Saturday after the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-9 (NKJV)
6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
5 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
9 And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.
Devotion
St. Paul teaches us that our vocations are holy callings from the Lord. Children should obey and honor their parents. Obedience in young children should mature into honor as the child becomes an adult, so that adult children should be patient with their aging parents and care for them later in life. The holy calling of ‘child’ does not end at the age of eighteen.
God the Father makes men earthly fathers so that they might bring up their children “in the training and admonition of the Lord.” Fatherhood and motherhood are holy callings by which the Christian faith is passed on to the next generation. So fathers and mothers teach their children while they are young, offer counsel to their children in their adulthood, and pray for them throughout their lives. Parenthood is a lifelong holy calling.
Paul’s admonition to slaves and masters does not pass away if there is no such institution. Employees should work diligently for their employer, not just with eye or lip service, but from the heart. Your job is a holy calling from the Lord by which you serve others. You are to do your daily tasks, no matter what they are, as if to the Lord, because the Lord has placed you in the job. Masters, or rather employers and supervisors, are to act righteously as well, for theirs too is a holy calling. Strive to run the way of God’s commandments in all your callings, for this is His will!
We pray: O God, who declarest Thine almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity, mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
