Introduction
There is debate among critical scholars concerning whether the letter to the Ephesians was written specifically to the church in Ephesus, or was a “circular epistle,” written from a prison cell, distributed to churches throughout Asia Minor. Scholars also question whether Paul wrote the letter or whether a disciple of Paul who had Paul’s letters before him wrote it. The question of authorship imposes no impact on the content of the passage. The letter is part of the canon by the decision of the early church, and the church can accept confidently its contribution to be part of the rule of faith for the church of today. The matter of authorship matters little to me, since the canonical status of the letter is a given for the church. However, if one wanted to write a theology of Paul, the matter of authorship takes heightened significance.
I want to discuss some questions concerning the authorship of this letter.
The autobiographical sections create a problem. Although the author presents himself as Paul the apostle, scholars are in fact inclined to the judgment that Paul did not write it. A healthy minority of biblical scholars maintain Pauline authorship. They point out that it is structured like the other Pauline letters, that Pauline issues are addressed (e.g., Jew-Gentile relations), and that in some instances there is a close affinity between passages in Ephesians and in the Pauline letters (e.g., Ephesians 4:5-6 and 1 Corinthians 8:6).
However, the evidence against Pauline authorship is considerable. The style of the Greek of Ephesians is strikingly different from what we find in the undisputed Pauline letters, and many of the words we find in Ephesians do not occur anywhere in Paul (including important theological terms like “forgiveness” [1:7]). In 1:3 in the heavenly places, found also in 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, 6:12 is nowhere else in the New Testament. Beyond these stylistic issues, the content of Ephesians in many ways would suggest an author other than Paul. The author of Ephesians uses the term “church” to mean the universal body of believers transcending time and space, whereas Paul uses it only to refer to local groups of believers. Other examples include the “realized eschatology” of the Ephesians vs. the imminent expectation of the return of Christ in Paul as well as the emphasis on the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus in Ephesians over against the centrality of the death of Jesus in Paul’s letters. Finally, Ephesians is clearly literarily dependent on the epistle to the Colossians, including some verbatim citation. In none of Paul’s undisputed letters does he rework and cite his own previous letters.
Thus, one can make a compelling case that Paul did not write Ephesians. However, it is important to recognize that writing in the name of a famous person, especially a teacher, was a common phenomenon in antiquity (the technical term for this practice is pseudepigraphy); this includes Jewish and Christian authors. Although it may strike our modern sensibilities as deceptive or dishonest, pseudepigraphy was in fact both common and accepted in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Several books of the New Testament are possible pseudepigraphic compositions written in the name of famous Christian figures (e.g., ½ Peter, James). The “heirs of Paul” (to steal the epithet of J. Christian Beker) who wrote Ephesians, Colossians, II Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus were thus early Christian teachers who were steeped in the Pauline tradition but offered their own unique theological ideas in the name of the venerable apostle.
As for me, although I respect the possibility of an heir of Paul writing this letter, I remain open to the argument of Markus Barth that Paul wrote it. That will be my assumption.
Ephesians is one of the more perplexing letters in the Pauline corpus in that it does not seem to be responding to a specific occasion or incident (also see Colossians, which consistently overlaps with Ephesians). Instead, it gives us exhortation and advice on the Christian life. The author’s ability to bring liturgical forms in conversation with day-to-day living provides a model of “how to live” faithfully while remaining in the world. Ephesians 4-6 particularly concerns Christian ethics, and 5:15-20 fits thematically and formally in the middle of the section. The author highlights the twofold purpose of this new community founded as the body of Christ: They exist for the praise of God’s graciousness, and they should live in a way that produces good works. This passage exhorts its audience to achieve these purposes by using dualistic opposites, a classic form of Pauline exhortation (not “that” but “this”), an emphasis on the role of the Spirit and a description of worship which connects the core of the community’s life together with the ethics they live in the world.
If the author is an heir of Paul, he has comprehended the form and content of Paul’s previous letters.
The letter to the Ephesians contains insights into the mystery of God’s saving plan via Christ and the church. Ephesians can be readily broken down into a two-part structure. The first three chapters are in the “indicative” mood — Paul eloquently describes what he believes to be the case. The believers have been adopted as children of God through Christ, marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, and most importantly, Jews and Gentiles have been brought together to become fellow heirs in one body. They concern themselves with wide-angled, lofty theological speculation on the cosmic nature of Christ. The author never ceases to be amazed at God’s unifying and uplifting grace, offering a kind of comparative “before” and “after” picture of all humanity. The line of demarcation, of course, is Jesus Christ. God’s great love has become manifest in human life as divine grace. This grace is the one and only hope of our salvation. That human faith is required for this salvation to be activated, however, is yet another sign of God’s tender dealings with willful humanity. The message of Ephesians is one of reconciliation and unity, particularly church unity in the context of world and cosmic unity. The author contends that God’s purpose is unity, that Christ is God’s agent of reconciliation, which the church is Christ’s instrument of reconciliation, and unity within the church is basic to all other unity. The writer rehearses the saving acts of God through Christ. The Ephesians share in the privilege of being children of God.
The next three chapters switch to the “imperative” mood — Paul challenges his listeners to live up to their calling as a unified spiritual family under God. Paul shifts his theological gaze to the now perpetually incarnated body of Christ — the church. This involves the mutual recognition of spiritual gifts, the resisting of former ways of life, orderliness in the household, and most importantly, a fervent life of prayer. Because of the universality of Christ’s lordship, Paul proclaims a freedom for diversity within the church itself. However, this diversity is possible only with a commitment of obedience to the person and mission of Christ. Ephesians is dedicated to detailing how different life in the church as the body of Christ should be from the pagan life previously led by Gentile Christians. Ephesians celebrates the oneness in the Spirit that unifies believers and makes them into a new creation — a living body with Christ as its head. This exalted vision of what the church should be leads the writer to carefully spell out, painstakingly, the kinds of behaviors that new Christians should exhibit to each other as they seek to be a light to the world. The anthropology is characterized by sin, death, devil, flesh. This is contrasted with the highest exaltation of humanity through resurrection and enthronement. People are not left in their sin, but praise God through their works. Note that death and resurrection are already present.
