13th May; Job 38-42 – Rev. Dr. Ian Smith (Principal PTC)

20th May; 1 Thessalonians – Dave Hann (Elder)

27th May; Colossians – Rev. Max Walker (RAN Chaplin)

Easter Services; Rev. Dr. Ian Maddock (Theology Lecturer SMBC)

15th April; Job – Rev. Dr. Ian Smith (Principal PTC)

22nd April; Job – Rev. Sandy McMillan (NSW Moderator)

29th April; Job – David Hann

25th March – The Not-Vacant Vine (John 15:1-11)
1st April – Abram – the man of faith (Genesis 12:10-20)

5th February – Christians and Church Romans 12

12th February – Christians and Society Romans 13

19th February – The Peace Time Church: How Not To Live Malachi 1

26th February – Christians and Christians Romans 14

Chinese translation
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The Greek word for ‘submit’ (hupotasso) means to place oneself in a lower rank than someone else.

 As we look at Paul’s first set of instructions on the responsibility of mutual submission in marriage, it is important to remember that his writings have divine authority. I know it’s become popular today to dismiss anything that Paul says about women and marriage because his teaching often contradicts popular cultural aspirations about gender and egalitarian concepts of marriage. Nevertheless, we mustn’t forget that Paul’s writings represent the mind of God. As the apostle Peter says, “Paul writes with the wisdom God gave him. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). So Peter makes it clear that the apostles believed Paul’s writings had the status of Scripture.

 When it comes to Paul’s instructions to women, he says that their responsibility within marriage is regulated by the command in 5:21 that all Christians should submit to one another. His command to wives is as follows, “wives to your husbands as to the Lord.” The word ‘submit’ is missing, though it’s clearly implied. This is obviously deliberate on Paul’s part. The fact that he does not repeat the word, ‘submit’, suggests that wives are not being singled out and given a subservient status. Instead, they are simply called to do the same as everyone else in the church, that is, submit to one another.

It should be of interest to us that Paul starts and finishes this short section by specifying whom wives should submit to: “their own husbands” (v24). Paul does not envisage women as a group coming under the authority of men in general, nor are men automatically elevated to a position of authority over all women. There is nothing inherently wrong with a woman being a political, educational or business leader. Paul only speaks of submission in terms of a married woman’s responsibility to her own husband’s headship. In other words, a wife’s submission is seen in the love, service and cooperation that she offers to her husband.

What exactly does a wife’s submission involve? The Greek word for ‘submit’ (hupotasso) means to place oneself in a lower rank than someone else. In other words, it means the wife should seek to please her husband before herself. We should notice that in a Christian marriage, this is a reciprocal responsibility of both the husband and the wife. Each must serve the other. A Christian husband is meant to give himself up for the wife as Christ gave himself up for church. This requires that a husband must not serve himself, but must devote himself to serving the best interests of his wife. The wife’s responsibility, in turn, is to offer her husband cooperation and loving devotion.

I think it’s also worth pointing out that the idea of submission is not exactly the same as that of obedience. The Greek word for ‘obey’ is hupakouo. This is what Paul required of children and slaves (Ephesians 6:1, 5). However, a wife is neither a child nor a slave. She is an equal partner in the most personal and intimate relationship in the world. She is involved in a union where the two parties offer themselves to one another in mutual devotion. They belong to one another and the Christian pattern in the marriage relationship is that both husband and wife should serve each other’s needs before their own, based on the example of the relationship of Christ and the church.

“Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”

(Ephesians 5:25)

 What does Paul mean when he tells husbands to love their wives? The word, ‘love,’ is used in many different ways today and much of this usage betrays an underlying confusion. When Paul talks about love, particularly in reference to a husband’s love for his wife, we need to remember that he speaks about love in a special sense. In the Greek language of the first century there were a number of words that were sometimes used to describe what we commonly call ‘love’. If we are to understand Paul’s instructions to husbands, then we need to understand this and know the different meanings.

Essentially, there are four words in Greek that are used to express the different shades of meaning in the word ‘love’. The first of these, the word eros, from which we get the English word, erotic, refers essentially to love between the sexes. It relates to sexual passion and attraction. The term itself is not actually found in the New Testament, and this has led some Christians to conclude that this kind of love is unworthy of a believer. But is this so? After all, human beings have a physical and emotional nature, so it seems reasonable to think that sexual love is natural, even if at times people express it in perverted ways.

