Ephesians
5
Paul
continued his thought from chapter 4 in this chapter. He said, “Therefore, be
imitators of God.” At the end of chapter 4, he said, “Be kind to one another,
tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven
you.” Paul said this in 4:32 and in 5:1 when he said, “be imitators of God.”
Earlier in chapter four, Paul told the followers of Christ in Ephesus about
Christ’s grace gifts for the strengthening and building up of the church, the
body of Christ. He spoke, too, of how each individual follower is to live –
with humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, love, preserving the unity and
peace, speaking truth in love, working diligently, and being kind, tenderhearted,
and forgiving. Every follower must "be renewed in the spirit of their mind"
and continually be putting on the "new self" (vs. 4:23-24).
In
chapter 5, Paul continued teaching how a child of God should walk. He or she
must walk in love without immorality, impurity, or greed. The person must speak
no filth, silly/foolish talk, or coarse jesting for a person who does these
things does not have an “inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (vs. 5).
In these verses, three through five, Paul spoke of wrong actions, thoughts,
will, and speech. The Greek word for immorality Paul used is porneia from which we get our word
pornography and means illicit sexual intercourse and worship of idols. Remember
the old idol worship often involved sexual acts to appease those gods. The
impurity Paul spoke of is uncleanness physically and morally such as lust, wanton
living, and living in ease while others go do not have enough on which to live.
Greed is included in these two definitions as well. Greed is of the mind –
coveting- and of action – taking for yourself whether what you take is yours or
not or hoarding even when others do not have enough. Paul spoke against speech
that was filth, foolish, and coarse. This manner of speaking includes speaking
obscenities, foolish talking, and bawdiness/indecency/immodesty. Remember Jesus
Christ said what is in the heart makes a person clean or not. The manner of
speaking shows the heart of a person. If a person speaks filthy, silly, and
coarse talk, his or her heart is not clean; he or she is not clean. Paul said
these are not the ways of being imitators of God. These show an immoral person
(a person who commits sexual immorality), one who is impure (unclean in thought
and life), and one who covets (is an idolater, choosing things over God). This person
has no inheritance in the kingdom of God.
Paul
continued teaching by saying, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for
because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience”
(vs. 6). He moved from describing a person who is not a follower of Christ to
telling them who to avoid, the people who deceive others. The “empty words”
Paul spoke of are words without truth or effect. These kids of words have no
effect to make you more Christlike, but draw you away from God. Because people
speak these words, God’s wrath (His anger exhibited in punishment) comes upon
the disobedient (those who are opposed to the divine will and follow Satan). To
be imitators of God, do not listen to the false words these deceivers speak to
you; do not be partakers with them. Paul said do not join and be like them, the
sons of disobedience. Remember, before you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord
and Savior, you were part of the darkness. Now you walk in the Light and are
part of the Light in the Lord. So, walk as children of Light trying to learn
what is pleasing to the Lord (vs. 8, 10). Do not listen to the sons of darkness
because they will not teach you what is pleasing to the Lord. You will know
they are sons of darkness by their fruit. The “fruit of the Light consists in all
goodness and righteousness and truth” (vs. 9). The sons of Light will have the
fruit of the Light – uprightness of heart and life, kindness, integrity,
virtue, purity of life, rightness and correctness of thinking, feeling, and
acting, and truth as respecting God and the duties of humankind as opposed to
the superstitions of unbelievers, corrupt opinions, and teachings of false
teachers. Christians must learn how to test and prove a teaching to see if it is
a false teaching or pleasing to the Lord so the sons of disobedience will not mislead
them. Knowing God and His Word and testing every teaching against Him will show
if it is false or pleasing to the Lord.
Paul
stated what not to think, say, or enact. He reminded them, too, who they were
before they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they “were formerly
darkness” (vs. 7). Now they are children of the Light and they grow more in the
image of Christ. They knew this because of the fruit of Light in them –
goodness, righteousness, and truth. Paul then taught them they must test and
prove if a teaching is from the Lord. They must examine it to decide if they
should follow it based on if it comes from the Lord. Paul then commanded them
not to be part of “the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but expose them for it is
disgraceful even to speak of the things, which are done by them in secret” (vs.
