Cosmic Renewal Begun--28 Days in Ephesians

Cosmic renewal has begun! 28 Days in Ephesians1

Introduction to the New Testament letter to Ephesians

The cosmic dimension of God's saving activity glows most brightly through the pages of the

New Testament in three places: John's Gospel, the Revelation, and the Letter to Ephesians. While

other Gospels and Letters clearly narrate key aspects of God's work in Christ to reconcile the

world to Himself, these three documents reveal greater intricacies of the web of involvement

uniting God with the cosmos. Ephesians discloses the depth of cosmic disunity and rebellion, and

presents it as an interactive and interfering backdrop for the work of God in Christ, and in the

church.

Ephesians is an impersonal letter, naming no one but Tychicus. According to some early

manuscripts, it was not even addressed originally to Ephesians. It is silent on the immediate

circumstances of the Ephesians, and fails to mention issues they have raised for Paul to answer.

The introduction and conclusion are formal and nearly devoid of personal references. When read

as an extended expression of prayer and praise, however, Ephesians comes to life. Almost before

1 Authored by Steven Thompson, with assistance from Janet Augustinsen and Julie Fehlberg. An earlier version appeared in Howard Fisher, Bruce Manners and Arnold Reye, editors. Living in the Light: 28 Days in Ephesians. Cooranbong, Australia: Avondale College Church and Brisbane, Australia: Springwood Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2008.

Cosmic renewal has begun! Ephesians in 28 days 2

they realise it, readers are carried aloft into the elevated spiritual state of its author, where they

glimpse the cosmic nature of both the chief problem of human existence, and its divine solution.

The letter's repetitive vocabulary is itself a rough guide to its author's chief concerns:

"God" 31 verses

"Christ" 43 verses

"in Christ" 13 verses

"Jesus" 19 verses (17 of which are combined with "Christ")

"Lord" 25 verses

"One" 11 verses

"Church" 9 verses

In the heart of the Letter to Ephesians lies a bold, clear message—God is unifying the

fragmented, alienated and hostile powers which inhabit and disturb the cosmos. It has already

begun in a humble but eye-opening way in the church, those infant congregations, meeting week

by week in crowded rooms, on back streets, in the teeming cities across the Roman empire.

There, the two most profoundly alienated people groups of the Roman world, Jews and gentiles,

are uniting through the presence among them of the risen Christ. From this small beginning God

will work outward and upward until the entire cosmos is filled with the fullness of unity, to the

glory and praise of his name.


Week 1: Living in Christ

Day 1, Ephesians 1:1-8

"Bless" means “to bestow favour” or “provide with benefits”. Historically, blessings were

linked with God or gods, often in the form of gifts of supernatural power (see 2 Kings 2:1-15).

Another dimension of blessing appears throughout Old Testament prophecy, where blessings are

closely tied with curses. If Israel obeyed, she was blessed; disobey, and suffer the consequences.

In Mediterranean culture, "blessing" was a common greeting, layered with spiritual meaning. In

Jewish circles, blessings united the community, as evidence they were “specially favoured ones”.

The blessings in today's verses express this. Paul's readers had become children of God—their

blessings made that clear.

Paul's readers are assured in verse 4 that they were chosen by God even before He chose

Abraham! Becoming an adopted son was very significant, but had little to do with family and

everything to do with status, inheritance and obligations. Unlike today adoption was restricted to

adults. God adopting children before their birth was unbelievable. It entitled them to inherit from

their spiritual Father, who redeemed and forgave his children freely before they could earn it.

"Grace" was a two way contract. A person of higher standing offered grace. When accepted, the

recipient admitted inferiority, and took on the daily obligation of returning “thanks” by visits and

by doing favours. Paul applied this common custom to the grace received from God.


Day 2, Ephesians1:9-14

How often we long to know the will of God! Paul used this phrase in verse 9 to express a

revealing of God's private, or secret counsel. Magic and mystery were popular avenues to the will

of the gods in Ephesus. “Secret knowledge” gained salvation for the devotee. Paul played on this

idea, declaring that true secret, saving knowledge was Christ. God's mystery is not for an elect

few; rather, a mystery because it is a gift beyond our comprehension.

Verses 10-12 contain the message of Ephesians in its briefest form: God plans to unify all

elements of the cosmos in Christ. He is working through ordinary people, Jews and gentiles, who

hope in Christ. This bold plan will lead, when the cosmic unity has been achieved, to praise for

God's glory (verses 12 and 14). God’s plan impacts the cosmos through his divine will. Jesus

obeyed his fathers will and it kept him focused on and directed by the greater vision beyond

himself. Paul joins his readers in obedience to God’s plan gives purpose in all we do and value to

who they were.