Ephesians 1:3-14 (Year B July 10-16) discusses the plan of God for the salvation of humanity. The point is the infinite value of the refreshing and renewing benefits of life in Christ. It contains a digest of the themes of the letter.[1] The primary actor throughout is God, who blesses, chooses, destines, adopts, bestows, and redeems.[2] It is hard to read this prayer of praise and not feel the special grace of being human. This prayer is a celebration of the larger story within which every single Christian story — every story of individual conversion, faith, spiritual life, obedience, and hope — is set. Only by understanding and celebrating the larger story can we hope to understand everything that is going on in our own smaller stories, and so observe God at work in and through our own lives.[3]
It is a challenging passage to unpack, not only because of the complex sentence structure, but because its outburst of lyrical poetry is not as crisp or as tight as what readers traditionally expect from Paul. Ephesians uses powerful, poetic language to celebrate the life of the church that God, for God’s own purposes, established. It seems to go on and on, uninterrupted from beginning to end – yet careful examination of the pieces of the pileup reveals deliberate, meaningful messages and familiar themes. The pieces fit together into a song exulting in the love of God, one that the author sings with joy. This outburst of praise contains a collection of units that are piled up because they have been moving in opposite directions.
A common observation is that in the Greek text, verses 3-14 constitute one sentence. In style, it has similarities with the sermons in the Deuteronomic sermons, Qumran, and Asia. The eulogy feature of the epistolary setting is a uniquely Christian contribution. These lines are “the most monstrous sentence conglomeration that I have encountered in Greek” (E. Norden) and “the marvelous spiral of Ephesians 1:3-14 is probably without rival in Greek literature” (Danker). This diversity of interpretation and evaluation is somehow appropriate to an ecumenical letter that Paul addresses to the whole oikoumene – the whole inhabited earth. Everything there is to love (or despise, depending on your tastes) about the literary quality of the letter to the Ephesians is on display to an almost exaggerated degree within these verses. the grammar is ”ncredibly complex, the vocabulary quite advanced and theologically specialized, and the internal references often convoluted because they twist back on one another.
In this first unit of Ephesians, the text reveals itself to be both like and unlike other Pauline epistles. The opening greeting and declaration of blessedness are quite familiar. However, the text never takes on the personal, pointed trajectory common to other Pauline letters. Yet, if the letter is a general sermon intended for reading during worship in any number of Pauline congregations, then one may see the impersonal tenor and numerous liturgical and hymn-like qualities as part of this generalized function that the author intended the “letter” to serve. In fact, some scholars suggest that we should view this lengthy unit as a doxological hymn that may even have been a liturgical prayer. This portion of Ephesians is “the doxology of the divine plan of salvation” – a summary statement of salvation, or what it means, “to be in Christ” as a “new humanity.” It stands as a compendium and climax of Pauline theology and weds liturgy and theology in a uniquely compelling way. The blessings that God has for the cosmos, God’s cosmic purposes, Paul spells out in verses 4-14. The exalted tone and vocabulary have led commentators to designate Ephesians “an epistle of ascension.” From this lofty viewpoint, the epistle writer reveals what he has glimpsed the vision of God’s purpose and plan for the church and for all the men and women who become his “adopted children” through the work of Christ.
Scholars recognize an identifiably Trinitarian focus in this text, with the work of the Father (vv.3-6), the work of the Son (vv.7-10 and 11-12), and the work of the Holy Spirit (vv.13-14). I will follow the suggestion that this one sentence has four points, with points two and three focused on the work of the Son. The emphasis throughout this passage is that God is the creator of the world, and that God has no desire to abandon that creation. Instead, God’s purpose is to redeem the world and renew it, which is the whole reason Christ came into the world in the first place.
We will consider the benefits that of life in Christ.
The first benefit of life in Christ is that God has chosen us by grace. Verses 3-6 is a call to praise or bless God, inviting us to reflect upon the work of the Father. The Father having blessed us in Christ, the author enumerates those blessings. Christ becomes the model or means through whom the Father blesses. The determination of the Father to deal with humanity through Christ is the greatest of blessings to humanity and the greatest reason to offer praise to the Father. Such spiritual blessing is a divinely given and unified whole that affects real people in history.
An enumerated blessing is that the Father chose a people. The act of election has a pretemporal aspect here. It suggests the notion that the origin of salvation in the eternity of God is prior to all the chances that we see in history.[4] The author is dealing with election, which in the Old Testament is an historical event. Here, election occurs before the foundation of the world.[5] Yet, the fact that belonging to Jesus Christ is the basis of the selection still takes an historical view of the manifestation of the elect as the end-time community. The election of a people is still the result of the historical event of Jesus Christ. Further, the eternal basis of election, Jesus Christ, has come into history, becoming the starting point of their calling.[6] Thus, as we continue reading, I hope we can see that election is a matter of the heart of God. Divine election is hardly deterministic or fatalistic when we view it this way, which would lead us toward an unfitting anthropomorphic view of God, as though from a standpoint before the beginning of the world, God were looking ahead to a different future. Such a God, after determining this future, could retire and die. Further, throughout this passage, we have an adoring tone. The passage is relational. This election arises out of the historical event of Christ in a way like Old Testament forms of election. We gladly share this election with others. God continues to elect people. This passage will bring election and forgiveness together. United with verse 10, the counsel of divine election has a link to salvation for all creation, including humanity. If it relates to the people of God as representing all humanity, then from the outset we must also view the election of Jesus and his historical mission as service to the future human fellowship of the rule of God. Divine election finds provisional manifestation in the people of God.[7] The thrust of the message here is not so much about the predestination of individual souls as it is about the plan of God for all of creation. God has established a plan of holiness for humanity and, indeed, all the created order. The author hints at the theological position of inclusive representation, Jesus Christ as the paradigm of all humanity in its relation to God.[8] Such a favorable decision always has warm and personal connotations. It communicates joy and happiness. The aim of such divine election is the manifestation of the love of God toward creatures who may then participate in the fellowship of the Son with the Father. The act of election aims at integration into the filial relation of Jesus Christ to the Father. The glorious present of grace is like what we read in the writings of John. The sending of the Son into the world serves the divine decision to have this fellowship with humanity but achieves its actualization only at the final consummation.[9]
In verses 7-10 is a praise of God for redemption, beginning with a reflection upon the work of the Son. The author reminds us that the new status and salvation with which God has blessed us has cost the giver, God, plenty. Yet, it was all part of the divine plan of redemption. The writer confronts us with the danger that threatens humanity and the response of God to that danger. Through perishability and death, salvation will come to creatures. No guilt, no past events, may stand between our full acceptance and us as adopted children of God. We have release from the bondage of guilt and shame we carry with us from our pasts. The past can be such a heavy weight for some. For some, they need to become aware of how much a weight they are carrying. This grace comes through the wisdom and insight of the Father to lavish grace upon us. Those in Christ have knowledge of this. Such knowledge is inseparable from salvation because knowledge is awareness of the covenant established in Christ. Such a mystery or secret is open to all persons to know. This knowledge enables us finally to begin to understand the plan of salvation God has designed. The pleasure of the Father determined to share the knowledge of this mystery, which he defines as the plan of God to gather up all things in Christ, bringing the act of election (verses 5-6) into a relationship with the eschatological future of consummation that the goal of the eternal counsel of the divine plan for history. The election of the people of God relates to this consummation. The Father will sum up all things in the Son. Their election now is a matter of taking part proleptically in the consummation of creation that God will effect in the future.[10] History is not a meaningless cycle of events. History makes sense because it has already moved toward its apex. Christ reveals the goal of the divine counsel.[11] The goal, the summation of all things in Christ, has a connection with Christ as the one through whom the Father created.[12] Christ gathers the creatures into the order that respects their distinctions and relations even while bringing the different aspects of creation together.[13] As created things participate in the filial relation of Christ to the Father, in their fellowship with the Father they participate in the self-distinction of the Son from the Father.[14] The participation of creatures in the Trinitarian fellowship of the Son with the Father is the goal of creation.[15] Christ becomes the creative, concrete, historically unfolded principle of the cosmic order and the principle of the unity of its history.[16]
Verses 11-12 praises God for a redemption that brings with it an inheritance, continuing a reflection on the work of the Son. Those in Christ have a special status in participating in the eschatological future of the consummation of all things in Christ. Christian hope has its source, not within us, but outside us, in Christ,[17]so that all, Jew and Gentile, might live to the praise of the glory of God.
