Ephesians

The book of Ephesians.

1. Spiritual Blessings in Christ

3: What does it mean to have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places? Christ in heaven, but us in earth? Is our soul being blessed in some heavenly realm? Our angels in heaven continually seeing the face of God? (Matthew 18:10)

4-6: This is a cosmic mystery. Predestination isn't even the half of it. God created a plan of love for us to all become his children through the work of Jesus. Through the Father's glorious grace, we become blessed and holy and have our sins removed. This was the purpose of reality all along. Jesus is the Beloved and we are in his kingdom, bound in his being somehow.

7-10: The blood of Jesus gives us redemption. Our trespasses are covered over. This was the whole plan the entire time. All of the cosmic order of heaven and earth are united in Christ. Past present and future. Between man and God. This is what it is all about. Thus the unclean becoming clean, the dying becoming everlasting, etc...

11: Because of Christ we are now Sons of God, and every son has an Inheritance. The Inheritance is full access to God and all his glories. Obviously we do not have that in its entirety yet...

12: the first to hope in Christ - does this refer to the apostles and early church specifically?

13-14: ...but, in the mean time, the Holy Spirit pours out spiritual gifts on us of love and miracles, and this is the guarantee or down payment that we are truly heirs of the king of kings. Insofar as the Holy Spirit continues to protect us, fill us with peace and love, and works all kinds of wisdom and signs through us, we can be certain that our faith is worth it. Even though he still requires that we have faith, God is so generous he does not just leave us hanging in a cold, cold world, but gives us every thing that we could possibly ask for even now.

Still this isn't something that can be strictly measured or controlled with purely rational observation. When we hear the word of truth and believe that God is at work, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. That Sealing involves all kinds of mysteries in heavenly places, in the secret places of our heart, and in the complex tapestry of our lives. We can only keep track of so much. But the fruit is real and tangible.

This was all predestined, so even if it is sometimes murky to us we can still detect God's purpose working its way out in providence. This dimly growing awareness of God's glory in all his secret works stirs up praise in our hearts, and growing aware of our own role in all of it -- so thankful to be alive and fed and warm and given every encouragement, not trapped suffering as one of his enemies.

We are still waiting to acquire full possession.

15-16: Growing more and more aware of the cosmic plan of God does not warp our minds into some realm of unspeakable mysteries but instead turns our attention to other people: the saints. We love them and give thanks for them and remember them in our prayers. Contemplating the love of God and loving him with all of our might naturally leads us to loving our neighbor.

17-19: Let's pray God pours out more enlightenment on us because, for all the great things in our information age, spiritual wisdom is still in very short supply every where you go. Many people find themselves loosely affiliated with Christianity their whole lives but never bother to inquire what the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints is.

Other people, sealed in the Spirit, are part of the reward. Fellowship with them, love with them, is in large part what makes life worth living. Glorious. Beyond noting God's great works towards oneself as an individual believer.

20: the great might of God is resurrection power... the same power that brought Christ out of the tomb is working in your life. Thus you may at times accurately perceive the power of the curse of death and futility working its way into everything around you; still you do not need to fear being in a darkening tomb because Resurrection Power is at hand.

21: This resurrection power doesn't just resuscitate like electric paddles. This resurrection power set Christ above all things. He is at the top of the cosmic hierarchy. All the big names. All the biggest names that everyone knows and loves and fears. Celebrities, governments, the deep state, cults, religions, big ideas, angels and demons, the mood swings of all humanity, the planets and stars... whatever exerts the biggest gravity in your world, Christ is now above it.

22: Everything has been set under Christ's feet.

You are those feet!!!

23: You are knit to Christ through belief and through is blood. It's a great body covering the whole earth, and destined to rule the cosmos. Even if all you do is serve Christ, you are serving the greatest man, the greatest household, the greatest kingdom, the holiest nation...

2. Saved by Grace Through Faith

1-3: The desires of the flesh naturally lead to our destruction. You see this in almost everybody you meet. As nice as they might be -- look closely enough, you can see what program they're following. It's disobedience to God. It always ends in destruction.

4-5: God loved us in spite of our sin. He is merciful. Just as he rose Christ from the dead, he is raising YOU from the dead.

Out of pure grace.

6-7: The result is not just being a good person now.

Do we need to wait to die to begin reigning with Christ in the heavenly places? Is that a coming age?

Or are we in those coming ages right now?

It's all kindness.

8: It's not our work or perfect obedience (doesn't exist) that gets us a spot in the heavenly hierarchy next to Christ. Saving us from the curse of death is a gift of God, received by our faith.

9-10: God didn't give us this gift because we did something that impressed him. But Christ did also promise us heavenly rewards on the basis of our doing good, and punishment if we did evil. So we shouldn't forget either fact. (See 6:7 of this book or any of Christ's words on the subject.)

We were made by God to do good. It's all part of the plan.

11-12: Circumcision was a ritual work that separated the people of God from the unclean nations. We Gentiles had no hope, no access to God in this life. We now have access to that covenant of promise and the commonwealth.

13: Christ's blood is the means by which we all get access to God's life now.

