Ian & Jocelyn Barker

I compiled all of my posts on Ephesians and put them in a .pdf file. So you want to print them all out and go through the whole thing, you can.

I will finish my study of Ephesians today so I can start my study of Philippians tomorrow. We have seen in the book of Ephesians how we have been given a new identity through the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are no longer bound by sin, but we have been given salvation and the power of righteousness. This new identity has given us entrance into a new family, a new race, where there is no racial status, but all races are allowed to live in unity with each other to express the full beauty of God and His creation. Paul has been showing us how we are to walk in our new identity, specifically with each other in community. |inline

Paul shifts gears a little in 6:10 and gives some instructions for godly living. This passage always is a good reminder of how my perspective on victories and defeats needs to be altered. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (6:12). It’s sad to think of how often I truly take this verse to heart and really consider the fact that I am in a spiritual battle. |inline

Paul has been talking about how we are to be subject to one another. This means that we are to be under the authority of one another. This redefines marriage as a relationship of mutual submission, but it also affects the child/parent relationship and the master/slave or employer/employee relationship. The Gospel does not just effect us at an individual level but truly penetrates and cuts to redefine our communities. |inline

One of the characteristics of the person who walks in the will of the Lord is that they are “subject to one another.” In 5:22-6:9, Paul will address wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters, and give instruction as to how they are to be subject to one another. In this section, he addresses wives and husbands and reveals that the marriage relationship is a shadow of the Christ’s relationship to His church. |inline

Paul concludes the last section (5:6-14) by exhorting us to wake up and Christ will shine on us. He continues his exhortation by instructing us to be wise in our walks, because the “days are evil.” We are to be filled with the Spirit, not with wine, so that we can exhort each other and the Lord through song and melody. We are to be thankful to the Lord and be subject to one another. |inline

Paul continues to call the saints to a higher calling. They are not to partake of the spirit of the world, which scoffs at the idea that wickedness will exclude a person from the kingdom of God. They are better than that because they are children of light and not of the darkness. They are to expose the works of darkness, rather than participating in them. |inline

Paul tells us in 4:32 to forgive each other “just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” He carries this same theme on into chapter 5 where he exhorts us to be “imitators of God, as beloved children.” We are to walk in love as Christ walked in love and who was a pleasing and fragrant aroma to God. |inline

In 4:24, Paul commands us to put on the new self, created in the image of God. Now, in 8 verses he describes how a person acts when they have put on the new self. He carries on the same theme of family and unity by giving us boundary markers as to how we are to treat one another. |inline

Paul encourages the saints to no longer walk according to the way of the unsaved Gentiles who have a darkened understanding. Paul sees that the mind is the catalyst for both righteous and unrighteous behavior. He uses 7 different words to describe how we are guided by what we think (mind, understanding, ignorance, learn, taught, truth, spirit or your mind). |inline