Warfare at Home and Work - Ephesians 6

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


Most of us know this Great Chapter, Ephesians 6, because of Paul's teaching about "Spiritual Warfare," a very popular subject among many Christian groups - many books, tapes, and seminars have been dedicated to this cause of helping us "wrestle against principalities and powers."

At a time when our country has just completed a successful military campaign, it's important for us not to confuse spiritual warfare with human warfare. We understand that governments have been ordained of God, and as Romans 13:4 says, they bear "not the sword in vain." What this means is that governments can, and should seek to "contain" the acting out of evil in the world, and to the best of their ability, protect their citizens from that evil. However, we need to be clear that containing and protecting is not the same as what is accomplished through the employment of spiritual warfare - with effective spiritual warfare, it is possible to go even further, to eradicate the evil at its source, the human heart.

Police and military powers may be called "ministers of God for good", but they can only hope to alter behavior - God alone can change the heart of man. Jeremiah betrays a pessimistic yet valid viewpoint when he asks, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." (Jeremiah 13:23) The transformation from evil to good can only be achieved through the change of heart affected by the Holy Spirit.

Christians in America are at a very critical time in modern history due to the temptation to lean heavily on our military might, to trust in our laser guided smart bombs and satellite directed missiles. We have witnessed the complete overthrow of a very strongly entrenched regime in less than a month's time. It is all the more tempting to trust in our weapons in this endeavor, because we believe we are being led by a Christian President. Can God use a Christian President? Well, of course, but He can also use a pagan President. Thank God, our President is giving the kind of strong leadership needed to provide for our protection. However, we should not avoid asking the question about what it is we are asking him to protect for us - is it our lives or our lifestyle? One may wonder if it's safety we want, or rather, if it's economic success that we really want. As much as we may appreciate the power of the sword, we must never misplace the trust we say we have in God by placing it in our military. If we do, we may some day wake up to the reality that this same power will be used to limit our full freedom to worship and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A related question is, do Christians believe in war, or are they pacifists? Yes, both. At times it certainly is necessary for our leaders to take us into war, but we also pray for peace, which will only fully arrive when the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Messiah returns to rule. In the present age, when considering the subject we call "Spiritual Warfare," let's remember that the goal is to overcome evil, but not to do so with weapons of destruction, but with the good, godly and life-producing instruments of truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Bible and prayer, TRPFSBP.

Because so many others have taken upon themselves to explain and promote the development of "Spiritual Warfare," we've decided to approach this teaching from the perspective of its Biblical context. What we want to note is that this instruction about spiritual weapons comes right on the heels of a set of very practical instructions having to do with home and work. Normally we assume that "Spiritual Warfare" takes place in the church and in the world - we gather to storm heaven in our boisterous prayer meetings behind the four walls of our church building, and we assemble around flagpoles and stand on capitol steps to put prayer in the public eye. But the context of this teaching demands that we also make sure that "Spiritual Warfare" is employed especially at home and at work. And may we add that for our youth, school buildings can also be viewed as work places - after all, we do call it "school-work" don't we?

So let's consider applying the principle of "Spiritual Warfare" to these arenas, as taught in this passage.

Although we've identified Ephesians 6 for our reading, we really need to back up to the beginning of this section which actually begins at 5:21. The entire passage, which extends through 6:9 has been called the "haustafel," or "household instructions." There's something here for wives and husbands (5:22-33), children and fathers (6:1-4), slaves and masters, i.e., workers and bosses (6:5-9). The reality is, we cannot expect to bring down the strongholds of evil in our world, or even realize spiritual revival in our churches unless the battle is successfully engaged and won at home and at work. After all, most of our resources of time and energy are spent in these two settings, and most of our relationships are also formed in the context of family or work associates. If truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Bible and prayer are not successfully employed at home and work, what hope is there that they will successfully influence either church or nation?

Unfortunately, perhaps because they are men, most preachers want to begin this section with the command that wives submit to their husbands. In a society that has been male-dominated for so long, we find in these words support for the idea that men should be in charge of everything. You noticed that we started the reading from verse 21, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." This represents the Christian ideal, mutual submission. So we're not going to get into a discussion about who's the "head" and who's the "neck that turns the head." In fact, the word "head" here may be understood as referring to the head of a river, which is the source. Husbands, out of their self-sacrificing love for their wives, provide everything for their well being, and when they do so, the fights for control diminish because wives begin to respond to leadership out of a response to love, rather than demands.

    In a brief sketch in the funny Bill Cosby show, the wife of the good Dr. explains that when she offers to get coffee for her husband, she is not serving him - she is offering him something out of her love for him. Then she adds a word of advice to her new son-in-law, "as long as you hang on to that macho attitude, no one will ever get you nothing, no way, no time, not ever!"

It would be far better for both husbands and wives to rely on these spiritual implements in the developing of their relationships. The Christian marriage relationship is characterized by:

    T - Speaking truth - in marriage, nothing is hidden from one another;

    R - Seeking righteousness by bearing the "Fruit of the Spirit" in the relationship;

    P - Living in peace - learning to deal with disagreements without injuring one another;

    F - Walking by faith - trusting God to bless and meet every need;

    S - Using the helmet of salvation to protect the mind;

    B - Reading the Word of God; and

    P - Praying openly for each other.

As for children and fathers, when Paul writes, "Children, obey your parents," do you think he thought they, the children, would be reading his instruction? Probably not. I'm sure he meant this for the parents so that they would understand that it was their responsibility to train their children in obedience.

