EPHESIANS 6 (READING AT EXETER, 18 JANUARY 1933)
[p. 113] EPHESIANS 6 (READING AT EXETER, 18 JANUARY 1933)
CAC It is very striking how many precious thoughts are brought together in the christian household; it would seem to suggest to us that God intended every christian household to be a treasury of divine thoughts, so that we get in the husband and wife the thought of the headship of Christ and the place of the assembly as standing in relation to Christ as Head. Then we get the family idea, which is another most important part of the counsel of God. Then, finally, we get the thought of service, and that brings in another universal thought of God. I believe to get the scope of this scripture would bring us in view of all the great thoughts which God purposes to work out in His saints, and they are all enshrined in the christian household.
Ques Is this confined to the christian household in this epistle? What about children who have unconverted parents?
CAC Well, you see, principles that are established in the christian household would hold good universally, so it would appear that God establishes certain principles in a christian household which have universal scope, in keeping with the character of the epistle. The greatest principle in the moral universe is the headship of Christ, and it is set forth in every christian husband. These immense things are brought down and exemplified in that way, and so the wife represents the great principle of subjection to headship, not lordship, but subjection to headship, and I suppose that is an eternal principle. I think lordship will not be needed in eternity because everything will be in new creation setting, and it will be a matter of subjection to headship. Now that eternal principle [p. 114] is embodied in the assembly and illustrated in every christian wife. God’s primary thought was headship, and the assembly is brought in as the subject vessel getting the gain of headship in subjection. The second great thought of God is the family thought, and I suppose the family thought is going to be established fully in the universe. It is brought out in this very epistle that God’s thought is to have many families; that is, the family idea is an essential part of the counsel of God, and it is illustrated in every christian family, so that the saints are addressed in this epistle as of the household of God — that is, they are in the children’s place; they are of the household; and the saints are exhorted to be imitators of God as beloved children. That is the family thought and presently God is going to fill a universe with many families, heavenly families and earthly families, for there will be earthly families throughout eternity as well as heavenly. The family thought of God is going to be universal, and yet God has embodied it in every christian household; it is very interesting and profoundly instructive. Further, the principle of service is a universal principle of God and will be so eternally, everything being absolutely at God’s disposal and at the disposal of Christ. Now you see that particular part of the counsel of God is set forth in servants, but it is a universal principle — we all come in, every saint is a slave. So the three different relations are covered by the relations in which the saints stand. We stand as wife in relation to Christ as Head; we stand as children in relation to God as Father, the family thought, and we stand as slaves in relation to Christ as Lord; so the principles illustrated in the christian household are universal. It becomes the privilege of the husband to exemplify the great principle of headship and the privilege of the wife to exemplify the great principle of subjection in relation to headship; it becomes the privilege of the children [p. 115] in a christian household to exemplify the universal principle that governs the family of God, and it becomes the privilege of slaves to exemplify the relations to Christ as Lord which are proper to all saints. It enlarges and magnifies the position.
Ques Would you say a little more as to headship?
CAC Headship is a question of influence rather than authority, and that is very important as having its source in God Himself. I suppose the greatest truth in Scripture — if we may venture to single out one truth and speak of it in that way — is the truth of the headship of God: “The Christ’s head God”, 1 Corinthians 11: 3. David was in the light of the headship of God; he says, “Thou art exalted as Head above all; and riches and glory are of thee”, 1 Chronicles 29: 11, 12. He is in the presence of the headship of God. Now we see in Christ One who ever looked up with reverence and affection to God as His Head. He was always influenced by God, no other influence ever controlled Him; so every christian man is to look up to Christ as his Head, to be influenced by Christ, and if we look up to Him with reverence and affection we shall be influenced by Him. This principle comes down from God to Christ, and from Christ to the christian man, and from the christian man to his wife, so that a holy and divine influence is extended in that way. Influence is not exactly like law. For instance, the king of this country is the king and he has authority. If he gives an order it has to be obeyed — that is authority. But the king is also the head of society in this country, and the way the king behaves influences the whole of the society of the country. If the king is a moral man and a religious man, his influence would pervade every part of society; if he is a licentious man, that influence would pervade society. Now it seems to me that these are the thoughts connected with headship — influence that controls, not exactly by [p. 116] authority, but by the character of the person to whom we look up as head.
