What is your "work"? Do you like to work? I do, if it is a type of work that lines up with my God-given talents and spiritual gifts. Given the opportunity to exercise those, work is a source of supreme joy and satisfaction. I was given the soul of a crusader, basically. Part of my individual personhood is all about "righting wrongs" and "campaigning for Truth". I am repulsed by folks who would walk by the person lying on the side of the road, beaten and bloody, and say, "Someone else will do it." In my world, it is a disgrace for someone to not exercise their faith, their natural talents and/or their spiritual gifts, ignoring opportunities God puts before them.
So, again, what is your "work"? What has God given you to do? And, more importantly, are you doing it? I was talking with a friend yesterday who works with her husband jointly in their shared work. She said that she cannot imagine them doing anything else. That's the kind of laser-like focus God wants from all of us, on the tasks He has assigned us or called us to.
In Ephesians 6:5-9, Paul is talking about the workplace, basically. At least, that is the application to our modern day in the civilized world. Before we take a closer look at the economy of the first century in Paul's part of the world, let’s read those five verses. I’m using the ISR version (The Scriptures, 1998
5Servants, obey your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Messiah;
6not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as servants of Messiah, doing the desire of Elohim from the inner self,a
7rendering service with pleasure, as to the Master, and not to men,
8knowing that whatever good anyone does, he shall receive the same from the Master, whether he is slave or free.
9And, masters, do the same to them, refrain from threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in the heavens, and there is no partiality with Him.
The economy of first century Israel was supported by three key segments: 1) agriculture of olives, figs, grains, dates, and vineyards; 2) trade fostered by Israel’s key location on the Mediterranean Sea; and 3) large government building projects sponsored by King Herod. Actually, I think in the Jewish world, the Temple could have been classified as a 4th economy. But, I’m not going to explore that today.
Other key points about Israel’s first century economy:
King Herod employed many laborers by commissioning many public works (e.g. building temple in Jerusalem, palaces, ports, fortresses, stadiums, ornate stone carvings, etc.) He was both a lunatic AND a brilliant man. His architectural skills are still legendary. For example, in building the port of Caesarea, his builders used a type of concrete mixture that we have not been able to duplicate in this modern era. It was designed to withstand the salinization of the ocean and still stand firm and strong.
Secondly, there was a very large disparity between rich and poor.
In Jewish society, the upper class was made up of the temple priests and priestly aristocracy (including the Sadducees – a Jewish sect)
The middle class was comprised of traders and merchants, artisans (stonecutters, masons, sculptors) and craftsman (metal, wood, cloth dye). The Pharisees (another Jewish sect), sages, scribes, and teachers were also a part of the middle class.
The lower class was made of laborers (weavers, stone carriers, slaves {a non-Jewish person taken into slavery because of debt}, and the unemployable (lepers, blind, insane, crippled, etc.)
The Roman government required heavy taxation of its people. Tax collectors in Jewish society were Jews in their communities, but also were local employees of Rome, the “enemy”. Therefore, they were considered by their Jewish neighbors to be outcasts and traitors.
Jews were also required to bring offerings to the temple – sometimes in the form of money, and usually by purchasing sacrificial animals to offer to the priests. But, also, grain offerings and wine offerings were brought.
Traveling teachers made their living by traveling from town to town and accepting gifts from those who came to hear them.
During the first century, the temple courtyards had often become a marketplace – local merchants would sell sacrificial animals at excessive cost in order to turn a profit from the tourists or religious seekers that would come to the temple. The people had to weigh the benefits of purchasing an approved animal at the Temple, versus bringing one from home (along with the aggravations associated with that,) and then getting to the Temple and learning the animal did not meet the standard, or “make the cut”.
Paul used the examples of slaves (non-Jews), who were the very lowest social class and their masters, the very highest, to make his points. It is hard for us to relate to this social structure in modern-day, first-world countries, such as America. But, we can read this passage and draw some parallels to the modern-day "world of work".
At the moment, and for the past 13 years, I am self-employed, a small business owner. At times, after I retired from full-time work in public education, I did contract work for other educational agencies. Now, I manage property and sell personal care products. You may be self-employed, a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) or an employee of a business or government agency. These parallels I'm going to draw to this passage are primarily for those of you who "work for someone" or to use the common parlance "work for The Man", lol!
How to view and deal with "bosses":
1. Realize that they are your boss because God ordained that. And, at least for now, they are in authority over you. This command is similar to the one that tells us to pray for those in charge of our government, whether we helped to put them there or not. Most likely, we did not choose our overseer, our boss. It may be that we were hired before we even met the person who would be our direct supervisor. As long as your boss is not asking you to commit a moral sin, do something that breaks the law, etc., you are told here in Scripture to obey him or her.