    I, for one, happen to think that it's a good thing to explain to parents that they are training their children in obedience out of their own obedience to the Lord. So it's not just "Because I'm the parent, that's why." It's "Because I'm the parent, and I must give account to God for how well I train you to obey, that's why." But notice that this too is a spiritual matter, that's why Paul adds the phrase, "in the Lord."

So let's do the same thing here, apply TRPFSBP to the parent child relationship.

By the way, we can't help but note that the training of children cannot be eliminated from the father's job description (6:4). Of course mothers are key players, and they often have the advantage of more availability for those unplanned, spontaneous teaching moments. But fathers must ask these important evaluative questions:

    T - Do my children hear and speak truth - are they developing integrity?

    R - Is their behavior being trained according to godly, moral and ethical standards?

    P - Are they learning how to resolve sibling spats?

    F - Are they growing in faith, i.e., the "Christian faith," and learning to trust in God?

    S - Are their young, impressionable minds being protected from harmful images and ideas from screen and school?

    B - Are they reading and understanding the Bible?

    P - Are they learning to pray?

We believe that when we provide these weapons and train our children how to use them, we are obeying the command to "bring them up in the Lord."

Perhaps the most difficult of all is when we try to apply this spiritual warfare teaching to the work place.

How can such things as truth and righteousness prevail in today's world which seems to have lost its moral and ethical rudder? Like a battle, this is not easy, but our Commander in Chief is looking for people who stand on the truth, and practice righteousness even when popularity or promotion are threatened. In the work place, faith may be scoffed, salvation is an unknown word, the Bible is unopened, and prayer is only mentioned when there's a national crisis. Again, let's apply our seven weapons to the work place:

    T - Maintain integrity in a culture of deception, and eliminate gossip;

    R - Follow the right path when all around, the only time unethical business practices are faulted is when there is financial collapse or negative publicity - twice recently men have told stories of pressure put on them to "cook the books";

    P - If there's any place where application of the "Beatitudes" should be made, it's in the work place, especially the one where Jesus said, "blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9);

    F - Don't give up believing that the witness will make a difference even in face of ridicule;

    S - Keep thoughts clean in an environment of vulgarity and sexual harassment;

    B - Submit to the accountability of regular checkups in the Word, evaluating life by the Bible map, and not being ashamed to have it displayed, like my pilot friend who kept the Bible right next to his seat in the cock-pit of his plane; when he landed his plane safely on only one wheel, he was able to publicly acknowledge God's protection when a reporter noticed the Bible - my friend later became a missionary pilot.

    P - Praying on the job doesn't have to mean standing on one's desk and bellowing out a prayer - silent prayer can constantly be made on behalf of co-workers and the success of the employer.

In your marriage, with your children, and at work, are these weapons being utilized? Are the strongholds being torn down? Normally we think of "strongholds" being such things as witchcraft, Satan worship or even the global religions and ideologies which are in opposition to true Christianity. Today, we're saying that "the devil's schemes" (6:11) include such evils as deception, sinful behavior, harmful conflict, cynicism, unclean thoughts, a closed Bible and prayerlessness. Let's be faithful, at home and at work, to arm ourselves with these spiritual weapons: TRPFSBP - truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Bible and prayer.

In the military, we understand that soldiers submit to periodic weapons inspections. Each one is held responsible for cleaning and maintaining his weapons so that they will be fully operational when needed. Would you be willing to submit to the same? Let's bring out our seven weapons to give the Holy Spirit the chance to look at each one, and guide us as to how they many be improved on and made more effective at home and at work.

In the recent conflict in the Middle East, the leader of Iraq handed out millions of weapons to his citizens and told them they needed to be ready to fight the Americans if the battle came into their city. Our leader, Jesus Christ, has done the same thing, the difference of course being that He has not been killed by a bomb nor gone into hiding - He is still very much alive and in charge. The Lord has issued to each Christian these weapons, but are we taking care of them, and are we using them? This is the responsibility of the Christian soldier, and the outcome of the battle depends on each one of us.

Discussion Questions - Ephesians 6

1. Why is "spiritual" warfare superior to "Human" warfare?

2. What are the important responsibilities that Christians have toward its government?

3. What is the danger of placing faith in our military power?

4. Are Christians "doves" or "hawks"? How so?

5. Just before his teaching on spiritual weapons, Paul provides practical instruction that affects everyday life. What is this instruction called, and what groups does he include?

6. Name the seven weapons for spiritual warfare according to the "TRPFSBP" initials.

7. Where in society is integrity being compromised?

8. What is the relationship between righteousness and the discipline of children?

9. If any, what is the difference between being a "peace maker" and "keeping the peace"?

10. If "the faith" refers to the basic beliefs of Christianity, how is it that "walking in faith" is considered to be a spiritual weapon?

11. What are the sources of attacks on the mind?

12. If the Word of God is the "Sword of the Spirit," name at least three ways it is used as a weapon.

13. What are some ways prayer can become part of everyday life at home, work and school?

  • - - Return to Top of this Page
  • - Email a Link to this Page
  • - Go To Next Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick
  • - Back To Sermons Page or to the Sermons Alphabetical List
  • - - Download This Sermon 
    This Page's Title Is:

                       
    Your Name Is:

                       
    Your Email Address Is:

                        
    Your State and Country:

    Please identify your vocation:

         Senior Pastor.     Associate Pastor.
            Youth Pastor.    Lay Minister.
                  Church Member.

    Which section of this site would you most likely return to?

         Sermons     Articles     Stories   
             Poems     Hymns    Articles for Leaders
               Marriage Articles         A Bit of Humor

    Would you like to receive the free weekly E-mail Circular?

      YES

    If you have a web page, would you like to establish a reciprocal link?

      YES

    Feel free to add a comment or prayer request: