|
About Jesus - Steve Sweetman
Home Page
Ch. 4:1 - 16
Ch. 4:17 - 32
Ch. 5:1 - 5
Ch. 5:6 - 14
Ch. 5:15 - 21
Ch. 5:22 - 33
Ch. 6:1 - 4
Ch. 6:5 - 9
Ch. 6:10 - 20
Ch. 6:21 - 24
(Chapter
4:1 - 16)
1
Therefore
I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to live worthy of the calling
you have received, 2 with
all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with
one another in love, 3 making
every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of
peace. 4 There
is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at
your calling— 5 one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one
God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in
all. 7 Now
grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of
Christ’s gift. 8 For
it says: When
he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people. 9 But
what does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the
lower parts of the earth? 10 The
one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to
fill all things. 11 And
he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors and teachers, 12 equipping
the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until
we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing
into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. 14 Then
we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around
by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the
techniques of deceit. 15 But
speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the
head—Christ. 16 From
him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting
ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in
love by the proper working of each individual part.
My
Commentary
Verse
1
"Therefore
I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to live worthy of the calling
you have received,"
We
learn here that Paul was writing this letter from prison, probably, the
house arrest he was confined to as we read in Acts 28.
Concerning this imprisonment, we should realize that Paul did not
really view himself as a prisoner of
Rome
, which in fact he was, but, a prisoner of Jesus.
He was imprisoned by the Roman authorities because of his
allegiance to Jesus, His ministry among the Gentile Roman world, and thus,
the reason why Paul considered himself a prisoner of Jesus.
Paul
encouraged his readers to live worthy of the calling they had received,
something that he was doing while in prison.
Paul could have complained and said all kind of nasty things about
those who had imprisoned him, but he did not.
Such behaviour would have destroyed the testimony his life was to
be for Jesus. Paul was
encouraging his readers to live the same kind of life as he was living.
Note
the word "calling." The
word "calling" along with the word "call" is a common
Biblical and Christian word that denotes an invitation from God.
These people had been invited by God to be in union with Him
through His Spirit. In other
words, they had been called to salvation, a salvation that was meant to be
lived out in daily life as a testimony to the One who had called them.
Understanding
Paul's life, including all of the hardships he endured, his lack of
complaining against the government that imprisoned him is amazing.
I would say that most of us today would not have expressed the same
attitude. As a matter of fact,
in many Christian circles, the opposite attitude is commonplace.
Verse
2
"
... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with
one another in love,"
Living
according to the calling these believers received would have meant
demonstrating the character qualities Paul listed in verse 2, qualities we
can be sure he was demonstrating while in prison.;
Christians
are to be humble, and not arrogant. Christians
are to be gentle and not forceful. Christians
are to be patient, and not impatient.
Christians are to bear with one another in sacrificial love, as the
Greek word "agape" implies that is translated as
"love" in this verse.
The
reason why these character qualities are to be exhibited in the believer
is because they are the character qualities of the God who has called
them. When these qualities are
clearly demonstrated in the daily life of the believer, their witness for
Jesus is more effective. Christians
have been called to represent Jesus. That
means the very nature of Jesus should be visibly seen in the life of the
believers who represent Him. If
the qualities can't be seen, then the believer is not representing Jesus
as he should.
Verse
3
"
... making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace."
Another
way to say the above would be to diligently preserve the unity of the
Spirit. We must realize that
when the Holy Spirit comes into the life of the true believer he or she
has not just been united with God. He
or she has been united with others in the Body of Christ.
Here is how Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 12:13.
"For
we were all baptized [immersed] by one Spirit into one
body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves
or free — and we were all given one Spirit to
drink."
Our
immersion by the Spirit of God into the lives of other believers produces
a unity that is seldom seen anywhere else in the world around us.
This unity, though, is often torn apart when we allow our sinful
nature to disrupt our God-appointed human relationships.
Paul is telling his readers, and us too, that we must go out of our
way, and do the best we can, to maintain the unity the Spirit of God
brings us.
Paul
used the words "one body" in this verse.
Another term that Paul used for church was the term "the Body
of Christ." In 1 Corinthians 12:27 he said this.
"Now
you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it."
In
1 Corinthians 12 Paul compared the church to a human body.
Some say that when Paul called the church the Body of Christ this
was a symbolic designation. I
admit that there is some symbolism in 1 Corinthians 12, but in verse 27
above he took the symbolism one step further.
He said that his readers were, in fact, the Body of Christ, or as I
put it, "the replacement Body of Christ."
I say it that way because since Jesus is no longer on earth in
physical form, and since the Holy Spirit dwells in the believers, we, the
church, is in fact the replacement body of Jesus on earth.
That being said, as a physical body without the spirit is dead, so
church without the Spirit is dead, and in reality, is not a church at all.
When
we think of Christian peace, we may first think of the peace we have with
God. This peace means that we
are on His side. We are no
longer enemies of God. This
results in an inner peace the believer has deep within him.
These two aspects of peace, should thus, be demonstrated in our
relationships we have with those to whom Jesus has joined us in the Body
of Christ. We should consider
ourselves as being on the same side with one another, and that, should
produce a good measure of peace within our relationships.
The sad fact is the church does not demonstrate this peaceful
co-existence, and thus our witness for Jesus is destroyed.
Verse
4
"There
is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at
your calling—"
I
refer you back to my comments on the last verse concerning 1 Corinthians
12:13. When one is born again
of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit comes into the one where He will
live. At that point the new
believer is baptized, or immersed, into the Body of Christ.
Here, Paul stated that there is only one body and one Spirit.
As Christians, we have consistently attempted to separate Jesus'
one body into many bodies. This
should never be.
The
New Testament does show that each local geographical setting has a church,
or as I say it, a community of believers.
This does not mean that the one body is separated into many
geographical bodies. It also
does not mean a Baptist should consider himself separate from a
Pentecostal. You may be part
of one expression of church in your city, but that should not separate you
from those in other local expressions of church.
Paul
said that Christians have been called into one hope.
Hope, as defined in the New Testament, is a certain expectation of
a future reality. We should
not think of hope in our secular culture's understanding of hope.
Biblical hope has nothing to do with hoping to win the lottery.
Christians
have been called, or invited, to many things.
In this verse the calling is associated with the future.
I suggest, then, that the future calling is in reference to the
return of Jesus and all that is associated with His return.
Verse
5
"
... one
Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
Paul
continued in verse 5 with the use of the word "one."
He wrote that there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
One Lord should remind us that God, as seen in the Old Testament,
is one. Deuteronomy 6:4 reads:
"
Listen
,
Israel
: The LORD
our God, the LORD is one."
The
point that the Lord is one is especially appropriate in Paul's day when
polytheistic paganism, that is, the worship of many gods, was prevalent.
Paul
then said that there is only one faith.
Since there is only one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, there can
logically be only one faith. The
Greek word "pistis" is translated into English throughout the
New Testament. Pistis simply means to trust.
Paul was saying that there is only one means in relating to the
Lord, and that is trusting your life with Him.
The
one baptism has been debated over the years.
We see the word "baptism" in reference to a few things in
the New Testament. For
example, the New Testament uses the word "baptize" in reference
to water, the Holy Spirit, into the church, as well as many other mundane
aspects of life. Just what
baptism Paul was thinking of here I am not one hundred percent sure at the
moment. I would suggest it has
to do with either water or Spirit baptism.
Verse
6
"
... one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all
and in all."
Again,
one God should remind you of Deuteronomy 6:4.
God made it known to
Israel
that there is only one real God and He is one.
Paul does not leave the reader with the point that there is only
one God who is one. He said
that God is the Father of the true Christian.
God being our Father is basic to Christian doctrine.
This means that Christians are sons and daughters of God.
We are sons and daughters because God's seed, His Spirit, lives
within us. Romans 8:29 is
important when thinking of this. It
reads:
"For
those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.'
In
Romans 8:29 Paul said that Jesus was the first one of a new race of
people. When everything is
said and done, the believer in Jesus will be as Jesus is right now.
Our very existence, who we are, will be as Jesus is.
The only difference is that our existence is a product of the Holy
Spirit residing within the Christian right now.
Jesus did not have the Holy Spirit come to live within.
He and the Holy Spirit are one identity.
Therefore, Jesus will always be distinguished and different from
us, even though we will be like Him.
The
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul wrote, is above all, in
all, and through all. This
tells me that God is everywhere at all times.
There is no place where He is not.
He exists in the spiritual universe that exists in an alternative
environment. When saying this,
the Bible does not teach what is called Pantheism.
A Pantheist is one who believes that creation is God.
If you see a tree, then, that tree is part of who God is.
Christians are not Pantheists.
We believe that God is distinctly separate from His creation.
Verse
7
"Now
grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of
Christ's gift."
It
is necessary to know that any step in our relationship with God is not
taken apart from the Holy Spirit's assistance.
We cannot come to Jesus in the first place apart from His Spirit,
as seen in John 6:44.
"No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will
raise him up on the last day."
You
may think that when you first believed, or put your faith in Jesus, that
was purely an act of your will, but it wasn't.
There was a measure of faith, or, the ability to trust Jesus with
you life, that God actually gave you.
Romans 12:3 reads:
"For
by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of
himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God
has distributed a measure of faith to each one."
According
to the above verse, God distributes a "measure of faith," or,
the ability to trust, to all believers.
This suggests that some, at any given time, have more or less of an
ability to trust than others.
Paul
said something in Romans 12:3 that he said here in Ephesians 4:7.
He said that grace was given to the believer in accordance with
Christ's gift. God gives faith and He gives grace to the believer.
The
word "gift" at the end of this verse is in reference to grace as
being a gift. Grace is defined
two ways in the Bible, both of which are appropriated here.
The believer has received undeserved love, and, the ability to do
as God requires the one who receives His grace.
Like everything we receive from God, grace is given to us so we can
pass it along to others.
Verse
8
"For
it says: When
he ascended on
high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people."
The
quote Paul referred to here appears to be from Psalm 68:18.
It reads:
"You ascended to the heights,
taking away captives;
you received gifts from people,
even from the rebellious,
so that the LORD
God might dwell there."
You
may wonder, and for good reason, how Paul is going to say what he will say
about this Psalm. Paul equates
this Psalm to be in reference to Jesus, something the original text does
not seem to suggest. How New
Testament writers interpret Old Testament passage is a study unto itself.
I will not get involved in that here.
The way in which Paul interpreted this Psalm has been well debated
over the years.
What
Paul was getting at here was once Jesus ascended into heaven, Jesus gave
gifts to people. These gifts
are often called the "gifts of Christ" because they are given by
Jesus. This would be in
contrast to the "gifts of the Spirit" seen in 1 Corinthians 12
that are given to people by the Holy Spirit.
Verse
9
"But
what does 'he ascended' mean except that he also descended to the
lower parts of the earth?"
It
is generally accepted that when Paul wrote about Jesus descending to the
lower parts of the earth, he had Hades in mind.
Hades is the place of the departed dead, formerly known as Sheol by
the Jews in Old Testament times. Sheol
was understood to be the place of both the righteous and unrighteous dead.
In New Testament terms, Hades became the place of the unrighteous
dead.
The
majority opinion among Evangelical Christians is that once Jesus died, He
descended into Hades and freed the righteous dead.
From that point on, Christians who die go directly to heaven into
the presence of the Lord. According
to Paul, when he died, he would be in the presence of Jesus.