14-16: Where there were Jews and Gentiles, the hostility and division and ordinances have been replaced. Law-keeping is no longer the path - Christ, personally, is the path.

One new man made in place of two, both reconciled to God in one body - Christ's. Christ's body is our body. He is the representative of mankind before God. (You just can't take ahold of those benefits spiritually unless you believe.)

17: Jesus preached peace to those near, the tribe of Judah, and those far off. (Examples of Jesus preaching to gentiles?)

18: One body and one Spirit - our union with God, our union with each other in a way beyond just physical connections.

19: We are part of a new city, a household, a building made up of every holy person ever.

21: This structure of every believer is the new holy temple of God - God's dwelling place on earth. God now makes his presence known to everyone by how believers are bound together in love - our families, our friendships, our group chats, our churches, our towns, our empires, all of our conversations and organizations. It's all designed to be a place for God's Spirit.

3. Mystery of Christ Revealed

2: What does it mean that Paul was given stewardship of God's grace? Ministry and preaching?

3-6: Paul is admitting it is very shocking that all the nations can also be heirs of the promises given to Abraham and David. We can be one body together in Christ. This is what he perceived in the mystery of Christ.

The mystery of Christ is so full of riches of God's grace and wonder and significance that we can continue to ponder it for thousands of years and perhaps think of things that did not occur to Paul. We are continuing to build on the foundation of this revelation. (But be careful how you build...)

7-9: Paul was called by God to write epistles like this and help everyone begin to understand everything that God accomplished by raising Christ from the dead.

10: Whammo line here, Paul. Are we to take this as this: that the church becoming aware of the gospel is the means by which all rulers and authorities in the heavenly places also hear the gospel? Apparently, they didn't know God's wisdom. They were off on their own.

Kings and angels must hear the news from us. All gods and dictators and professors and managers and elites and scientists and activists must begin to contemplate this wisdom. The order of the world is made new in Christ. Everything in the cosmos must heed this.

11-13: This was the plan all along, so we must be supremely encouraged. Even if our pastors get beaten or thrown in jail.

15: we are all descended from Adam, the son of God. But a cursed descent. Many of the names of mankind in history now stand for sin or mistakes or horrible deaths. Many names are mud. Now we have a purifying adoption through the second Adam, Christ. A better name.

16-19: we need to make sure we are withdrawing all the spiritual powers that have been promised to us. Love will help us chart the depths with one another. The depths of this horrible world. And the depths of God.

20-21: We can keep praying and asking God for good things -- but he is going to do even more good. It's in us already.

4. One Body and One Spirit

4: For all our individualism, we should emphasize that there is one body and one spirit above all. The body of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

7: We have been given access to spiritual riches. Seize them!

8-10: Christ has taken things out of spiritual realms and given them to us. Miracles and promises and health and wisdom and joy and all the things that we couldn't have come up with on our own.

11: He also gave us all kinds of thinky people to give us the words that we need to use. Priestly types of all stripe.

12-13: The purpose of working in ministry for the church is to bring everyone into the unity of faith by knowing who Jesus is - so, you can tell who false teachers are by who divides up believers from each other and who gives false ideas of who Christ is.

Mature manhood - perfection - knowing Christ not just intellectually but in our manner of being in the world. Our behavior imitating him in a million ways.

14: We're supposed to be like children in one sense - readiness to wholeheartedly accept and imitate God - but in other senses it's not good to be like children.

God chooses believers not based on how wise they are but because of his eternal plan. As a result, you will meet many Christians who are simply not very shrewd or discerning. Even if they're in a pulpit. You have to be very, very careful about following them.

People come up with winds of doctrine and schemes all the time to advance particular projects they have. But real ministry means helping believers be as unified and as Christlike as possible. It means helping them mature to the point that they are not concerned with following other humans and human doctrines, but ready to stand before God himself, without having become lone wolf individualists but bound in love and peace with other believers, all performing their own unique functions to feed and nourish and advance the body.

The Body grows not from everyone agreeing with you absolutely but from loving each other, and from understanding Christ more and more. I do not believe individual men or theological schools or church boards here or there have secured a monopoly on the full understanding of Christ; rather, we must carefully observe the Christians of different traditions, past and present, who are all acting out the memory of Christ, and seize upon every good thing that they have remembered over the millennia. This is how we will come to love them more and humbly become one body with them, even with Christ himself.

5. Walk in Love and Light

1: Being a Son of God doesn't just mean inheriting all the glories of the cosmos. It also means having the innocence of a child - not that children are really all that innocent or kind, most of them are quite selfish and mean-spirited, but they do have an innocence such that they are ready to imitate. So we must have readiness to imitate the behavior God has in mind for us. Just as God is kind and forgiving, we must be kind and forgiving.

2: Walking in love sounds nice but it can also involve getting scourged and crucified by scholars and by empires.

3: Since it doesn't seem like we need to get beheaded right at this moment, the least we can do is be very pure -- which means, not coveting what others have.

4: One of the hardest exhortations for young men to follow. There are definitely many lines that could be drawn here on what qualifies as sufficiently filthy, versus what is merely honest, earthy, or frank. Generally, be charitable to others who draw the lines differently. But also, just don't be gross. It's not that hard.

