In Ephesians 6:9 Paul says, “Masters, do the same things toward them, giving up your threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in the heavens, and there is no respect of persons with Him.” In Colossians 4:1 he says, “Masters, grant to your slaves that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” The masters who have the right over the lives of their purchased slaves should give up threatening because the Lord in the heavens is the real Master of both. In the flesh some may be slaves and others may be masters, but in the eyes of the Lord there is no difference between slaves and masters. According to Colossians 3:11, there is no slave or free man in the new man. In the church we are all brothers. However, in the flesh there is still a distinction between slaves and masters.
In his exhortations to wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters, Paul makes one key point: For the sake of the church life, we need to have a proper human living in this present age. This is an extremely important lesson for us to learn. We live such a human life, not by self-effort but by being filled in our regenerated spirit by the processed Triune God and by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, filling and saturating our inner being.
When we are filled by the processed Triune God and let the word of Christ, which is the embodiment of the Triune God, dwell in us richly, we will be filled, saturated, and permeated with the Triune God. Spontaneously, we will speak, teach, and admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father. Spontaneously, we will be subject to one another in the fear of Christ and live a proper human life with wives being subject to their own husbands, husbands loving their own wives, children obeying their parents, fathers nurturing their children, slaves obeying their masters, and masters treating their slaves justly. This is the result of being filled in spirit by the Spirit and letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly.
The important point is that when we are filled in spirit by the Spirit and saturated with the word of Christ, we enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation. By this kind of dispensing in the divine transformation, we are conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son, Christ, to be the corporate expression of God in Christ.
When the believers are filled in spirit by the Spirit and saturated with the word of Christ, the result is speaking to one another and teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs so that we are filled by the Lord and overflow Him. When we are filled with the word of Christ, we will be filled with joy so that we will sing and psalm to the Lord. Furthermore, when the word as the embodiment of Christ dwells in us and is mingled with our inner being, spontaneously we will do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, act in the Spirit, giving thanks at all times to our God and Father.
Finally, by being filled in spirit by the Spirit and by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we will be subject to one another in the fear of Christ to live a proper human life. This is to keep a relationship between the members of the Body in the fear of the Head. This life of subjection comes from speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks, which in turn come from the infilling. God desires that Christ be expressed through the believers’ human life. For this, we need to have spirit-filled ethical relationships which come from Christ as our life, not from our natural life.
The result of the believers’ living in union with Christ is the expression of Christ in our human life. In the proper married life, wives are subject to their own husbands as to the Lord, and husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church and as they love their own bodies, caring for the needs of their wives by nourishing and cherishing them. In a normal family life, children obey and honor their parents in the Lord by being one with the Lord, not by self-effort but by the Lord, and not according to the natural concept but according to the word of the Lord. Instead of provoking their children to anger, fathers leave their anger on the cross and nurture their children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. In the relationship between slaves and masters, slaves obey their masters as obeying the Lord, as slaves of Christ doing the will of God, and masters do the same toward their slaves, giving up threatening.
When we are filled in spirit by the Spirit and saturated with the word of Christ, we will spontaneously live a proper human life. Then we will enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation so that we are conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son, Christ, to be the corporate expression of God in Christ.