Ques Is that why you said that lordship does not go through while headship does?
CAC It seems to me that the idea of God being all in all is the thought of headship, the eternal headship of God.
Ques Does lordship generally suggest authority in adverse elements?
CAC I thought so, and I think lordship comes out in connection with the slave. The principle of lordship is illustrated and exemplified in the conduct of christian slaves. They are regarded, in a sense, as forming part of the household. The husband, wife, children and slaves. You have to put them all together to get the divine thought. We are all part of the wife, and every christian man has to take up the thought of headship; and we are all children, and we are all slaves. God has been pleased to bring these great universal principles together and to put them into the christian household as a treasury.
Ques I think I can see the wife side and the family side going through, but I am not quite clear about the service side. Is that an eternal thought, too?
CAC It is certainly a universal thought at the present time.
Rem I had thought, giving it a more direct application to children, that it is a wonderful favour that it is addressed to children here.
CAC That is the beauty of it, that every child has such an important place as being privileged to take up in such a way a principle that belongs to the whole family of God, that every christian child is privileged to carry that part of the counsel of God in practical experience by obedience and by honouring his parents. It is the working out in one little child of God’s family idea, so that the [p. 117] widest scope of things is exemplified in the behaviour of one little child. I think it is very beautiful.
Rem So that we see working in the christian household the principle that will put everything right eventually for the pleasure of God.
CAC Yes, and every child in the christian household has to acknowledge that the Lord has put him in that place and in that relationship, so that he is to obey his parents in the Lord; the Lord has put him there.
Ques It goes much beyond the law, does it not? The law never addressed children in this way.
CAC It told them they were to honour their father and mother, which is a little more than obeying them. To honour one’s parents is to regard them highly, so that they are held in esteem, not merely obeyed. A child might obey a policeman who told him to cross the road, or not, but christian parents are to be the subject of honour. That is what God looks for in His children, that He should be honoured. He says, “If then I be a father, where is mine honour?” Malachi 1: 6. God looks for honour from His children and that they should look up to Him as the model; they have God before them as a model. That is what I understand by honouring one’s father and mother: they are honoured by being looked up to as models, and that is what is meant in this same epistle — “Be ... imitators of God, as beloved children”, Ephesians 5: 1. I believe the thought of imitation is bound up in the thought of honouring parents; you honour them by giving them the place of models. The right family idea is that the father is the model. The Lord brought that out very fully in what people call the sermon on the mount, that if God is known as Father He becomes the model, and that the children are to be formed by the character of the Father. It is the outcome of owning the place that we have as children in the affections of the Father; that is,
[p. 118] what leads a child properly to obey and to honour his parents is the sense of the place of affection.
Ques In a very wide dispensational aspect, would you link these four with Christ, the assembly, Israel and the nations?
CAC I do not think that you could quite tie them down in that way, because the family thought could not be limited to Israel and the thought of service could not be limited to the nations. They will all come into these thoughts. The thought of headship and of the wife belongs to Israel as well as to the assembly, and the family idea will be there, too, because in the very place where they have been known as rejected they will be known as the sons of the living God.
Rem It seems very wonderful that God has designed to have in the assembly the working out of things that will be universal presently.
CAC Yes, and it is very wonderful that God should put all these thoughts into one house. It gives you a great idea of the christian household and enables you to understand how the assembly is related to households. I think it is very beautiful because it is the divine thought, and children will find it to their advantage; it says so. It is rather remarkable that there is this one feature of earthly blessing brought over into christianity because christianity is a system of spiritual and heavenly blessing. So if children want to live long they had better mind how they behave.