11-12). The Christian must expose deeds that are barren and that do not yield
fruits of the Light. This word “expose” comes from the Greek word elegcho, which means refute, reprove, correct,
and admonish. Followers of Christ must be growing ever more like God, becoming
imitators of God, so that they recognize Truth from falsehood that tries to
trick people. When Christians recognize false teachings, they must refute and correct
them – expose them – so that they will be clear and people will not follow
them. Christians must expose these false teachings by bringing them into the
Light so their falsity will be known. Christ, Paul said in verse 14, re-quoting
Isaiah 60:1, is the one who shines on those who were dead before and in darkness.
Christ shines on the world to show the darkness and bring Light and truth to
everyone. When a person is a son or daughter of the Light, Christ’s light
shines in them and the false teachers no longer can mislead them if they follow
Him, become more like Him by knowing His Word and His heart. These children of
God are children of Light and darkness no longer holds any power over them.
Paul
next used “therefore” again. Since you are God’s children, he said, be careful
how you walk, how you conduct yourself, not as foolish men, but as wise men. In
verse sixteen, Paul said make the most of your time (redeem the time other
translations say) because the days of this age are evil. Paul taught them to
use their time wisely and told them not to fall prey to temptation or sin
because Satan is at work in the world. Since you are God’s children, Satan will
work even harder on you to trick you and make you fall. So, do not be foolish
to act rashly without reflection and intelligence. Make sure you understand the
will of the Lord for you in that time and place (vs. 17). To make sure you are
not being foolish and acting rashly, do not get drunk with wine, for that
dissipation will make you act or speak foolishly. Instead, Paul said, be filled
with the Spirit (vs. 18). In this section of the chapter, Paul explained that
Christians are children of Light and the devil works harder against God’s
children to trip them and make them appear foolish. Instead, Paul said, be
careful how you walk and use your time; understand what the Lord's will is. Be
wise and make good use of your time so you do not fall to the temptations the
devil puts before you, which makes you sin. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Verses
nineteen through twenty-one explain what Paul meant by being filled with the
Spirit. Paul spoke of speaking, singing, making melody, giving thanks, and
being subject to one another. To do these in the way God intended requires the
Holy Spirit to live in a person, which occurs in Christians. First, in verse
nineteen, Paul said, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” Why did he not
say singing to one another? Paul spoke of the basic level of relaying about
God, through our speech. When we go to church or are in another Christian
assembly, we do not sing everything we say. We speak more than we sing, most
likely. Paul made sure that the children of God knew they were to speak and
sing about God. The speaking to one another builds up each other’s faith and
resolve. It gives a testimony of praise about God to another and reminds and
teaches them about God and the faith. When more than one person speaks about
God, they are in accord with one another in their testifying of God and the
faith. This is where the songs enter. Songs are words sung in accord, not discordance,
about God and the faith. When more than one person is testifying about God at
the same time, unity and harmony/accordance between people exists. It becomes a
song sung with each person’s voice being a different part of the chord of praise
to God. This is the difference between speaking and singing. Not to say one
person cannot sing to and about God on their own, but the transition for Paul
from speaking to singing shows this accord/unity and relates the chords of
music to God’s ears. This becomes mutual edification and an upliftment of the
church.
Now, what is the difference
between psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, you may ask? I asked, too, why Paul
differentiated between these. The “psalms” may be Paul saying we should speak and
sing the psalms of David, Zacharias, Simeon, et al. of the Bible. The psalms
are pious songs. They lead us to the divine, preparing us to worship and
leading us to worship. Hymns are sacred sons as tithes of praises to God. We
offer back to God our praise as a tithe of who we are recognizing our
littleness and His greatness. Spiritual songs odes and songs sung speaking of
historical God, His disciples, doctrine, prophecy, etc. Notice Paul did not
stop with only lip service. He said the children of God sing these songs of
faith while filled with the Spirit. This contrasts with the songs of the drunk.
The songs of Christians while filled with the Spirit are not obscene of
profane. These songs sung together by God’s children make a melody that is pleasing
to the Lord from the heart. This singing is not lip service, but reaches into
the heart and erupts forth in soulful songs to God. A unity occurs within the
body of Christ as they speak, sing, and make melody to God. Unity occurs, too,
within the individual Christian between his or her heart (their inward
affection) and his or her voice (the outward expression of mental assent). These
services use the whole – body, heart, mind, and soul. Paul said that while we
are speaking and singing of these three elements of faith, we must “always be
giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Christ to God, even the
Father” (vs. 20). When we are singing praises to God, we cannot escape thanking
God. These two go hand in hand. When we recite the history of faith, we must
thank God for being there. When we speak of doctrine, an urge of the heart is
in a person to thank God for what He has done in providing for and saving us. Thanks
go hand in hand with each of these parts of speaking and singing.
Paul gave one other act that
comes with the Spirit’s infilling a person– being subject to one another in
fear of Christ” (vs. 21). Teachers and preachers speak of this word “subject”
most often as “submission.” Many people balk at this word and refuse in their
minds to be under submission to someone else. It speaks of the servitude of one
person to another. In the history of humankind, taskmasters enforced this
servitude upon other people making them a lower caste of person. Paul and Jesus
did not mean this kind of submission. The words “subject” and “submission” come
from the Greek word hupotasso. This
word is a voluntary yielding of one’s self to another person, a teaching,
admonition, or advice. People submit themselves to other people to cooperate in reaching a goal. Subjecting is a
mutual action. There are requirements upon the one to whom a person submits him
or herself. The leader/chairperson/boss/preacher must be obedient to ensure the
attainment of the goal, too. He or she is accountable/responsible to the
organization/church/employer/committee for his or her actions in attaining the
goal as well as accountable to the persons who have submitted themselves to him
or her for the task. For instance, in a church, at the most basic level, the
members of the church who have called a pastor to lead them as the local body
of Christ are to submit (give) themselves to the pastor’s authority in building
up the church, reaching the lost, and following the leading of God. The pastor
is to submit/give him or herself to the body of the church as a humble shepherd
leading them to follow Christ. He or she is to submit him or herself to God as
he or she leads to church, too. This means the pastor is accountable to the
church and to God. Likewise, as a part of the body of Christ, each member of
the church is accountable to God and to the church. Submission is a mutual
voluntary yielding of one’s will to meet the goal of the group. Paul described
what submission is in verse 21. Submission is a two-way thing – being in
obedience to another as your choice and being accountable/responsible to God
for those who are subject to you. Paul gave more definition of what this subjection
is in 5:22-6:9. He gave pertinent examples of submission in these later verses.
Paul gave three common
examples of relationships during the time he wrote this letter to the Ephesians
– husband and wife, children and parent, and master and slave. We must note,
though, that Paul stated in 5:32, “This mystery (man and woman leaving their
parents to become husband and wife) is great, but I am speaking with reference
to Christ and the church.” The examples Paul gave in the letter to the Ephesians
about submission/subjection lead us back to the relationship of Christ to the
church, the bridegroom and the bride. This important verse is the key to true
submission, Godly submission. The examples are what Paul used to shed light on
godly submission and what Christ calls us to in relationship with Himself. We
must notice another important point. Paul changed or “renewed” these three
types of common relationships. He took common relationships of non-Jewish
background, reminded the Ephesians they are children of God and explained how
they are different, renewed, now. Now they and every Christian has the Spirit
of God living within them, which comes because of the love of God and fills us
with His love. God changed, renewed, these common to the way He intended by
incorporating love for one another within them. This is very important for them
back then and for us now. Without the love of God in these relationships and every
relationship, an enforcer mentality of the one submitted to and a lower caste
mentality by the one submitting or subjecting themselves to the “leader” is
found. In the "old self" method of living, a unilateral act of
submission is found, the lower person to the higher person. In the “new man”
way of living with the Spirit residing in each person, a bi-lateral submission
is found. This means that in the old way, the understood submitter the actor,
does the will of the other. The leader does not submit to anyone, but enforces
his or her will on the other person. In the new way, the submission is mutual,
voluntary, and done by every person involved in the relationship. The Greek word
hupotasso that Paul used here means
this exactly. Every parties of the relationship are accountable to the other
and to God. The responsibility for enacting this submission in a godly way is
on both sides and they are each accountable to God for their own submission to
the other person(s).