I know that some Christians think that romantic love is irrelevant in marriage. They have the idea that a Christian man can marry any Christian woman. A man once said to me that he felt that he could marry any of the women in his local church. Well, perhaps, but I’m sure there would have been a lot of women heading to the exits when they saw him coming. I don’t think that we can discount the idea of sexual attraction. It seems to be a factor in drawing certain men and women together and some of the resentment that women have for arranged marriages suggests that this is so. If you’ve seen the comedy, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you’ll know exactly what I mean. It’s good and natural that there is a physical attraction between a husband and a wife, but that’s not what Paul is saying here.

Now there are other words in Greek for expressing love as well. One of them is the word phileo, from which we derive the English word ‘philanthropic’.  It refers to fondness or affection for someone. Another word is storge, which has to do with family affection such as a child’s love for its mother or father.

However, when Paul speaks of a husband’s love for his wife, he uses the Greek word, agapao. This word is always used in the Bible to describe God’s love for us. It’s not that the other forms of love don’t come into a Christian marriage – they do. A quick reading of the Song of Solomon should dispel any doubts that romantic love has a central place in marriage. The Bible definitely affirms the physical side of life (1 Timothy 4:4).

Nevertheless, what Paul is saying is this: faith in Christ makes a real difference to a marriage.  Above and beyond the natural attraction that two people may have for each other, and over and above their common interests and companionship, there is an even higher love to which they can rise. A Christian marriage needs to be crowned and glorified by the presence of the divine love that is expressed by the husband to his wife.

We must not forget that this is part of his responsibility of mutual submission in his personal relationships.

“Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”
(Ephesians 5:25)

How should a Christian husband treat his wife? While some men treat their wives as little more than a convenience, the apostle Paul tells us that Christian husbands have a special responsibility to “love their wives as Christ loved the church.”

When we think of a Christian husband’s responsibility to love his wife, we must not forget that this is part of his responsibility of mutual submission in his personal relationships. Of course, it would be easy to think that because a husband is referred to as the ‘head of the wife’ that he thereby gets to impose his will and desires on her whenever he likes. However, this is not so.

It is interesting that Paul doesn’t say, “Husbands, keep your wives in place; order them around and control their lives.” Instead, he says, “Love them just as Christ loved the church.” This means that Christian husbands should love their wives in the same way that the Christ shows His love for the church; sacrificially, tenderly, and with a servant’s heart. There is no suggestion here that a husband can act unilaterally, throw his weight around, or dominate his wife.

I know it’s easy for some men to interpret the idea of headship in terms of power and the right to command. However, if we are ever tempted to think this way, we need to remember that Jesus expressly disavows any ideas of headship, leadership and authority that exclusively focus on command or domination.

I suppose it’s not surprising that men are often confused about this. After all, even the apostles had confused ideas about leadership and authority right up until the time that Jesus died. The Gospels tell us that they generally understood authority in terms of power, control and privilege. On one particular occasion, Jesus challenged these notions: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over their peoples, and their officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But it shall not be so among you. Instead,” He said, “Whoever wants to be great must become a servant and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28).

On the night on which He was betrayed, Jesus gave a very poignant reminder of this principle by washing the apostle’s feet. In the first century world, washing the feet of houseguests was the work of a menial slave. Although Jesus was their rabbi, He took upon himself a slave’s uniform and performed a slave’s duty for His followers. Afterwards He said, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you… Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:12-17).

Do you see Jesus’ point? He’s reminding us that even if we have authority over others, as Christians our task is nevertheless to serve other people selflessly. This means that a Christian husband, while he may be the head of his wife, nevertheless has the responsibility in that position to serve his wife and minister to her needs. For a Christian, authority always requires service.

Jesus made a number of extraordinary promises about the Holy Spirit.

 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18)

 Paul’s command to be “filled with the Spirit” is one of the climatic points in his letter to the Ephesians. This command reminds us that one of God’s great aims in redemption is to see us indwelt, empowered, and controlled by the third Person of the Trinity.

Of course, the reason why this command is so important is that it represents one of the final promises that Jesus made to His disciples – the promise that we would possess the Spirit. On the night before He died, wanting to assure us that His death and resurrection would not be to our disadvantage, He made a number of extraordinary promises about the Holy Spirit. For example, in John’s Gospel, He said, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth…  And you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you” (14:16).