The divine idea is that children in the household are in the presence of headship in the father and in the presence of subjection to headship in their mother, so that there are features there which command honour. There is that which a right-minded child respects. There is such a thing as parents having the respect of their children. I think I could say that I respected my parents. I respected [p. 119] them for the spiritual qualities that I was able to discern in them even as a little child. Now that is what I think is meant by the word “honour”, and that kind of honour never ceases. If there are spiritual qualities in the parents the child never ceases to honour them, however old he gets, and the older he gets the more he honours the memory of the spiritual features that influenced him when he was a little child. And so the parent, the father, is not to provoke the children to anger, but to bring them up (that is the very same word as is translated ‘nourish’ in the previous chapter, where it speaks of the Lord nourishing and cherishing the assembly) in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. That is, the christian father has himself been under the discipline and admonition of the Lord and he nourishes his children in that which he himself has learned to be very beneficial. He brings it to bear on the children as one that has learned how beneficial it is, so that he nourishes his children, he makes that food for them. It is not the rod, but a nourishing influence, and I believe that a christian father who has himself been under the discipline and admonition of the Lord and has proved how good and valuable it is has acquired wealth, and the wealth that he has acquired he passes on to his children. We are all familiar with the thought of a parent amassing money to leave to his children, but the christian parent is not concerned about that so much, he is concerned about being a model for his children, so that there is nothing better that they could do than to imitate him. What he has acquired and found so beneficial for himself under the discipline and admonition of the Lord he passes on to them, so that they inherit his spiritual substance. Now that is far more important than that he should leave them ten thousand pounds! The thing to see is that the child grows up just like his father, so that everybody would say, ‘How like his father that boy is’.
And so Paul says of Timothy, “As a child a father, he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings”, Philippians 2:22. That is what he means when he says to the Corinthians, ‘I am going to send Timothy and when he comes he will put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ’. Now I do not think that Timothy was going to remind them by word of mouth but the very way he would carry on amongst them would make them say, ‘He is exactly like Paul. Paul’s ways are in Christ, Timothy’s ways are in Christ, is he not like Paul?’ The divine idea as to children is that they are to imitate their parents. That raises much exercise for parents; if I have a family would it be the very best thing in view of time and eternity if my children imitated me in every detail? Could I honestly say that would be the very best thing for them for time and eternity? That is the position. Now, you see, that would lead to the children not only obeying but honouring, and if a child honours his father he will imitate him, and he will do things in the same kind of way and in the same spirit that his father does them. That is the proper family idea. God is going to have many families and is going to put the impress of Christ on every one of those families so that they will all be like Him; they will all correspond with God as the universal Father.
Rem In Colossians obedience is enjoined in all things.
CAC I suppose obedience is the most essential principle possible. Whatever relationship there is, obedience has some part in it.
Ques Would the principle of the promise that they would live long on the earth apply to all as the children of God?
CAC Yes, and I think God brings it in as a particular encouragement to children as moving in obedience and in honouring their parents. He brings in this remarkable touch in Ephesians, that you have a promise of living [p. 121] long on the earth. We all ought to have before us that it is a desirable thing that our ways should be such that it will be consistent with God’s plan to keep us here a long time, and it is a privilege to be here as those who are imitating God as His children.
Ques Have you in mind that it takes in the thought of health?
CAC Yes, these principles are very advantageous; it says, “that it may be well with thee”. It will be well, and I have observed in the course of my life that it is well for children to obey and honour their parents; it does work out very well.
Ques Is there anything in the nature of an arbitrary command in the absence of characteristics which are worthy of honour?
CAC Well, I think we have to take it altogether. Of course, if a believing child has parents that are not, as we should say, worthy of honour personally, the relationship is. However morally defective persons may be, the relationship is to be honoured.
