Paul’s respect for children as fellow believers (Ephesians 6:1-3) heightens our concern for the ways in which children are treated in our world today. His word to fathers (Ephesians 6:4) invites us to consider parental responsibilities. Applying Paul’s counsel to slaves (Ephesians 6:5-8), and, especially, his counsel to slave masters (Ephesians 6:9), is more challenging, since the social setting is distant for many of us and because we know that slavery, in any form, is one of the greatest of moral evils.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Still, since these words are inspired ones that are part of Scripture, we should ponder how to apply them today. With the believers in Ephesus in the first century, we have the privilege and responsibility of applying the values of the gospel to our relationships. The discussion questions below are designed to foster that important work.

Discussion Questions

1. 1. What does it mean for Adventists that love for children is identified as evidence of “a people prepared for the Lord”? Luke 1:17 (quoting Malachi 4:6).
   2. Paul’s obvious respect for children suggests a searching question: What is our responsibility to extend the care of Christ to children who have experienced violence, sexual abuse, and shame in their early lives? In view of research on the profound impact of adverse childhood experiences (or ACEs; see https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/), what is our responsibility toward them?
   3. As an extension of Paul’s respect for children and Jesus’ care for them, what responsibilities does the church have to nurture and protect the children in its care? What systems and procedures need to be in place to do so?
   4. Paul’s counsel to slaves and slave masters, Ephesians 6:5-9, is often applied to the relationships between employees and employers. In what ways might this be appropriate? What dangers present themselves in doing so?
   5. Slavery remains a painful reality in our world, with more than 40 million people enslaved (according to “The Global Slavery Index,” http://www.globalslaveryindex[dot]org/). As free people whose spiritual forebears were firmly committed to the abolition of slavery, what are our responsibilities to these enslaved sons and daughters of God as we sing of Christ, “Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease” (lyrics to “O Holy Night,” public domain)?

<–Thursday

Amen!(0)

The post Friday: Further Thought ~ Practicing Supreme Loyalty to Christ appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/friday-further-thought-practicing-supreme-loyalty-to-christ/

Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dr John McVay, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUZGhrbmshw?si=yBVBL2akxWc-3WV-&w=560&h=315]

Amen!(0)

The post 12: Practicing Supreme Loyalty to Christ – It is Written – Discussions with the Author appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/11-practicing-supreme-loyalty-to-christ-it-is-written-discussions-with-the-author/

The Mission program of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is an opportunity for us to understand the needs of others and share in supporting them. Please click on the image below to watch the Mission Spotlight presentation for this week: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7m_MGScxqI?si=uZn2V6ChHeTCASkG&w=560&h=315]

Amen!(0)

The post Mission Spotlight for September 9 appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-september-9/

In Paul’s final words to slaves, “whether he is a slave or free” (Ephesians 6:8), the word “free” refers to slave masters, allowing Paul to transition to his counsel to them while imagining slaves and slave masters standing on an equal footing before Christ in the judgment (compare 2 Corinthians 5:10; Colossians 3:24-25).

Assuming that you are a Christian slave master who is listening to Ephesians being read out in your house church, how might you react to this counsel, offered in the presence of your slaves? Ephesians 6:9.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

Paul addresses masters, slave masters, in a pointed exhortation, which turns on the sharp contrast between “the lords” (Greek, hoi kurioi, translated as “masters”), who had a habit of “threatening” their slaves, and “the Lord” (ho kurios), Christ, with whom there is “no partiality” (ESV).

Paul asks masters to “do the same to them” (ESV), the slaves, which would have been shocking to a first-century slave owner. Masters should respond to their slaves with deeds of goodwill governed by their allegiance to Christ, corresponding to what Paul has just asked of slaves (Ephesians 6:5-8). He tells them to stop threatening their slaves, a common practice of a time in which masters administered a wide variety of punishments, including beating (1 Peter 2:20), sexual abuse, being sold (and parted from loved ones), extreme labor, starvation, shackles, branding, and even death. For this, they will be judged—by God.

Paul supports his commands with two motivations that call slave masters to look beyond the social structures of the Greco-Roman world: (1) they and their presumed slaves are co-slaves of a single Master (“knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven,” ESV; compare Colossians 4:1); and (2) the heavenly Master judges all without partiality. Since their own Master treats those regarded as slaves on an equal footing with others, so should they (compare Philemon 1:15-16).

Much of Paul’s language in Ephesians would be especially heartening for Christian slaves: adoption as sons (Ephesians 1:5); redemption (Ephesians 1:7); inheritance (Ephesians 1:11,14; Ephesians 3:6); being enthroned with Jesus (Ephesians 2:6); becoming “fellow citizens,” “members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19; compare Ephesians 3:14-15), and integral parts of the body of Christ (see Ephesians 3:6; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 6:5-9 activates all the teaching in the letter as operative in the relationships between slaves and slave masters, including the counsel about speech (Ephesians 4:25-32) and sexual ethics (Ephesians 5:1-14).

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Amen!(2)

The post Thursday: Masters Who Are Slaves appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/thursday-masters-who-are-slaves/

You can view an in-depth discussion of Practicing Supreme Loyalty to Christ in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. Click on the image to view:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRN5nyBpt8c?si=A6QzLJdkv7vkL_fo&w=560&h=315]/p>

With thanks to

Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

Amen!(0)

The post 11: Practicing Supreme Loyalty to Christ – HopeSS Video Discussion appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/11-practicing-supreme-loyalty-to-christ-hopess-video-discussion/