Recap

So far in Ephesians, we've started the section dedicated to the theology of unity. Paul wrote Ephesians, or it was written in his name, addressing unity within the church.

Paul started his letter with greetings and then gave a short hymn blessing God. In this blessing Paul emphasised how believers are united in Christ, sharing in spiritual blessings. Through faith, they are adopted into God’s family, redeemed, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed for the Ephesians’ growth in wisdom, so they might fully grasp the hope and power they have in Jesus, who now reigns over all powers. The Ephesians, once dead in sin, were brought to life by grace, not by their own efforts.

Paul highlighted that in Christ, the divisions between Jews and Gentiles were erased, creating a new, unified humanity. This unity makes believers part of God’s household, with Jesus as their foundation. The central message is that believers are called to live out this unity as members of one body, reflecting God’s reconciliation and love to the world.

He explained that his mission to the Gentiles stemmed from this gospel of unity. Because of this mystery, Paul prayed for the Ephesians to be strengthened and rooted in love. In better understanding the love, unity, and reconciliation of the gospel they would be more filled with God’s fullness.

Moving from theology to practise, Paul urged the Ephesians to live in a way worthy of their calling. This would require humility, gentleness, patience, and love to maintain the Spirit’s unity. While all gifts are from Jesus, the gifts themselves might be different. Paul named specific gifts. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The purpose of these gifts is to help the church body grow.

Getting very practical, the Ephesians were to discard their former way of life. It had been marked by selfish desires. Instead, they should practise honesty, self-control, hard work, encouraging words, and forgiveness. These qualities protect the church’s unity and honour the Spirit within them.

Ephesians 5-6

Paul calls the Ephesians to be imitators of God. To live in love just as Jesus loved them through his sacrifice. Paul then goes on to share more ways the Ephesians can be imitators of God, living in love.

They should avoid any sexual immorality or greed. Their language and talk should be above reproach, shaped by thanksgiving. Each of these not only indulge the power of sin and shape the individual towards sin, but they would also impact how those outside the church viewed those inside it.

Recognising that the temptation to go back to their old lives is high, Paul encourages the Ephesians to not let anyone deceive them or encourage them to do so. Returning to their old lives would mean facing wrath, and so they shouldn’t associate with any believers who continue to do so.

Their old lives were previously in darkness, and now they are children of the light, therefore they should pursue things that are good and true, in keeping with the light. In everything they should try to identify what would be most pleasing to the Lord and do that.

The best way to do that is walk in the light, where everyone can see. Things that are hidden in the way tend to fester in the dark. Think that are exposed to the light tend to get cleaned up.

So the Ephesians should be careful how they live. Paul gives a few more example. They should seek understanding, avoiding being foolish. They shouldn’t get drunk, but should seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And they should encourage themselves and one another with praise and thanksgiving to God.

Paul now moves on to what is known as the household code. This is a series of instructions on how to maintain the unity of Jesus within the household.

Before I delve into it, I want to use this as an opportunity to unpack an idea we’ve loosely touched on elsewhere. That is that all the Bible is contextual. In other words, all the Biblical authors, Paul included, are writing to their contexts trying to apply wisdom to that context.

Let’s look back at what we’ve read so far. In the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, we saw the law change from when the Israelites first received it, to when they were in the wilderness, to when they were ready to enter the promised land.

Sometimes this was because new specific scenarios came up that they’d not foreseen before. For example, those who were unclean over the Passover. The existing law was that they had to be outside the camp, which meant they couldn’t be part of the Passover. As they weren’t part of the Passover, they had to be cut off from the community.

The people realised that wasn’t fair, and they went to Moses, who went to God, who proposed an adjustment to the law.

Sometimes the law changed because their context changed. In the wilderness, all animals had to be killed at the altar, whether for food or for sacrifice. This was to stop people sacrificing to the wilderness goat-demons for protection.

But when they were ready to enter the promised land, they were free to kill and eat animals wherever they wanted, because this was no longer an issue.

We even saw some laws change again when the people returned from exile, to fit their new reality of a much, much smaller community.

Then there are the prophets. The wisdom of the prophets was tweaked and adapted depending on the context. On whether the Israelites were living before the exile, during the exile, or after the exile.

Then let's step into the New Testament, and we’ve seen how Paul’s letter are heavily shaped by the audience he was writing to. Because of this, we have to understand the wisdom that each letter is trying to communicate to its context, and then apply that wisdom to our context.

That’s very different from how many Christians view the Bible as a rule book. An instruction manual for life. But it’s also more in keeping with what we’ve been reading in the New Testament so far.

We read in both Romans and Galatians that Jesus’ sacrifice satisfied the law. There is no law anymore. There are no laws or rules that are universally applied. In fact, in Galatians, Paul challenged the Galatians for trying to find universal rules that made them better believers. In doing that, they were making Jesus redundant in their lives.

Instead, what matters is how our actions either indulge the power of sin still in us, or the power of the Spirit.

In other words, the deciding factor in how we should live should be how it is forming us. As Paul put it into his letter to the Corinthians ““All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.” (1 Corinthians 10:23).