Philippians 2:23 reads:
"I
am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be
with Christ,
which is better by far;"
Jesus
told a parable that is found in Luke 16:19 to 31 that concerned a rich man
and a beggar who died and ended up in Hades.
In this parable you see two parts of Hades.
One part for the righteous dead and another for the unrighteous
dead.
In
Matthew 27:51 to 53 it is recorded that after Jesus rose from the dead
many holy people rose from the dead. This
would be in support of the proposition that Jesus entered Hades and
released the righteous dead. The
text reads:
"At
that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The
earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open.
The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went
into the holy city and appeared to many people."
Verse
10
"The
one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to
fill all things."
Verse
10 tells us that some point Jesus will fill all things.
What this exactly means might be debatable. The Greek word "pieroo"
should not be understood as fill in the sense that we fill a cup with
water. This Greek word
suggests a fulfilling or a completing.
I believe what Paul was saying here is that at some point in time,
the purpose of God that is being carried out by Jesus will be complete.
He will have al things in submission to Himself, which, is the goal
of His mission among humanity
Verse
11
"And
he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors and teachers,"
Here
in verse 11Paul lists the gifts the Jesus gave to the church.
A quick reading of these gifts of Christ
would suggest that there are five gifts, but the grammatical
construction of the verse states that there are four gifts.
Pastors and teachers are the same ministry gift.
You could easily translate the last part of this verse as "and
pastors/teachers."
An
apostle is one who God has sent out to declare the message of salvation to
wherever God has designated. The
Greek word "apostolos' simply means "a sent one."
Some might suggest that an apostle is a builder, that is, one who
builds churches or community of believers.
By the very definition of the word, and how we see that ministry in
the New Testament, that is not the case.
Basic to being an apostle is one who is sent on a mission.
The
Greek word "prophetes" is translated as "prophets" in
English. You can see that our
English word "prophet" stems directly from the Greek word.
In Biblical terms, a prophet is one who speaks on behalf of God.
This speaking can take various forms.
It might foretell future events, but more often than not, it is
simply speaking the truths of God. Of
course, it is inspirational speaking, that is, by one is motivated by the
Holy Spirit.
The
Greek word "euaggelistes" is translated into English as
"evangelist." We
also derive our English word "evangelize" from this Greek word.
This Greek word is made up of two Greek words, meaning,
"good" and "a messenger."
An evangelist is one who has been set aside to be a messenger of
the good news of salvation.
The
last gift of Christ is the pastor/teacher.
The Greek word "poinen" that is translated as
"pastor" means "shepherd," or, "one who
feeds." As a shepherd
would care for his sheep, so a pastor cares for God's people.
In part, he does so by teaching, and thus, the combination of
pastor teacher into one ministry. For
a more detailed explanation of pastors/teachers, you can read my book
entitled, "Plurality of Elders," found on all Amazon web
sites.
Much
more could be said about these four ministry gifts of Christ, but the
above is a brief explanation.
Verse
12
"
.. equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of
Christ,"
The
reason why Jesus gives these ministry gifts to the church is to equip the
saints for the work of the ministry. This
clearly tells us that the leader ministry gifts of Christ don't do all of
the ministry work. They teach
all Christians to participate in the work of the Lord.
This is often not seen in today's church where many Christians
leave the work of the Lord to paid leaders.
The
second reason given by Paul for these gifts of Christ is to build up the
Body of Christ. The Greek word
"oikodome" is a Greek word that implies the building of a house.
The church is often seen as a family and a family is considered a
house, especially in Biblical Old Testament Jewish terms.
The leader ministries of Christ, are thus, put into place to help
put together a healthy household of believers.
Verse
13
"
... until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s
Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s
fullness."
There
is a lot in verse 13 to consider. The gifts of Christ are given to the
church until such time as we all, the church, comes into the unity of the
faith. First of all, we need
to understand faith as trust, because that is what the Greek word
"pistis" means that is translated as "faith" in the
New Testament. There will come
a time when the church, the Body of Christ, the brotherhood of believers,
comes into a unified group of people who together will trust Jesus in all
things. I do not see this
happening until Jesus returns to this planet.
Some
might suggest that the unity of faith is the unity of Christian doctrine.
I do understand that there are some New Testament passages that the
word "faith" can be understood in doctrinal ways and not
relational ways. You may think
that the unity of faith here means the unity of doctrine amongst
believers. I suggest it means
a unified trust that we all have in Jesus.
These
four ministry gifts of Christ will also be intact until we come into
"a knowledge of God's Son," Jesus.
Again, the full and complete knowledge of Jesus will not come in
this life. We await that full
knowledge in the next age.
Before
all of the above comes in the next age, we should expect the Body of
Christ to be moving towards a full measure of all that we can be in this
life. I believe this is what
Paul is getting at in the last part of this verse.
As individual Christians we should becoming more like Jesus.
The same should be the case when it comes to the church.
If the Holy Spirit is within the individual and collectively in the
church as we claim, the full measure of who Jesus is should be more
evident in us today than it was yesterday.
Verse
14
"Then
we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around
by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the
techniques of deceit."
Right
now, in this present age, there are many doctrinal positions blowing by
and through us at any given time, many, if not most, are not Biblical.
Far too often, because of Biblical illiteracy, Christians are being
tossed and blown about by unbiblical teaching.
It was true in Paul's day and it is certainly true in our day.
Some of these false teachings are a result of simple ignorance.
On the other hand, some are manufactured from a heart of craftiness
that is meant to deceive and gather people around ungodly leaders.
With this in mind, church leaders should also be in the process of
attempting to be unified under valid Biblical thinking, and at the same
time refuting the unbiblical thinking.
Verse
15
"But
speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the
head—Christ."
The
words "but speaking" is a present active Greek participle.
"But speaking" states the form in which we present the
truth. As Christians, and
especially as Christian leaders, we must be "truth speaking
ones" and the way in which we present ourselves as we speak truth is
in love. That is to say, we
sacrifice of ourselves for the benefit of others as we teach them the
truths of Scripture. According
to Paul, this is the way that the Body of Christ, the church, will mature
into the likeness of Jesus.
Verse
16
"From
him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting
ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in
love by the proper working of each individual part."
Verse
16 reminds me of 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul wrote about the Body of
Christ, the church. In verse
27 he wrote this:
"Now you are the body of
Christ, and individual members of it."
It
is Paul who uses the term "Body of Christ."
I do not believe that he is speaking metaphorically when he called
the church Christ's body. There
might be some metaphoric comparisons between the church and a body, but in
1 Corinthians 12:27, as seen above, he said that "you are the Body of
Christ. He did not say that
you are like a body of Christ. I
believe, since Jesus is no longer here on earth in physical form, and,
since we as individuals and as the church house the Spirit of Jesus, we
are the replacement body of Jesus on earth.
Paul
said that each Christian is knitted together with certain other Christians
in supportive relationships that form Jesus' replacement body on earth.
The words "being knit" clearly show the importance of
personal relationships in the Body of Christ.
These relationships are both supportive, as Paul said in verse 16
and functional. We provide
support for each other as we work together, or function, in the work to
which Jesus has called us. As
in our physical bodies, each body part is joined to another for support,
but also to accomplishe a specified task in order for the body to function
as it should. This is
something our western-world church knows little of these days.
Present-Day
Relevance
Again,
Paul said a lot in the above verses. Much
of what he wrote concerns the church that should be realized in the church
of today. Paul listed four
ministry gifts given to the church by Jesus.
These are leadership gifts and should be seen in today's church.
That is not always the case today.
Parts of the church no longer believe there are apostles.
Some parts of the church reject the ministry of the prophet.
We tend to promote the ministry of pastor over the other three
ministries. That would be
ignoring Paul's teaching. There
is no Biblical statement that suggests that some of these ministry gifts
no longer exist.
The
four-fold gifts of Christ are given to the church so that each and every
individual in the church will perform his or her God-appointed ministry.
Again, this too is missing in much of the western-world church
today. More often than not,
there is a great gap between what is commonly called the clergy and the
congregation. The congregation
sits back and lets its salaried leaders do all of the work.
This is far from Biblical. It
denies the very reason why the church is the replacement Body of Christ on
earth. This has resulted in a
dysfunctional church that has little to no effect on its surrounding
environment.
If
you are a Christian, you have work to do in association with those to whom
Jesus has placed you in the Body of Christ.
I used the term "Jesus has placed you" because this
placement is important. Christians
today "shop around for the church of their choice."
This shopping is not Biblical.
Church is more than you having your needs met.
It is you ministering to the needs of others.
Church is a place where Jesus has placed you, not where you have
placed yourself.
Lesson
9
(Chapter 4:17 - 32)
The
Text
17-
Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer
live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their thoughts. 18 They
are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness
of their hearts. 19 They
became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of
every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.
20 But
that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming
you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to
take off your former way of life, the old self that is
corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to
be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and
to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in
righteousness and purity of the truth.
25 Therefore,
putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because
we are members of one another. 26 Be
angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and
don’t give the devil an opportunity. 28 Let
the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own
hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. 29 No
foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for
building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who
hear. 30 And
don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him] for
the day of redemption. 31 Let
all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you,
along with all malice. 32 And
be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one
another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
My
Commentary
Verse
17
"Therefore,
I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer live as the
Gentiles live, in the futility of their thoughts."
When
you see the word "therefore" in the Bible, you should look back
in the text to see what "therefore" is really
"therefore." In this
instance, Paul had just written about the believer being fitted in with
other believers in the Body of Christ.
The church is more than an organizational structure.
In one real sense of the word, it is Jesus' replacement body on
earth. Therefore, if Gentile
believers began to live as they once did prior to receiving God's Spirit
into their lives, they would defile the replacement Body of Christ.
We
see such a defilement in 1 Corinthians 5 where a man was committing
adultery with his step-mother. Paul
advised the Corinthians to hand this man over to Satan so his body would
be destroyed but his spirit saved on the Day of Judgment (1 Corinthians
5:5).
The
phrase "testify in the Lord" could be translated as "affirm
together with the Lord." What
Paul said here was meant to be a command, not just from him, but from the
Lord Himself. The same command
would be for us today. Living
the life you have left brings a defilement to the church that leads to
being a bad witness for Jesus.
Look
at the word "thoughts" at the end of this verse.
It has been said that how a person thinks, so he lives.
That is true. Outward
actions begin with inward thoughts and it is our thoughts that need to
come into submission to Jesus. We
are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Romans 12:2 puts it this way.
"Do not be
conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so
that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of
God."
2 Corinthians 10:5
says it this way.
" ... and we
take every thought captive to obey
Christ."
Verse
18
"They
are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness
of their hearts."
How
Paul understood a person's life without Jesus is how we should understand
it. Those apart from Jesus are
darkened in their understanding. In
other words they are ignorant of the important things in life, and
therefore, "they are excluded from the life of God."
They know nothing of the life their own Creator has in mind for
them. They may think they are
experiencing life, but life apart from the Holy Spirit is dead when
compared to life with the Holy Spirit.
Only the born again of the Spirit person knows this to be true.
Why
is the unbeliever living in darkness?
It is because they are "ignorant."
The Greek word "agnoai" is translated here as
"ignorant." It means
to be without knowledge and have no way to perceive things.
The
other reason for living in a darkened mindset is due to their hard hearts.
The Greek word "porosis" is translated here as
"hardened." This word suggests a callused heart.
That is to say, a heart that has been callused over to the degree
that it is lacking of all godly emotion and affection.
This is the way of the world. It
was in Paul's day and it is in our day.
