Before considering, somewhat in detail, the subject of family relationships and their responsibilities, it may be profitable to call direct attention to the way in which they are dealt with by the Spirit of God. Together with the full revelation of the grace of God in redemption, there might have existed a tendency in sonic minds to slight the ties formed in nature. Owing indeed to partial ignorance, and consequent misapprehension of some parts of Scripture, this tendency has, during the history of the church, sometimes found expression in objectionable forms; and even at the present time, it is often remarked that there are many who are subject to the same snare. It is therefore of the first importance to note that the very epistle—the Ephesians—which brings out the fullest truth as to the believer's place before God in Christ, and as to the church, as the body of Christ, enters also most fully into the responsibilities attaching to our natural relationships. Thereby we have, in a most marked way, their obligatory character maintained, and that by divine sanction and injunction; and, at the same time, a warning that, in all the joy of our Christian privileges, we must never forget the claims that have been established upon us on earth. It is quite true that our standing before God is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in us (Rom. 8:99But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9)), because we have been brought, through the death and resurrection of Christ, out of this scene into a new; but God sends us back, as it were, to take up on fresh ground—on the ground of grace instead of that of mere nature—every obligation which was incumbent upon us as His creatures in our old condition.
This will be evident if we turn to Ephesians 4. From the seventeenth verse we have practical exhortations, as flowing out from the truth communicated in the previous part of the epistle. And at the very outset of these, in contrast with the Gentiles, who walk in the vanity of their mind (vss. 17-19), the apostle says, “But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by (in-ἐν) Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another” (vss. 20-25). Then, farther on, we are told, “Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (vs. 30). We have, therefore, two immense facts, that the believer has put on (for the exhortation is founded upon what is true of us in Christ) the new man; and that he is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Hence the next chapter (5) begins with, “Be ye therefore followers (imitators) of God, as dear children.” Thus “created after God, and God dwelling in us, God is the pattern of our walk, Christ being the expression of God in human walk, and thus in respect of the two words which alone give God's essence—love and light. We arc to walk in love, as Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us a sacrifice to God. ‘For us’ was divine love; ‘to God’ is perfection of object and motive.... But we are light in the Lord (vs. 8). This is the second essential name of God; and as partakers of the divine nature, we are light in the Lord. Here again Christ is the pattern: “Christ shall give thee light” (vs. 14). The same writer also observes: “The reproduction of God in man is the object that God proposed to Himself in the new man; and this the new man proposes to himself, as he is himself the reproduction of the nature and character or God. There are two principles in the Christian path, according to the light in which he views himself; running his race as man towards the object of his heavenly calling, in which he follows after Christ ascended on high. This is not the Ephesian aspect. In Ephesians he is sitting in heavenly places in Christ, and he has to come out as from heaven, as Christ really did, and manifest God's character upon earth, of which, as we have seen, Christ is the pattern. We are called, as in the position of dear children, to show our Father's ways.
Such then is the truth as to our position and responsibility, We are made partakers of the divine nature; we have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit; we are seated in Christ in the heavenlies; and hence we have to come out from that blessed place, and, according to the new man (not according to the old), take up on earth, in the power of the Spirit, every responsibility devolving upon us, by virtue of our natural ties and relationships. It is therefore as heavenly men that we have to fill our respective places in the family and household. Thus every relationship we sustain should be simply a sphere for the unfolding of Christ, for the display of what He is and what He was when down here upon the earth; for “he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:66He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:6)). To remember this would remove many difficulties out of our path. Thus in the maintenance of natural ties, where believers find themselves in subjection to unbelievers, the only question is as to the expression of Christ. He is the measure of every responsibility, and hence He cannot sanction a single claim which comes into conflict with His own supreme authority. It should never therefore be, May I do this? or Ought I to do that? but simply, Can I do it according to the new man, walking in the power of the Spirit? That is, the flesh and Mere nature must be disallowed; hence, in family relationships also, “always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Cor. 4:1010Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:10)). And thus, whatever the special relationship sustained by the Christian—whether that of husband or wife, father or mother, children or servants—the one object, in every case, will be the expression of Christ. This, in every case, will be the measure and limit of our responsibility.