Ephesians 6:1-9

Sometimes it’s hard to find anything to say with respect to Paul’s writings. I mean, how can you disagree with Children, obey your parents… (v. 1) or Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger… (v. 4)? Still, we might wonder about Paul’s counsel, Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling… (v. 5a, NASB), wondering if Paul’s advice was an endorsement for slavery or simply a recognition for reasonable living in the context of that first-century institution. Then again, in trying to bring Paul’s first-century writings into our 21^st century lives, we are often encouraged to substitute “workers” for “slaves” and insert his words into our 21^st century workplaces. But in doing so, we again wonder how fear and trembling fits into any 21^st century workplace. As 21^st century workers, can fear and trembling have any place in any work situation? I don’t think so; fear and trembling for workers are out of place today. Instead I would put the burden on supervisors and embrace today’s verse 9: Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with Him. Or, as Jesus put it, …whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:26a-28)

Slava Bohu!

Ephesians 5:22-33

Twelve verses today – three to wives, nine to husbands (although some of those husband verses relate to Christ and His church). Maybe more verses to the men because it takes us longer to figure it out. Actually, given the gender roles in the first century Roman/Greek world, Paul would naturally spend more verses speaking to the men. It was expected that women would be submissive in that family environment – often they fared little better than servants. But the men needed good instruction as to how NOT to behave like the Gentile world around them. And Paul’s association of husbands and wives with Christ and His church brings those “Husbands, love your wives…” (v. 25) words into strikingly clear focus. Look at what Paul says about Christ and His church: He loved her; He gave Himself up for her; He sanctified her (set her apart); He cleansed her; He presented her to Himself in splendor; and He made her holy and without blemish. Do we men treat our wives like that? Women, do your men treat you like that? As Archbishop Beach often says, “If not, why not?”

Slava Bohu!

…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (vv. 18b-21) Thanks again to my Study Bible for pointing this one out – five participial phrases follow being filled with the Spirit, in bold above. Being filled with the Spirit leads to a really positive behavioral set!!

Also, notice that Paul again has the Trinity built into those few verses cited above.

Another “take off, put on”: And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit… (v. 18)

Slava Bohu!

Ephesians 5:8-14

Walk as children of light … and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. (vv. 8b-10) I’m not quite sure what I want to say about these verses, but they struck me. In one sense, it seems obvious what is pleasing to the Lord – prayer, first and foremost; Bible study and contemplation; fellowship with other believers; sharing our faith, helping those in need, etc. Beyond prayer, I don’t have a ranking for the others as to what’s next most important. Sometimes I think that reaching out to the needy ranks second; other times I recall our four-legged Christian witness: prayer, Bible study, fellowship, evangelism. Those four activities are all decidedly “spiritual” in nature. So what about “service”? How “spiritual” is “service”? Jesus placed a high emphasis on serving others; witness His healing miracles; feeding the 5,000; forgiving sins; accepting the outcasts and the marginalized. So what to do? Service? How to discern what is pleasing to the Lord?

Slava Bohu!

Ephesians 5:1-7

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. (v. 1) This verse jumped out at me when I read it as “dear children” in the NKJV. Something about “dear” seems more personal than “beloved”. That phrase caught my eye as I imagined myself as God’s “dear child”, thinking of our granddaughter, Audra, just across the driveway and how Rachel and Christian treasure her. And she is so helpless!! Would that I could be so helpless in God’s arms!! And to watch her grow, seemingly something new every day…! Again, would that my life could be so oriented to my Father!

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you… (v.3) and …everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (v. 5) Paul mentions these same three sin categories twice in a three-verse span, first as nouns and then as adjectives. So two questions come up here for me. First, how is “impurity” different from “sexual immorality”. Paul must have some clear distinction in mind since he distinguishes between them twice. Second, the parenthetical phrase (that is, an idolater) is set off after “covetous” (greed), presumably not meant to include the other two sin categories. So how is greed an idol, but sexual immorality and impurity are not idols? All three sin categories put “other things” above God, which is basically what idolatry is. Confusing today…!

Slava Bohu!

Ephesians 4:25-32

Today’s reading has a number of what are known as “take off, put on” instructions (vv. 25, 28, 29). These verses are so well known by this phrase that just now I typed “take off, put on” into a search engine and today’s verses came up as the first links! (Other later items that came up included clothing, gloves, and masks.) “Take off” sin in your life, and “put on” goodness. Take off lying, stealing, and unwholesome speaking, and put on truth, honest work, and edification. I especially like the “stealing” instructions – it’s not enough to just quit stealing. Paul’s encouragement is to do honest work so that you can be a blessing to others. The movie Les Miserables with Liam Neeson comes to mind. Liam Neeson’s character is a convicted thief out on parole who steals again. But the person from whom he stole forgives him and blesses him with a certain amount of wealth. Neeson’s character then becomes a good guy, a loving owner of a manufacturing plant with hundreds hired and a positive work setting. The movie goes further to show his fully transformed nature. A good movie and a good lesson for us…!