Verses 13-14 praises God for a redemption that the Holy Spirit seals or assures to us. He shifts his attention to the work of the Spirit. The point is the imparted Spirit guarantees believers a share in the future consummation.[18] He stresses that gentiles received the word of truth, thereby the word with the truth, identifying it as the gospel of their salvation. They turned toward this word and gospel with faith. Christ then marked them with the seal of the Holy Spirit, referring to their baptism, a seal that is also a pledge, sign, and promise of the fullness of their inheritance. Marked by promise, we live with present estrangement from the destiny of cosmic unity the author envisions, an estrangement we sense from each other and from ourselves. A portion of the plan of God for cosmic unity resides in our lives. We are to bring that plan into the world that so desperately needs a vision of unity. All peoples can now celebrate their common redemption as the people of God. The segment ends with saying all this action of God explained in this one long sentence is to lead to our praise of divine glory. Poor thankfulness, bad doxology, leads to bad living and poor ethics.
Ephesians 2:11-22 (Year B July 17-23) is the key and high point of the letter, discussing the Pauline message that Jew and Gentile have peace through the cross. It makes clear the abiding link between the church and the Jewish people. By the death of Jesus Christ peace has come between Jew and Gentile, a peace within the church of Christ.[19] The author rejects the division of the world into those circumcised and those uncircumcised. To be without Christ is to be alienated from God and therefore live in misery[20] by being aliens from Israel, strangers to the several covenants enunciated in the Old Testament, especially the promises contained in the stories of Abraham, Moses, David, and the new covenant of Jer 31:31-34. Whatever hope the Gentiles had, they now have clarity to its content. They were atheist, meaning without God here, the only occurrence of the word in the New Testament. His point is that Christ has revealed that the care God showed to Israel God also has for the nations. He then expresses a praise to the work of reconciliation brought by Christ. He stresses the cost of peace between Jew and Gentile, between people and God, uniting Christ and peace. He alludes to Is 57:19 in saying that the blood of Christ has brought Gentiles near, for Christ is our peace, meaning peace with God for both Jew and Gentile. In the context of III Isaiah, it refers to exiled Jews hear the word of peace and those who were part of the first wave of returnees, bringing healing between them. This shows an application of the passage to the new situation created by Christ and the gospel. The cleavage between Jew and Gentile in antiquity was deep. Read Esther, Daniel, I Maccabees in that context. The belief that God had chosen them did not sit well with many Gentiles, especially since some of their practices, involving circumcision, dietary laws, and Sabbath observance, seemed strange to most of them. The antisemitism of antiquity infected the church when it gained political power in Europe. It continues today in the attitude of many toward the existence of Israel. As the hymn writer reminds us, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” A hymn like “In Christ there Is no east or west” is in line with the sentiments here. “For the healing of the nations,” which have so much hostility, Christ desires to bring peace. Circumcision has now become the property of the church through Christ. Christ has overcome the divisiveness of circumcision. In Colossians 2:11, in Christ, Gentiles received spiritual circumcision by receiving the circumcision Christ has brought them. Christ’s death is a sacrificial circumcision. The blood of Christ is the means of coming near, not circumcision, and those far off are all Gentiles, not just God-fearers. The opposite of the Gentile’s exclusion from Israel is their inclusion in the Messiah. Jews did not win this peace by the dispersion or by Gentiles becoming proselytes, though these things were happening. Verses 14-16 may be a hymn of great significance to the community, having a close relationship with Col 1:19-22, a passage that also discusses peace and reconciliation in Christ. The hymn focuses on the death of Christ and its effects. Christ makes peace through his death. To clarify further the type of healing the blood of Christ has brought, his flesh unites Jew and Gentile, breaking down the hedge or wall the Torah created between Jew and Gentile. The new Christian people draws from every nationality and overcomes every barrier, but especially the barrier between Jew and Gentile.[21] Considering the cross, Torah has lost its binding authority and deprives it of its force. Torah symbolizes the enmity between Jew and Gentile, but peace has been won through Christ. The cross annuls the divisive element of Torah. One might think of this as overly optimistic or even an expression of eschatological enthusiasm. Awareness of this reality of the future, however, impels Christian mission to the nations.[22] Only here in Pauline literature is it said that Christ has through the cross created in Christ one new humanity, making peace between Jew and Gentile, stressing that this is a new social humanity that derives from an act of creation that leads to act of worship. As Jew and Gentile reconcile in one body of Christ through the cross, putting to death the hostility between the two. The fruit of peace is a new humanity. Precisely by the event of the passion, Christ became a figure that transcends the national and religious differences of Jew and non-Jew.[23]
This stress on what Christ has done in the cross is different from other letters of Paul, where the emphasis is upon what God is doing in Christ. This difference continues as he stresses that Christ came and proclaimed peace, Jesus of Nazareth doing this during his life in word and deed as well as through his death. This proclamation is like that of the high priest giving the blessing that the Lord bless and keep you and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26). The focus of this proclamation is a theology of the cross. We can see this death as a fulfillment of the sealing of the covenant with blood in the Old Testament. In another sense, his death for us and in our place speaks loudly of the love of God in Christ. This death is the means of reconciliation and forgiveness. In a sense, Christ makes the offering, and is thus priest, but the offering is his life, and is thus victim. How can a sacrifice make peace? Isaiah 53:12 refers to the servant of the Lord pouring out his life to the point of death, bearing the sin of others, and in this means making intercession for those who sin. In this way, a sacrifice is intercession. The death of Christ is the mode and effect of the intercession of Christ for Jew and Gentile. His prayer embraces diverse hostile persons, groups, causes, and conditions. His prayer embraces their common plight, lapses, sins, hostility to God, and brings them before God. The focus is the cross, being itself the very moment, means, and cost of peace.
