New Life in the Home

May 24, 2009

Background Scripture: Ephesians 5:1 – 6:4
Lesson Passage: Ephesians 5:21 – 6:4

Where exactly does “the rubber meet the road”? This phrase is often used to indicate the point of significance that should matter the most. When we think of religion, “Where does the rubber meet the road?” I believe religion matters the most when religious conviction effects a change in the believer. A change of this significance should be the most obvious to those who know us best. This places a person’s home at the top of the list. Those who live with us out of the public’s view know us on a different level. This is not to suggest that they are the most sensitive to characteristics of our personality but they are the ones exposed to those characteristics in their unrefined state. This statement could probably use a little additional clarification. When we are not dressed up and trying to remember to say “amen” or “praise God” as signs that we agree with statements, we are more likely to live as we are and not as we hope to be. How we are to be is prescribed in the text of our lesson today. With what we have discussed in the three previous lessons concerning new family, new works, and a new message, today we add a discussion concerning relationships in the home. All of this is brought about because of what God has done through Jesus Christ. The more the mystery of God unfolds the more newness we behold. God did not simply clean up the old but he is, in fact, bringing about the new. The newness in individuals begins on the inside and works its way to the outside. We refer to this process as sanctification. Unlike justification which is a once for all times act of God on behalf of and in the individual, sanctification is a spiritual evolutionary process. Through sanctification, Christians are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. It is this transformation that leads to changes in personal relationships for the individual. Ultimately, it will show up in the home life of Christians. The new relationships in the home will transform the environment into one that conforms to God’s will. And what is God’s will for the home? That it be a physical model of the spiritual union between Christ and the church. Husbands should be imitators or emulators of Jesus in their love for their wives. Wives should reverently be in subjection to the leadership or headship of her husband as the church is to Christ. Their children should reflect honor for them as Christians should reflect honor for Christ and the church. Fathers should raise their children in the nurture and admonition of Christ. This description of relationships could easily cause one to believe that the relationship between Christ and the church is modeled after the family. However, a review of Chapter 1 of Ephesians will show that the church was indeed ordained of God before the foundation of the world and therefore it is the family that is modeled after the relationship between Christ and the church. So as far as religion is concerned, the home really is the beginning of “where the rubber meets the road”.


Robert C. Hudson
May 18, 2009