"Sealing" was done with a specially carved ring whose impression was placed in soft wax or

clay. It took the place of a signature. Persons such as a slaves or even members of religious cults

were "sealed" to signify ownership, protection and a spiritual blessing of the god. God sealed his

community with the Holy Spirit, denoting special possession, protection and blessing.



Paul spent three years in Ephesus and was in touch with their Pastor Timothy so he knew

firsthand the Church’s spiritual growth from faith in a pagan goddess Artemis to an ongoing

loving faith in Jesus. The form of this word refers to belief and trust because God is reliable,

proven to save. Paul complimented them both for faith in God and agape love toward one

another. Paul their spiritual father rejoiced that his preaching is bearing fruits, he “gives thanks”

in prayer for the blessings they have received.

Paul prayed that special wisdom or insights regarding God may be revealed to them. The

reference is not earthy wisdom but knowledge of God given to those closest to him, previously

this was restricted to prophets and priests, but through Christ this special connection become

available to all believers. Only through the gift of the Holy Spirit could they come to know God.

This metaphorical phrase plays on the Greek understanding of the eyes being the route through

which light or spiritual understanding may reach the heart, the centre of the moral, intellectual

and emotional life. So Paul wanted this knowledge of God, his blessings and hope to enter and

become a part of his readers' very inner being, to mould their very thought processes and even

emotions. Head knowledge is not enough, unless it comes into our heart and becomes a part of

who we are, it is useless.



Greek terms describing God’s attributes in this passage refer to a greatness so extraordinary

that it goes beyond all imaginable scales. To further emphasise his point, Paul uses four types of

power in this verse: potential supernatural power, active working energy, the ability of strength/

might (eg. in war), and the capability for effective use of all that power. God's power is absolute;

he is actively using it in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It was not Christ’s death

(though for God to die is a miracle in itself), but the fact that Jesus rose three days later which

made it the ultimate measure of God's observable power.

God’s power is on display when he bestowed on Christ the highest honour and all authority.

The Greeks believed in many gods and spirits both good and bad, and lived daily fear of the

supernatural. So Paul leaves no realm exempt from Christ’s power and authority, and above all

names. Names had great significance; to name a power, to identify it, was important. Time has no

impact on Christ’s rule past, present and future are in his control so even future spirits and

authorities cannot defeat Christ. Fear not Christ is in control of everything and every-time.

God subjected all things to Christ, to whom every knee across the cosmos will eventually bow in

worship, even Satan's. Christ is also the head of the church, and the church is his body. Christ’s

power is complete and continual received directly from God.



Paul opens this passage with what must be the earliest occurrence of the expression "dead man

walking" to characterise his readers' lives before coming to Christ ("walking" is the Greek

expression behind "you used to live" in verse 2). This "before-after" story, so familiar today in

advertising, occupies verses 1-3. Paul reminds his readers that both he and they experienced a

spiritual pilgrimage from unbelief to belief. He clearly intends to include himself when he wrote

in verse 5 "we were dead".

Who was "the mighty prince" of the power of the air" in verse 2? Probably the same person

Jesus referred to in John 12:31, 14:30 and 16:11: the prince of this world. Paul's readers would

have been familiar with the Greek explanation of the universe in which air occupied the region

from the surface of the earth, to the moon. The space from the moon onwards to the stars was

filled with ether, which was considered more pure than air. Air was the region where impure

spirits lived. The expression "sons of disobedience" (2:2 and 5:6) indicated persons whose

primary characteristic was disobedience to God.

The lives of Paul and his readers had been gripped by rebellious spiritual forces, leaving them

as good as dead to God. But the initiative-taking God, whose nature includes mercy, love, grace,

kindness (verses 4-7) caused a major life turn-around. It was possible because they now lived

with Christ (verses 5 and 6) and in Christ (verse 7).



Paul summed up the core of Christian belief in verse 8. This statement is similar to others in

his letters, such as Galatians 2:16, Romans 3:22-24, and Philippians 3:9. Key words include

"saved", "special favor", "believed", "gift". Death is what believers are saved from. Grace, or

special favour, is God's motivation. The saving ingredient itself is faith. Whose faith? First, God's

faithfulness. Paul refers frequently to God's faithfulness in relation to lost persons (Romans 3:3;

1Thessalonians 5:24, 2Thessalonians 3:3). Second is Christ's faithfulness (Philippians 2:8,

Romans 5:19, Galatians 2:20 and Ephesians 5:2). Third, the faith of Christian believers, already

mentioned in Ephesians 1:1, 15, 19; 3:12, 17. "Faith" is clearly no mere human activity or

accomplishment, according to the second part of verse 8, and verse 9. It is a combination of God's

initiative, made available through the faithfulness of Christ, and extended to humans, who

respond to it by means of their own faith. Saving faith becomes operative only when all three

persons—God, Christ, and believer—engage.