As another fruit of peace, Christ has given access in one Holy Spirit, or in one spirit of the people, to the Father. The hymn combats an anti-Jewish tendency. Verses 19-22 refer to the house of God. We are to think of it as a completed building, and therefore as a reference to the future.[24] Jew and Gentile cooperated in the death of Jesus; yet, the death of Jesus has made them members of the household of God.[25] The witness to Christ by the apostles and prophets is the foundation of the church, a past that spills into the present by providing a grounding that resonates with the lives of people seeking to be faithful to God’s calling and purposes, while ever-present Christ is the keystone at the top of the arch that holds the entire structure together, [26] integrating the structure as it grows by size, number, power, maturity, and age into a holy temple in the Lord. Another fruit of peace is that Christ has brought Jew and Gentile into mutual coordination and support that the presence of God will bring, forming the saints into a dwelling, thereby making the church. The growth of the community is decisive rather than individuals, the earth is the place of this building, the community receives life for growth, and it reaches toward perfection. The house is unfinished, still awaiting God to grace it with divine presence.
Ephesians 3:14-21 (Year B July 24-30) is a prayer for the church. This closes the first portion of the letter. It proclaims the intention of God to re-create and reconcile the entire creation. He wants no one to lose heart over his suffering. The author’s concern is for those in the church to maintain its faith and the vitality of their community, even as imprisonment becomes a reality and persecution becomes a distinct possibility. Paul encourages the reader to begin to fathom the reality that something larger than meets the eye is unfolding. The burden of the prayer is that the strength of God should become that of the readers, mediated through the love of Christ that already grounds them.[27]
Since in the previous section he emphasized that Gentiles have become fellow heirs of the promises of God, he kneels before the Father, which may allude to the Lord’s Prayer. He does so because of the universality of the love of God. God is Father in that every family takes its name from God. The prayer is for a church made up of Jew and Gentile before the Creator who made them all. This appeal to God as Creator of all may seem to us to be the best, most natural justification for making no distinction between Christians based on whether they were originally Jews or originally Gentiles. The author is affirming that God is creator and has named all nations, a view different from Deut 328 and Mal 2:10-11, where the Lord created Israel and other gods created other nations. He then moves to the content of the prayer.
The prayer includes three petitions, which he offers in accord with the riches of divine glory. The focus is of the prayer is spiritual maturity. The first petition is that they receive strength in the inner being or person with power through the Spirit. Paul would refer to the inmost self which delights in the law (Rom 7:22). He also refers to the inner nature that is renewed day by day (II Cor 4:16, 18). The inner being is that which does not waste away but renews and grows. The author further chooses the twin metaphors of planting and building, as does Paul in I Corinthians 3:9. Here, in Ephesians, the author urges the believer to have faith in this higher vision and deeper perspective; those who have such faith do not need to be afraid. It is through strengthening this inner being, through which one understands oneself to be immortal, that one can let go of old divisions between Christian factions and form the church universal, bound together by love through the Spirit of Christ which is dwelling within everyone. The second petition is that Christ may take up permanent residence in their hearts through faith, using the agricultural images of rooting and grounding them in love. Such rooting and grounding occur through the human action of faith, which allows the tilling and seeding to occur and to dig the foundation. The indwelling Christ is decisive. Only the doctrine of the Trinity could clarify the question of union and tension between transcendence and immanence. The New Testament raises the issue with greater sharpness here when it discusses the indwelling of the exalted Christ.[28] The third petition is that they will comprehend, with all the saints, the breadth, length, height, and depth (Rom 11:33), knowing the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, resulting in the fullness of God filling them. He is in awe of the mystery, stressing the mystical or transcendent character of the prayer. Such comprehension speaks of the new orientation of the believer that allows her or him to know the truth and believe it even if the full details of the truth are not fully knowable, or the evidence of the current situation suggests something contrary.
The concluding doxology is unique in style and content to this letter. This writer goes to grammatical extremes to communicate that God can do superabundantly beyond what we ask or think, deserving of receiving glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations and forever. The doxology returns to a major theme of the letter in referring to the centrality of the church and the universal plan of God. The church is not just a temporary community of Christians who wait for the end of this earthly life, but an eternal institution that reveals God’s glory in partnership with Christ. This high theology of the church is Ephesians’ greatest gift to us. Ephesians is a perfect text for holding out an unobstructed vision of a universal church in which former divisions have been overcome by faith in the resurrected Christ.
Ephesians 4:1-16 (Year B July 31-August 6) expresses the purpose of the church in the cosmic plan of salvation by focusing upon unity. He identifies himself as one whom civil authorities have imprisoned for his faith. He urges them to live worthy of their calling, acting in such a way as not to scandalize each other they will do so if they live with humility, gentleness, and patience, all attitudes that will help them bear the burden of being in community, thereby making their love practical. Their worthy lives will preserve the unity the Spirit has already given them. This leads the author to enunciate a common affirmation of faith. It has Trinitarian elements, even though each element refers to the Father.[29] That which unites all Christians is the basis for the exhortation here. This passage can help us explain the affirmation of the Nicean-Constantinople creed that the church is one. This passage finds the unity in the plurality of its members, membership that corresponds to the plurality in which God has elected and reconciled them in Christ and called and endowed them by the Holy Spirit. This will mean a union of the visible and invisible church, a union of the militant and triumphant church, Israel and the Christian church are two forms and aspects, and that one can speak of churches in the plural only with reference to the geographically separated and different congregations. The denominational age in which we live makes the oneness of this passage difficult to practice. Even if the grounds of these divisions are justified, the denominations remain a scandal.[30]
Affirming this oneness, the author now wants to highlight the diversity of the church. This may well be the way toward affirming unity, which will come only through respect for each other, expressed in respect for the baptism rites and the invitation to the Lord’s Table. In the letter, however, each congregation receives grace as a gift from Christ, offering a midrash on Ps 68:18. Christ ascended to the heavenly throne, which meant that Christ had already descended from the heavenly realm. The community becomes a model for the destiny of humanity and of creation. Therefore, particular election stands in the service of the comprehensive will of God to save.[31] The author then discusses church order as it was present in the opening decades of the church, speaking of the fitting of the Christian community for the provisional representation of the universal scope of the person and work of Jesus Christ.[32] God establishes and gives order to the church. Apostles are delegates from Christ who went abroad to preach. Prophet speak the word of God to a contemporary situation. Evangelists bring the gospel into new regions. Pastors and teachers are in the local church. The church has one ministry, but many ministries. However, these early decades of the church would be a time of sifting to determine how to continue the apostolic function after they died. Regardless of the names given to the offices of the church, their purpose is to equip the saints for their ministry and building up the body of Christ (I Cor 1212-31, Rom 12:3-8). The author casts the metaphor in the service of proclaiming the proper relation of the church to Christ and the ultimate purposes of the church in God's cosmic plan of salvation. These human instruments have the purpose of preparation in which Jesus Christ is at work, taking place with a view to the service that they are to render by their human work. Their service is the building up of the body of Christ.[33]The ordering of the church receives a specific purpose. Christ appoints the offices. The ordering is useful, as it remains faithful to its purpose. The special ministries are to be servants to the whole church. The task of the church is to carry out the work of service for all who need it. In a sense, baptism was the ordination of all the saints. Yet, specific roles within the church needed filling, and Christ was the one who appointed them. The destination of the journey focuses upon Christ, which will keep the church from heresy. They are on the road, moving toward the goal, and thus do not experience in the present their fulness, toward unity of the represented in the affirmation of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, toward maturity of individual and communal growth, and toward the measure of the full statue of Christ, fulfilling the hopes of the saints. One can affirm the catholicity of the church in the creed if it means the fullness of the eschatological consummation of the church that finds manifestation at any given historical moment in the openness of the actual fellowship of the church, transcending any particularity, to the fullness of Christ that will fully come only in the eschaton.[34]This suggests the provisional character of the passage, about the need to strive towards it, and therefore also about the equipment of the community. The inspired ministry and the established offices relate to and serve the rule of the risen Christ over the church. The exalted Christ establishes order and gives a constitution.
