EPHESIANS: ETERNALLY ENCLOSED IN GOD’S PLAN

Part XIX: The Spirit’s Filling And Employer-Employee Relationships

(Ephesians 5:18-21; 6:5-9)

I. Introduction

A. Paul wrote Ephesians to encourage believers of God’s work to edify the Church regardless what happened to him in his imprisonment (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672: “Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians”).

B. Ephesians 5:18-21 with 6:5-6 teaches the practice of believers’ being filled with the Holy Spirit for blessing in one’s employer-employee relationships, and we view the passage for our insight, application and edification:

II. The Spirit’s Filling And Employer-Employee Relationships, Ephesians 5:18-21; 6:5-9.

A. When Paul wrote about the “filling” or the control of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18-21, he applied that truth first to marital relationships in Ephesians 5:22-33, second to family relationships in Ephesians 6:1-4 and third to master-slave relationships in Ephesians 6:5-9.

B. Slavery was basically an economic relationship: the master owned his slave and was responsible to address the slave’s livelihood needs while the slave worked for his master. The master-slave relationship was thus similar enough to the employer-employee relationship of today’s business world that we can apply Paul’s directives in Ephesians 6:5-9 to current employer-employee relationships (as follows):

1. Employees by the Spirit’s control are to relate well to their employers in accountability to God, Eph. 6:5-8:

a. Under the Holy Spirit’s control, employees are to obey their employers on the job, Ephesians 6:5a.

b. This obedience to the employer must be marked by edifying attitudes and acts (as follows), Eph. 6:5b-8:

i. First, employees must obey their employers with “fear and trembling,” that is, with respect, v. 5b.

ii. Second, employees must obey their employers with “sincerity” (haploteti) from the heart, heeding the actual intent of the employer in respect for him, v. 5c; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 642.

iii. Third, employees must obey their employers not only when their employers are looking at what they are doing, but even when the employer is not looking, Ephesians 6:6a; Ibid.

iv. Fourth, employees must obey their employers “with goodwill or a peaceable spirit” (met’ eunoias), a pleasant attitude, Ephesians 6:7a; Ibid.

v. Fifth, and ultimately, employees must obey their employers, knowing that for whatever good any employer or employee does on the job, he will be reimbursed by the Lord, Ephesians 6:8. One is actually employed on the job by the Lord Himself. This explains why Paul urged employees to respect their employers in accountability to Christ in Ephesians 6:5d, to work on the job as an employee of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart in Ephesians 6:6b and to work with goodwill or a peaceable spirit in accountability to the Lord and not to man in Ephesians 6:7b. Christ is sovereign over the believer in the workplace, and He Himself either rewards or penalizes a Christian employee or employer according to the attitude and the actions he expresses on the job!

2. Employers by the Spirit’s control are to relate well to their employees in accountability to God, Eph. 6:9:

a. Under the Holy Spirit’s control, employers are to do the “same things” to their employees (Eph. 6:9a), “that is, to please the Lord in their dealings with them.” (Ibid.)

b. Paul explained what “the same things” were for employers in Ephesians 6:9b,c (as follows):

i. Employers must “give up, cease” (anientes, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 678; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 69) apeilen, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., loc. cit.; Arndt & Gingrich, op. cit., p. 82) “threatening,” using their oversight role as a club to abuse the employees, Eph. 6:9b.

ii. The motivation for an employer to avoid such abusive behavior would be his awareness that Christ, the Supreme Employer in heaven, is over both the employer and the employee on earth, and that there is no partiality on Christ’s part with either the employer or the employee, Ephesians 6:9c.

C. [Note: Slavery was an oppressive institution, so 1 Corinthians 7:21b taught that if a Christian slave could gain his freedom, he should do so. By application to today’s workplace, if an employee or an employer is in an oppressive job situation, if he can, he should seek to be free from that job and gain other employment.]

Lesson: By the Holy Spirit’s control, a believer who is an employee or an employer must recall that he has the Ultimate Employer in heaven Who holds him accountable for how he functions in the workplace. Thus, respect, consideration, goodwill, honesty, hard work and true dedication to his work must mark the believer on the job.

Application: May we believers on the job rely on the Holy Spirit to function in full accountability to the Lord.