This understanding of “being
subject” or “being submissive” from verse twenty-one transforms the old
understood customs of relationship. In the remaining verses of chapter 5 and
the first nine verses of chapter 6, Paul shows how the normal relationships are
renewed/changed by God into the way He intended from before the foundation of
the world (Eph. 1:4). Now, in looking at the relationship between husband and
wife, Paul said, “Wives, be subject/submissive to your own husbands, as to the
Lord” (5:22). As Christians, husbands and wives are first to be submissive to
God and this shows their love and reverence (fear) of the Lord. This fear is
not like being afraid for our safety, but out of reverence. It shows the difference
between the old way of relating to each other and the new way. We submit/subject
ourselves to another because we revere them and hold them in esteem, which comes
because of love and awe. Paul further stated, “For the husband is the head of
the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior
of the body” (5:23). God set up the headship of a family like He did the
headship of the local church and the universal church. He did not say they are
to enforce their headship with punishment and aggression, but with love, as the
definition of hupotasso shows. This verse
shows, too, the husband is to be the head of the family like Christ is of the
church. Christ loved His bride, the church so much that He died for them. This
love of Christ is the love the husband is to have for his wife and family while
he is administering the role God placed upon him. Paul stated this in verse
twenty-four when he said, “But the church is subject to Christ, so also the
wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.” God ordains the leaders who
are then accountable to lead as Christ leads. Paul commanded this in verses
twenty-five to twenty-six, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also
loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her,
having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” In the dependent
clause of this statement, Paul taught that Christ died for the church to
sanctify her through His baptism of them, which came from His Gospel, the
message of salvation and faith. This does not mean husbands sanctify the wives.
Paul made sure to put the dependent clause after the action of Christ.
Remember, Paul used these relationship examples to help the Ephesians and us to
understand what godly submission is in regards to Christ.
Paul went further in his
theological teaching here about Christ and the church. He stated that Christ
sanctified the church so that “He might present to Himself the church in all her
glory, having no spot or wrinkle (sin or flaw) or any such thing, but that she would
be holy (hagios – a saint) and
blameless.” This washing of the church Paul spoke of by Christ is reminiscent
of the bathing in oils and perfumes a bride went through before her wedding day
in biblical times. Christ washed the church with His blood when each person
accepted His salvation, forgiveness, and Lordship. He made His bride, the
church, holy and blameless. Christ forgave her sins so that she was completely
clean so that she was a sweet aroma to the Groom, Christ. These verses speak of
Jesus’ work for the church. A husband cannot spiritually cleanse his wife the
same way Jesus cleanses the church, but he can take an active, caring interest
in his wife’s spiritual health, like the pastor or shepherd of the home. So
Paul said, “Husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies” like
Christ does His body, the church (vs. 28). “He who loves his own wife loves
himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,
just as Christ also does the church because we are members of His body” (vs. 28).
Paul went back to the focus being on Christ and His bride. He likened the
church of Christ being the bride and Jesus Christ as being the bridegroom. The
people understood this relationship and Paul told them how much Christ loved
them, His bride. In relation, they should love and cherish their wives so that the
submission is a sweet aroma and not an onerous command for the wife. God’s love
is what changes the relationships of humankind. What was once an enforced
relationship of taskmaster and servant became a voluntary, mutual love
relationship of mutual submission between both parties and God.