The passage concludes with the daily necessities of the migrating church. The present determines the members, even though they are on the way to meet the Lord of the church. Here is the basis for the affirmation that the church is the communion united with Christ at its head in the unity of faith and love of its members.[35]The author exhorts them not to be babes lacking in moral judgment. They are in danger due to immaturity. If it loses it goal, it also loses its direction due to the waves and wind. [36] Love becomes so important it becomes the condition for speaking the truth. The members of the church are to grow toward the head of the church, and thus toward Christ. 5:23 refers to Christ as the head of the church and in 1:20-23 he is the head of all things. God has raised Christ from the dead, set Christ at the right hand of the Father, and exalted Christ over every rulers, authority, and lord. Christ is the one who fills all things. In this heavenly form, he is future, for we do not yet see it as revealed to the community or to the universe. [37] Since Christ is the head of the church, Christ is the one from whom the whole body, joined and knit together with that which Christ has equipped it, as each part is working properly, promoting the growth of the body in building itself up in love. The body derives its nourishment and growth from Christ. All that the body is or has is in relation to the head. Yet, it reinforces individuality. The sustenance of the Body is from the head. Yet, each saint contributes to the mission and unity of the church. The church is still engaged in the temporal process of building itself, a process far from completion. It builds itself, for it cannot build Christ, the kingdom, or a better world. The community can grow because it is already taking place apart from its actions and directs itself toward the summons. It grows from the One to whom God summons it to grow. It grows by the gifts God has given the church. What is to grow is its love.[38] Edification takes place in love, the action that characterizes the action of all Christians. Building up means integration. Integration occurs by God, by Jesus, by the apostles, and by the entire community in all its members. Without this integration and mutual adaptation, there can be no reciprocal dependence and support. Without this, the community will collapse. As it integrates itself in this way, allowing the Holy Spirit to exercise it in self-integration, it is the true church, prepared to look and move forward, to give this provisional representation. It can then offer the witness that is the meaning of its existence in world-history.[39]
All this has significance for ecumenical discussions. Given that Orthodox and Protestant churches broke from Rome, such discussions often dissolve into what the separating denominations can do to reunite with Rome. Here is a place where Rome needs to hear the what separating churches are saying to it. In reference to the history of the teaching of the Pope, the Pope is not the head of the church. We should not call the holder of such an office the head of the church or the foundation of its unit, for the New Testament uses such terms specifically and exclusively for Jesus Christ, even as we find here. Their use for the Roman bishop has always been an occasion for justifiable offense. In ecumenical discussion, it would be sufficient if his office were a sign of the unity of all Christianity, not a cause and sign of its divisions. Byzantium rightly rejected the notion of Rom on the ground that the church has no head other than Christ.[40]
Ephesians 4:25-5:2 (Year B July 7-13) discusses the new life in Christ, employing the rhetorical motif of the old versus the new ways of life: “for we are members of one another.” This text is a community-centered, giving new force to the moral exhortations that follow. The emphasis on rejecting the shameful past behavior and adopting a path acceptable to God seems aimed at Gentiles who have become part of the Christian community. The author dedicates this letter to detailing how new and different life in the church as the body of Christ should be from the life previously led by Gentile Christians. The letter celebrates the oneness in the Spirit that unifies believers and makes them into a new creation – a living body with Christ as its head. This exalted vision of what the church should be leads the writer to spell out carefully the kinds of behaviors that new Christians should exhibit to each other and to the world. The text singles out for discussion those attitudes and activities that could splinter the unity of the body of Christ. The author relies upon the insight that the pull of higher moral and spiritual achievement is far effective than a push. He wants to charm us toward right living. He uses the language of aspiration rather than criticism and command.
Here is a summons to righteous behavior that runs throughout the Old and New Testaments. Truth-telling, both for God (Num 23:19; Ps 89:35) and for human beings, is chief among biblical virtues (see Ex 20:16; Lev 19:11; Deut 5:20, 19:18-19; Job 6:28; Prov 14:5; Jer 8:8, 27:10, 14, 16; John 19:35, 21:24), since trustworthiness is the foundation upon which one builds all relationships, human and divine. Yet, the community centered reason for truth telling gives new force to the application of the ninth commandment. Unlike error or wrongdoing, which is subject to correction and reproof, lying destroys the trust that constitutes the environment in which all interaction must take place. To damage that trust through deliberate deception is to cast all subsequent interaction into at least partial shadow. For such a community-centered text as this, such behavior would have dire consequences. Some ancient thinkers did not condemn lying. They considered lying according to the profitability of truth‑telling in any given situation. Many Greek and Roman philosophers taught that a lie that benefited was better than a truth that was costly. However, falsehood here refers specifically to deliberate religious deception, as opposed to innocent factual error. Such falsehood is the kind of active fabrication that one chooses and practices in the face of opportunities for enlightenment rather than I ignorance. Those who persist in spreading such doctrinal deceit are liable to grave punishment (Rev 21:27, 22:15). Such behavior is characteristic of the Devil (John 8:44). The emphasis is on the joint constitution of the body of Christ at Ephesus, made up of Jews and Gentiles. He continues the somatic metaphor, which the author moderates using “our neighbors,” a phrase that occurs only here in the New Testament. The inclusive nature of the community that is the church gives new force to the old teaching of the ninth commandment and its teachings on bearing false witness against one’s neighbor. One expects, in a letter emphasizing the closeness of the relationship of Jews and Gentiles, a biological or familial designation for the other, rather than a social one.
