Wednesday Bible Study: Ephesians Revisited part 4

 

You would think that a section that Paul basically bullet-points for me would be simple to draw the meaning I needed out of.  But nothing is easy with Paul- at least for me, so I've followed the Pastor Denny path and graphed it, followed my "understanding tips" of pyramids and reading backwards, applied the Kalko rule several times (which led me to see this was a two-chapter post), and perhaps I can digest this in a helpful way after all that.

We are in the 4th and 5th chapters of Ephesians, and in my Bible translation, he gives us seven consecutive 'therefores':

1. "Therefore have a walk worthy of your calling" (4:1-7)

2- "Therefore He says"(4:8-16)

3- "Therefore this I say" (4:17-24)

4- "Therefore each one speak truth" (4: 25-32)

5- "Therefore as dear children" (5: 1-6)

6- "Therefore do not partake" (5:7-13)

7- "Therefore He says"/"Therefore do not be unwise" (5: 14-21)

And that's a mouthful even like that!  But Hammering seven bullet points with 3 topics each into a cohesive whole, here's how I see it:  

Bullet points one and seven

Paul starts out beseeching us to have "a walk worthy of our calling."  And he ends telling us that to accomplish this, we need the filling of the Holy Spirit.  So in the first, he tells us what the walk entails, and in the last, he shows us how to get there.  Throughout this book, he has tried to explain the whys and wherefores of being unified under Christ, and he hasn't stopped here...

Eph 4:1  I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling with which you are called,
Eph 4:2  with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,
Eph 4:3  endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Eph 4:4  There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,
Eph 4:5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6  one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. 

So the walk entails giving up of our own place, bearing with those who crowd the line, so that we keep the unity.  Why is the unity important? Verse 6- we are to become unified with the Father, who is unified with us.  How do we get there? That's where we skip ahead to mid-chapter 5, where Paul gives us three tips on how to do this- IF we don't get bunny-trailed by his "Do not be drunk with wine" comment.  Not that he didn't say that for a reason- people had- and have- a long tradition of using alcohol and drugs to reach a 'spiritual plane'. Or at least, an altered consciousness.  But Paul points us first to being filled- altered-lifted by the Holy Spirit instead; from there...

Eph 5:19  speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Eph 5:20  always giving thanks for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 5:21  submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. 

Encouraging each other, praising and thanking God, and submitting to each other.  Paul here goes on to explain just what he means by 'submission'; we will hit that next time.  But if we do these things, we shouldn't have a problem with the unity part.  But, we do; and Paul goes onto explain what those problems are, and how Christ overcomes them.

Bullet Points two and six

In chapter 5, Paul goes deep into the example to avoid- the world. 

 Eph 5:7  Therefore do not be partakers with them.
Eph 5:8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light
Eph 5:9  (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
Eph 5:10  proving what is acceptable to the Lord.
Eph 5:11  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Eph 5:12  For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
Eph 5:13  But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.

We are in the light, they are in the dark- and they will get exposed.  Instead of following them- as Paul says in chapter 4:

Eph 4:14  so that we no longer may be infants, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the dishonesty of men, in cunning craftiness, to the wiles of deceit.

Christ gives us gifts, and Paul says directly why:

Eph 4:12  for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Eph 4:13  And this until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 

 A lot of these early Christians tried to rate themselves by their gifts: the more flamboyant, the better you were; but that was NOT what they were for, and this is far from the only church Paul warned about this.  Once again the end goal is unity in growing into Christ's example.  So how do we get from where we were to where He is?

 

 

Bullet Points three and five

In both sections, Paul lists several sins that they have walked in.  You know the list: fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, etc. The root cause: alienation from God (4v 18).  Paul had previously told them not to be like children, in being naive and argumentative, easily fooled and uncomprehending.  But here, he gives us one thing to emulate children in- Following Christ (5:1). And to do that, he gives us one of his more famous commands...

Eph 4:22  For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
Eph 4:23  and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
Eph 4:24  And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness.

For me, this means asking Christ to fill in the ruts of habit I've dug in my mind, smoothing it over that I may walk a new path.  It's an every day, every hour job.  But the endgame here is worth it, and it starts with how we treat each other...

Bullet Point four

-put away lies, since we are members of one another;

- do not get angry to the point the Devil gets a foothold;

- do honest work, that you may help the next guy with your earnings;

-drop the smack talking, speak to each other what teaches and helps each other grow.

And then Paul doubles down, repeating these same commands, after he reminds us...

Eph 4:30  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed until the day of redemption.

And in this passage, that means not only "do not sin"; it reminds us that our ultimate goal should be the same as God's and that goal is that we are all one people, one in being.  And that starts on earth, not in heaven.