Verse
19
"They
became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of
every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more."
In
this verse Paul was commenting on the Greco-Roman world of his day.
In many respects, sexual immorality was commonplace.
Even women had begun to involve themselves in this sexual
immorality. Homosexuality was
also commonplace. Fathers
would often teach their thirteen year old boys to have sex with their
adult men. In many cases,
husbands did not view their wives in terms of fulfilling their lusts.
That was meant for other women.
Wives were seen as the one who would have children for his
namesake.
Sexual
expression in polytheistic paganism was also commonplace.
Both male and female prostitutes could be seen surrounding certain
pagan temples. Having sex with
these prostitutes was actually seen as a form of worship to female
goddesses.
Paul
ends this verse with the words "desire for more and more."
It is just a biological fact. Sex
can be addictive and addictive it was in Paul's day, as it is in our day.
Verse
20
"But
that is not how you came to know Christ,"
This
verse is not difficult to figure out.
Christians should not be living in sexual immorality as those in
the world around them.
Verse
21
"
... assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is
in Jesus,"
Note
the words "assuming in this verse."
The word "assuming" suggests that maybe these people
really didn't come to Jesus and were taught by Him.
Not all versions of this verse translate it with the possible idea
of doubt. The NIV translates
this verse as follows:
" ... when you
heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth
that is in Jesus."
The NIV does not
express any doubt of the Ephesian believers' salvation. I lean towards the
NIV's translation because Paul has already made it clear that these
believers were valid born again of the Spirit believers.
Ephesians 1:13 makes that clear when it states that the Holy Spirit
is living within these believers.
If the CSB's
version is correct it expresses doubt on Paul's part.
Paul wants his readers to rethink their conversion as a reminder to
where they have come from and where they are in present time.
Those to whom Paul
was writing were taught by the risen Jesus. That is, the Spirit of Christ.
They knew the truth of God, and part of that truth was for them to
live a life of sexual purity.
Verse 22
"
... to take off your former way of life, the old self that
is corrupted by deceitful desires,"
First
of all, note the word "self" in verse 22.
It is translated from the Greek word "anthropos" that
means "human being." We
derive our English word "anthropomorphic" from this Greek word.
Paul
continued on with the theme of getting rid of the old ways of living.
The persistence by Paul in this matter must mean that some of the
Ephesian believers were still dabbling, or had returned to dabble, in
their old ways of living. Although
the born again of the Spirit Christian is a new creation as Paul taught in
2 Corinthians 5:17, the sinful flesh was still attached to the believer as
Paul also taught in Romans 7.
In
Romans 7 Paul described his sinful nature as no longer being his real
self, but, his old self that was burdening him down like a heavy weight on
his back.
Verse
23
"
... to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,"
Instead
of living, or reverting, back to their old sinful lives, Paul admonished
his readers "to be renewed in the spirit of their minds."
Simply put, their minds needed to be transformed.
Their minds needed to catch up with their spirits that had been
united with God's Spirit. Their
minds had to be reprogrammed by their new nature in Christ.
The
transformation of our minds as Christians is important. Paul
made that clear in Romans 12:2, that reads:
"Do
not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will
of God."
There needs to be a clear balance between our minds and our spirits as
Christians. Getting these two
aspects of who we are out of balance, hinders our growth as Christians.
Some are more spiritually orientated while others are more
intellectually orientated. We
should strive for balance between the heart and the mind.
Verse
24
" ... and
to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in
righteousness and purity of the truth.
Instead
of living in our old mind-set, Christians are to put on, or get into as
the Greek text implies, their new self.
Here again we note that the truly born again of the Spirit
Christian is a brand new creation. This
is who we as Christians have become. We
should, thus, get into, the new being that we are.
You should, thus, live out, the life of the new creation that we
are.
Our
new self, according to Paul, has been created in the image of God, not the
image of Adam, I might add. This
new created image is due to the fact that the Holy Spirit, the very nature
of God Himself, now lives in the true believer.
If in fact the Spirit of the Almighty Creator does live within you,
you have the ability to live according to the new creation that you are.
Two
characteristics of our newly created status is a life of righteousness and
purity. These are two
attributes of God Himself. The
word "righteousness" as it applies to us and God means that the
believer is in right standing with God, and thus being in right standing,
should live accordingly. Living
accordingly means living in purity. Paul
might well have had sexual purity in mind when he wrote this because
sexual impurity prevailed in and around
Ephesus
in his day.
Paul
closed this thought with the word "truth."
Living in righteous purity is included in the universal truth that
Jesus is.
Verse
25
"Therefore,
putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one
another.
In
light of all that Paul has just said, he admonishes his readers to put
away lying. This might suggest
that his readers, or at least some of them, were having trouble with being
truthful. Instead of lying,
Paul said to speak truth. He
specifically said to speak truth to your neighbour, meaning the one who is
close to you at any given time.
Paul
clarifies who your neighbour is in the last part of this verse.
It is the one who "are members of one another."
This suggests that the specific neighbour Paul had in minds was the
one who is close to you in the Body of Christ.
Verse
26
Be
angry and do not sin.
Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,
The
CSB version of this verse says "be angry and sin not."
Other versions, like the NIV, says "in your anger do not
sin." Those agreeing with
the CSB say that Paul is telling his readers to be angry, but just don't
let your anger lead to sin. Those
agreeing with the NIV say that further down in verse 31 Paul spoke of
anger as being a negative attribute and so Paul is not telling these
people to be angry. You can
decide for yourself what side to take.
The
Greek verb tense for "be angry" is a present middle imperative
verb. The imperative suggests
that this is a command to be angry, and it does so in present time, but
there is more to the grammar than just that.
There are sub-versions of this verb tense that does support the
NIV's rendering of this verse.
Verse
27
"
... and don’t give the devil an opportunity."
As
humans we have ample opportunity to give the devil a foothold, or as Paul
put it, an "opportunity" to involve himself in our lives.
In context, uncontrolled anger can give the devil a foothold into
our lives. I don't mean he or
a demon can enter us and live inside of us, as some do.
I do not believe a truly born again of the Spirit can have a demon
living within him. On the
other hand, Paul made it clear that the devil, or I suggest, his demonic
force, can enter into situation that thwart the will of God.
For example, uncontrolled anger can lead to many unpleasant things
that divide people. Satan
loves to involve himself in such situations.
Verse
28
"Let
the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own
hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.
The
very mentioning of theft in this verse suggests to many that some of the
believers in the Ephesian church were steeling.
They might not have full-fledged thieves, but apparently they were
taking things that did not belong to them.
Maybe, for example, slaves were stealing from their masters.
This clearly tells us that Christians do sin.
That should be no surprise to us.
Instead
of stealing Paul admonishes his readers to work hard with their own hands.
The Greek word translated here as "work hard" implies
exhaustive work.
The
reason why Christians should work hard is not strictly for their own
benefit. It is to share, and
help provide the needs of others. This
is what the Christian brotherhood is all about.
Church is a community of people where the individual does what is
possible to provide for himself, his family, and those to whom Jesus has
placed him alongside in the Body of Christ.
This is how the first generation church existed when Acts 2:44
states that everyone had all things in common.
That verse reads:
"Now all
the believers were together and held all things
in common."
We do need to
qualify what the words "all things" mean in this verse.
There was a limit to what the first generation Christians held in
common. For example, husbands
did not share their wives. Wives
were not held in common among Christian men. What we learn from this verse
is that whatever the individual believer needed, was provided by the
church. There was a great willingness to share, and share from the hard
work people did, as Paul said here.
Verse
29
"No
foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for
building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who
hear."
The
CSB version uses the word "foul" in this verse.
Other versions use such words as "filthy."
The Greek word behind our English word "foul' means
"rotten." It was
commonly used when speaking of rotten fish, rotten fruit, or rotten food.
It does not necessarily speak of immoral talking alone.
Whatever one says to another, should be uplifting for the other
person's benefit. Our words
should be spoken from a motivation of extending grace, as Paul said.
Grace should be fundamental in all aspects of our relationships.
Without grace, relationships get cold-hearted and routine, and can
easily lead to division and separation.
Extending
grace does not mean we overlook sin in one's life that needs to be
addressed, but, the way in which we address this sin must be motivated
from grace. That is, we desire
to help the person out of his situation. Whatever we do is meant to be
restorative.
Verse
30
"And
don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him] for
the day of redemption."
It
is clear from this verse that the Christian, even though he has the Holy
Spirit within Him, can grieve the Holy Spirit.
The
Greek word "lypeo" that is translated here as "grieve"
simply means "to cause grief, pain, or distress."
In context the grief that the Holy Spirit might feel is when
Christians do not treat each other as they should.
This verse is often taken to mean that we as individual cause the
Holy Spirit to grieve when as an individual we sin.
There is truth to this thought, but the context of this verse and
the word "grieve" is how believers relate to one another.
I believe I can safely say that within any given community of
believers, the Holy Spirit gets grieved because of how we interact with
each other at times.
Verse
31
"Let
all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you,
along with all malice."
I
am sure Paul could have added many more items to his list of human
character traits that should be removed from our lives.
The Greek aorist verb tense of our English verb "be
removed" might suggest a one time decision to move towards ridding
one's self from these human character traits that not only bring the
individual believer away from the Lord, but as I have been saying; in
context, these traits disrupt the unity in the Body of Christ.
In turn, the church loses its effective witness for Jesus.
Verse
32
"And
be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one
another, just as God also forgave you in Christ."
Once
again, the list of human positive character traits listed by Paul could be
added to the list. Paul ends
this section with positive character traits that will allow the Body of
Christ to be that effective witnesses it is meant to be.
The
Greek word "aphiemi" is often translated as "forgive"
in the New Testament. This
word simply means "to cancel or to delete," as in, Jesus has
cancelled or deleted the believer's sins from the heavenly record.
That is not the Greek word translated as "forgiving" and
"forgave" in this verse. Most
all modern translations of the Bible translate the Greek word "charizonai"
as "forgiving" and "forgave" in this verse.
The Greek word used here does not suggest the cancelation of an
offense. It suggests showing
grace or favour towards another, and even in the midst of an offense.
You
will note the Greek word "charis" that is translated as
"grace" in the New Testament within the word "charizomai."
I understand that those who have translated the Bible are more
knowledgeable than me, but from my standpoint, as limited as it might be,
I would think that Paul is asking people to extend grace to one another.
Now, part of extending grace may well be forgiveness.
My point here is that Paul did not use the more common word
"aphiemi" that suggests the deletion of a sin from one's record,
and I might add, once repentance has been demonstrated.
Present-day
Relevance
It
is clear from Scripture that when the Holy Spirit comes into one's life,
he becomes a brand new creation, something he has never been.
He has moved himself from his old world and entered a totally new
world, but, that does not mean the effects of his old world doesn't live
within him. Paul's point here
is that step by step, the effect of our old world should be leaving our
lives.
When
we allow our old way of living to continue in our lives as Christians, it
does not only destroy our relationship with our Lord, it destroys the
effectiveness of the church. It
causes division and separations which have no place in a unified body of
believers. The sad fact of the
matter is that the church has been riddled with divisiveness over the
years, and still is to this day. This
goes against the very prayer for unity that Jesus prayed just prior to His
death, as seen in John 17. A
close reading of John 17 in light of present-day, western-world, style
Christianity should bring a touch of sadness to the reader.
If
the Holy Spirit indeed does live within us, then, we do have the ability
to be a more unified body of believers than we presently are.
