject that we have been looking at since the 9^th of July, and will finish today.

 

            Because the commentary from MacArthur’s commentary on Ephesians 5:21 is only two paragraphs I will just take the time to quote it and then give a few comments on my own.

 

            “The filling and control of the Holy Spirit will lead us to a spirit of humility, to the spirit that gives us the desire to seek the welfare of others before our own and to be mutually submissive.  The rich details of this verse will be discussed in the next chapter, since the verse provides a transition to the coming section.

 

            “In the rest of chapter 5 and through 6:9, Paul expands on the principle of believer’s submission as it controls the relationship of husbands and wives, children and parents, and slaves and masters.”

 

            According to this quote and looking ahead at the next chapter in MacArthur’s commentary we will be looking at a number of things that will come out of this 21^st verse of Ephesians chapter 5.  He entitles the 21^st chapter “The Necessary Foundation,” and Lord willing we will begin to look at this section in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is a lot of having my toes stepped on as we go through this section of Ephesians chapter five.  I guess that the stepping on of my toes is a part of God’s answers to becoming more humble in my walk with the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trusting the Lord to continue to teach me the things about being filled with the Spirit so that my walk with the Lord will be more pleasing to Him.

 

Today’s verse in response to yesterday’s quotation from Oswald Chambers is Psalm 19:7-8 “The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

8/2/2019 9:59 AM

To Whom Are We to be Thankful?-God The Father (Eph. 5:20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/1/2019 8:01 AM

 

My Worship Time                              Focus:  To Whom are we to be Thankful?—God the Father

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:20

 

            Message of the verses:  “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;”

 

            Let us begin today’s SD by looking at Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”  We can see from this verse that it is God the Father who has given to us every spiritual blessing, and so that is why we are to give all genuine thanks to God the Father.  As I think about this I go back to before time began and think about how in eternity past that God the Father was the Person of the trinity who devised a plan to give a bride to His Son and thus when the time was right He sent His Son into the world: Gal. 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.”  Then of course we can think about John 3:16 too “"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  These verses help us to understand what God the Father planned for His Son in eternity past, and thus the not only giving of His Son, but also the killing of the Son was all a part of God’s plan in order to provide a bride for His Son.  This is why as our verse instructs us that we are to give our thanks to God, even the Father.

 

            I would like to site one move verse in order to help us understand why we are to give thanks to God the Father:  “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).

 

            John MacArthur writes “Even those things that come through others comes from God.  We should be grateful for what anyone does for us, and we should thank them for it.  But thankfulness to others will likely be little more than flattery if we do not acknowledge that the true source of the gift is God.”

 

            “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:21).  This verse shows us that the mark of the unsaved person is thanklessness to God, however the mark of the Spirit-filled believers is “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”  The Spirit-filled believer is “anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [lets his] requests be made know to God (Phil. 4:6).  Not only that but he is “overflowing with gratitude” as seen in Col. 2:7) and he also continues to offer “up sacrifices of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name” as seen in Hebrews 13:15.l

 

            John MacArthur concludes this section by writing “A city missionary in London was called to an old tenement building where a woman lay dying in the last stages of a terrible disease.  The room was cold and she had nowhere to lie but on the floor.  When the missionary asked if there was anything he could do, she replied, ‘I have all I really need; I have Jesus Christ.’  Deeply moved, the missionary went home and penned these words:

 

‘In the heart of London City,

Mid the dwellings of the poor,

These bright and golden words were uttered,

‘I have Christ.  What want I more?’

Spoken by a lonely woman dying on a garret floor,

Having not one earthly comfort,

‘I have Christ.  What want I more?’”

 

            There is one more small section to look at in this 20^th chapter of MacArthur’s commentary and I think that I will save it for tomorrow even though it may well be the shortest SD that I will ever write.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The story of the poor dying woman from London has moved my heart a lot.  This woman who had nothing of human value had the Lord as her Lord and Savior and that was all that she needed.  It reminds me of a song.

 

Give Me Jesus

Jeremy Camp

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus

When I am alone
When I am alone
Oh, when I am alone
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus

Jesus
Give me Jesus

When I come to die
When I come to die
Oh, when I come to die
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus

 

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
You can have all this world
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  The woman in the story was certainly filled with the Holy Spirit and this means that she was a very humble person, something that I am trying to learn.

 

Today’s quotation is from Oswald Chambers who stated “Never compromise with those who water down the Word of God to human experience.”

 

8/1/2019 8:42 AM