The Bookends of the Home – Spirit Filled and Spiritual Warfare

Bookends. In today’s culture you don’t see bookends very often like you did generations ago. Well I think we maybe in an internet age we don’t see books very often either but that’s another subject entirely. Bookends. Bookends according to Dictionary.com are:

I love these two images I found on the internet for

bookends. they paint the picture of the concept I want to share today. In Ephesians 5 & 6 Paul gives us a picture of the home. I don’t like how our Bibles today insert little titles between concepts in the different passages, like here in Ephesians 5 & 6, there is an extra-biblical titles inserted into the passage that create a context in our minds that frame how we view the passage. These little inserted texts are called “Pericope’s” (pəˈrikəpē). Sometimes they add value, sometimes they mis-frame the passage. There are several of these spattered about in the passage of Ephesian 5 & 6 like: “Walk in Wisdom”, “Marriage – Christ and the church”, “Children and Parents”, “Bondservants and Masters”, and finally “The Whole Armor of God”. These are all inserted titles that lead you into a context, a thought for the passage. What if we removed those leading thoughts and had to rely on the revelation of Holy Spirit to see what God was saying to the church at Ephesus, and what is He saying to us today. would we separate these thoughts or would we see them as a whole singular thought?

Before I discuss this further let me add a bit of context to Paul’s teachings and God’s position of jurisdictional authority. There are four themes of jurisdictional theology that run through the Bible; These are the individual, the family, the church and the government. The bulk of chapters 1-3 in Ephesians center on none of these jurisdictional elements, rather the first three chapters center on the Gospel, Grace and God’s purposes through Christ revealed in the earth. In Chapter 4 Paul transitions into these realms: the individual, the family and the church. In Chapter 4 verse 1 Paul says this ” I, Therefore…beseech you:, what does this word therefore mean here? It means because of the Gospel, because of Grace, because of the purposes of God through Christ, I beseech you. It is here that Paul transitions into these three jurisdictional realms: the church, the individual and the family. Chapter 4:1 through 5:14 Paul is speaking on the church and the individual. How we are to live corporately as the church and how we are to live as individual believers. Verses 15-21 are transitional combining all three themes. We know this because verse 22 in the Greek borrows its verb from verse 21, and verse 21 is part of the context of verses 15-21.

The key transitional verse here is verse 18 “being filled with the Holy Spirit”, verses 19-21 are the “evidences” of being Spirit filled: “Speaking to one another…” Prophecy, Words of Knowledge, Words of Wisdom, etc. Speaking by the unction of Holy Spirit. Being Worshipful, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (singing in the Spirit), making melody in your hearts. Being prayerfully thankful, and being submitted to Biblical authority. One bookend down. Paul then gives one of the most significant passages found in the New Testament on Family. From verses 5:21 through 6:9 Paul discusses Husbands, Wives, Children and Parents, Bondservants and Masters (of whom in Biblical times were treated as family). He closes his essay on Family with this phrase: “Finally” and it is assumed that Paul has transitioned to a different thought to close out his letter. But he is not. The word finally here actually ties directly to the previous thought and links them together. The word and sentence structure in the Greek actually mean this: “in so much as you have done these things now do this”… do what. Prepare for battle.

In John Chapter 10 Jesus clearly tells us that the enemy of our lives, the thief, come to steal, kill and destroy. He has his sites set on your family. He has his sites set on my family. His desire is to steal your family cohesiveness, to steal your family unity, to kill your love and to destroy your family. What has God called you to do? War. He has called you to do battle for your family. Has God given you the means and the methods with which to fight this battle? He has. It is found in Ephesians 5 & 6.

In a recent wedding I officiated I shared this simple thought with the lovely bride and groom: Groom, You cannot be the Husband God has called you to be to your bride without being submitted to Holy Spirit and His leadership in your life; Bride, you cannot be the wife God has called you to be to your groom without being submitted to Holy Spirit and His leading in your life. You must be Spirit Filled. Today I would tell each of you reading this that the first priority of your life and family, second only to salvation is that you be Spirit Filled. You cant be Husband, Wife, Parent or Child… you can’t do family outside of being Spirit Filled and succeed.

Husbands you can’t in your own strength fulfill Ephesians 5: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

Wives, you can’t in your own strength fulfill Ephesians 5: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” & “let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

And Fathers! That is a bold statement Paul makes: “And Fathers” Fathers, you can’t in your own strength lead your children as you are called to in Ephesians 6 “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

So God has established the bookends to family in this way: Family life and home should be Spirit filled, our homes should exude the evidences of this condition by there being prophetic life spoken regularly. The evidences of this condition by there being worship rising up from the home. The evidences of this condition by significant prayer culture in the home. And evidences of this condition by parents being submitted to Biblical authority. When these things are taking place, when the home is Spirit filled the roles Paul goes on to describe in verses 22 through 6:9 are not only achievable, but they become the context of a godly unified family. A godly unified Spirit filled family equipped with the whole armor of God can do battle against an enemy that is hell bent on destroying them… and WIN.