In in our text,  we see that there is a profoundly sober significance to Easter. Whatever might be said about it, it isn’t harmless. Easter contains a threat to mankind. It foretells a great peril, an existential crisis for every man, woman, and child. Every person is in need of God’s grace. Praise God – he is a Missionary of Grace!

We come to a wonderful story, a repentance story. It's an Old Testament version of
"The Prodigal Son" told by Jesus. Jonah, the prodigal son, finding himself in the pit of death, is brought to his spiritual senses and restored to his spiritual status and calling.

The sailors on the boat with Jonah, the pagans, seem much more sensitive to the reality of God than the prophet. And that is why this a tragic story. God rescues the pagan sailors – but the prophet gets judgement. But the great wonder of this story is that God has provided a way for great sinners to be rescued by the sacrifice of one man.

The book of Jonah is the story of a man who believed in grace but did not understand or embrace grace. The evidence is simple – he did not share God's heart for a lost and wicked world. In this short book, God shows that his saving grace is not for Israel’s comfort but for his own glory. 

In our text we see that, what breathing is for the physical body, prayer is for the spiritual body. As Paul concludes his wonderful letter – he ends with a call to prayer. Prayer is foundational for a healthy Christian life. Prayer is what makes everything else he talked about in this letter work. 

One of the greatest temptations for a child of God is the temptation to ignore the reality of a spiritual battle. We are constantly being tempted to make peace with the world. Scores of professing Christians and churches are abandoning the sexual ethic of the Scriptures for the ethic of our age.

Have you ever wondered why life has to be so hard? Why is there so much conflict? Paul reminds us of two critical truths we often forget. First, we are in the midst of a battle with spiritual forces of evil – and will be until the day we die. Conflict will be a defining, unavoidable reality in the life of every believer. Second, we will only be strong as we stand in the strength of the Lord.

The text deals with the age-old problem of the relationship between workers and employees. The problem is that both masters and servants are in slavery to their own sinful desires and no social program or political system has the power to free us from our sin. But what man cannot do, God can and does, through the gospel and the regenerating, sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. 

The counsel we have from God’s Word about family structure is profoundly counter-cultural. Our families should be one of the primary ways the world sees the power of the gospel at work in our lives. To that end, children and parents each have a calling.

Marriage, according to Paul, is a death-sentence. It is a willing embrace of death to self in order to love your wife or submit to your husband. A wife will evidence the power and presence of the Holy Spirit within her though a freely chosen submission to her husband. A husband will evidence the power and presence of the Holy Spirit through a Christ-like love for his wife.