5 Therefore,
be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, 2 and
walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a
sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. 3 But
sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even
be heard of[a] among
you, as is proper for saints. 4 Obscene
and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving
thanks. 5 For
know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or
greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in
the
kingdom
of
Christ
and of God.
Light
versus Darkness
y
Commentary
Verse
1
"Therefore,
be imitators of God, as dearly loved children,"
We
are getting into what most would call the practical issues of Paul's
letter. Many see the letter to
the Ephesians as being divided into theological issues and practical
issues. I can understand that,
but, I believe understanding Biblical theology as being very practical
because it forms the basis of all we think and do.
In that sense of the word, what Paul wrote so far in this letter,
is practical. Theology is,
thus, important because as one thinks is how one will live.
The
Greek "mimetes" is translated here as "imitators."
We derive our English word "mimic" from this word.
You could, then, say that as children of God, our Father, we should
mimic Him in all we do and say. This
puts some responsibility on us as Christians.
So many believers are very self-centered in their relationship with
God. They are always asking of
Him. They always want
something more, all the while, God wants something from us.
He wants His life to be evident in our lives.
He wants us to mimic Him. Being
a Christian is just as much a matter of giving to our Lord as it is a
matter of getting from our Lord. Remember,
He is the "Lord" Jesus Christ.
The
verb "be imitators" is a Greek present tense middle imperative
verb. The present tense and
the imperative part of this verb means that right now in present time we
must be imitators. This is a
command. The middle part of
this verb is significant. A
middle Greek verb is when the action of a sentence is being performed by
the subject of the sentence and at the same time that action is being
performed on the subject from an outside source.
This means that the action of imitating is being performed by an
outside source, meaning the Holy Spirit that produces and inner action of
the person imitating God. The
process of imitating is thus a co-operative thing between Jesus and the
Christian.
Verse
2
"
... and
walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a
sacrificial and fragrant offering to God."
One
way in which we should be imitating our Lord is to "walk in
love." The word
"walk" should be understood in terms of living, not literal
walking.
The
most common Greek word translated as love in the New Testament is agape.
It expresses sacrificial love.
That is, love that is demonstrated by means of some kind of
sacrifice. The very essence of
God is love. By nature He is
one who continually sacrifices Himself for His creation.
It is this quality that we should be imitating toward others.
It's a character quality that is not natural for a human being,
but, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we have the ability to
express sacrificial love more than we think.
The
cross of Christ, and really, in incarnation of Jesus, is a demonstration
of sacrificial love that when seen in us, and then demonstrated through
us, is a "fragrant offering to God."
This terminology makes us think of the Old Testament sacrifices the
Jews made, sacrifices that were useless if the person sacrificing was not
one who sacrificed his life for his God. Hosea 6:6 expresses what I've
just written.
"For
I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God
rather than burnt offerings."
Whether
in Old Testament times or New Testament times, the sacrifice that God
wants most is the sacrifice of ourselves, and for must of us, that is a
sacrifice. Paul called this a
"living sacrifice in Romans 12:1.
"Therefore,
brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your
true worship."
The
Greek verb "walk" in this verse is
a Greek present active imperative.
That means this statement is a command to the Christian to actively
live out a life of love in present time.
Verse
3
" But
sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even
be heard of among you, as is proper for saints."
Paul
wrote here about the temptation towards sexual immorality, as he did
earlier in his letter. Sexual
immorality was prevalent in the first-century, Greco-Roman world in Paul's
day as it is in any culture in our day.
It is simply a human desire, like all desires, that needs to be
controlled and subjected to the will of God.
Verse
4
"Obscene
and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving
thanks."
Paul
might well have been thinking about sexual immoral talking in this verse,
but, he might not have been limiting this to that. The Greek word "aischrotes"
is translated here as "obscene."
This word suggests "shameful talking," that might be more
than sexually immoral talking.
The
Greek word "morologeo." is translated as "foolish" in
this verse. This Greek word
consists of "moro," meaning "stupid," and, "logeo,"
meaning, "to speak." We
derive our English word "moron" from the Greek word "moros"
and our word "moron" fits the both meaning of "moros"
and the context in which Paul used this word.
Stupid talking is not a good thing for a Christian.
Of course, you might need to define stupid.
Like others, Christians do engage themselves in what I might call
"frivolous joking," which I don't believe Paul was thinking of
here. I actually believe that
if can be free to joke around with someone, that shows that they have
stepped across the an important line in the process of building a healthy
relationship
Verse
5
"For
know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or
greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in
the
kingdom
of
Christ
and of God."
One
thing we might learn here is that Paul might not have been talking
specifically about sexual immorality in the above verses because he
includes the sin of greediness in this verse.
Paul
specified certain people who do not have an inheritance in the
Kingdom
of
God
. It is not those who express
some kind of sexual impurity or greediness in their lives.
All of us, at one time or another have fallen to these character
traits. It is the idolater who
Paul is referencing here. The
idolater, who, specifically lives a sexually impure and greedy life.
I mention this in case you think that if someone slips up and sins,
that sin does not kick him our of the Kingdom of God.
If
you are a born again of the Spirit Christian, and that is the only kind of
Christian there is, you are a citizen of the
Kingdom
of
God
. Within that kingdom are
rights, privileges, and responsibilities.
The idolater is not a citizen in God's kingdom and has none of its
rights, privileges, or responsibilities.
Present-day
Relevance
The
basic thought that I believe Paul was getting at here is that as
Christians, we should, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, imitate
God. We should be aiming to
live as Jesus lived while on this planet, and really, as He lives now.
In the process, we should be leaving our life of sin behind us.
Christians
do sin, but individual sin does not remove our names from the Book of
Life. If that were the case,
no one would have his name written in the Book of Life.
As soon as Jesus would put it in, the next moment He would have to
take it out.
I
am far from convinced that the average western-world Christian really
thinks too seriously about imitating the life of Jesus.
I think we are far to self-centered to think in such terms, and
thus, the church's mandate is not fulfilled.
Lesson
11
(Chapter
5:6 - 14)
6 Let
no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is
coming on
the disobedient because of these
things. 7 Therefore,
do not become their
partners. 8 For
you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as
children of light— 9 for
the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and
truth— 10 testing what
is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Don’t
participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose
them. 12 For
it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. 13 Everything
exposed by the light is made visible, 14 for
what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said:
Get
up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
My
Commentary
Verse
6
" Let
no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming
on the disobedient because of these things."
Deception
is nothing new. Eve was
deceived by the serpent. Christians
were being deceived in Paul's day by men who taught hollow, worthless,
doctrine. The same is true
today. People are teaching all
kinds of worthless, unbiblical doctrine.
I believe as time goes on, deception is a satanic force that will
escalate near the end of this age, as I believe 2 Timothy 4:3 states.
"For
the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but
according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves
because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear."
Paul
predicted the day when God's wrath would come on disobedient deceptive
people. Again, I believe, from
my Prophetic Futurist's veiwpoint of Bible prophecy, that Paul had the end
of the age in mind when God's wrath is poured out on the earth as seen in
the Book of Revelation.
Verse
7
"Therefore,
do not become their partners."
Paul's
words here simply mean that the Christian should not form any kind of
partnership with those who teach false doctrine, something some Christians
are doing today when they form alliances with other religions, such as
Islam. There is no logical or
Biblical support to the notion that a Christian and a Muslim serve the
same god. The number one
reason for this is that Muslims do not believe that God has a son, as
Christians believe. That
clearly means that the god of Islam is not the God of Christianity.
Verse
8
"For
you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as
children of light— "
Paul
said here that Christians are to be lights, as in, lights in a darkened
world. When you unite yourself
with those in this darkened world, you take on their darkness.
You are seen as being dark. You
light as a Christian is deadened. This
too has become problematic in today's Christian world.
Far too often Christians are involving themselves in the political
world to the exclusion of their Christian calling to be a witness to
Jesus. Evangelical Christians,
in many respects, are now seen as a political movement instead of the
Christian movement it is meant to be.
Over-involvement in politics deadens you light as a Christian
because of the compromises that must be made to succeed at politics.
Verse
9
"
... or the fruit of the light consists of all goodness,
righteousness, and truth— "
Jesus
said that He is the light of the world.
John 8:12 reads:
"Jesus
spoke to them again: 'I am the light of
the world. Anyone who follows me will never
walk in the darkness but will have the light
of life.'"
If
the Spirit of Jesus lives within you as a Christian, then you have the
eternal spiritual light residing within you.
There should be certain fruit, or, valid demonstrations of the
light in your life. Goodness,
righteousness and truth should be three of these fruit of light.
We should be good people, doing good to all who cross our path.
We should demonstrate that we have been made right in the eyes of
God. We should speak truth,
live truth, and never compromise truth.
Truth should be the backbone of our lives.
Verse
10
"
... testing what is pleasing to the Lord."
In
the Greek text the word translated into English as "testing" is
a present active participle. That
is to say, we are by our new nature in Christ those who prove the
truthfulness of a thing in order for us to approve it.
Knowing what pleases God does not come natural to us as humans.
We must discover, prove, and then, approve what is good and true in
order to live as one pleasing to God.
Attempting to please God with the assistance of the Holy Spirit
should be one of the basic desires of our hearts.
Verse
11
"Don’t
participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose
them."
It
is quite obvious that Christians should not participate in anything
associated with darkened sin, but here, Paul said that we should expose
these useless fruits of darkness. This
is a present active imperative verb. This
means exposing the useless fruits of darkness is a command.
The question is how and when do we expose these works of darkness?
Exposing
sin in another is a touchy situation.
I would think there would need to be prayer, consultation with
others, and the Holy Spirit led timing of such exposure of sin.
Of course, we can expose sin in a general way, sin that exists in
the culture around us. We can
expose sin within the church in a general way, but when it comes to a
particular sin in a particular person, that needs some thought.
Galatians 6:1 gives us a bit of advice in this matter.
"Brothers
and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are
spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for
yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted."
Paul's
exhortation in the above verse is mandatory when attempting to expose sin
in a brother or sister in the Lord. The
exposure is not to shame the person but to restore the person, and thus
the reason for being gentle in the process.
Verse
12
"For
it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret."
Note
the word "secret" in this verse.
It is translated from the Greek word "kryphe," which is
where we derive our English word "cryptic."
Paul
advised his readers that they should limit, even not speak of, the things
that darkened people do in darkened places.
Our
culture, which includes the world of business and politics, is full of
darkened people doing darkened things in darkened corners.
Verse
13
"Everything
exposed by the light is made visible,"
Light
dispels darkness. When
darkened sin is exposed to the light of the gospel, sin becomes visible.
When sin becomes visible, it must be dealt with.
Verse
14
"...
for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up,
sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and
Christ will shine on you."
It
might be debatable just who Paul had in mind when he used the word
"sleeper." Was he
thinking of sinners, or was he thinking of the believers to whom was
writing. I learn to the
thinking that he had non-Christians in mind because he spoke of them being
dead, and we know from earlier parts of this letter those who were dead
were non-believers. The
unbeliever, then, should allow the light of the gospel to shine on them,
have their sins exposed, and then dealt with.
The
first part of this quote, beginning with the words "wake up"
could be from Proverbs 6:4. The
last par of this quote, beginning with the words "and Christ"
(Messiah) might be from Isaiah 26:19, where the verse was directed to
Judah
, the Jews. The Jews in
Isaiah's day were asleep. They were spiritually dead.
They needed to rise from their sleep and look forward, in their
terminology, to heir Messiah's coming to earth.