Before Paul continued with
the other two common types of relationships (parent and child and master and
slave), he reminded his hearers and readers of what he taught them. He reminded
them of what God ordained in Genesis 2:24, which says, “For this reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two
shall become one flesh.” Then, Paul restated what he taught just before, “This
mystery (about husband and wife in Genesis 2:24) is great, but I am speaking
with reference to Christ and the church (emphasis is mine).” The
relationship between Christ and the church consists of the Spirit, faith, and a
natural bond like husband and wife. Paul stated that he taught about Christ and
His relationship to His bride using this example of the renewed husband and
wife relationship. Paul pointed them back to the theme of this section of his
letter, Christ and His bride. This husband wife relationship shows that Jesus
wants more than just an external surface relationship. He wants to be one with
us, His bride. Additionally, it shows that Jesus was, in a sense, incomplete
without us (remember God created us to be in a relationship with Him), just as
Adam was incomplete without Eve. Ephesians 1:23 says this of the church, His
body, the fullness of Him who fills every believers. These relationships of
husband and wife and Christ and the church show the common connection of unity
and oneness in the two relationships. Remember in chapter 4 and the beginning
of chapter 5, Paul spoke of unity and oneness in the church. He still spoke of
it here in this relationship of Christ to His church.
At the end of chapter 5, Paul
stated this renewed relationship by Christ in this way, “Nevertheless, each
individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself and the wife
must see to it that she respects her husband.” The key ingredient then, as Paul
stated, is love. The husband is to love his wife as himself. The word
translated "respect" in our language is the Greek word phobeo, which means to reverence/fear/be
in awe of someone. Reverence means to love and esteem someone. So, the wife must
love and esteem her husband. This renewing of the husband and wife relationship
comes by God through Jesus Christ’s salvation of humankind. The renewing
returns love to the relationship. To take this relationship back to Paul’s
point, the wife is synonymous with church, Christ’s bride, and Christ is the
bridegroom. The church must love Christ, which means each member must be
cherished and nurtured by the other members of the church and each member must
individually and jointly nourish and cherish the church and love Christ, the husband
of the church, as He loves us. By nurturing and cherishing members of the
church, Christians love Christ and submit to Him. Each of us must voluntarily
subject/submit ourselves to Him because of our love for Him, which comes from
His love for us.
This whole section is about
the church’s and each individual member’s relationship with Christ. Paul
arrived at this point as he explained how not to be taken in by false teachers.
He spoke to the Ephesians and “faithful followers” so they would grow and edify
each other, be unified, and grow in strength through their relationship with
God and each other. So, Paul stated the way to be imitators of God, as beloved
children, and walk in His love is not to be like the world, immoral, impure, and
greedy, speaking with obscene and foolish talk, and deceiving with empty words
and false teachings. Instead, walk as children of the Light in goodness,
righteousness, and truth by exposing everything to the light of God’s Word
through the Holy Spirit. In addition, be wise how you use your time and
understand what the will of the Lord is. Be in assembly and fellowship with
fellow Christians speaking and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual sons making
melody with your lips and heart to the Lord. Most importantly, be subject to
one another (other Christians) in the fear, reverence, and love of Christ.
This takes us to the point
of our own considerations now. Do you know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior?
Are you in a submissive relationship with Him founded on love? If you do not
know or know you are not, pray to God asking Him to show Himself to you. Speak
to a local Christian pastor about how to become a follower of Christ - be
renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self – and become joined
to Christ and His body in love, respect, and esteem living in submission to the
will of God.
What
do you need to do?
Ask
Jesus into your heart as the Savior of your soul and forgiver of your sin.
Ask
Him to show you a Christian church family where you can individually and jointly
be in relationship with Christ and be in submission to His will.