Then, as to service — slaves. Every christian slave was in that position in order to display his relation to Christ and to the will of God, and to the Lord. His position brought out that there was something about him infinitely greater than his place as a slave. He was one who stood in a most wonderful relation to Christ as Lord and to the will of God, and the low position in which he was found socially was a proper setting for his relations to Christ as Lord and for the will of God to come out. And, you see, we are all slaves; we are all children and we are all slaves. I would not like to suggest the re-establishment of slavery as an institution amongst men, but I feel pretty sure that we have lost something as to our moral apprehension of things by its abolition. I think we have lost the sense of being the absolute property of another.
[p. 122] A servant now, if he is uncomfortable and does not like his place, leaves. Now that idea could never enter the mind of a slave, he was the absolute property of his master, and he had to do everything that his master said. The apostle clothes that position with glory; he shows that that very position is going to bring out your relations to Christ as Lord and to the will of God.
Rem So the slave here is the absolute property, in a sense, of two masters.
CAC The slave finds that his relations with his earthly master are to be the occasions of bringing out his relations to his heavenly Master. And so it is in any subordinate position that any of us may fill. Whatever position it is, it is just the framework into which the beautiful picture is put of our relations to Christ as Lord. Now I wonder if we have looked at our work in that light, whether it is behind the counter or in the workshop, or whatever it is? That is the framework of the picture, but then what is to be in the frame are the relations in which we stand to Christ as Lord. Now that glorifies what we may call the inferior relations in which many of us are placed.
Ques Do we see that in the little captive maid?
CAC What a beautiful example is there! What dignity! She is a slave, but look at the dignity! She is thinking about Israel’s God. She is governed in her menial duties, and as to her affections by the thought of the wonderful God whom she served. She had served Him in Israel, and now she has been taken captive and she is serving Him still. She wears all the dignity of a servant of Jehovah in the house of a heathen general. It is very fine! She thinks of his good, she is far superior to Naaman; outwardly in a very inferior position she is morally superior to everybody in the house.
Rem She was exactly doing what slaves are exhorted to do here, “Doing the will of God”, and so on.
CAC The words used here are very beautiful: “In simplicity of your heart as to the Christ”, and “As bondmen of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul”. It is very fine. Now these things are as important for us, for we are all slaves. We all come in as children, but then we all come in as slaves, and what is very remarkable here is that the masters are slaves, too. So that there is what you might call a very inconsistent exhortation! I do not know whether we have all noticed it, but it says to the masters, “Masters, do the same things towards them”. We should not have expected that, should we? Do the same things — that is, the masters are just to be characterised by the very same things that characterise the servants, simplicity of heart and subjection to the Lord and, he says, Remember you have a Master up in heaven and He is no respecter of persons. That is, the very same exhortations that are addressed to the slaves are just the right things for the master, too.
Ques What do you mean when you say we are all slaves?
CAC That we are all in that relation to Christ; we are absolutely in that relation, and I believe we have greatly lost the sense of it. We hardly know anything about slavery now; it has almost disappeared from the world, but the idea of slaves is in each one of the epistles; each one of the five apostles who have written epistles writes to us as slaves of Jesus Christ. Each of them speaks of himself as a slave, and we are all in that relation to Christ, not at liberty for our own wills but bondslaves or bondmen of the Lord. We think sometimes that we can do a little bit for the Lord when we think fit; well, that is the voluntary principle, but I have to recognise that I am not a volunteer; I am committed to it, body, soul and spirit, as a slave, and I can never be anything else day or night but a [p. 124] slave of Jesus Christ — His absolutely.
I believe we need to consider more the thought of recompense. Paul brings that in, he says, “Whatever good each shall do, this he shall receive of the Lord”. The Lord would have the thought of recompense very much before us; He brought it very much before His disciples. If you are a slave, and are committed, the absolute property of Christ, and you serve Him every minute, so to speak, of the twenty-four hours of the day, you will be recompensed; every bit that is good will be recompensed. I think if we kept that before us it would make us more diligent in service.