They are to put away sinning in their anger. We must never forget that there is such a thing as justifiable anger, righteous indignation, and enragement over injustice. The author acknowledges the validity of anger born out of disagreement, but he cautions readers not to allow self-serving tendencies to extend the natural boundaries of our anger. St. John Chrysostom taught that who is not angry when there was cause to be sins. Unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices. It fosters negligence and incites doing wrong. We need to make room for justifiable anger. Do not hang on to anger obsessively. Those who live their lives driven by anger eventually pay a bitter personal price. Creating an environment for nurturing grudges and rivalry gives a room or resting place, for the devil. Gentiles may recognize as a virtue the ability to exercise self-control when they are angry. They might even know that the only effective way to deal with their anger is to work swiftly toward reconciliation. But Christians realize that these actions are less about demonstrating one’s own virtue and more about removing opportunities and rationalizations in which the devil can further the destructive work of evil in the world. In such a community centered text, it is not too much of a stretch to say that the church must not give the devil an opportunity to find a resting place in its environment. It can do so through the deception, anger, and evil talk to which this text refers, thereby grieving the Holy Spirit.
They are to put away stealing. Theft was a matter of perspective. In the ancient marketplace, buyers beware, for sellers typically loaded the scales. The relationship between master and slave assumed some thievery. Society could hardly function if people steal from each other on a regular basis. Recognizing that they cannot simply take the things that they need from others, they may understand the necessity of working honestly to obtain the things required for life. This involves respect for the person and property of the other. The advice to desist from thievery leads him to urge them to replace that with labor and working honestly with their own hands, which in turn can lead to living generously. Every society has individuals for whom navigating their way through the maze of human existence and the alienating dimensions of culture become difficult. Manual labor was important, for the temptation is always toward idleness and sloth. Most people have a desire to leave a positive mark in their world, to fulfill a passion, to find a productive place in the world. Some people, however, would be happy if someone else provided the basics of their lives. Learning to take responsibility for oneself with work and combining that with acknowledging the need of others and being generous with them is the Christian task.
They are to put away evil talk. They are to replace such talk with useful talk that builds up and bring grace to those who hear. Words can be a means of conveying the grace of God to others. Here is a sacrament of the word in which all participants in the community can practice. Community discourse is important. This was a logocentric community, so speech is important. Such building up of others is the responsibility of every participant in the community. Some moments call for the wisdom of not talking. Silence is golden, as the song says. Yet, people reveal who they are in their talk.
They are not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, a unique phrase in the New Testament, suggesting that our conduct is intricately connected to the quality of our relationship with the Spirit, with whom at baptism the Father marked the believer as a seal for the day of redemption. The point is the close connection between the previous behaviors they are to remove, for the Spirit is now part of their lives as believers, and to not remove such behaviors would grieve the Spirit.
They are to put away bitterness, a form of sustained anger, a type of talk that keeps calling to mind experiences of hurt or pain, some of which are best left alone. We have all been injured by others, but reveling in victimhood is never a good look. Injured people who can let go prolong the hurt caused by the injury. Some people go to their graves feeling bitter for the way their parents or their spouses or their children failed them. Or they castigate themselves for some missed opportunity decades in the past. Bitter talk, when it continues for an exceedingly long time without let-up, causes terrible emotional harm to the speaker — not to mention misery for everyone who must listen to their complaints.
The author offers a catechism parenesis in summary fashion, resuming the list offenses that they should put away and the virtues with which they should replace them. None of those qualities appears especially heroic or dramatically expressive but works quietly and with dignity to create a community based upon divine love and respect.
They are to put away angry outbursts, anger, and other outbursts.
They are to put away slanderous talk.
They are to put away malice.
They are to replace all this being kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving of each other, providing the theological motivation that God in Christ has forgiven them.
He concludes with the theological motivation is that as beloved children of the Father, they are to be imitators of God, to be like God as loving children desire to be like their parents in their values and character, being as gracious toward others as God is toward us. He provides further content by saying they are to live in love, even as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Our lives are to be the sacrifice or gift gratefully returned to the God who has given so much to us. We offer our lives in faithful and loving actions because God has offered so much to us. The church exists because Christ loved, forgave, and gave his life for it. The love of God for humanity is embodied in the cross, the death of the Son for us so that we can have life. This expression of the love of God becomes a call to believers to imitate the love of God in this world, concluding the thought of verses 25-32. This thought is the driving impetus behind the standard ethical comments in the previous verses. Being imitators of God, they are walk in love. This imitation elevates us to the gracious attitude of God us humanity revealed in Christ. The self-giving of Christ for the church is the fruit of his ministry and becomes a model for Christians to follow.[41] The directive to imitate this divine behavior is a large and demanding undertaking. The simple and standard ethical statements that have led to this theological statement is a call to change the sinful heart of humanity into a commitment to sacrificial love. Imitating the example of Christ, they can love and offer themselves as a sacrifice to God to the end that the alienation from God so many experience might finally end. The whole sending of the Son by the Father aims at the vicarious expiatory death on the cross. Here, the thesis is one of self-sacrifice. Jesus accepted his approaching death as a fate in part imposed by enemies, but also in part by God. The Son makes an offering in obedience to the Father and for the salvation of the world.[42]
Ephesians 5:15-20 (Year B August 14-20) gives the positive characteristics that distinguish Christian behavior. This text conveys a sense of unmistakable urgency. It is part of the ethical discussion in this letter that focuses upon the new life one has in Christ. The pattern of offering negative and positive examples is followed in Chapter 5. The negative is in verses 3-14, which includes the negative example of the works of the flesh and the positive example of the fruit of the Spirit. He begins by contrasting the negative of living unwisely with the positive of living wisely. They are to be careful how they live since they live dispersed throughout the Greek and Roman world. In that world, philosophers were lovers of wisdom. If they are careful, they will make the most of or redeem their time (καιρόν), since the days are evil. This time is for the sake of the gathering, existence, and mission of the church, a time God gives it and to whom it is accountable for how it lives. [43]This time has no chronological limit. It is never too late or too early. It is always the right time to redeem our chronological time and become the person God intend and make the most of our time. The adversity in which saints live does not excuse the people of God from using every opportunity and tackling each task that this historical moment gives them. In the face of evil and darkness, God calls upon and equips Christians for this moment. Living unwisely is to live foolishly, without understanding the will of the Lord. He has urged them to find out what is pleasing to the Lord (5:10), where they are to live in the light that Christ has brought. Living wisely involves a way of behaving oriented toward the will of God amid a world that has separated itself from God by its own foolishness. The will of the Lord is the standard for all Christian behavior, turning away from the unfruitful works of darkness (5:11).