Verse 10 repeats Paul's earlier theme that persons whom God brings back to life in Christ do

not simply continue their old life. The new life they live flows out of, and is governed by, God's

ongoing cosmic restoration. Just as he put his first newly created humans to work (Genesis 2:16),

so He also puts his present newly-created humans to work doing the "good things he planned for

us long ago."



Paul presents another "before and after" contrast, focusing on the group rather than the

individual. He commanded his readers to "keep in mind" or "keep on recalling" their gentile past.

It seems almost programmed into people to view their people group as distinct and different from

all others, to employ "them and us" language. The special, saving relation the Jews had to God

led them to speak of non-Jews in outsider terms, as in Galatians 4:8 "Before you gentiles knew

God, you were slaves to so-called gods". Migrants and members of ethnic minorities would be

especially sensitive to the force of Paul's comparisons in these verses.

Jews were grudgingly tolerated in the ancient world, but rarely appreciated. Their apparent

aloofness prevented them from mixing socially with others, and their intense sense of spiritual

calling and identity with an invisible God put them at odds with most religious practices of the

day. They were ridiculed, subjected to discriminatory legislation, heavily taxed, and even

expelled en masse from cities.

Paul's great discovery that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself" (2

Corinthians 5:19) empowered him to declare, in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, that

"you are all children of God … there is no longer Jew or Gentile … you are all one in Christ

Jesus." (Galatians 3:26, 28). Like immigrants granted full rights of citizens, the non-Jews could,

thanks to Jesus' atoning death, replace spiritual "them and us" experience with equality and

inclusiveness.


Week 2: Living in the Body


The earliest Christians faced two nearly overwhelming challenges which threatened their

existence. The first was persecution and opposition. Spiritual and civil forces attempted to stop

the infant church in its cradle, and only God's repeated intervention saved it. This is a major

theme of the Acts of the Apostles. The second challenge was how the early Christians, all of

whom were Jews, would respond to non-Jews who would soon flow into the church. This

passage provides the most exalted New Testament expression of the solution to this challenge.

The word "peace" in verse 14 is the second of eight occurrences in the letter. Peace was

personified by the ancient Greeks, who erected a statute to peace in Athens and sacrificed to her

each year. Rome had its altar of peace erected by Caesar Agustus, who was credited by the

historian Tacitus with bringing "the sweetness of peace" to the empire. The Hebrews had their

shalom, and now, Paul declared, Christians had their peace—Christ.

Christ's peace-bringing accomplishments were then summarised: He made peace, broke down

the separating wall, ended Jewish laws that excluded others, made peace, created one new person,

reconciled alienated groups to God, and brought the good news to Gentiles (verses 14-17).

As a result of what "Christ has made" (verse 14), and what "Christ has done" (verse 18), Jew and

gentile alike can now all come to one heavenly Father through the same Holy Spirit.



Ethnic divides can be exceedingly hostile, and attempts at reconciliation often stretch over

decades, centuries, or even millennia. The Jew—gentile ethnic divide was one of the deepest in

the ancient world. But a new reality had emerged in Ephesus. Jew and gentile were being united

in a way unknown in wider society. There is no natural explanation for it; it can only be

explained as due to a fresh burst of God's creative power, flowing through Christ.

Paul employed language from two realms of life familiar to his readers, citizen versus alien,

and temple-building. Citizenship, or lack of it, impacted everyone in the Roman empire, where

citizenship was a privilege not open to the masses. Paul's citizenship spared him interrogation

under torture (Acts 22:26-28). Huge social dislocation in the wake of Roman territorial conquests

led to huge numbers of homeless persons crowding into cities. There were also many slaves, and

former slaves who lived outside the protection provided by citizenship. In the midst of this status-

ridden society emerged the church which, like a budget airline, was classless—all seats the same

size, and the same price!

Paul concluded by referring to temple building, familiar to Ephesians whose city was

dominated by one of the largest temples in the Roman world. The materials and stages of temple

building—foundation, cornerstone, cutting stones so they fit together, growth of the structure,

arrival of God to occupy his newly-constructed dwelling—are employed to bring home the

profound new unity of Christians.