2. Have a respectful attitude and deal with them respectfully, out of respect for their position, if you are unable to respect them for their character and/or their leadership. Sometimes the latter is not possible, because supervisors/employers have values that are contrary to yours. Sometimes, they make difficult decisions with which you don't agree. Most times, you are not privy to all of the circumstances that led to the decision either. I was sharing with someone the other day about my former career as a school principal. My friend was exclaiming about how she could never have done that job because of the students and their behaviors and because of difficult parents. I then made a statement that astounded her. Although I was blessed to supervise hundreds of wonderful people in the buildings to which I was assigned, by far the hardest part of my job concerned personnel situations that I could not talk about. Let me explain. In personnel situations where someone gets a mandatory re-assignment or is forced to resign or is out-right fired, the supervisors involved in those decisions are forbidden to share with other employees the details of the behaviors that led to the reluctant severing of the employment relationship. The employee involved was free, in most cases, to go around and tell people/co-workers, etc., whatever he or she wanted to share, about what had happened. That was often far from the truth, as these people attempted to salvage their reputations or “save face”, as the expression goes. And, as the direct supervisor, the supervisor closest to the “front lines”, I was absolutely unable to say a word to correct the misinformation. It was very hard, because I then had to endure much unfair criticism.
So, remember: sometimes your bosses may deserve criticism, and sometimes they may not. Don't backbite or talk-down your employer behind his/her back, as this is the next-highest form of disrespect, coming in directly behind outright disobedience (insubordination). Both can likely get you fired, or at the very least passed over for promotion.
3. Maintain your integrity and testimony by working hard for your employer, whether it is seen and recognized ... or not. That old expression, "When the cat's away, the mice will play", should not be in your cubicle. Be deserving of your employer's trust. If he/she does not trust you, that Savior you talk about won't be trusted either. Think about the negative implications of that!
4. Ultimately, you are working for the Lord. So, be enthusiastic about your work! And, if you find this very difficult to do, pray about other work opportunites, which would be a better match for your God-given abilities.
5. Have a servant's heart. Don't think that your job is "better" than anyone else's or more important. A healthy work culture values each person's work as integral to the success of the whole.
How to be a great "boss":
1. Remember that, just because you are in a position of authority, God is ultimately your "Master".
Do all your leading as unto Him, remembering that if you don't earn your employees' respect and trust, they will view your Lord unfavorably.
2. Treat your employees with consideration, compassion and fairness.
3. Don’t “play favorites”. There will be employees who seek in various ways to curry your favor. Reward great work, but don’t show favoritism. God does not "play favorites"; neither should you.
Ecclesiastes 3:9&13 says this:
What benefit can a worker gain from his toil? ...that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things are a gift from God.
The work He has given to each of us is a precious gift. May we each enjoy it and gain benefit from it!
Now, what if I showed you a photo of a woman in a pink snowsuit? Would you think she is about to go swimming? Probably not. If she wore this snowsuit item to a swimming pool, what do you think people would say? Furthermore, if she tried to actually swim in that....lo tov, lo tov (which means “not good”, in Hebrew.)
Let's dig in to Ephesians 6:12-18. But first, a little jingle.
"Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before."
Onward, Christian Soldiers -
Words: Sabine Baring-Gould, 1864. Music: Arthur Sullivan, 1871.
I was "raised" in the Baptist church. My mother was the church pianist/organist and my Daddy "led the singin'." I remember singing this song and having not the slightest idea what it meant! What in the world? Soldiers? War? What war? In my little community in north GA, most everyone went to some kind of church and held a common standard of morality, it seemed. It took me a long time to really "get it".
An important aspect of the Christian life is the realization that our worldview, which flows from the gospel of Jesus Christ we preach is vastly different from the popular worldview. And, our belief system appears to be getting more unpopular as time goes on.
The truth is that the world apart from those who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ has always been full of people who, to some degree or other, are warring against our faith. The problem is that we, the Church, have often been oblivious. We seem to, as a whole, be in a state of "spiritual détente".
Oblivion and "la la la la la" are not effective weapons of war. They result in the enemy forces winning and your side getting stomped. So, let's break this down.
The first thing we have to realize is that the world we see and move through every moment of every day is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole "other world", a spiritual world, operating behind the scenes of this temporal world we experience with our five senses. In this spirit plane, the angels of God and the forces of spiritual darkness are at constant war. Whether we are conscious of it or not, whether people are Christian or not, ALL are affected by, influenced by, participating in this warfare.
So, that's the first step: realize that you are at the nexus of a grand and ongoing spiritual war, which won't end until God throws Satan into the Lake of Fire for eternity. If you fail to believe this, you are defeated before you start.
Some people have this false image of angels, picturing them as little cherubs, flitting about playing little harps. This is a deception of our spiritual enemy, the devil and his forces of evil. Never underestimate your opponent. God's angels are WARRIORS. This could be an exhaustive study in itself, but to give you a tantalizing taste, read Daniel chapter 10. In this chapter, one of God's mighty warriors is telling how he was battling against the spirit prince of the country of Persia, for many days, and that this prevented his arriving to speak to Daniel sooner.