Present-day
Relevance
The
basic theme to this section concerns light and dark.
Light is the light of God's truth while dark is how those apart
from God live their lives. Clearly,
Christians are to live each day of their lives in the light of God's
truth, where any darkness in their lives will be displayed and dealt with.
Living
in the light of God's truth is easier said than done for Christians
because we are still burdened down with our sinful nature, which, prefers
to live in the darkness of the world around us.
That being said, because of the Holy Spirit within us, and, because
we have been transformed into new creations in Christ, we have the Holy
Spirit led ability to overcome the darkness within us.
We have the ability to not to be influenced by the dark culture in
which we live. Yes, this is a
process, abut it is an achievable process.
Recognizing
that the culture of the world around us is truly dark is important.
I believe that many western-world Christians today fail to see how
dark their culture is. They
are too much in love with their surrounding culture to see its darkness.
Paul would be disturbed at this present reality.
If we are ever to be a light to the world, we cannot have our light
dimmed by the darkness of sin.
Lesson
12
(Chapter
5:15 - 21)
15 Pay
careful attention, then, to how you live—not as unwise people but as
wise— 16 making
the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So
don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
18 And
don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but
be filled by the Spirit: 19 speaking
to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making
music with your heart to the Lord, 20 giving
thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, 21
submitting
to one another in the fear of Christ.
My
Commentary
Verse
15
"Pay
careful attention, then, to how you live—not as unwise people but as
wise —"
"Pay
careful attention" is an imperative Greek verb.
This is a command by Paul. It
is not a suggestion. Christians
are not to be unwise, acting foolishly.
We have been given an intellect, and as one's having the Holy
Spirit residing within us, our intellect should be influenced by Him.
Wisdom is one godly character of a born-again Christian, or at
least should be.
Jesus
spoke to this issue when He said this in Matthew 10:16.
"Look,
I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd
[wise] as serpents and as innocent as doves."
Verse
16
"
... making the most of the time, because the days are evil."
I
have always liked this verse and it is partly because of who I am.
I'm not one to waste time because it is unproductive.
We live in evil days, dark days, as Paul wrote earlier.
We cannot afford to waste our days in doing nothing or by doing
things that are not important in proclaiming the
Kingdom
of
God
to a lost world. Paul
understood the importance of his mission.
He never knew how many days he had left in life.
Like many, he could be arrested and beheaded any day for the sake
of Jesus, which was his eventual reality.
Not knowing when that day would come, he could not afford to slack
off. Even while he was in
prison, he would not waste any time. He
understood the time he had in life was not his time.
It was His Lord's time and he had to spend it for the Lord.
Verse
17
"So
don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is."
The
Greek word "aphron" is translated as "foolish" in this
verse. It simply means to
"be without a mind," or, "to be without the capability to
reason." Foolish people
do not understand God's will for their lives or the community of believers
to whom they have been called. Wise
people understand and know God's will.
In Paul's day and environment when he needed to keep his head in
all matters, the will of God processed by his Holy Spirit influenced mind,
was important. It is important
to us as well.
Verse
18
"And
don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but
be filled by the Spirit:"
The
subject of drinking alcohol, at least in times past, has been a difficult
subject to discuss because it has divided the church.
Those who have experienced alcoholism or lived with an alcoholic,
are very emotional about the subject, and therefore, find it difficult to
enter into a reasonable discussion. Others,
with no such, experience can enter a discussion from a purely intellectual
perspective without involving any emotion that shuts down communication.
I find myself in the second group.
In
this verse, Paul does not say one cannot drink alcoholic beverages.
He simply told his readers not to get drunk with wine.
You cannot, therefore, use this verse to support a position of
abstinence.
Nowhere
in the entire Bible does it say that a person cannot drink any form of
alcohol. There are many verses
stating the problems associated with over-indulging of alcohol.
You find many in the book of Proverbs, but, over-indulging does not
mean no drinking.
While
being raised in Evangelical Christianity in the 1950's and 60's I often
heard it said that Jesus did not turn the water into wine.
He turned water into grape juice.
That is nonsense for a few reasons.
First of all, if you read the incident found in John, chapter 2,
you will note that those who have drank all the wine said that Jesus' wine
was the best wine they had tasted at the wedding. Wine drinkers would
certainly know the difference between wine and grape juice.
The
Greek word "oimos" is translated as wine in the New Testament.
You find this word here in verse 18 as well as in John 2.
The same word translated as wine that could make people drunk here
in verse 18 is translated as wine in John 2.
Jesus turned the water into real wine.
There is no doubt about that.
Of
course, over-indulging should be avoided.
That is what the Bible teaches about the consumption of wine, just
as Paul stated here. We should
be careful how we drink and to whom we drink in front of.
It makes no sense to drink wine or beer in front of an alcoholic.
That would be wrong. We must not cause a brother to stumble,
something the whole chapter of Romans 14 is about.
It is also not worth while entering a debate about drinking wine or
beer with those who are emotionally involved in the discussion.
It is a fruitless conversation and will probably lead to
misunderstanding and divisions. On
the contrary, Paul told his readers to be filled with the Spirit of God,
and not the alcoholic spirit.
Some
have used the second half of verse 18 to suggest that as one gets drunk
with wine, one can get drunk with the Holy Spirit and thus act just as
weird. I do not believe that
is what Paul is getting at here. Getting
drunk with wine causing you to do stupid and regretful things.
That is not the case with being filled with the Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit of God would cause us to act more like
God than a drunken sailor.
People
often refer to Acts 2 where the disciples were filled with the Spirit and
were acting drunk. The text
does not say they were acting like a drunk.
It says that some of those who saw them said they appeared to be
drunk, and how were they acting? They
were speaking in languages other than their own.
We have no Biblical proof that they were stumbling around in a
drunken stupor. As a matter of
fact if you read Acts 2 you will see that they were actually glorifying
God by speaking in other tongues. I
would not associate worshipping God with drunkenness.
Verse
19
"
... speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing
and making music with your heart to the Lord,"
Instead
of getting drunk, Christians should do things that are edifying for each
other. Paul lists a few of
those things here. Singing and
music from your hearts was one such example.
For most people, music is enjoyable and uplifting. The same would
be true when we speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs. These are just examples
of how we can edify and encourage one another in the Lord.
Many more could be added to this list.
Verse
20
"
... giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ,"
Another
way to be an encouragement is to be a thankful person.
Some people find it difficult to be thankful.
They find it easier to complain.
If anyone had the right to complain, it would be Paul, especially
as he was in prison chains as he dictated this letter.
Paul
said that we are to thank God our Father, in Jesus' name.
As we have a spirit of thankfulness about us, we should often
direct our thanksgiving to God, our Father, and we do so in the name of
Jesus. That is to say; as we
are Jesus' representatives to the world around us, we can thank God as we
rightly represent Jesus to all we meet.
Verse
21
"
... submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
Paul
told his readers to submit to one another in the fear of Christ.
The Greek word "hypotasso" is translated as
"submit" here and elsewhere in the New Testament.
In the first-century, Greco-Roman world, this was a cold, harsh,
military style word. A soldier
was commanded to "rank under," as hypotasso means, his
superiors. We should not understand Paul's usage of hypotasso in this
verse in its general usage sense. As
with some Greek words, the New Testament in its writers put slight
variations to the meaning of certain Greek words, and this Greek word is
one such example.
If
you study the Greek word "hypotasso" throughout the New
Testament as it applies to Christian relationships you will note that this
word means, "a gentle yielding to another out of love and respect for
that other person." That
means, Paul was telling his readers to yield to one another out of a
loving respect that they had for one another.
They were not to be over individualistic, prideful, argumentative,
and other such character traits. This
view of submission is important because we will see it again in the next
section when Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands.
Present-day
Relevance
The
first three chapters of Ephesians concerns theological matters, especially
the theology that stated Gentiles, through trusting their lives with
Jesus, could find acceptance with God.
This theological issue, like all theological issues, must be
understood the best we can understand.
Theology is first introduced into our being through our mind.
The hope is that it will filter down into our hearts, spirits,
soul, or however you want to put it. There,
in our inner being the theology that entered our minds will become the
conviction of our hearts by where we live. This
means that we must not ignore our intellectual capabilities in our attempt
to understand what God wants us to know.
Simply put; theology is a practical endeavour.
Once
what we learn in our minds sinks into our hearts where it forms the
convictions of our lives, we will live in certain ways that match our
theology. Paul lists some of
these ways in this section. We
are to be an encouragement to those Jesus has placed us alongside in the
Body of Christ. We are not to
get drunk. Instead, we are to
be filled with the Spirit so we can be the imitators of Jesus as we are
meant to be. When Christians
downplay the work and influence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, they
are in error. They will never
become mature believers.
The
last thing Paul said in this section that shows a life lived when filled
with the Spirit is that mutual submission between brothers and sisters in
Christ should be evident. Mutual
submission, or, the gentle yielding of one another produces the unity in
the church that is needed to be the witness for Jesus we are called to be.
This is fundamental to the meaning of church.
(Chapter
5:22 - 33)
22 Wives, submit to
your husbands as to the Lord, 23 because
the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the
church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now
as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their
husbands in verything. 25 Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave
himself for her 26 to
make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27 He
did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or
wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In
the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who
loves his wife loves himself. 29 For
no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as
Christ does for the church, 30 since
we are members of his body. 31 For
this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This
mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 To
sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to
respect her husband.
My
Commentary
Verse
22
"Wives, submit to
your husbands as to the Lord,"
This
verse has often been misunderstood and thus misapplied over the years.
I recall one Christian husband who was in an argument with his
wife. He demanded that she
immediately submit to him and his will.
I cringed when I heard that. One
should never use Scripture to win an argument in a heated debate, but
Christians have been known to do such things.
No one should ever use the Bible to support a personal cause.
I call that blasphemy. Besides,
when a husband tells a wife to submit or else, he does not understand the
word "submit" in this passage.
I
will repeat what I said above about the word "submit" earlier in
this commentary. It is
translated from the Greek word "hypotasso" that simply means
"to rank under." In
the first-century, Greco-Roman world this was a cold-hearted, harsh,
military word. A soldier had
to submit to his superior or else. That
is not how we should understand the word "hypotasso" as it
applies to a Christian's relationship with God, with is spouse, or with
his fellow believer. The New
Testament at times adopts its own definition of certain Greek words and
this is one such word.
A
close study of the New Testament should tell us that it defines submit as
a warm-hearted, loving, yielding of one to another based on mutual love.
That is a completely different concept than the word's general
usage in the first-century, Greco-Roman world.
What
Paul was saying here is for wives, out of the mutual love that the husband
and wife have for each other, she should yield to her husband.
It is not a yielding, or a submission, based on the dictatorial
rule of her husband, and we will see that later when Paul directs his
teaching to the husband.
The
words "as to the Lord" are strong words, but that does not
change anything. Christians,
both husbands and wives, submit or yield to Jesus out of the mutual love
that is reciprocated.
Verse
23
"
... because
the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the
church. He is the Savior of the body."
Paul
gave a reason why the wife should submit or yield to her husband.
It is because the husband is head of the wife just as Christ is
head of the church. The word
"head" is important here. Theologians
have debated over this word for years.
Should we understand the word "head" to mean "the
ruler over," or, "the source of?"
Either one of these definitions could apply because headship was
understood in both ways in the first-century, Greco-Roman world.
The question is; "how did Paul use it here?"
That is the debatable issue.