The most personal part of Ephesians begins in verse 1 where Paul disclosed personal

information which typically would have been included in a letter 's introduction. There are three

main disclosures: first, Paul's civil status—prisoner of Christ. Technically, all imprisoned

Romans were prisoners of the emperor. Paul makes clear that he is imprisoned by a different and

higher Lord—Christ Jesus. There was an additional dimension to his prisoner status. He declared

himself a prisoner in place of his readers! He was there on their behalf, for their sake.

Paul's second disclosure was his key role as a channel through which God's revelation reached

his gentile readers. Note the first-persons "I", "me", and second-persons "you". In addition to

making the letter more personal, they also highlight human distinctions ("I Paul … you

gentiles"). Paul shared God's grace ("God's grace given to me for you"), and communicated

specially-revealed divine insights to his gentile readers ("mystery made known to me … I have

written … you can read … you can perceive").

His third disclosure was that God's great mystery, or secret plan, has now been revealed

through Paul, so he can share it with the gentiles. It consisted of three dramatic alterations to their

spiritual relation to God's chosen people (in verse 6). First, they have become co-inheritors of

Israel's blessings; second, they have become a united body with Israel; third, they have become

companions, or partners, of the covenant people.



To human eyes, Paul was a prisoner of the emperor of Rome, but he declared himself Christ's

prisoner. In verse 2 he declared himself Christ's household manager, and in verse 7 a deacon of

the Gospel (the same word used elsewhere in the New Testament for deacon). In verse 8 he

declared himself inferior in status to the lowest-ranked Christian.

God's goodness to Paul empowered him to perform two tasks. The first was to preach to

Gentiles that Christ's ways and resources were more than sufficient (verse 8). This would be

reassuring to gentiles who were accustomed to local gods who had only local jurisdiction, and

limited resources to share among their worshippers. In other words, Paul proclaimed to them that

the God of the small people group known as Jews was actually Creator of the world. The cattle

on a thousand hills, and more, belonged to Him. He had set his Son, Jesus Christ, at his right side

in heavenly places, according to chapter 1:20-22.

The second task which God empowered Paul to carry out was to enlighten all people about

God's previously hidden plan for gentiles. Enlightenment, the bringing of deeper understanding,

was promised by many belief systems in Paul's day. His gentile readers would have been aware

of a multitude of claims that the various gods could provide enlightenment. God has already

spoken through him; new understanding is now available to all who will stop to listen.



The social fractures, divisions and tensions visible on the streets and in the homes of Ephesus

had a much deeper cause than foreign invasion, or lack of resources, or lack of social conscience,

or slavery or lack of kindness to strangers. Its fundamental cause was the prior fracture and

division in the spiritual universe which originated at Satan's rebellion, and resulted in a cosmos

torn and tormented by conflicting spiritual forces. Human disunity was simply a symptom and

microcosm of the greater spiritual disunity.

In this setting, the church was more than a safe common ground for Jews and gentiles,

important though that was. Paul declared in verse 10 God's cosmic vision for tHe church. He

intended the church to be a working model, displaying to the "rulers and authorities in heavenly

places" the new reality of unity now possible through Christ.

Access to God has, through Christ, become hugely simplified. Unlike the cost of gaining

Roman citizenship for the limited protection it offered, unlike the elaborate, time-consuming

rituals of pagan purification rituals which brought streams of devotees into Ephesus, and unlike

the demands of becoming Jewish through circumcision and huge lifestyle changes, Christ offered

straight-through, direct, uncomplicated access to God himself.

In light of what Christ had done, Paul's personal discomfort should not overly occupy the

Ephesian Christians, or divert their focus from the greater, cosmic issues.



At this point, Paul bent his knees (an ancient Hebrew idiom) in admiration of God's glory, and

continued the prayer he started in verse 1. He expressed thanks for including him and his readers

in God's creative action to re-unite the cosmos. He then interceded for his readers, making six

requests: that they be given "mighty inner strength" (verse 16), that Christ occupy their hearts,

that they be rooted in God's love, that they understand the dimensions of his love, that they

experience it even though they cannot understand it, and the life and power of God's "fullness"

might fill them. "Fullness" here refers to that special quality of God which makes Him different

from his creation. In the Old Testament, for example, his spiritual presence "filled" the temple.

Here Paul probably thinks of the filling power of Gods love filling his believers, who collectively

make up his new spiritual temple. When this prayer request is fulfilled, church will be unique

because it contains the full measure of divine love.

God's special creative, renewing and unifying work among humans has been the overall

message of the first half of this letter. Its practical demonstration is the ability of Jews and

gentiles to unite in the church. The remainder of Ephesians will focus on daily living in the

newly-created reality of Christianity between the present moment and the final, cosmos-wide

completion of God's re-creation.



