The early church was initially made up of mostly ordinary everyday people and outcasts. The church had few if any people who were very wealthy or powerful. The church as it grew reached more people who had wealth and were in positions of power and authority.
In Ephesians 6:1-9 Paul shares principles with both the powerful and the powerless.
Ephesians 6:1-3
Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother - which is the first commandment with a promise - that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
Ephesians 6:5-8
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholehearted, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
We are to honor God by honoring the human authorities He allows to be in place in our lives.
We honor God by obeying the authorities.
We are as children living in our parent’s house and, under their authority, to obey them.
We are as workers, under the authority of our employers, to obey them.
Romans 13:1 tells us that we are to obey the governing authorities. We need to remember that Paul lived in a time when most if not all the human governing authorities were not Christian but opposed Christians.
We honor God by respecting the authorities.
We are to respect our parents. This respecting is never to end.
We are to respect our bosses.
Respect is acknowledging the right of those who are in authority over you to exercise their God-given authority and seeing them as worthy of honor.
We honor God by being sincere about obeying and respecting God-established authority.
This obeying, respecting and sincerity is not because these authorities are always right.
This obeying, respecting, and sincerity is because that is God’s will and it is what pleases Him.
It will not always be easy.
It will not always be fun.
It will not always be according to our natural desire.
It will always please and honor God.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying and respecting those in authority.
Paul also speaks to the those in authority.
Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:9
And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know He who is both their Master and yours in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.
We show God to the world when we respect the powerless.
We show God to the world when we don’t exasperate people. Exasperate means to rouse to wrath.
The gospel is offensive to many, but we are not act in ways that cause more offense.
We can cause more exasperation by:
Talking the talk, but not walking the walk
Being legalistic
Being wishy-washy and not standing firm
Not speaking the truth in love
We show God to the world by sharing God’s love and truth with the powerless.
In James 2 we are warned not to judge by outward appearances and show favoritism to those who look good on the outside. We are to treat the poor and powerless the same way that we treat the wealthy and the powerful.
Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves and our neighbor is anyone who has a need.
We show God to the world seeing all people - rich or poor, powerful or powerless - as are brothers and sisters.
Revelation 7:9, in a vision of heaven, shows a great multitude of people surrounding the throne of God from all tribes, peoples, and languages. These people are not only going to be from all different people groups but also from all different strata of the culture.
We show God to the world when we see others as better than ourselves.
In Philippians 2:3 we are told to do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving and respecting the powerless.
We as parents are to see ourselves as not raising children but raising adults. We are not to use our position to beat down our children but to lift them and create the atmosphere for them to follow Jesus.
We, being in positions of authority, are to see that position as one in which we are not to exercise our power to advance ourselves but as a position to use our power to advance others.
Jesus tells us not to do good to those people who can in turn do something good for us, but to do good those who can never repay or return the favor.
The measure of how much we are like Jesus is how we treat the powerless people we encounter.
With Love and Respect Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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