Culturally
speaking, especially in the Jewish world, man was both the source of woman
and the ruler of the family. He
was the source because woman came from man as seen in the creation
account, and thus, was seen as the authority of the home.
So, it might well be possible that Paul had both views in his mind
as he penned these words.
Jesus,
as Paul said, is the head and Saviour of the body, the church.
Jesus is both the source of the church and the final authority of
the church.
Verse
24
"Now
as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their
husbands in everything."
The
word "church" in this verse is translated from the Greek word
"ekklesia." This
word simply means certain people who are taken from the general public to
accomplish a certain task. Jesus
has chosen us from the world to accomplish His goals on earth.
The church, then, is something that is distinct and separate from
the world in all aspects, or, at least it should be.
The
church is to submit to Jesus its head, meaning, its founder and authorized
leader. The church submits out
of love and respect for Jesus for all that He has done for the church and
those within the church. Although
submission to Jesus is an obligation, a command, it is a yielding based on
love.
In
the same way that the church is to submit to Jesus, wives, according to
Paul are to submit to their husbands, and, in all matters.
This is far from being culturally correct these days, but it is the
word of the Lord.
Here
is a question. If the husband,
especially an unsaved husband demands obedience from his wife in matters
that clearly defy the word of the Lord, should she submit?
I believe in matters like this, the wife can respectfully not
submit, because in the long run, she must submit to Jesus because she is
part of the church and because He is her Lord. If
it comes to not submitting, the wife refuses to submit in a respectful,
not nasty, way. That being
said, we cannot answer this question apart from Paul's instructions to the
husband.
Verse
25
"Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave
himself for her."
Verse
25 is very important in relation to why the wife is to submit herself to
her husband. It is because her
husband is to love his wife just as Jesus loved the church and gave
Himself for the church.
The
Greek word "agape" is translated as love in this verse.
So, Paul was talking about husbands sacrificing themselves for
their wives. The Greek verb
tense tells us that this is not a suggestion.
It is a command.
Understanding
how Jesus gave Himself, that is, by His very human existence on earth,
which includes His sacrificial death, this is a pretty big task for a
husband to accomplish. To the
degree then, that the husband can sacrifice himself on behalf of his wife
will be the degree to which his wife will be able to willingly submit
herself to him.
Verse
26
"
... to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the
word."
The
pronoun "her" in verse 26 is in reference to the church, not the
wife. The church is to be
holy, that is, separated from the world unto Jesus.
The Greek verb "hagiazo," meaning, separated, is
translated here and elsewhere in the New Testament as "holy."
We
often think that being holy is a matter of morality.
It is more of a matter of being separated from our corrupt
surroundings, but, once separated; we live the good moral life.
In other words, moral holiness is a secondary meaning to the world
"holy."
With
the use of the words "cleansing" and "washing" Paul is
writing in metamorphic terms. He
is using picture language to make a point, although, these two words do
have their religious meaning from Old Testament Judaism.
Once
people, the church, is separated from the world there begins a cleansing
process, and that cleaning process is through God's word.
The word Paul wrote of here is God's word, that is, His thoughts
that have been spoken by His ambassadors.
We
should understand that most of the world in which Paul wrote was an oral
dominant world, not a text dominant world.
The point to be made here is that the very mind of God must be
implanted in the church, and also, in the individuals within the church.
The
very life of Jesus, as seen in John 1:1, where it states that Jesus is the
Word of God, tells us that the very mind of God was incarnated into a
human form, who is Jesus. The
very mind of God was embodied in a human form. Although Christians and the
church are not Jesus, our goal should be, as Paul stated here, is to have
the mind of Jesus embodied in us.
Verse
27
"He
did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or
wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless."
This
verse has been understood in a few ways.
Some, over the years, believe that prior to the return of Jesus,
the church will be perfected. It
will be, as Paul said, without any spot or wrinkle.
It will have no blemish. Others,
on the other hand, believe that when Jesus returns to earth, and those in
the church receive their eternal glorified bodies, the church will
suddenly become that church without any spot of wrinkle.
At the moment, I tend to believe that the church will be perfect
when Jesus returns to this planet.
Note
that Jesus is going to present the church to Himself.
No one will present it to him.
Verse
28
"In
the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who
loves his wife loves himself."
Verse
29
"For
no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as
Christ does for the church,"
Paul
uses simple logic to explain his point. No
one hates his body. We all, to
one degree or another, take care of ourselves.
We love ourselves that much. Since the church is Jesus' earthly
body, Jesus will take care of His body.
This is assuming that His body, the church, actually allows Jesus
to take care of His body, which in many respects, does not happen.
What
does this look like? How does
Jesus take care of His body? If
you read Revelation, chapters two and three, you will see Jesus taking
care of His church. Some of
what you read can be seen as discipline.
Jesus has some very harsh words to say about those seven churches
of Revelation. If necessary,
Jesus will actually depart from a community of believers, as seen in what
He said to the
church
of
Ephesus
in Revelation, chapter two.
On
the other hand, Jesus is always available when a community of believers
repent, as is also seen in His comments to the church at
Ephesus
. Jesus gives credit where
credit is due. He encourages
and provides that which is necessary for the church to grow and survive.
At
this point, it would be a good study to read Revelation, chapter two and
three to see just how Jesus relates to His church.
Nothing has changed since the days Revelation was first penned.
Verse
30
"
... since we are members of his body."
There
is only one Body of Christ, one church, and it is this one church, the
real church, that Jesus will care for.
This leads to ask; "If there is only one church, why do those
gathering in particular places in any given locality call themselves a
church." Personally
speaking, I believe it is a Biblical mistake to call every community of
believers in a certain locality a church.
I call it an expression of church.
The
primary understanding of church in the New Testament is that there is only
one church and that is the church universal, or, the world-wide church.
You may then ask why we see the New Testament speak of a church in
a certain city, like the church at
Ephesus
, as seen in Revelation, chapter 2.
In
respect to the above question, I would suggest that "to the church at
Ephesus
" that we read in Revelation 2:1 would be better translated as
"to the community of believers at
Ephesus
." This would fit the
first-century concept of church in a given locality than our word
"church" that has lost its original meaning of, "a
community of believers that Jesus has taken out of the world to accompilsh
His purposes on earth."
Verse
31
"For
this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two will become one flesh."
Paul
is basically quoting Genesis 2:24 in this statement.
God's original intention for a man and a woman was that they be
united. In one sense of the
word, Genesis 2:24, and what Paul wrote here, is metamorphic in nature.
It is picture language that is meant to state that the marriage
relationship is meant to be a total union of body soul and spirit.
Of course, the disobedience to God that we read of in Genesis 3 by
Adam and Eve has made this union difficult.
Non-the-less, that was, and still is, God's original intention for
a husband and a wife, and, and it is the same for the church.
The community of believers is to be united to its Lord in all ways
possible.
Verse
32
"This
mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the
church."
Paul
is making a comparison here. As
a husband and wife should live in unity, there should be a unity between
the church and Jesus. As a
wife is to loving submit to her husband, so the church is to submit to
Jesus. As the husband is to
sacrificially give himself to his wife, so Jesus has, and still does,
sacrifice Himself for the church.
This
verse is often misunderstood. The
prevailing thinking among many Evangelical Christians is that Paul was
saying that the church is the Bride of Christ, the very bride we see at
the Marriage Feast of the Lamb as seen in Revelation 19:9.
Nowhere in this section of Paul's letter does he actually say that
the church is the Bride of Christ. He
simply compares a husband wife relationship to the relationship that we as
the church should have with Jesus.
Many,
but not all, Bible teachers actually suggest that the Bride of Christ seen
in Revelation 19 is the Jews, and I lean in that direction.
I lean in that direction because the prophetic Old Testament book
of Hosea says that the community of Jews is God's bride.
Hosea, chapter 2, predicted the day
that God divorces His wife, Israel, but, before Hosea ends his
prophecy, he predicts that day when God will remarry Israel, which I
suggest might well be at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb that we read of in
Revelation 19.
Another
reason for thinking that the Bride of Christ is
Israel
is because the Book of Revelation, as many think, was written to Jews and
about Jews in the last days.
On
the other hand, it is the Marriage Feast of the Lamb; the Lamb referring
to Jesus, not God. Could it be
possible that
Israel
is the Bride of God and the church is the Bride of the Lamb?
You can decide. My point here is that Paul did not specifically say
that the church is the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5:32.
He was simply comparing the church to a husband and wife
relationship.
One
last thought on this issue is this. Revelation
19 states that there are certain guests that attend the Marriage Feast of
the Lamb. Who are those
guests? Those who believe the
bride are Jews would suggest that the guests are Gentile believers.
Those who believe that the bride is the church might believe that
the guests are those who survive the Great Tribulation and live into the
thousand year rule of Jesus on earth.
Verse
33
"To
sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to
respect her husband."
Paul
ends this section in the way he began it by writing about husbands and
wives. It's basically a
review. Wives are to submit to
their husbands while at the same time, husbands are to sacrifice their
lives for their wives.
Present-day
Relevance
There
are two basic issues that Paul is addressing in this section of Ephesians.
They are the husband wife relationship and the Jesus church
relationship. He made a
comparison between the two types of relationships because they are similar
in many respects. Both
relationships are founded upon age style love, that is sacrificial love.
In both relationships submission is a gentle yielding by the one
submitting due to the fact that the one being submitted to is
demonstrating sacrificial love.
Wives
are able to submit, or yield, to their husbands when the husbands
demonstrate true sacrificial love to their wives.
To the degree then that submission to a husband by a wife is
actualized is the degree to which the husband sacrifices his life for his
wife. Obviously, this is the
way it is with Jesus and the church.
6 Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right. 2 Honor
your father and mother,
which is the first commandment with a promise, 3 so
that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the
land. 4 Fathers,
don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the
training and instruction of the Lord.
My
Commentary
Verse
1
"Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right."
Another
aspect of one who has been transformed by the theology Paul taught earlier
in this letter is that children are to obey their parents.
The Greek word "hypakouo" is translated as
"obey" in this verse. This
word means "to listen, or, to be intent," thus, our English word
"obey" which would be the natural result of hearing one's
parents out.
The
verb "obey" is a Greek present active imperative.
Simply put, this is a command to actively obey in present time.
Paul
said that children obeying parents is the right thing to do.
This is simply common sense, that is, if the children being
referenced are small children or young adults who are still under the care
of their parents.
Verse
2
"Honor
your father and mother,
which is the first commandment with a promise,"
Paul
is quoting Exodus 20:12 in this verse.
That verse reads:
"Honor
your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land
that the LORD your God is giving you."
We
often think the command to honour one's father and mother as seen in the
Ten Commandments was, and is, directed to individual children.
This is how Paul is interpreting this command in this present
letter. I believe the original
command should be understood this way.
A generation of children, not just individual children, should
honour their parents if they want to live in the land the Lord has
provided them. If they don't
honour, or heed, the advice of their parents, they will lose the land that
God has provided them. They
will lose it through many ways and means, which could include an invasion
of that nation's enemies, as did take place in 586 B C when
Babylon
overthrew
Israel
.
Individual
children do not possess land that they can lose in their disobedience.
On the other hand, a generation of children can lose their land
when they do not take the previous generation's wise advice.
Verse
3
"
... so
that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the
land."
Paul
completes the Old Testament command in this verse.
He continues his individualization of the command to say that if
individual children obey their parents they will live a long life in the
land in which they live, and in this context, would be in the geographical
region of
Ephesus
.