Paul's prayer closes with an expression of praise to God, who is able. The vocabulary of

power and accomplishment dot the passage. He is able to outdo and exceed the imagination of

believers. According to verse 21, the glory God deserves should flow to Him through two

channels: the church, and Christ. Pauls ends the prayer by giving readers a glimpse of the endless

praise of God which echoes through the cosmos in response to his unifying action. Unity of Jew

and gentile in the church as both submit to Christ is a tiny working model which points beyond

itself to the much grander and more highly significant universal unity achieved when God

brought the principalities and powers into submission to his Son. Earthly unity is only possible

after achieving cosmic unity. Both the church and Christ play central roles in the conflict, and the

reality of God's victory over fragmentation are made visible among those ordinary Ephesian

believers meeting for worship and for mutual support.


Week 3: Living as children of the light: lifestyle


Paul appeals a second time (see 3:1) to his prisoner status, in contrast to his readers' freedom,

including their newly-established spiritual equality with Israel, in Christ. He pleads with them,

using a favoured expression, but one which falls short of commanding or instructing them.

Prisoners of course cannot command. The heart of Paul's plea can be translated "walk the calling"

(verse 1).

Paul explains what this means by naming three dimensions of this "walk" (verse 2). First,

there is an absence of self-assertiveness, usually translated "humility" or "lowliness". To the

Roman, non-assertiveness would be understood as servility—allowing oneself to be used as a

doormat. But Paul recognised that without this quality the all-important unity of believers could

not be achieved. The second dimension, best translated "gentleness", was a virtue among

Romans. Elsewhere in the New Testament it describes the attitude best suited for approaching

opponents and those who have left the faith, as in Galatians 6:1. The third dimension, patience,

has an illustrious Old Testament history as the aspect of God which is visible in his patience with

humans (Exodus 34:6). This sort of patience is also necessary among Christians. It is an aspect of

love (1 Corinthians 13:4), and one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).

The goal of their "walk" is unity. Verse 3 closes with mention of the "bond of peace". Paul's

first readers understood the uniting force of the "bond of law" (an expression of Plato), and the

peaceful unity of sorts brought by Roman imperial might. But in the church the bond that holds

believers in unity is God's own peace.



Paul in verses 4 to 6 declared the essential oneness of believers with one another and with God

with this sevenfold list of "ones". Beginning with one united body of believers, in the sense

already mentioned in 3:6, he then covers, though not in strict order, the oneness of the members

of the Godhead (Spirit, Lord, Father), the uniting power of Christian doctrines of hope and faith,

and the joining effect of baptism.

But oneness is not sameness. In verse 7 Paul restored the focus on the individual believer,

without in any way diminishing his oneness with others and with God. He did this in order to

prepare his readers for the introduction of the gifts of the Spirit in the following passage.

In verses 8-10 Paul reminded readers that Christ's right to bestow the gifts which will be listed in

the following verses rests on the success of his mission to planet earth. Like a Roman army

commander or other hero, Christ set out on a journey which bristled with risks and with the real

danger of failure. He descended first to earth, then to the realm of death, before ascending again

to where his journey started. Like a commander returning in triumph from a successful mission,

Christ was welcomed back into heaven with a triumphal procession, and he set about distributing

gifts, the spoils of war in enemy territory, so to speak, among his supporters.



Based on the model of Christ's triumphant return to heaven after defeating Satan on earth, and

overcoming Death itself in the grave, the gifts listed in verse 11 should be labelled gifts of Christ

rather than gifts of the Spirit. The popularity of the latter title is probably due to 1 Corinthians

12:4-11. But even there the expression "gifts of the Lord" (verse 6) and "of God" (verse 7) occur.

To be precise, the gifts are distributed by and through the Spirit, while originating with Christ.

Paul's list started with apostles, whose qualification included having been eye witnesses of Jesus.

On this count Paul himself barely qualified, since his only eyewitness encounter with Jesus was

after the resurrection, on the Damascus Road. He himself acknowledged his late arrival among

the select group of Jesus' followers in 1 Corinthians 15:4-10. His opponents questioned the

validity of his apostleship, according to 1 Corinthians 9:1-2. The list ends with "teachers". Their

low priority is perhaps explained by James, who in his letter cautions against taking on the role of

teacher, James 3:1.

It is a mistake to focus on the gifts of verse 11 and ignore the themes of verses 12-16. In these

verses, themes of unity (verse 13) and growth stand out due to their repetition. Growth is the

main message. Terms such as infant-adult, attaining full size, and proper joining-together of

growing bodies, all point toward personal and community growth and maturation. Perhaps the

ultimate test of true apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers is the spiritual growth of

their fellow believers.