This is one of the most amazing statements of the Bible because it reminds us that not only can we know God, which is a wonder in itself, but Jesus is telling us that we can also be filled with God because He will come to live in us. And Paul reminds us of this truth here in Ephesians 5. The great wonder and glory of the Christian faith is that the Creator of the universe, the one who made the heavens and earth, as well as being our Redeemer and Saviour, has planned to come and dwell, not simply with us, but in us. And so, Paul’s command, “be filled with the Spirit” represents, as it were, the climax of his teaching.

Paul’s emphasis on the fact that every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit is a reminder that one of the central promises of the New Covenant has been fulfilled. The prophet Ezekiel spoke of a coming age in which God would give His people new hearts. “How?” you ask. Ezekiel tells us that God promised His people to “put my Spirit in you and move you to keep my decrees” (Ezekiel 36:26). “Well,” says Paul, “that moment has now dawned.” And this is why at the beginning of his letter he tells the Ephesians that he is praying that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened so that they may know the hope to which they have been called… and God’s incomparably great power for those who believe” (1:18-19). What exactly is he praying for here?

I think one of the things that is uppermost in his mind is that these believers will realise that God has come to dwell in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, and that this marks the major turning-point in their lives. Before they received the Holy Spirit, they were powerless to love God and serve him. Now they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they have the incomparably great power of Christ’s resurrection at work within them. This is what makes it possible for the Christian to live life in a new dimension. I can imagine Paul saying to the Ephesians, “If the Spirit of God dwells in you, then that means that God’s mighty power which He exerted in raising Christ from the dead isat work in your hearts.”

In other words, there is no experience or event in our lives which is more transformative or holds out greater potential for the present as well as the future than to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. So the great question facing us all is this: “Has the Spirit come to dwell in your heart? Is He controlling and directing it?”

William Wilberforce - author of 'A Practical View of Christianity.'

“Do not be drunk on wine which leads to debauchery; instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

(Ephesians 5:18)

William Wilberforce, the British social reformer, says in his book, A Practical View of Christianity, that nowhere is the difference between nominal Christianity and the true faith more apparent than in a person’s awareness and experience of the Holy Spirit. What struck him as he read the New Testament is that it is our experience of the Holy Spirit that is the dividing line between true and false religion. As Paul says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9).

Clearly, it is the possession of the Holy Spirit that sets true Christians apart. And that’s why Paul’s statement, “be filled with the Spirit,” in a sense is one of the critical statements in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, because without it, Christianity would be nothing more than a set of rules without the power to fulfil them. It would be like engine with no fuel. Without the Holy Spirit, the Christian life goes precisely nowhere.

Now, what exactly does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Does it mean that we begin the Christian life with an ecstatic experience of tongues-speaking? Or does it mean that we can just relax and let God do everything? We should notice, first of all, that Paul draws a distinction between “being filled with the Spirit” and “being drunk with wine.” Why does he do this?

It was characteristic of religion in the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world that people sought to have heightened ecstatic experiences of God through various rituals and artificially induced states of mind. This is where alcohol came into the picture and why Paul mentions the possibility of being drunk with wine. People believed that they could achieve a higher state of religious consciousness through such things as self-hypnosis, wine, frenzied sexual behaviour and suggestive music. This kind of behaviour was characteristic of Greek mystical religion that was associated with the religious worship of the god, Dionysius. People used alcohol and drugs, wild music, eating raw flesh and drinking blood as well as sexual orgies to achieve a spiritual ‘high.’

The important thing to note here is that Paul is not simply making a moral point about the use of alcohol. He’s actually telling us the truth about how we are meant to commune with God. “Don’t use pagan means to seek an experience with the Lord,” he’s saying, “you won’t find true spiritual enlightenment or fulfilment that way. Sex, drugs and suggestive music won’t bring you close to God – you need to be filled with the Spirit.”

In other words, being ‘filled with the Spirit’ is the way to commune with God and experience Him. However, if we don’t initiate this experience with drugs, or other means, how do we make contact with God? “Well,” Paul says, “we establish contact with God through his Word.” A genuine experience is always based upon the word of God. This explains why Paul says, “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (5:19). Elsewhere he tells the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another, with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (3:16). It is through the Word of God that we establish communion with the Lord, and it is through meditation upon it and submission to it that we are filled with the Spirit.