The author then stresses the need for Spirit-filled worship. It offers a behind-the-scenes look at what went into first-century worship in Pauline churches. Colossians 3:16-17, 4:6 influence this passage. Paul gave another insight into the worship life of some of his churches (I Cor 14:26-40), where he urges them to do all things to build up each other as each participant brings a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Regarding a tongue, an ecstatic utterance, if no one is present to interpret, the worshipper is to remain silent and speak to themselves and to God. Prophets can speak, but others are to weigh what they say. Those who receive a revelation and those who have a word of prophecy are to wait respectfully upon each other, for God wants everything done in an orderly fashion that exhibits peace. Women are to remain silent and subordinate, waiting to ask husbands at home if they want to understand something said in worship. This counsel contrasts with his earlier counsel (11:5) that women pray and prophesy with their heads covered. One who claims to be a prophet or to have spiritual powers is to acknowledge his counsel as a command of the Lord, and one who is unwilling to do so is not to be recognized in worship to speak. The principle involved here is that one is rightly eager to prophesy and not to be forbidden to speak in tongues, but worship is to be conducted with decency and in an orderly fashion.
In this passage, the author offers the negative example of those drunk with wine and contrasts it with the positive example of being filled with the Spirit. Frequently throughout Proverbs one encounters warnings about the dangers of excess in alcohol consumption (20:1; 21:17; 23:29-31; 31:4), showing the connection of this part of the letter with wisdom literature. The sudden mention of drunkenness alludes to the drunken festivals of the adherents of Dionysius, where people will lose all sense of themselves, becoming wild and frenzied, and thereby open to divine messages. Equating drunkenness with debauchery stems from wine-induced orgies as part of their ritual worship celebrations. The advice is consistent with the advice of Paul against a lifestyle of overindulgence exhibited in gluttony and drunkenness. We see this in the way Paul urges readers to live honorably rather than debauchery and drunkenness (Rom 13:13) and in keeping spiritually awake rather than get drunk (I Thess 5:7b). The antithesis to such drunkenness is to be filled with the Spirit, also consistent with Paul, who could say that the rule of God is a matter of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). This Spirit is the one who fills up the believer and the one who does the filling. Believers are to open their hearts and souls to accept the incoming flow of the Spirit, but individual believers in no way control the degree of the Spirit’s presence within and among them. What the Spirit’s presence does is inspire the right spirit and form of congregational worship. This filling of the Spirit occurs, not through wine, but as they sing from the book of psalms, and offer songs composed by believers in the local congregations, all of which is to make melody to the Lord their hearts. Such communal activity also needs to become the experience of the individual believer. Sincere worshippers experience the Spirit in their hearts. Further, their worship always gives thanks (εὐχαριστοῦντες) to God and give thanks for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, which may indicate that the typical worship service in Pauline churches ended with the celebration of the Eucharist. This exhortation may suggest a priestly function for all humanity by those who participate in worship, but also may suggest that those who worship are to accept with gratitude all that happens, recognizing that God is still at work in everything. Such an act does not mean we feel thankful, but that we choose to be thankful. It means we choose gratitude over complaint. There remains a role for the lament, as the psalms the early church would remind them, but giving thanks receives precedence.
Ephesians 6:10-20 (Year B August 21-27) discusses spiritual war. The armor of God is at the disposal of the Christian witness, with the armor consisting of truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, and the Spirit or Word.[44] The author emphasizes the combative nature of the Christian encounter with this world by invoking military images throughout this exhortation. While peace and reconciliation are a major theme of the letter, the conclusion involves war imagery. The ancient Stoic philosophy called life a form of military service because it was an ongoing struggle between reason and passion. Frederick Douglas repeated the popular saying that we will make no progress without struggle. We may want to avoid it, but coming to our true self and living our best self will mean struggle. Helen Keller noted that safety and security are illusions, and avoiding danger is not a realistic goal, for living is a dangerous adventure. The military images of this passage uses the order in which a Roman soldier prepares for battle. Paul will urge readers to put on the breastplate of faith and love the helmet of the hope of salvation (I Thess 5:8-10). Paul will say that we do not engage war according to human standards, for we have divine power to destroy strongholds that raise themselves against the knowledge of God, making every thought captive to obey Christ (II Cor 10:3-6). A part of the ritual for baptism and membership asks candidates to renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness and reject the evil powers of this world. Such language acknowledges that there is an enemy that would seek to move us away from the path of peace and reconciliation on which this letter focuses. However, this battle takes place within us. When we meet this enemy, we discover the enemy is within. Thus, after the list of weapons for war to engage the spiritual battle, the letter emphasizes prayer and peace. The most important victory we will ever have is to conquer ourselves.
In this battle, the Lord is the one who gives us the strength of divine power. God has not left the follower of Jesus to figure out how to fight alone. God has provided the means with which Christians engage the struggle.
Paul compares the power of God to an imposing armor which is God’s and which saints now have available to them. They need this because the opposing forces are superhuman. Left to themselves, they would be defeated. However, God provides the power to resist. Paul’s description of the Christian warrior is very nearly a description of the Roman soldier of the time. Throughout the Roman world, soldiers defending and keeping the peace of the empire were everywhere, including Ephesus, part of an occupied territory. Hence, Paul’s imagery cuts both ways: He uses the portrayal of the soldier fully equipped for battle as an image of strength and readiness, but at the same time, there may also be a subtle dig at the empire. The Christians of Ephesus and the surrounding cities knew the oppression of occupation forces – be they of Caesar or of the evil one. In Revelation the connection of Rome with Satan is even more clearly, albeit symbolically. The author reminds the readers that the first responsibility of a combatant is to equip him- or herself with the necessary accessories of battle. Of course, the armor is not of metal and leather fashioned by human hands but is of spiritual stuff fashioned and given by God. What the author describes in this passage is not a passive, defensive collection of a rebellious rabble. It is a significant strike force that is the match of any demonic presence. The passage may seem obscure to many modern Christians, but the emphasis on the reality of evil and the Christians’ call to combat evil with God’s goodness and truth is not one Christians can ignore in any day.[45]
He urges us to put on the whole or complete armor of God, although a better translation suggests that it is splendid armor, thereby focusing on the quality of the armor. Christians receive strength, then, by putting on the armor of God to protect and prepare them for their encounter with the wiles of the devil that will assault them. This is not a human conflict, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers of this present darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places, which signifies spiritual entities and historical, social, or psychic structures or institutions. These powers are already subject to God in Christ (Rom 8:38-39). God equips the saints to combat them. God provides Christians with protection and the proper weapons to stand firm against the enemy. The forces of evil are real and do affect human history – nevertheless, the outcome of God’s plan of salvation is never in doubt.