In returning to his earlier focus on "walking the calling" (4:1), Paul used the verb "walk" twice

in verse 17—"you are no longer to walk as gentiles walk." He then sketched the fundamental

weakness of the "gentile walk", starting with the gentile mind, which he characterised as

"empty", "devoid of purpose". He then described gentile reasoning powers (verse 18a) as

darkened, before moving on to name gentile ignorance (verse 18b), followed by destructive and

degrading gentile practices (verse 19). This threefold reference to the mind, its reasoning, and its

ignorance, made clear his conviction that while a destructive lifestyle certainly involves the body,

its root cause and source is in the untransformed mind.

In light of this conviction, Paul recognised that a reform of lifestyle cannot begin with the

body. It must begin in the non-material part, the "spirit of your minds", as he stated in verse 23.

Only after mind renewal, reasoning transformation, and ignorance removal can his readers

experience release from demeaning and destructive bodily indulgences. Only then can the new

nature, on offer in verse 24, be put on.



While modern readers are likely to read a singular "you" into these verses, nearly every "you"

which Paul wrote here was "you" plural—"all of you". This emphasis on the group rather than the

individual as the location of ethical conduct seems strange in today's individualistic societies But

then, today's isolated individualists would have seemed strange to Paul and his first readers. The

only use of the singular in this passage addressed the conduct of the thief, verse 28.

Verses 25-29 include a list of attributes which should be absent from the lives of the new

humanity. Most are then followed by their opposites, which should be present in the new

humanity. These attributes line up loosely with the commands on the second table of the ten

commandments. It is significant that telling lies heads the list, probably because of its

destructiveness to relationships. Greeks believed that a pimply nose indicated habitual lying!

The apostle's caution against grieving or distressing the Holy Spirit has caused Christian soul

searching, especially when coupled with Jesus' warning against blasphemy against the Holy

Spirit, which cannot be forgiven (Mark 3:29). This is the only allusion in these verses to the first

table of the ten commandments, which lists transgressions against God. It is doubtful Paul was

expressing the doctrine of the unforgiveable sin here. Rather, he was citing Isaiah 63:9-10, a

passage which briefly outlines God's saving actions in Israel's early history, followed by her

rebellion, which grieved God's holy spirit, leading God to fight against his people for a time, until

they repented, and He could effect their eventual redemption. Yesterday's passage closed by

naming three inner qualities of the renewed lifestyle: righteous, holy, true. Today's closes by

naming its three outer qualities: kind, tender-hearted, forgiving.



The first word in chapter 5 repeats the command which closes 4:32. Paul's intensity is best

translated "keep on …" Like a sports coach alongside his trainees, he urged them to "keep on". In

verse 1 they are to "keep on" imitating of God, the only occurrence of this command in the Bible.

Elsewhere Paul urges his readers to imitate him (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1) and Christ (1

Thessalonians 1:6). How would his readers have understood his urging to imitate God?

In Greek culture "imitation" was a key idea. First, it explained the way the visible world related

to its larger, invisible counterpart, or to its invisible Creator. "Imitation" also expressed a child's

imitation of a parent in achieving maturity. Finally, "imitation" referred to a philosophy of

education, in which the pupil imitated the teacher. Artists and poets strove to "imitate" in their

paintings, sculptures, and poems the deeper reality which existed in their minds, or before their

inner eye. Actors on the stage of Greek theatres, usually wearing masks, imitated their characters.

Finally, Greeks were familiar with injunctions to imitate their gods. The Jewish author Philo, a

younger contemporary of Paul, explained that people "imitate God" by passing on to others the

divine blessings.

Paul at the end of verse 1 develops the role of imitation in education. Likening his readers to

children. The term Paul used depicts the child as viewed by an adult, focusing on the contrasting

levels of maturity and skill between the age groups. Paul thus draws a picture of the uninhibited

imitative actions of a child, secure in the knowledge that it is deeply loved.



The list of destructive and degrading practices of 4:19 is echoed by two of the terms in 5:3,

both of which connote sexual practices which come under divine disapproval. "Sexual

immorality" was a broad term which covered in general sexual activity outside of marriage, as

well as marriage to a close relative. From a Jewish viewpoint nearly all gentile sexual activity,

even within marriage, was unacceptable because gentiles could not be expected to know or

practice the correct Jewish purification rituals following sex. In such a charged and suspicious

atmosphere, Paul urged readers to avoid even mentioning such practices. He certainly implies

they are no longer to be practiced.

