All Paul Fall #7: Ephesians
This is Part 7 of a 13-part series of brief reflections on the letters of Paul. These reflections are part of the Saturday Morning Prayer service for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral’s Facebook Live Ministry.
You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.
God has given his grace to each one of us measured out by the gift that is given by Christ. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments.
Ephesians 4:4-7, 11-15 (Common English Bible)
Living up to your call.
One of the important themes of Ephesians is the concept of God’s call to us as Christians. Paul emphasizes that every Christian receives some sort of work, some sort of ministry, to which they are called. Being “called into hope” and being incorporated into the Body of Christ means that you will be playing some role in Christ’s redemptive work in the world. And Paul emphasizes that God gives gifts of grace to every person to strengthen their ministry. Not everyone receives the same gift, but everybody receives a gift and a ministry. Every gift of grace is intended to strengthen, grow, and — above all — unify the church.
Truth, certainty, and constancy.
Paul is encouraging the church at Ephesus to take these gifts that they have received seriously. The gifts of grace that God gives is supposed to encourage us to mature and grow as Christians. So Paul reminds his church that they need to become mature enough to recognize the truth and to stand firm in it. When they received the grace of baptism, that should have been the starting point of a life-long growth process. This growth and maturation would have helped the church to resist false teaching, trickery, and lies that might derail their faith. Paul says, in effect: “God has given you the grace to see the truth. Now, start speaking the truth and living the truth, as mature Christians — the more you do that, the less you can be influenced by false teaching.
The stuff I left out.
Now, we don’t have the opportunity to read the entire letter in our worship service, so I have to mention some of the things that I left out. Ephesians has a lot of statements that many of us will find challenging. “Slaves, obey your masters.” “Wives, submit to your husbands.” “Vulgar jokes are not acceptable for believers.” Uh-oh.
These are difficult teachings because they don’t necessarily accord with values that we hold dear. It can be hard to hear the Bible urging slaves to obey their masters, or for wives to be submissive, or for seminarians to stop telling dirty jokes. These statements might not accord with the way we believe Christians should behave. In fact, they don’t necessarily accord with other things that Paul has said: “in Christ there is no slave or free, no male or female” — and even “season your speech with salt.” These contradictions have led some scholars to question whether Paul really wrote Ephesians.
Now, we don’t have time to fully examine all of these passages. But just know that they are out there, and always be on your guard for statements that might be taken out of context. Paul has spilled a lot of ink about unity and equality — so when someone quotes these sort of divisive statements from Paul, remember to keep them in context and take them with a grain of salt.
Growing into Christ.
Having said that, the theme of Ephesians is clear: Christians must grow into their role as members of Christ’s body. Hearing the truth and speaking the truth will help us become more Christ-like, and will help the church in its process of incorporating individual members into Christ’s body. Again, Paul talks about specific anatomical functions: muscles, ligaments, flesh, and so on — Paul’s “body theology” is present and at work again in Ephesians. Just as our physical bodies grow strong muscles and sound ligaments the more we exercise, so also can we obtain spiritual fitness by speaking the truth and exercising the gifts of grace that God has given us.