One of the clearest passages concerning the reality of our spiritual battle is given by the apostle Paul in this passage: Ephesians 6:12-18. I'm going to present this passage to you in two Bible versions, the KJV and The Message. You will see very clearly that it is Father's intention that His children be warriors as well. Satan stands ready to oppose you, the representative of the living Savior, every moment of every day. Are you prepared?
New KJV:
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[a] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
The Message:
12 This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. 13 Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. 14 Truth, righteousness, 15 peace, 16 faith, 17 and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon.18 In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.
So, second, we've got to gather our weapons. After making sure we realize we are soldiers in a mighty, spiritual conflict, Paul admonishes us to "dress for battle" every day.
Have you gotten dressed this morning?
No, the woman in the picture I showed you is NOT from Russia. The Russian people would not think of dressing in bikinis or swim trunks 10 months out of the year! As the woman in the photo was dressed to DEFEND herself against the cold weather that surrounded her, so do the people of Russia or Greenland or Norway. It is so important that we "dress appropriately"!
Please don't forget to view every circumstance of your life in this light. Did you have an argument with your spouse yesterday? Did you hurt someone's feelings unintentionally? Did you cheat a business associate? Did you {insert relevant sin here}? This is all part of the battle. Recognize these spiritual attacks for what they are. Put your armor on (dress appropriately) and GO TO WAR!
I have a friend who likes to admonish us all to "armor up!" He says that FREQUENTLY. I think about that when I read about the weapons of armor featured in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Let’s look a little more deeply at getting dressed for battle, the spiritual battle, not only raging all around us continually, but which also features us as key players.
The passage we looked at yesterday, we'll examine again: Ephesians 6:10-17.
10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. 13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 by fitting your feet with the preparation that comes from the good news of peace, 16 and in all of this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Notice in verses 10 and again in verse 13 we are told to put on the FULL armor of God, not just one or two pieces.
Belt of Truth (vs. 14)
This is the first weapon listed, and I believe it is for a reason. The Bible is such a complex book that it is possible to use it to teach error. Discerning the truth from studying the Scriptures is imperative because, otherwise, we live out some distortion or some heresy. I went to visit a family friend in the hospital many years ago, as a teenager, and noticed some literature that a well-intentioned soul had left. I asked her about it and made the comment, "But, Martha, they are so sincere!" "Yes," she replied, "but they are sincerely wrong."
It is easy to conclude, without looking at all the passages on this topic, that the way to heaven is to be a good person, to "work" your way there, arriving there through your own efforts. But, that is not what the whole of Scripture teaches. This is but one example.
Breastplate of Righteousness
Where do we get this second weapon? How do we become righteous? This breastplate refers to our salvation in Jesus Christ. As we learn the truth of the Scriptures, we understand that we cannot earn our salvation or "work our way to heaven", but that righteousness is only found in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death, burial and resurrection on our behalf. Each day we must put on this breastplate to remind us that our righteous comes from Him and because this weapon protects our hearts from wandering. We are to live in and practice the righteousness we received from Him.
Gospel Shoes
As a warrior for Jesus Christ, we are commanded to take the gospel of peace to others. This weapon is referred to as covering for our feet because we are intended to TAKE it to others in the nexus of the battle, those who need to come to know Jesus as Savior. Why is it called the gospel of peace, in this passage? Because the finished work of Jesus Christ enables us to have eternal peace with God. For those of us who have already made Jesus our Life King, we can have peace in the middle of the spiritual war, knowing that He is already the Victor. We know that we fight for the side that will ultimately score a decisive and eternal win.
Shield of Faith
As a warrior, we will be called upon to fend off many spiritual attacks, on a daily basis. The shield of faith deflects those weapons and prevents them from doing us spiritual harm. But, we must use this shield! When attacks cause us to question our relationship with Christ, or what He has called us to do, we must respond in faith, trusting Him to lead us rightly.
I don't know about you, but there are times when I have no problem holding up my shield. There are other times when my shield tends to waver, falter and fail. In Scripture, we are told to "exercise" our faith. 2 Peter 1:5, Philippians 2:12-13, James 2:14-26. In that last passage, James points out that if your faith is not exercised, that is, if it is not evidenced by the good deeds you do, it would be prudent to examine yourself to see if you truly possess salvation, if you have ever really accepted Yeshua as Mashiach. That is, it would be good to investigate to see if you HAVE a shield of faith.