Verse
4
"Fathers,
don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the
training and instruction of the Lord."
This
is another apostolic command by Paul. It is easy for parents, including
fathers, to overly micro-manage the lives of their children to the point
they get exasperated and even angry. This
defeats the very purpose of parenting.
Instead, Paul tells the father to train and instruct his children
in the ways of the Lord.
With
any relationship in life, if you want to succeed in building a productive
relationship, things like nagging, just get in the way.
When it comes to our part of the relationship, it is our
responsibility to do and to behave in such a way that will enhance the
relationship. This is
especially true when it comes to teaching and training our children in the
ways of our Lord. Anything we
do that hinders this God-given responsibility must end.
If it does not, the chance of our children becoming Christians is
slim.
Present-day
Relevance
The
issue that Paul addresses here is obedience by children to their parents.
Paul quotes the command from the Ten Commandments, which I suggest
was not directed to individual children.
I say that because the original command speaks of children
possessing land that they can maintain through obedience and respect for
their parents. Back in Moses'
day, children did not have land that they possessed.
Families did not have land that they possessed.
The Jews, however, when they finally entered their promised land,
did have their land as an ethnic people, but even then, families did not
actually own land as we own it today.
Actually the whole
land
of
Israel
, first and foremost belonged to God.
Israel
was only stewards of God's land.
Simply
put, as I see it, the command in its original meaning was to encourage the
generation of Jews to obey and respect their parent's generation.
If that generation could do that, wisdom derived from their
parent's generation would enable them to live in their God-given land
peacefully as was meant for them to live.
It
is an interesting study to see just how New Testament authors quoted and
interpreted Old Testament passages. I
won't get into that here, but the first thing you will notice when you do
the study is that the New Testament authors seems to put a different spin
to the Old Testament passage they are quoting.
Lesson
15
(Chapter
6:5 - 9)
5 Slaves,
obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the
sincerity of your heart, as you would Christ. 6 Don’t
work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of
Christ, do God’s will from your heart. 7 Serve
with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to people, 8 knowing
that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back
from the Lord. 9 And
masters, treat your slaves the same way, without threatening them,
because you know that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there
is no favoritism with him.
My
Commentary
Verse
5
"Slaves,
obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the
sincerity of your heart, as you would Christ."
To
begin this section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, I refer you to my
book entitled "What The Bible Says About Slavery."
It is a short, yet somewhat detailed, explanation of how the Bible
views slavery. The practice of
slavery has been one much debated issue over the centuries.
Critics of the Bible always ask, "Why doesn't the Bible
overtly oppose slavery?" I
attempt to answer this question in my above mentioned book.
My bottom line to this issue is that even though the Bible does not
say, "thou shall not own slaves," it does oppose the practice of
slavery.
This
is a command to Christian slaves. You
might question this command from your cultural experience and
understanding. If that is the
case, you cannot understand any of the Bible correctly if you attempt to
do so from a twenty-first century, western-world perspective.
Slavery
was commonplace in Paul's day, and, it was not all like slavery that once
was commonplace in the American south.
I'm not saying that there was never any abuse of slaves back in
Paul's day because I'm sure there was.
That being said, professional people like lawyers were often slaves
and were taken care of by their masters.
In
short, as I state in my book' "What The Bible Says About
Slavery," the Bible does not openly condemn slavery, but neither does
it condone the practice. If
you take all of the Biblical portions of Scripture regarding slavery into
consideration, maybe you will agree with me.
No one should own another person, especially in light of the fact
that Jesus owns us as Christians.
The
point Paul had in the back of his mind for obedience to slave masters was
that one's life as a Christian takes second place to winning another
person to Jesus. That being
the case, Whatever it took to win someone to Jesus, including a slave
master, one would do. If
obedience to a slave master would encourage that master to hand his life
over to Jesus, then obedience was God's will.
Paul never put himself before his God-given goal to win people to
Jesus.
Verse
6
"Don’t
work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of
Christ, do God’s will from your heart."
Paul
balanced obedience to slave owners with the idea that we are not to be
"people pleasers." We
don't serve, or do anything to please people.
We as Christians do what we do to please Jesus, and, if obedience
to a slave master pleases Jesus, obey the slave master one should do.
For this reason, whatever work a slave was required to do, he
should do it as if he were doing it for Jesus, whether his earthly master
saw him work or not.
Verse
7
"Serve
with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to people,"
Our
attitude is always important. People
see our attitude. A positive
attitude helps win someone to Jesus while a negative attitude will turn
people away from Jesus. That
is simple common sense.
Verse
8
"
... knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will
receive this back from the Lord."
In
this verse Paul wrote concerning both the slave and the free man.
His statement applies to both.
It is a Biblical truth. Service,
or good works, if done from the proper motivation, will be rewarded for by
Jesus. Just when one is
rewarded it is up to Jesus. If
you read 1 Corinthians 3 you will note that some day, all Christians will
be judged by Jesus for their good works, for their service done for the
Lord. Works of service
performed with good motives will be rewarded and works of service done
from bad motives will burn in the fire of judgment.
They will not be rewarded. This
would tell us that most of our rewards will come in the next life.
I suggest that the very life of Paul himself proves that to be
true. He lived a tough life.
He had little to no material rewards in this life.
His rewards were his converts to Jesus and seeing them mature in
the Lord. Our present-day
teaching of receiving an abundance of material rewards in this life is
just not Biblical.
Verse
9
"And
masters, treat your slaves the same way, without threatening them,
because you know that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there
is no favoritism with him."
Paul
now turns his attention to Christian masters.
We know they are Christian because he says that their master is
Jesus Himself. If you take
Paul's admonishment seriously, you should agree with me that a Christian
slave owner should tread his slave as a brother in the Lord.
The master should realize that both he and his slave were purchased
by Jesus. Both he and his
slave belong to Jesus, and, as Jesus treats people, so should a slave
master treat those under his care. The
words "under his care" should be the attitude of the slave
master. For the most part,
this attitude did not exist in the so-called Christian south in
America
.
Present-day
Relevance
The
Bible does not overtly disapprove of slavery, as to say, "thou shall
not own a slave." It
does, however, disapprove of the practice.
If you read Paul's instructions to Philemon you will see that Paul
told Philemon to treat his slave as a brother in the Lord.
I believe that is the bottom line to how the Bible views slavery.
If one treated his slave as a brother in Christ, then one cannot
view his slave as something he owns.
The
obvious question thus arises. Should
a Christian slave owner free His slaves, and why didn't Paul overtly tell
that to Philemon. First of
all, we do not know any unwritten instructions that Paul gave Philemon.
He might have been more overt in person.
Whatever the case, setting slaves free in Paul's day might have
been more of a harmful thing for many slaves, due to the fact they had no
real skills to support themselves. For
this reason, some slaves chose to remain slaves.
For this reason Paul might have told Philemon to treat his slave as
a brother in the Lord. That
would mean that whatever was best for his slave he must do, meaning, free
the slave or keep him and care for him.
Lesson
16
(Chapter 6:10 - 20)
10 Finally,
be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put
on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the
schemes of the devil. 12 For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness,
against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For
this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to
resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your
stand. 14 Stand, therefore,
with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like
armor on your chest, 15 and
your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In
every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is
the word of God. 18 Pray at
all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with
all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. 19 Pray
also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to
make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For
this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough
to speak about it as I should.
My
Commentary
Verse
10
"Finally,
be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength".
The
CSB's versions says "be strengthened."
Other translations say something like "be strong."
This is a Greek present active imperative verb, meaning, it is a
command. The Greek word "endynamoo"
is translated as "be strengthened."
This word finds its roots in the word "dumanis."
We have seen this word before.
It is translated as power and we derive our English word
"dynamite" from this root word.
Paul is encouraging his readers to be powerfully strong in the
dynamite power that belongs to Jesus.
The
Greek word "kratis" is translated as "strength," as
in, the Lord's strength. It is
obviously a different word than the word "strengthened" in the
first part of this verse. This
word suggests a creative power. That
is to say, a power that is powerful enough to create, and is God created
the universe.
There
is clearly enough dynamic power from Jesus available to us to withstand
the power of the devil as seen in the next few verses.
Verse
11
"Put
on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the
schemes of the devil."
The
verb "put on" is a Greek aorist middle imperative verb.
Imperative means that this is a command, not a suggestion.
Aorist means that this should be a one time complete action, as in,
right now, decide to put on the full armor.
The middle part of this suggests that not only we do the putting on
but someone, meaning the Holy Spirit, helps us put the armor on.
A middle voice verb is when the subject of the sentence is both
doing the action of the sentence and having the action done to it.
We do not see this in our English translation.
The simple fact is that we must put on the armor of God and we need
help in doing so, and that is where the Holy Spirit comes into the
picture.
The
word "armor" is a military word.
It suggests that we are in a battle, and Paul said that the battle
is against the devil. He is
our enemy. One thing we should
note is that all of the armor that Paul lists here is defensive armor.
I, thus conclude, that we will never defeat the devil.
Only Jesus will do that when He throws the devil into the
Lake
of
Fire
. What we do in this life is
withstand the devil's attack so it has no affect on us.
The
idea that we cannot defeat the devil, but just withstand his attacks, is
not understood by many Christians who like to think they can successfully
bind the devil. We cannot bind
the devil. We can simply
withstand his attacks made against us.
Again, Jesus and Jesus alone will eventually bind that devil as he
is thrown into the
Lake
of
Fire
as seen in the book of Revelation. Even
then, Satan is bound, not destroyed.
Verse
12
"For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness,
against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens."
Paul's
thought here is not always appreciated these days.
He said that our fight is not against flesh and blood.
Our battle is not against other human beings, but you would never
know that by the way we struggle through the battle.
Far too often we fight against human beings, and we do so with
humanistic means, but that is not where the real fight is and that is not
the say we should be fighting.
In
our highly political atmosphere Christians, now more than ever, are
fighting a political battle and those we oppose we view as our enemy.
We should all realize that our human opponents are not our real
opponents. Paul lists the
opponents we are really facing in this verse.
They are not people. They
are spiritual forces in a spiritual world.
Paul
had his human opponents. They
were both religious and political, but he did not view them as his
opponents. He viewed them as
people in desperate need of Jesus and salvation.
Caesar Nero opposed Paul but I am convinced that Paul did not view
him as the main opponent.
The
list that Paul provided here in this section of his letter has been
debated. Are those listed in
this list different demonic forces, each having their own sphere in the
battle, or, is the list simply different descriptive terms for demons in
general? You can figure that
one out for yourself
Some
people believe that the demonic world is divided into various parts as a
human military force is, and that could be the case.
I do see how this list can suggest that authorities are different
than rulers, for example, but I am not convinced of that.
Whatever the case, the fight we fight is against a demonic world,
not the human world, and thus we should be acting accordingly.
Verse
13
"For
this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to
resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your
stand."
Note
the defensive posture Paul is writing about.
The phrases "may be able to resist" and "taken your
stand" clearly denoted this defensive posture.
Too often, as I have pointed out, people have understood this
section of Paul's letter to be offensive in nature.
Once
again, the Greek verb tense of the phrase "take up" suggests
making a decision to once and for all take up your defensive position
against the attack of the devil.
What
particular evil day Paul had in mind, if he actually had a particular evil
day in mind, is debatable. Some
might suggest that he was thinking about end time evil, as in the Great
Tribulation, but I am not convinced of that.
He might well have had in mind an evil day that strikes all
individuals at one time or another in life.