Improper and intemperate speech of various kinds is mentioned in verses 4 and 6. Paul

changes topic from sex to speech I verses 4 and 6, characterising excessive and unwise talk with

the Greek expressions best translated "moronic wordiness" (verse 4) and "empty words" (verse

6). Native Ephesians had a reputation for "cheeky chatter"—a characteristic they blamed on their

place of birth. Certainly Ephesians lived up to their reputation during Paul's visit, when during a

protest rally organised by the silversmiths in the theatre. For two hours they roared in unison,

until dismissed by the town clerk (see Acts 19:28-41).

Paul closes this passage with an extended contrast between actions done in the light versus

those done in darkness. He mixes in references to fruitful and unfruitful. Actions done in the light

are "good and right and true" (verse 9), while actions of the dark are evil, shameful, worthless,

and done in secret (verses 11-12).


Week 4: Living as children of light: relationships


By setting up opposing pairs of attitudes and approaches to life, Paul is able to encourage his

readers to carefully scrutinise their lives for elements of death still clinging to them. The

opposites he listed include foolish versus wise, thoughtless versus understanding, and drunk with

wine versus filled with Spirit. The wise believer will "make the most of every opportunity"—

literally, "buy back the season". Squandered opportunities, like empty words, indicate a disregard

for the gift of life. The understanding believer will discern the Lord's will.

The Spirit-filled believer will avoid the recklessness often accompanying drunken gatherings.

To the ancients, intoxication was a spiritual experience. They "took in" the god of wine into

themselves by drinking wine, allowing the god to control their lives for a few hours. Christians

refused to place themselves under the control of any other god, including the god of wine. Only

Christ should control their lives. Instead of whiling away nights singing drinking ditties to the

gods of wine and sex, believers fill their gatherings with psalms, hymns and spiritual odes

designed to encourage one another in the life of faith (verse 19). Even when not assembled in

worship, the Christians "will always give thanks for everything to God".



Verse 21, "submitting to one another", is linked by grammar to the previous two verses, where

it continues the sequence introduced there by "speaking to one another …" (verse 19) and "giving

thanks always …" (verse 20). However, it is joined logically to the following section, verses 22-

30.

Verse 22 begins a section which continues to 6:9. It lays down guidance for Ephesian

Christian households in four areas of crucial relationship: wives to husbands, Christ to church,

children to parents, and slaves to masters. Paul here addresses wives directly. He expected them

to be present in worship when his letter was read. He also expected that they had the freedom to

respond to his counsel, and hopefully put it into practice. This is in line with his attitudes towards

wives in other letters (Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 7:3). Paul calls twice for wives to be subject

to their husbands (verses 22, 23), and concludes with a call for them to respect their husbands

(verse 33). Husbands in turn were called on no fewer than three times to love their wives (verses

25, 28, 33).

Typically, women in the Roman empire during New Testament times were married by age

eighteen to husbands who were, on average, ten years older. The status of married women was

not uniform across the Roman world. Married women with a Greek heritage were typically

accustomed to greater freedom at home and in public, compared to Roman women. In Ephesus

this could lead to complications, because the city's venerable Greek heritage had more recently

been overlaid by Roman newcomers.



The interweaving of husband's love for his wife and Christ's love for his church in these verses

provides a rich set of images to illuminate marriage, as well as the Christian understanding of the

church. While Paul wanted to communicate the importance of submission for the Christian wife,

he devoted more words in these verses to describing Christ's self-giving love for his church. He

even applied the Old Testaments foundational marriage passage, Genesis 2:24, to the church,

allowing it to have only a secondary application to Christian marriage (verse 32). Paul's message

even in this passage continued to focus on the church as God's proving ground for a new model

of creation liberated from cosmic conflict. He was not at this point providing a Christian doctrine

of either marriage or of submission of wives.

It is important to note what Paul did not call for in this passage. He did not call for a general

principle of submission of women to men. He restricted his submission statements to wives in

relation to their husbands. The passage offers absolutely nothing to support wholesale submission

of one gender to another.

The mystery of both church and marriage receive a salute from Paul in verse 32. In both there

is a miraculous blending of roles and persons and individuality. In both, the whole is greater than

the sum of the parts, and in both the model of divine love is worked out on a daily basis for the

world to see, and benefit from.



The term used in verse 1 for "children" is employed very frequently in Greek. It referred to a

child, seen from the perspective of parents, as in the expression "women and children", and

focused on the distinctions between them. Paul understood that children would be present when

his letter was read, and that they, too, would both understand and be able to follow his counsel.

In Roman society fatherly authority over children traditionally lasted the child's lifetime, while

in Greek culture it ended when children married, or became adults. This cultural differential

could bring tension into a congregation with a mixture of Roman and Greek members.

