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Much has changed since 1960. 

• Eisenhower was president.
• Elvis finishes a two year deployment to Germany in the US Army.
• The first laser is utilized.
• JFK wins the election at age 43.
• The 50^th star gets added to the American Flag (Hawaii).
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” was written by Harper Lee.
• Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC serves it’s first black customer. Segregation of schools was declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
• Cassius Clay wins a gold medal in boxing.
• The first episode of the Flintstones.
• Amy Grant were John Elway were born.
• Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series.
• Less than 9% of homes were single parent homes.
  • Today 17%. with 26% of all children in single parent homes.
  • Children of single parent homes have much higher rates of poverty and mental health issues, and face greater challenges of educational achievement.  
  • 5% of single parent homes attend church.
  • Children of single parent homes who are part of a faith community find greater support for esteem, identity, belonging, and hope.
  • Our greatest opportunity to impact our nation is to reach the family.
  • Our most missed opportunity is to reach those who are parenting alone.

Context:  Whatever you do…  Application begins at home, our oikos!

Read Colossians 3:18-21; Ephesians 5:21

The word “submit” has earned its reputation from poorly modeled leadership or authority figures over centuries of self-indulgent tyrants known as Kings, Presidents, Politicians, Business leaders, Landowners, and heads of households most commonly patriarchal.

Mutual submission’s disappearance from western society may be a leading cause for the growth of a highly divided and deterioration of healthy relationships.  Individualism now prevails as the highest value in society.

The healthiest relationship in all of history is the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

John 5:19 “…Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

John 17:20-22 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—"

John 16:13-15 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Do you question Jesus’ quality, power, value, esteem, or role?

1. Jesus comes under headship as we do.

1 Corinthians 11:3 “ But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man,^[a]and the head of Christ is God.”

2. Jesus was obedient unto death because of his love for God and for us—his bride!

Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!”

3. Equality, value, and power are not in question for Jesus or for those in Christ.

Ephesians 5:22-33 “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.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[b] 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, husband’s 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.”^[c] 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.”

If we were to submit ourselves to the mutual benefit of each other, it would be a game changer for relationships and especially for marriage.

VERSE 18 
Submission and service from a wife to a husband is “fitting in the Lord”.     

1. Fits the Jesus mold of submitting to the mission of the Father.
   
   
2. Jesus serves the very bride He came to lead and save.
   
   
3. Serving and submission do not preclude a partnership in leading the family.
   
   
4. You do so in step with your husband.

Whatever you do, whether in in word or deed towards and with your husband, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

VERSE 19
Husbands are called to love sacrificially, and wives are called to serve willingly.  (18-19)

• Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, peace, and love are to mark how you serve—not harshness. (12-14)
  
  
• You are responsible to cultivate the environment out of love to lead, with your wife, the family.
  
  
• You are responsible for your wife being esteemed in the Lord by the way you serve her. Ephesians 5:25-28
  

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed towards and with your wife, do it all in the name of Jesus.

VERSE 20
Children are to be obedient to parents.

1. This pleases God as it highlights Jesus. (20)
   
   
2. It is the right thing to do. Ephesians 6:1
   
   
3. Your family’s legacy will be longer. Exodus 20:12

Children rebelling against their parents is a marker for society falling apart as the end of time approaches. Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2; Mark 11:11-13

Whatever you do, whether in in word or deed towards and with your parents, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

VERSE 21
Fathers are not to “embitter” their children with over-parenting. (21)

• Continually finding fault at the cost of their confidence to go forward.
  
  
• This is a call to reasonable commands for our children.
  
  
• There is a caution to not be so correcting to demoralize them or to praise them so much that they become arrogant and unteachable.

Whatever you do, whether in in word or deed towards and with your children, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15

• A healthy oikos is characterized by mutual submission and consideration of others.
• Our healthy oikos testifies to Jesus’ name.
• Our healthy oikos brings joy to life.
• Our healthy oikos advances the church.

Whatever you do, in word or deed towards those in your oikos, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus…By His authority, His permission, to His credit, for their benefit.