Week 10

Submitting and Honoring

Ephesians 5:21 - 6:9

Alternative Video site: https://vimeo.com/300173286

Opening: What compliment or honor have you received that meant a good deal to you?  And why?  (If you participated last week, share with the group how practicing thankfulness went.)

Examine the Passage:  Ephesians 5:21-6:9

Recall last week’s discussion on being called to be filled with the Spirit.  This week we will discuss submitting to one another as it helps us to be filled with the Spirit.  Here we have an important passage which starts off with us all submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.  And then Paul takes what was common in his time of the Greco-Roman world, the household codes (or the lists of responsibilities for various members of a home), and reworks them in light of Christ.  The expectation, back then, was that the male was the sole authority in the home, and wives, children and slaves at that time were property.  Any list of codes would focus on what the subservient ones were to provide for the one in charge.  However, Paul provides a counter-cultural re-working of the household codes in light of Christ. 

• Begin by grabbing a pen and circling or highlight the phrase, “submit to one another,” in vs. 21. Then read through the passage for other key words on how we ought to treat one another.  Share them as a group.
• In modern culture, asking a husband to love a wife seems to be stating the obvious, but asking a wife to submit might seem shocking. However, in the first century that was flipped.  Asking a wife to submit was standard and asking a husband to love was unexpected.  Paul helps to explain this higher standard of relating in marriage by expressing how a husband’s love should be like that of Christ’s.  He uses two images to express this high standard of relating: (1) The Church and Christ and (2) one’s own body.  First, the church submits to Christ as Christ loves the Church (vs. 23-27) and second, the husband should feed and care for his own body as a model for how he should care for and love his wife (vs. 28-31).  Explore these two metaphors.  Which one helps you personally think about loving and submitting in a Christ-like way?
• How might fathers (or parents, in general) exasperate their children? What are some examples of how fathers (and parents, in general) could nurture and instruct their children?  How much time and energy do think it would take to do this? 
• As an adult child, how might you honor your parents?
• How would you respond if someone said, “The Bible supports slavery and this passage proves it. That’s why I don’t read the Bible”?
• Who is currently in authority over you (teachers, employers, etc.)? How might this passage have implications for you in those relationships and situations? 
• The passage ends with “there is no favoritism in the LORD.” (6:9). Where do you see favoritism negatively impacting your Christian community?

Explore the Theme: Submission.  “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21

• What is your emotional reaction to being told to submit to someone else? What is your emotional reaction to being told someone else should submit to you?
• What is the difference between a Christian view of submission and society’s view of submission?
• How did Jesus model submission?
• What should you do if a person you are called to submit to abuses that authority?
• What does it look like for a leader to be submissive?

Engage Your Life: Honoring one another.  In what ways can you reflect sincere appreciation for another person?  How can you practically serve or honor someone else?  Come prepared next week to share how you honored someone outside of this group.  Next week, during the last session in Ephesians, you will also have an opportunity to give honor to members of this group.  Take time during the week to prepare what you might share about different group members, affirming their contributions to the group and admiring who they are.

Praying Grace and Peace: Share prayer requests, and then provide a couple of minutes of quiet individual prayer time to reflect on Christ, who gave himself up for you.  Then go to corporate prayer for one another and for praying grace and peace to all.