Helmet of Salvation
On the other hand, one of Satan's biggest lies is to cause us to doubt that we really belong to Yeshua. Another "biggie" is to cause us to believe that there is little we can do to further God's Kingdom. This is why it is imperative for us to remember two truths:
1. Once we have embraced Yeshua as our Mashiach, we are His, forever and ever. Regardless of our emotional state at the moment, we are His. Regardless of how we wander, we are His. Regardless of the mistakes we make, He is waiting for us to turn back to Him in confession and deep repentance. He is waiting with open arms.
2. Every Christian is crucial to God's plan to bring Him glory. There is no such thing as an insignificant Christian. In fact, if Satan is slamming you up against a wall, very likely God wants to use you in a powerful way, and this is why Satan is opposing you so greatly. Never believe that you are insignificant. Some of you reading this may have physical limitations and believe that, because of that, you are finished, done, washed up. Well, that is a lie. As long as you can think, you can pray. We'll talk more about that later in this teaching. Get to praying, as often as you can. Satan hates that.
So, don't let Satan "get inside your head" about this and discourage you! Put on that helmet of salvation every day. You are a child of the King, a resplendent daughter (or son)! Get out there and GLEAM!
Sword of the Spirit - God's Word – God's “Weapon of Mass Instruction”
Psalm 119:89-120
I was just reading this passage and I encourage you to go read it also. The Psalmist is painting a beautiful picture of how much God's written Word means to him. (Of course, at that time, the only written word he had was the Tanakh, the Old Testament, which is why he constantly refers to "your law".)
In Hebrews 4:12, the writer (whom many believe to be Paul, others Luke or James...it's disputed who the author was) tells us straight up how powerful God's written Word, His Torah, is:
"For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart."
(Holman Christian Standard Bible)
The Bible is alive. How is that possible? What the writer is saying here is that the Bible can cause cataclysmic change in people's lives when they read it, just as if it were a living person.
In the Ephesians passage, Paul says that the Bible is the sword of the Holy Spirit.
So, the living Holy Spirit, one of the top 3 manifestations of the Divine Majestic Mystery, uses this mighty sword to change lives. How amazing!
I love auto-biographies about how the word of God changed people. These are folks who were living lives faaaaaaarrrr away from God. But then, they began to read the Holy Bible and the Holy Spirit pierced their hearts with that mighty sword! God's Word radically changed their lives forever.
Believer, do not neglect the daily reading of this Book. Read it prayerfully and reverently and allow the Holy Spirit to change your life through the reading. The Bible is God's personal, special message to us, His Children. Don't under-utilize this powerful weapon, this "weapon of mass instruction"! {Most of you listeners know that the Hebrew word, torah, means “instruction”.
Prayer
How do you view prayer? In a previous teachings, I have gone into great detail about this topic and I won't rehash it this morning, as we are nearly out of time. But, please remember that prayer is one of your most powerful weapons, Christian - - a "super-weapon", if you will! Paul began this dissertation of spiritual weapons in Ephesians 6 with Truth and ended it with Prayer. Bookend and bookend.
One thing I want you to notice here is that Paul, as a minister of the gospel, asks the Ephesians to pray for him, specifically that he would be given the necessary boldness to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as he should. This is what every godly minister of the gospel hopes that his congregants will pray for him (vs. 19-20). Do you pray for your godly pastor? Please do! It matters. Boldly proclaiming the truth of the Word of God is a fearsome responsibility. Our godly men in the pulpit need all the prayer and support they can get. It always touches my heart when our pastor prays right before his sermon and asks the Holy Spirit to guide his words and not to let him stand in the way of what the Holy Spirit wants to say through him. I appreciate my pastor and hope that you appreciate yours too. If you don't, pray harder for him and about what you can do to support him. He is God's man for your church at this time and needs your prayers.
Love
Well, love is not mentioned in this passage, but I mention it here because love is the MOST super-weapon. In another letter of Paul's (to the Corinthians - - 1Cor. 13) he devotes a whole chapter to the pre-eminence of love. Jesus called love "the greatest commandment" in Matthew 22:36-40. See John 13:34-35.
Read these passages and reflect on how love should be in everything we do. No matter what spiritual weapon we wield, we should cover it in love. Just as faith without works is dead (James 2:14), wielding these weapons of spiritual warfare is useless, without love.
So, there you have them. "Put them on" every day so that you can walk in spiritual victory! Remember that The Message version tells us that we are engaged in a life and death fight to the finish. So, get out there and "smoke 'em (Satan's spiritual forces in high places)!"
"But, thank God! He gives us the victory over sin and death, through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Corinthians 15:57)
Oh Father God, thank you for the precious instruction You give us in Your holy Word. Thank you for telling us how to please, honor, glorify, magnify You. Thank you for these weapons, with which we can claim victory over the Evil One, our Adversary. Thank you that "we can do all things through Christ our Savior, who gives us strength." Help us to be dedicated to use these weapons daily and throughout the day. Help us to remember to love You, and to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. We love You, Lord! In Jesus' name, amen...........................................................................................................................................
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