Delightful Duties of a Child

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." Ephesians 6:1-3

A meditation upon Ephesians 6:1-3

This is the area of my life where I fail Christ and exhibit my flesh so vibrantly. I go against directly what I believe and ever so boldly proclaim in that of being poor in spirit. I seemingly will wrap myself in the theology at a positional level with God and not practice it with those who God used to bring me into this world. I use so many excuses and my mouth profusely speaks lies of rationalization. The same lips that have spoken the gospel, preached the word, and pray to God are the ones that disobey and dishonor my parents. I take my Bible literal in all other areas of my life but yet will gloss over this gross sin in my life. This on my head and I must dethrone myself from the thinking I know all or even more than my parents. How dare I do anything but obey and honor if I call Christ my Lord. They brought life to me and so nurtured me in a way that only exhibits love. They have so faithfully provided above and beyond over the years. They have encouraged Christ to me, which if anything my obedience and honor can be found in is that. Their faults and failures are not something that I can hold on to and give reason for my own sin against them. I must focus on my own sin in my life rather looking to theirs so that I feel like I have the control in this area of my life. My own sin clouded my vision seeing what I perceived faults, which were actually acts of love.

This sin of disobedience and dishonor deteriorates the spiritual wellness of the believers because as much as I think this one sin does not affect how I walk in manner worthy it does. How I live my faith out in the home speaks volumes to where my heart is at because it is so easy to disrespect those that are your biggest fans for succeeding in Christ. This sin is working out of the true character that I have and not just a singularity sin that I have to work on. This sin speaks to the fact of my heart being prideful, unthankful, discontent, deceitful, anger, and petty thinking that everybody is here to serve myself. This sin dethrones Christ and places me on His throne, which makes me sick when I realize what I am doing. My disobedience is not only against my parents but just like David and Ananias it is against God. The dishonoring of my parents is not only against them but against the one who created me for His glory, the one who justified me for His good pleasure, and who is sanctifying me for His good purpose. My sin does not please God and my desire must be to please God because that is my true joy.

Obedience and honor of my parents should be a desire in my heart because of my delight in Christ and enjoyment of Him. Christ gave up His life on the cross yes for our sins, but evermore so because it was pleasing to God the Father. My desire must be to constantly deny myself; crucifying the flesh daily in humility so that I seek to serve my parents out of a heart that is full of the joy of Christ. Christ is the focal point of my life; if I do not desire to obey and honor my parents both in thought and in action then how can I ever exalt Christ in that same way. I must apply this in my life; desiring to submit myself to my parent in all circumstances because I know God is going to use them to shape me into a godly man, but more importantly because I long to love them with the affection of Christ. It will be a great joy to humbly obey and honor my parents in the very earthy things of life. I shall enjoy those acts wholeheartedly knowing that I am doing this for His good pleasure. My delight in Him is the wellspring for any motivation of serving my parents and I must thank Christ daily for enabling me to do so through His Spirit. Obedience and honor of parents is not mere orthodoxy but rather a commissioning by God for delight. Obedience and honor of parents is not rooted in dead theology but rather anchored to the foundation of the living Christ, which is laid in His submission to the Father. Delight in both obedience and honor to your parents because of who you are in Christ.

Affections

"For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:8

A meditation upon Philippians 1:8

My affections are so very much absorbed with self. I seemingly love because of the love I must shower on myself. Where are my affections at? Upon the examination of myself I desire to honor and gain honor for myself. Life seems to only be worth living if self is glorified. This affection for self if characterizes ones and more importantly my life it is damning. I must find my affection in Christ alone and thus live a life of constant affirmation of that truth. These affections of Christ are that of and more importantly rooted in humility. Humility has to be expressed in so many areas of my life. I desire and want to have all my affections clothed in that of the humility of Christ.

The word affection has great meaning, catapulting us into thought of our internal organs which should have us understand that affection is something that is deeply rooted in us and is vital to everything that is apart of our daily living. It had an understanding of compassion, kindness but more than anything it pointed directly back to the heart. Paul was encouraging the Church of Philippi that his heart was motivated and led by Christ. He desired to that they would take this letter to heart because he himself had a compassion for them that was solely planted in that of Christ. This word should cause us to think upon why we are kind to others or display compassion to those that surround us. Is the cause of our loving those around us is for the sake of self-exaltation and self-glorification, which is neither love nor proper affection? Our hearts must be hearts that seek after God’s Will and mimicking Christ. Our hearts must enjoy Christ so much more than anything that this world has to offer or that of what our flesh try insists is better. Rather we must examine ourselves internal and pray for soft hearts that groan to be that of Christ. Affection is living a life in accordance with a heart is captivated by something and thus desiring to put on display that something in a manner of exaltation. Our affection has to be that of Christ or we will me self-absorbed man pleasers. Everyone has affections so the examination is on us to see if those affections find their source in Christ.

Paul’s affection for the Church of Philippi was in the likeness of Christ, which Paul throughout his letter constantly illustrated this focus upon Christ by mention him in all areas of his life. Christ was the anchor to Paul’s life and as we read scripture our lives should be in fervent pursuance of being an imitator of Christ which Paul so strived to also be an imitator of. Paul’s affection can be practically boiled down to the understanding that he was making much of Christ because Christ was the center of his attention. Christ did not escape the thoughts of Paul and therefore his actions had to be that of Christ-likeness. The thoughts of Paul were tied directly to the actions of Paul so that his affections were that of an internal motivation that worked its way out in all aspects of Paul’s ministry. We, like Paul must dwell on Christ at all times and pray for thoughts that reflect the One who redeemed us. Paul had affection for the Philippians because his life first and foremost exhibited the exaltation of the person of Christ. He made Christ his life-long pursuit. Paul lived in the knowledge of the work of Christ on the cross and how he died for Paul and that the righteousness of Christ covered his sin. The acceptance of Christ as Lord of his life enabled him to do the work of God here on earth even though he considers himself the chief of sinners. Paul constantly wanted to point others to Christ because Paul knew he was nothing without Christ. Paul longed with the affection of Christ because he had been changed by the gospel of Christ and lived a life with the whole premise of Christ-likeness. We too need to be made low and take our affections off of self and point them to Christ so that we can have the affections of Christ towards others. Oh I how desiring to have my insides burn for the sake of others because of the work of Christ in there lives. Christ needs to be pursued in all aspects of life in order for our affections to be that of Christ. I desire that all believers myself include would have the affections of Christ, which exemplify a life that has be transformed by the gospel of Christ.