We often joke about the things we are obsessed about; children joke about toilets because they are amused by trespass. The young man joking about sex constantly is trying to tell himself that he doesn't care about it that much. That it's not a big deal.

But it is, and he does.

Paul suggests that thankfulness is the solution to all the rebelliousness, longing and bitterness that leads to crude joking.

5: Impurity and sexual immorality is the result of having a covetous heart and wanting many things that don't belong to you. So, if someone exhibits all these characteristics, you cannot rely on them as a fellow heir of the kingdom of Christ.

6: Many are deceived by the empty words; many churches across the world promote sexual immorality and covetousness and all kinds of idolatry.

7: What does it mean to not become partners with the immoral? Don't be sexual partners? Business partners? Lifestyle or political allies? Paul says elsewhere we obviously cannot retreat from all the immoral in the world, beacuse that's everywhere. But at the very least, we cannot be partners in the church with those who are impure. Something to be very cautious of.

8-9: This is something we like to ignore, but the fact is that the vast majority of the people around you are engaged in disturbing sexual vices. All around you, there is pornography and adultery and homosexuality and swingers and actual orgies and furries with their bestiality and every kind of uncleanness. And even weirder stuff. And all their bloodlines will suffer for it, because it is so unfruitful and destructive. But very few (except the exhibitionists) want their own sexual vice to be exposed.

As soon as these shameful things are revealed, all others can see how ridiculous it is, even if they are broken in their own special ways. So, you are called by God to kink shame. And you are called by God to keep yourself separate from everything they're doing out there.

10-14: Try to discern what will please God. We all have a pretty good idea of the purity we are called to, even if some are tormented by their inadequacy. Many young men I know have brooded for years on their guilt for not being self-controlled sexually -- well, deal with it. Very few have such self-control. Yes, you do need a lot more.

You can bring your own covetousness and sin and fixations before a merciful God without getting tangled up in the chaos of everyone else's flesh. And don't be so navel-gazing and concerned about your own weakness feeding on you in the darkness. Focus on fruitfulness and walking in light. Confess your sin to God. Confess it to your brothers. When the light shines on it, it is revealed how weak and stupid it all is. Useless compared to the love and service we need to be rendering to our loved ones.

15-20: Being a Christian means being wise and watchful. There are many ways to lose your sobriety, either with wine or with fanciful ideas or covetous fantasies or getting emotional and worked up about everything. Better to be singing and being useful and thankful.

21: Submitting to each other seems paradoxical. But the relationship between Christians should not generally be like masters and slaves. It should be family members acknowledging different needs in one another. Can't do that if you are flying off the handle.

Paul concludes this discussion on purity by turning to discuss husbands and wives.

22-33: Paul may be working in a genre; apparently we have examples of similar sounding ancient Greco-Roman household codes; yet the differences between Paul's Christian household code and pagan examples are striking, in that Paul addresses women, children, slaves - any concrete examples of the pagan literature?

22-24: Wives should be submissive. Feminists don't like this. Tradwives want to negotiate this. Basically, they show how much they love the way of Jesus by how much they are willing to obey. Very tough for Americans - not big on obedience.

Most wives are just selfish and will cause pain for not getting things their way.

25: Likewise, husbands show how much they love the way of Jesus by how much pain and loss they are willing to endure for the good of their wife. Often this doesn't even go to the point of blood. It's just being willing to be inconvenienced in ways that will lead to greater good for your wife and children long term and protect them better.

Most husbands are just selfish and don't want to be bothered too much.

26-27: We've just been discussing how impure people are. Well, Christ works to cleanse and sanctify an unclean body of people so that they could become glorious.

28-30: A wife becomes an extension of the husband's body, so as he mistreats her he is destroying his own flesh.

31-32: The sexual relationship of bodily union between a husband and wife is, mysteriously, like the way that Jesus relates to us. Metaphorically, we are penetrated by his power and become an extension of his body, and the site of his fruitful work.

33: In a land with so many millions of divorces and extinguished bloodlines, we must be humble and think how much damage could have been avoided if each husband had simply loved his wife with all his heart, taking care of her as much as he takes care of himself, and if the wife had simply respected her husband and honored him regardless of his mistakes.

But because men and women refuse to do that, we live in a society of constant struggle and divorce.

6. Armor of God

5-7: We may not be full slaves like in Paul's day but many of us are still employees. Same rules apply: be fearfully obedient, without being a flatterer or people-pleaser, but just knowing that God sees the level of service and love that you give to everyone. You're serving him, not some moneyed dingus.

8: The good you do will earn a heavenly reward from Christ.

9: If you are put in charge over anybody - an employee, a student, a little sibling - treat them kindly just as you want God to treat you kindly. He is watching!

There is no partiality with God - no matter how big of a deal you are now, you are lowly before the Lord. He will judge the conduct of all slaves and all masters.

10-17: All the spiritual virtues God gives us shield us from the many evils our enemy throws at us. Don't hesitate to ask God for these powers.

18-19: Pray for each other and for pastors and everyone who suffers to advance the good news of Christ.