And as we saw in 1 Corinthians 13 and now here in Ephesians, one of the primary ways we should be formed is in love and unity.

I say all that as we now look at the household code, because our approach should not be to try to find universal rules for how household should look (prescriptive). Instead, we should look at how Paul applies wisdom to how their households already were (descriptive), and then try to apply that same wisdom to our households.

So when it came to husbands and wives, it was accepted in the Greco-Roman culture that husbands were in charge and wives submitted to their husbands. So in that culture, what would be the best way to maintain unity?

Well, for husbands it would be to not hold their authority over their wives. Instead, they should show self-sacrificial leadership. To be gentle, tender, and loving. Husbands should seek the best for their wives, not for themselves, all with tender care.

In the same way, to maintain unity wives should respect their husbands. They shouldn’t seek to undermine them or disobey them.

This wisdom can still be applied today, but it might look a little different. Too often, like the Galatians, Christians have preexisting cultural expectations on what a husband-wife relationship should look like and try to elevate that to a rule that should apply to all.

Today, both husbands and wives carry authority in the household, and at different times submit to one another where the other carries more experience and expertise. And so today, both husband and wife should seek the best of the other. They should be self-sacrificial in where they lead, and respectful and obedient in where they submit. 

The tension, as always, is this works best when it’s mutual, but becomes a real struggle when it’s not. The wisdom there comes in wrestling with how much do you be the bigger person, hoping to shape your partner by your love, and where do you set boundaries and call your partner to do better. That is obviously dependent on the individual situation.

Moving on to the parent-child relationship, the wisdom looks largely the same. Children, as the submissive party, should be respectful and obedient. They shouldn’t undermine their parents. Parents, as the leading party, shouldn’t be domineering or frustrating (where possible). Instead, they should seek the best for their children.

Finally, Paul addresses the slave-master relationship. In the Greco-Roman world, slavery was common and widespread. Many would have slaves that lived in their homes, hence this included in the household code.

Today, slavery is not condoned in any form and so the parallel is not the same. The most similar modern-day equivalent is the employee-employer relationship, and again, the wisdom is largely the same as the other two.

As the submissive party, the employee (slave) should be obedient and do their absolute best, as though they were doing the work for God. Employers (maters) as the leading party, should not be domineering or abusive, but seek the best for their employees, just as God seeks the best for his people.

Having established how the Ephesians should handle internal conflict and behaviour to maintain their unity, Paul now moves to how they should handle external conflict to maintain their unity.

The main thing is to recognise that whatever the source of the conflict, the Ephesians’ really enemies are not human. It is the power of darkness and evil work in humans and in societies against God’s kingdom.

Therefore, if the Ephesians are going to do war against these spiritual enemies and powers, they need to equip themselves with spiritual weapons and armour. Equipping this will allow the Ephesians to stand strong in the face of external conflicts.

The armour includes truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God, which serves as their only weapon. In order to prepare themselves, they should pray at all times, both for themselves and one another. Paul asks that they pray for him.

And so we come to the end of the letters and closing messages. The letter bearer, Tychicus, can fill the Ephesians in on any updates on how Paul is doing. Paul then gives a final prayer and blessing.

As we’ve already mentioned, the focus of Ephesians is unity. Unity is a core part of the gospel. As believers, we are united as one in Jesus, but also the mission of the gospel is to reconcile the whole earth in Jesus. Unity is a primary pursuit of the gospel and its believers.

Therefore, in order to pursue unity, we must be mindful of our way of living. Our old way of living did not produce unity. We only need to look at the disunity and chaos of the world to see that it the case.

Because of this we need to take on Jesus’ way of living, which involves, amongst other things, seeking the best of one another, being self-sacrificial in our leadership, and being respectful and obedient in our following. That is Ephesians.

Psalm 8

This psalm is attributed to king David and falls into the category of praise psalm. The structure of the psalm is another chiasm, where the psalm mirrors itself.

A) Psalm 8:1 - Opening praise

B) Psalm 8:2-3 - God’s rule

C) Psalm 8:4 - Man’s unworthiness

C) Psalm 8:5 - Man’s greatness

B) Psalm 8:6-8 - Man’s rule

A) Psalm 8:9 - Closing praise

The psalm opens with God’s name, Yahweh (often translated as LORD). The psalmist praises God for his name and his greatness. They take a moment to admire God’s rule. He takes the things that are small and weak (babies) to overcome the strong. 

It was God that created the heavens and arranged the moons and stars in place. In light of such great splendour then, we suddenly seem very small. How is it that the God of the universe could care for us? 

And then the psalm flips on itself, because, as we have already established, God uses the small things to do great things. While humanity might be a small part of God’s creation, he has lifted them up and given them positions of authority. 

While God is the one that created all things, he has placed them all under humanity’s authority. With his help, humanity is to lead and take care of his creation. Overcome by the weight of this truth, the psalmist can merely end where he began, with praise to God.

This psalm reminds us of our role in creation. We have the authority to lead and order, but we also have the responsibility to do it well. But more important than that, none of this is because of how great we are. Literally the opposite. It is because we are so insignificant that God chose us and empowered us. All praise, ultimately, belongs to him.