Still, for most Christians influenced by critical scholarship and modern scientific objectivity, the description of spiritual warfare with the devil seems remote from this secular age. The implication of the passage – pointing to a world that is a hostile place inhabited by demonic powers – is not an accepted description of reality as secularity and science would describe it. Thus, I will be approaching this text as a poetic portrayal of the battle humanity faces.
Believers are to take up this armor to withstand on that evil or darkest day, and having done all they can do, to stand firm. Believers resist these evil forces on earth and stand firm in the face of the coming conflict by remaining strong in the power God gives. Strength that comes from anywhere else but from the Spirit of the Lord is not going to be sufficient for the upcoming battle.
The author will then list six aims provided as armor. The list follows the steps a Roman soldier takes in preparation for battle. The majority are defensive weapons. God transfers the weapons from the Messiah to all the saints. If they were sufficient for Christ, they are sufficient for the saints. The Old Testament viewed truth, righteousness, steadfastness, faith, peace, salvation, the Spirit, and the word of God as part of covenant. It is not a catalogue of ethical virtues. They denote social relationships. Fasten the belt of truth around your waist, the leather girdle for the soldier, the sword-belt, or the sash of an officer. Righteousness and faithfulness shall be the belt of the descendant of David on whom the Spirit falls (Isa 11:5). Thus, in this battle, there is no room to distinguish between officers and enlisted people. One makes no distinctions because the power of God is available to all. Those who march wrapped in the truth of God have divine protection. The believer is to put on the breastplate, protecting anything between shoulders and loins. He identifies the breastplate as of righteousness, reminding the reader that they are part of a covenant that will secure their salvation – their “heart,” so to speak. “Righteousness” is an allusion to Isa 11:1-9, means help, salvation, and peace. Only the Messiah can establish it. It is a gift of God. “Righteousness” was a word associated with God's covenant with the chosen people. God wrote the new covenant not on stone but upon the heart. However, it shows its power in its effect upon persons. In all cases in the Old Testament where righteousness is “put on,” it is a cloak of dignity and responsibility. It is that person's responsibility to make sure that they practice righteousness. This confirms that all saints are ranking soldiers. 15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready, in the sense of prepared or steadfast, to proclaim the gospel of peace, a lofty paradox in the context of military imagery (Isa 11:4-9). The shoes were that worn by the Roman legion, which left the toes free and were ankle high. The author intends an allusion to the feet of the messenger who announces peace as being beautiful (Isa 52:7). God’s peace unites and draws all believers together to withstand the demonic attacks. God’s peace is also the promised goal of history, and so the battle – no matter how fearsome – will resolve itself according to the peace of God in time. 16 With all of these, take the shield (the larger shield, for those of high rank had a shield-bearer, used to advance against the enemy) of faith (of the believer, the opposite of which would be fear). With that shield, you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows (dipped in pitch in an arrow-throwing machine, the enemy using fire rather than the saints) of the evil one. This statement offers no indication that the shield will be more important. The author does not mention the offensive weapons of the Lord. The Old Testament and apocalyptic references suggest God will use fire against the enemies. As the peace of God draws Christians together in common defense, so then the community lifts their shields to provide a united front of protection from the “flaming arrows.” However, the massed shields also provide a powerful offensive capability. 17 Take the helmet (of victory, which was bronze and highly decorative and protecting the wearer from incoming projectiles) of salvation (a gift of God, whether present or future). In addition, take the sword (pushing forward with shield and the short defensive sword) of the Spirit (spiritual sword or the sword the Spirit gives), which is the word of God, meaning the sword is the Spirit and the Spirit is the word of God or gospel). The believer now has the equipment of a formidable opposition to evil. They are in full confidence of the outcome. The saints receive the gift of victory from God. Sword” is the short, more defensive type of weapon rather than the longer one.
The author concludes by reminding the reader that through the imagery of armed struggle, the goal is peace and prayer. He exhorts the saints to be vigilant in prayer and proclamation. Focusing on prayer as petition, the process of arming oneself involves petition. He urges them to keep alert or awake through their prayer, taken at Gethsemane in a literal way and as well as in the parables of Jesus, but it refers here to spiritual alertness, having eschatological overtones. It speaks of constant resistance to temptation. The exhortation to put on this armor occurs in a communal context, so the author emphasizes intercession for each other to engage the battle together. Unceasing prayer lifts prayer to central significance for the Christian life, a place it would not have if limited to formulated address to God. At issue is the ongoing attitude in which one is to live the life of faith, and which permeates all the individual activities of believers.[46] Since we are deeply communal creatures, a purely self-made person does not exist. Yet, taking responsibility for oneself as an agent of one’s own life is an important part of discipleship. Their prayer is to include the author, that God give a message or word, which he does not identify, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. The community identifies with a specific commission. He is a prisoner in this war. However, by intercession they can stand with him and be involved in his wider mission. He is an ambassador, a political and legal term in which he represents the one who sent him and is therefore now in chains. He asks them to pray, not for release from prison, but that he would declare boldly, the opposite of which would be shame for identifying himself with the gospel.
The church will need increasing abilities in discernment to distinguish Christian teaching and values from simple accommodation to a culture that increasingly separates itself from the church. Many things in our culture are quite all right. I suspect the grace of God has helped us get to a place where we value freedom, respect for the rights of others, the improvement of daily life through technology and science, and so on. The culture is not evil. It is an expression of the human struggle for worth and dignity. As such, it often has remarkably excellent things in it, as well as things of which we need to be careful.
A secular and free culture ignores the church. It will eventually enact laws in the name of their version of justice and love to bring the church into line with prevailing cultural norms. Being a Christian today is neither natural nor easy. Thus, you had better not go out there unarmed. It is tough out there. It is tough to be ignored, ridiculed, dismissed by one’s culture, a culture which is not, overall, willfully unbelieving. It is simply too self-consumed, too jaded to make the effort to believe or disbelieve. Increasing numbers of us are finding that to be a great challenge. The world is giving Christians fewer and fewer breaks. Now we are just trying to hold on, stand firm, keep our story straight, keep our values clear.
Think of your involvement in a church as training. Think of your involvement in the various groups of the church as part of your training. Paul’s urge toward armament puts matters like daily prayer and devotional reading, membership in a weekly Bible study group into perspective. Do not even get in this fight if you have not done the training.
[1] Markus Barth
[2] St. John Chrysostom
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[45] Markus Barth in his comments on this passage in his commentary on this passage.
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