Paul believed that we lived in an evil world and therefore evil
days come and go because we live in an evil world.
Verse
14
"Stand, therefore,
with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like
armor on your chest,"
Once
again, the word "stand" suggests a defensive posture, not an
offensive posture, as I have been saying. Paul
provides two pieces of defensive armor in this verse, that is, truth and
righteousness.
God,
and thus Jesus, is pure truth. They
are the ultimate in universal truth. There
is no hint of falseness in them. As
Christians, we have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth within us.
John 14:17 states that the Holy Spirit is in fact the Spirit of
Truth. It reads:
"He
[Holy Spirit] is the Spirit of truth.
The world is unable to receive him because it doesn't see him or know him.
But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you."
Embracing
God's truth and being truthful is a piece of armor that will deflect the
attack of the devil. He is
just the opposite to truth. He
is a liar. John 8:44 makes
this clear.
"You
are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father's
desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks
from his own nature, because he is a liar
and the father of lies."
The
fact that the devil is a liar and you the Christian, is a person of truth,
means that he has no place within you to take advantage of you.
He will leave.
The
other piece of armor is being righteous.
We must understand that righteousness in its basic meaning is not a
matter of morality. If one is
righteous, that means he is in "right standing" with God, and,
one who is in right standing with God is expected, then, to live as one
who is in right standing with God. This
is where the word "righteousness" comes into play as a moral
word, but its sense of morality is secondary to its meaning as being in
right relationship with God.
The
armor of righteousness will thus reflect the devil's attack.
He knows that you are in right standing with God, and, as that
right standing produces a righteous moral life, the devil will find
nothing within you to grab hold of and lead you astray.
Verse
15
"and
your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace."
Our
feet are that part of our body that takes us places.
Christians are not to stand still.
We are not to be passive people.
We are to move, go out, and do the will of the Lord, and in this
case, the will of the Lord is to be an ambassador of peace.
Part of the gospel we are to preach and live out in our lives is
that Jesus is the source of peace. When
we hand our lives over to Him, we have both peace with Him and the peace
He provides within us.
Matthew
5:9 reads:
"Blessed are
the peacemakers,
for they will be
called sons of God."
Christians
are to do their best to live in peace with as many as possible.
We do not compromise the truth in the process, but we still attempt
to live in peace, and we do so as a way in which to lead people to Jesus
and create unity in the church. Paul
encouraged his Roman readers to live in peace, at least as much as was
possible, understanding that not everyone wants to live in peace.
Romans 14:19 reads:
"So
then, let us pursue what promotes peace and
what builds up one another."
Striving
and arguing with people tends to separate people into various factions,
and these factions, are a tool of the devil.
When relationships experience a fracture, that fracture is a place
where the devil can move in and cause havoc.
This is why peace is a defensive piece of armor.
Verse16
"In
every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."
The
piece of armor we see in this verse is the shield of faith.
We must understand faith to be trust because that is what the Greek
word "pistis" that is translated as faith, believe, or trust in
the New Testament means. Trusting
your life with Jesus is fundamental to living a successful Christian life,
and the certainly includes the times of satanic battle.
Verse
17
"Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is
the word of God."
A
helmet covers one's head, ones brain.
Our brain is where we think, know, understand, and live out what we
know and understand. Protecting
our spiritual brain is important. Knowing
for sure, without any doubt, that you are saved, is basic, not only to the
Christian life but in the satanic battle.
You cannot win a battle if you are not sure what side of the battle
you are on. It is simple
common sense.
The
sword can be used defensively and offensively.
It is used to protect from being cut open with another sword.
A defensive sword is meant to protect while an offensive sword is
meant to kill. Since we cannot
kill the devil, this sword is a defensive sword. The sword is a Holy
Spirit sword, which is God's word.
We
often think of the Bible as the Word of God so we might interpret this
verse to mean we must memorize and apply the written Word of God in our
battle against the devil, much like Jesus did when He was tempted by the
devil. As twenty-first century
Christians, that is one appropriate way of seeing Paul's statement.
On the other hand, the only written, canonical, Bible that Paul and
others had back then was the Old Testament.
We should, thus, understand the Word of God to be just as much the
spoken Word of God as the written Word of God, and the words we speak,
should be God's words, and they, can send the devil on his way.
Verse
18
"Pray at
all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with
all perseverance and intercession for all the saints."
The
verb "pray" in this verse is a Greek aorist middle participle.
That suggests that the decision should be made once and for all to
not just pray but be a "praying one," which you should be due to
your new nature in Christ. Since
this is a middle voice verb this means that the action of praying or being
a praying one is something you are both doing and having done to you.
That means that the Holy Spirit is just as much involved in your
life of prayer as you are. This
can also be seen with the addition of the words "in the Spirit."
When
it comes to prayer, there are a variety of different kinds of prayer, from
simple talking to the Lord to heavy duty, on your knees style,
intercession. With the use of
the word "requests" here, Paul had in mind that some of these
prayers would be requests for certain things that would help them fulfill
God's will.
Some
might wonder how one can pray "at all times," or, "all the
time." I believe we can
learn to direct our thoughts to the Lord.
In this sense one can pray all of the time.
Also, if we can develop an ongoing relationship with Jesus through
His Spirit, there can be a sense of His ongoing presence in our lives,
which would be considered part of the process of prayer.
The
last part of the verse specifies a certain kind of prayer that we must
never give up on praying, and that is, the heavy duty, on your knees
style, intercession prayer I mentioned above, with the emphasis on praying
for your brothers and sisters in the Lord.
"Being
alert" would suggest that we are in tune with the needs of those to
whom Jesus has placed us alongside in the Body of Christ.
This would suggest that we have built of a healthy, supportive, and
personal relationship with these brother and sisters in Christ, which is
fundamental to the meaning of church.
Verse
19
"Pray
also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to
make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel."
The
prayer requests that these Ephesian believers were to pray would include
prayer for Paul. Note what
Paul wanted these people to pray for.
It was not that he would be released from prison.
It was not for anything that might benefit himself.
The prayer request was for him to be able to boldly proclaim Jesus,
and in his present situation, part of the proclamation would have been to
the Roman guards to which he was chained.
Verse
20
"For
this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough
to speak about it as I should."
"For
this I am an ambassador in chains" means that the reason why he was
chained to guards was because he was preaching the gospel of Jesus.
This is interesting. The
very reason why Paul was put in prison, house arrest in this case, was
what he wanted to do more of. That
goes against the very grain of human nature.
Paul was not afraid to suffer for the sake of His Lord. It may be
difficult for us to imagine but Paul wanted to do more of what he was in
chains for, and he wanted to do it more bolding and more effectively.
Present-day
Relevance
What
we should learn from this passage is that if you are truly a
born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian, and that is the only kind of Christian
there is, then you will be in a battle.
You, are in fact, the battleground, and the battle is with the
satanic world, not any human being.
It
is obvious that all of the armor Paul wrote about is defensive in nature,
and that would include a defensive style sword.
We cannot kill the devil or his agents.
We can, however, cause them to leave our presence.
We cannot bind the devil, as so many Christians attempt to do.
We can only send him away. It
is Jesus and Jesus alone who will bind the devil in the
Lake
of
Fire
, and even then, he is bound, not killed.
In
our highly politicalized world, we should realize that in the midst of our
unhealthy political debates as Christians, our fight is not with people.
Our fight is not with liberals or conservatives.
Our fight is with the satanic, not human rulers of this world.
As Christians, we would do ourselves a great favour to understand
this and implement it into our daily lives.
Lesson
17
(Chapter 6: 21 - 24)
21 Tychicus, our
dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you
all the news about me so that you may be informed. 22 I
am sending him to you for this very reason, to let you know how we are and
to encourage your hearts.
23 Peace
to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace
be with all who have undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
My
Commentary
Verse
21
"Tychicus, our
dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you
all the news about me so that you may be informed."
It
appears from what Paul said here that Tychious would deliver this letter
to the believers at
Ephesus
. He would inform them all
about Paul's stay in
Rome
as a prisoner in chains. This
tells us much about Paul and about his relation to those God had called
him to care for. He wanted
them to be informed. That is
typical Paul.
Tychicus
was an Asian, Gentile brother in the Lord.
You can find him mentioned in Acts 20:4, Colossians 4:7, 2 Timothy
4:12, and Titus 3:14.
Verse
22
"I
am sending him to you for this very reason, to let you know how we are and
to encourage your hearts."
Paul
repeats himself here in verse 22. He
wants the Ephesian believers to know how "we" are doing.
Note the word "we." Paul
had others with him, and was his normal way of ministry.
Church is a corporate venture.
It is not a one man does everything venture.
Plurality of elders, for example, is what the New Testament teaches
about church leaders. Ministry
in church is a co-operative effort by those God has called to work
together. Even in chains, Paul had men, not in chains, with him.
Verse
23
"Peace
to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ."
Note
the words "peace, love, and faith."
These are common words that Paul uses throughout his letters.
His desire is for all believers everywhere to live in peace with
their God and with each other.
The
love Paul wrote about here, as was normal for Paul was agape love, that
is, sacrificial love. It is
the only kind of love that the Bible teaches for Christians.
If there is no sacrifice in one's attempt to love, then it is not
Biblical love. It is a lesser
type of love, which can be seen in the Greek word "philos."
This word suggests a brotherly love, a love that is reciprocated
between two or more people, but, does not necessary exhibit any sacrifice.
Again,
as I have said throughout this commentary, the word "faith" here
is translated from the Greek word "pistis" that means trust.
Christians must demonstrate a life of trust.
They trust Jesus, not only for their salvation and eternal destiny,
but they trust Him with every aspect of their lives.
This trust, then, must be exhibited in the relationships they have
with each other.
The
peace, love, and faith that the Ephesian Christians are to exhibit in
their relationships come from both God the Father and Jesus His Son.
What we receive from God and Jesus we are expected to pass on to
others.
The
fact that Paul linked God the Father with Jesus His Son, as he always
does, speaks to the Deity of Christ. It
points out the divine nature of Jesus.
It means that Jesus was God in human form while He was on earth and
is now God in some kind of glorified human form now.
Verse
24
"Grace
be with all who have undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ."
As
I have noted in this commentary, there are two definitions of the word
"grace" found in the Bible.
Grace being God's love and favour directed to us who do not deserve
it, is the most common meaning of the word "grace."
That being said, grace is also God's divine ability given to us to
accomplish His will. This
definition is less understood or even known, but it is vitally important
in our every day lives as Christians.
We need God's divine ability to accomplish His will in our lives
and without it, all we do is simple humanism that differs little from what
a non-Christian would do.
Paul
ends his letter with the acknowledgement that the Ephesian believers are
hopefully ones who love, sacrificial love, their Lord Jesus Christ.
This means that Christians are expected to sacrifice for their
Lord. He is their Lord.
Paul's
last words are "Lord Jesus Christ."
Jesus is His earthly name. Lord
and Christ are His two divine titles.
As Lord, we offer our lives to Jesus.
As Christ, He offers His life to us. May this be a reality in your
life.
Closing
Remarks
Paul's
letter to the Ephesians is a theological document that if implemented into
one's life will cause an outward and visible change in the way one lives.
For this reason, we note that the first three chapters of this
letter are theological in nature while the last three chapters show the
practical results of one who implements the theology of the first three
chapters.
May
Jesus bless you as you implement the lessons of Paul's letter to the
Ephesians in your life.
Return to Part 1 of Ephesians
chapters 4, 5 and 6
Home Page
|