Dear Ephesus // Weaponized Words (Chapter 5:21-6:4)

1. SUBMIT

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Ephesians 5:21NIV 21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

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Ephesians 5:21-24 NIV 21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

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Ephesians 5:25-33 NIV 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

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2. HONOR  

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Ephesians 6:1-3 NIV 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise — 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

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Ephesians 6:1 NIV 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 

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Ephesians 6:1-3 NIV 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” - which is the first commandment with a promise - 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

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Ephesians 6:4 ESV 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

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3. DISCIPLINE

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Proverbs 13:24 NIV Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

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Psalm 119:105 NIV Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

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Ephesians 6:4 NLT 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

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Psalm 23:4b NIV 4...Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

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Questions:

1. What does it mean that Scripture tells us to submit to each other out of reverence for Christ? Why does the military picture that Paul is painting matter?
2. How can you honor someone even when you don’t agree with them? How might God use that to draw people to Him?
3. What is your honest view of God the Father/Shepherd? Why do you think you view Him that way? How does that affect the way you approach Him and His Word?