Discrepancies in fatherly authority would have been visible in a mixed community like Ephesus.

Paul again brings in a commandment to support his counsel, illustrating the value of the

ancient Hebrew covenant provisions offered to the Hebrew people, and giving them advantages

over gentiles.

Verse 4 goes beyond simply counselling Christian fathers not to unduly escalate the emotions

of the father-child relationship. They are to assume a caring role in the mental, physical, social

and spiritual development of their children. Cultured Roman and Greek fathers typically took

active roles in their children's development, and would have been astounded at the carelessness of

fathers who did not take that part of their parenting responsibility seriously.



Neither Paul nor the other apostles launched a frontal attack on slavery. They, along with the

rest of the church, have been often criticised for not doing so. The reasons they avoided that

approach are clear, however. Such an attack, in a society where every third person was a slave,

would have swamped the infant church, and distracted it from its primary mission, which was to

offer the cosmos a preliminary working model of how God, by re-creating individuals,

empowered them to live together in communities where the "partitioning walls" of wider society

ceased to control relationships. In the church's early days they had to live "in the world but not of

the world" (John 17).

Paul addressed a society where slaves, former slaves, and slave owners found themselves

drawn together in the church, in a newly-created oneness in Christ. Believing slaves were

counselled to reframe their status by expanding their vision of their situation. They were serving

Christ, wrote Paul, not just earthly masters, just as he reframed his prisoner status into prisoner of

Christ, rather than of the emperor. Christ would, in the future, reward faithful Christian service,

whether done by a slave or a free person.

To slave owners Paul urged humane treatment, based again on the reframed perspective of

God's newly-emerging reality, in which Christ was the only master, and all his followers are

really his slaves.



Paul, in conclusion, turns from daily Christian living back to his central theme of cosmic

renewal. Christian life included not only the struggle against personal and social vices; it also

involved believers in warfare with rebellious forces and wicked spirits. Christ expected his

followers to join Him against these foes. Warfare training was essential, and Paul told the troops

how to put on their armour (verses 10-11) even before he informed believers who they were up

against (verse 12)!

Going into battle less than fully prepared leads to disaster. Ephesians were familiar with the

legendary Achilles, who received his mortal wound to the only part of his body that was not

protected – his Achilles tendon. Likewise, if Christian soldiers failed to put on crucial armour,

enemy missiles would find their unprotected zones.

Verses 14 to 18 describe the armour needed for cosmic warfare, drawing on the familiar sight

of Roman soldiers on the streets of Ephesus. The materials from which spiritual armour is

constructed are easily assessable to any believer. They consist of truth, righteousness, peace, faith

and salvation. The only offensive weapon the Christian has is the sword of the Spirit – the Word

of God.

Paul repeated the verb “stand” three times, to indicate the importance of remaining on one's

spiritual feet and in the position one has been assigned, in close formation with fellow soldiers,

ready for engagement. Falling down or breaking formation was as devastating as going

unarmoured. Finally, Paul calls for alertness, and prescribes the only substance that should be

used by Christians to keep spiritually alert—prayer!



With his readers informed theologically and practically for life in the newly-created reality of

the church, Paul wrapped up his letter with a personal appeal—"pray for me, too". His first prayer

request (verse 19) was for logos—"the ability to generate reasoned, logically-progressive

discourse about a topic". This was the heart of Paul's ministry. Supported by his own eye-witness

testimony, Paul's ministry included appeals for people to use their logic and reasoning as they

heard his particular way of sharing the good news.

Paul sent his assistant Tychicus during the third missionary journey (2 Timothy 4:12) to

Ephesus. This same Tychicus was also sent to the Colossian Christians on an identical mission: to

tell believers how Paul was doing, and to encourage them (verses 21-22). Whenever he is named

in the New Testament, Tychicus was on the move, communicating for and on behalf of Paul and

other Christian leaders. He is labelled here "brother" and "servant"—both key early Christian

terms describing how believers understood their relation to one another, and to their Lord.

The letter to Ephesians, which opens with "grace and peace" (1:2), now closes with "peace

and grace" (6:23, 24). The "peace" of the Christian message has clearly been identified with

Christ, who is the world's true peace. The all-embracing "grace" is God the Father's free,

undeserved, unearned gift. Without grace there would be no Christ, no good news, no renewed

cosmos in which people, principalities, and powers achieve peace and unity. Without the renewal

of the cosmos, there is no hope in the world. This is Paul's message in the Letter to Ephesians.

Cosmic Renewal Begun--28 Days in Ephesians

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