Slava Bohu!

Ephesians 4:17-24

Finally, an end to a long weekend’s travels – hopefully I can get back on schedule with posting in the mornings instead of this late night stuff!

…that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, … and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self… (vv. 22-24a) Paul makes an important point here – in between laying aside your old self and putting on your new self, Paul tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Although I’m not sure what Paul means by “in the spirit of your mind”, beyond that misunderstanding there is a deep truth – that we can’t just decide to change from our old self to a new self, but that it takes a renewal of our minds to effectively make this change. I’ve been meeting with our Freedom Road folks for almost three years. I hear again and again how nearly impossible it is for someone to simply decide to quit drinking on their own, but that it takes a major intervention (like A.A.) for people to really change. But that doesn’t just apply to big things like alcoholism; it also applies to any of our bad habits. We can’t just simply change what we’ve been doing for years; we need help. And although Paul does not mention it here, the best help we can find is the Holy Spirit if we really want renewal “in the spirit of our minds”.

Slava Bohu!

Ephesians 4:7-16

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens… (v. 10) There is controversy over this verse. When Paul writes He who descended…, is He referring to Jesus’ descent into hell, as we read in the Apostles Creed or is he referring to Jesus’ leaving heaven to come to earth. It’s not clear cut either way, but my bias is toward the former, that Paul is referring to Jesus’ descent into hell before His resurrection. I go with that understanding because I imagine that if Paul had meant the incarnation (Jesus’ birth), he would have said something more specific that could relate directly to Jesus leaving heaven, something like “He who came down from heaven is also the One who went back far beyond heaven”. But that’s only my guess as to what Paul meant.

Often we see very different translations of the same verse. Here’s verse 11 in the ESV, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers…, and here it is in the NASB, And he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be shepherds and teachers…. Other translations change “some to be” to “some as”. I like either of these latter forms better than the ESV – something about this phrasing makes it more personal, that there are actual people out there who are the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers. Small point, I know…

…we are no longer to be children, … but … we are to grow up… (vv. 14-15, edited). Paul writes with so many dependent phrases and clauses that I have to re-read to find out what he really is saying. Such is the case with these two verses. By deleting all those interior words and phrases, we read that Paul simply wants us to GROW UP! When you know what he is actually saying to us, GROW UP!, then you can go back and fill in those extra words and phrases in order to find out what it is in our lives that is keeping us from growing up. Try that with a re-read.

Slava Bohu!

Ephesians 4:1-6

I therefore … urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called… (v. 1) This line is one of my favorites in all of Paul’s writings. Whatever we are doing in our lives, we should be doing it “as before the Lord”. Whether work or play, church or the pub – we should reflect our Christian faith. But beyond that, we need to realize that God has called us to particular purposes and that we need to realize that calling to which you have been called. For myself, it was my college classroom for many years. It was not just a classroom, it was my ministry arena. Whatever else I was to the students in my classes, before the semester was over they certainly knew that I was a dedicated Christian – and I trust that lives were changed because of that. Today, at St. Andrew’s I wear a number of different hats, but the two most important to me are that I am the church treasurer and I lead a Read Through the Bible group. And as to the latter, I do feel bad that I did not post yesterday (only the second time in 20 months), but it’s better for you and for me that I post this morning instead of 11:00 pm when I finally had a chance to do that last night. Finally, relating to the verse I quoted above, a line comes from a Tom Hanks’ movie, Saving Private Ryan. At the end of the movie a much older “Private Ryan” is visiting the D-Day beaches that he had stormed many years earlier and he looks on the grave marker of the Tom Hanks captain who had led the group that found him and sent him home. And with tears in his eyes, he looks to his wife and asks, “Have I been good?” He needed to know that he had lived a life worth saving, as a thanksgiving to the guys who had given their lives to save his. Folks, we’re not working out our salvation, but often we need to ask ourselves if the life that is US, that life that Jesus saved by His death, that that life had been worth saving. Jesus thinks so. Do you?

ONE. That word appears seven times in verses 4-6. Reflect on that.

Slava Bohu!  

Ephesians 3:14-21

!! Paul highlights the Trinity again in today’s reading – the Father in verse 14, the Spirit in verse 16, and Christ in verse 17.

Each of the following four words is mentioned twice in today’s eight verses: strength, power, love, glory. I think the first three words could be placed in any order, but GLORY belongs at the end – all GLORY belongs to the entire Godhead, the Three in One. GLORY be to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Slava Bohu!