Wives, submit to your husbands (Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians)

"Wives, submit to your husbands" sometimes seems like all that people, particularly men, get out of Ephesians.

Rather, Ephesians is rich in prose and the NIV translation flows almost like poetry at point.

We do not know when exactly Paul wrote the book, but the reference to himself being an "ambassador in chains" could be a reference to the times of his long imprisonments.  There were two that were recorded in Acts, both of which lasted two years.  The first was in Caesarea and the second was in Rome.

The first 4 1/2 chapters of the book cover similar ground as do the epistles to the Romans and Corinthians.  There, Paul talks about the plan and love of Jesus and also the importance of cleaning one's life from sin.

One thing I noticed, the discussions about living a sin-free life tend to focus on the present-tense and ongoing morality of the person, rather than the mitigating the effects of the prior sin.  For instance, he instructs thieves to "steal no longer" (4:28), but says nothing about paying restitution for what one has already stolen.

Perhaps Paul expects that a truly reticent heart will try to make amends and restitution at some level.  Alternatively, some things by their very nature can never be compensated and it is only grace of Christ that can do anything at all.

Looking back at the life of Christ, two examples of this dichotomy come to mind.  First, the tax man who decided to repay everyone he stole from four times what he took.  This was actually in accordance with the principles of restitution in the Old Testament law.  Jesus praised this man.  Other reformed thieves had different ideas on restitution, if any.

Second, the adulterous woman condemned to die, Jesus only told her to "go and sin no more".  Nothing to compensate the prior acts were required.

I do not have an answer to this.  I just note it as an observation.

Harmonious relationships

Ephesians 5-6 do not seem to stand for an authoritarian hierarchy, but rather balanced and proper relationships.

Wives submitting to their husbands has only context and meaning wherein the same husbands love their wives as Christ loves people.  

Likewise, children must obey their parents, but this is balanced with the context that the parents must not exacerbate their children.

Finally, slaves must obey their masters.  Since Ephesus is a Gentile city, we should probably infer that the context for this is the Roman form of slavery and not the form of Hebrew ownership "slavery"/indentured servitude that was instituted in the Old Testament.

 A few things come to mind from this.  First, this is not necessarily an implicit acceptance of any form of slavery.  Rather, Paul is not trying to upset the social order of things.  But the terms "slave" and "master" can easily be substituted with "employer/employee", "loaner/mortgagee" "police/civilian", or any social hierarchal situation.

Second, the contextual situation of slavery gives more context to the wives/husbands and children/parent relationships.  We do not accept Roman slavery today.  Just as social hierarchal standards change over time, so do the standards of other familial relationships.  The extent thereof should be considered.

The armor of God

This is another famous portion of Ephesians in that it stands out as unique among the epistles.  One on hand, this portion can make Christians sound belligerent.  However, the lynchpin in context is that the enemy is not human, but spiritual.  We need spiritual weapons and armor to fight it.

Ephesians 6 lays it out.  Where do we get it?  From prayer, as we remember from the Gospels that God will not withhold the Holy Spirit from those who ask. 

Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12)

In this chapter, Paul intermingles a discussion of the role of spiritual gifts with that the various roles within the church body.

On gifts, Paul starts by discussing the importance of the Holy Spirit.  In fact, everyone's faith starts with the Holy Spirit for no one can that "Jesus is Lord" without that faith coming from the Holy Spirit.

Having established the necessity of it, Paul then launches the famous list of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, power, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues).  All of these are given by the Holy Spirit as he determines.

Immediately after this, Paul uses the analogy of the human body to describe how each role within the church is indispensable to the church body itself.  Likewise, not everyone can play the same role and there must be diversity within the church body for it to function with health.

When I read this, I think of the various churches around the world that have a different cultural take on Christianity.  They do a lot of things differently - they play different music with different music, conduct services in different languages, do the Lord's Supper at different intervals, etc...but all of that is part of the church body and we cannot claim to be superior.

Likewise, the textual proximity to the Holy Spirit gifting suggests that the Paul anticipated that the churches would apply the Holy Spirit differently.  Some pursue the Holy Spirit more actively than others, while others stop at the initial faith declaration of Christ.

Paul concludes the chapter by discussing the various administrative roles of the people of church.  Interestingly, "apostles" are listed first, then prophets.  This could either mean that apostles are more important than prophets.  Alternatively, it could be a chronological list, but that would leave open the question of the Old Testament prophets that appeared before Jesus.

Looking ahead, it kind of raises an interesting question about church succession.  In particular, the Apostle John outlived the other Apostles, but he did so in exile on Patmos.  Did the church leadership pass to him, but yet he was in exile?

The Feast of Weeks (Acts 2)

The Feast of Weeks, otherwise known as Pentacost, was required under Exodus 34:22 and Leviticus 23:15-22.  Pentacost occurs 50 days after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.

Thus, Pentacost of Acts 2 occurred exactly seven weeks after Resurrection Sunday and probably a little over a week since Jesus ascended to heaven.

The entire congregation of about 120 members is gathered together "in one place".  So, wherever they normally gathered, this is probably where it happened.  This was probably not the temple in Jerusalem.

Suddenly, a sound of a mighty came rushing and what looked like fire appeared among the believers.  They began to speak in foreign languages which were understood by foreign visitors.

The speaking of foreign languages is a unifying aspect of the power of God and the Holy Spirit.  In fact, it reverses the confusion and disunity that occurred at the Tower of Babel.

This also parallels we the text in Leviticus 23 where Pentacost observance was detailed.  In between discussing Pentacost (the Spring harvest) and the Feast of Trumpets (the Fall harvest), God gives general details about how to harvest.   In 23:22, God says that they are not to harvest their fields to the edges, but leave the edges for the poor and foreigners.  

At leas with this textual proximity in the Leviticus, God associates his heart for foreigners with the  Day of Pentacost.  This is redeemed and fulfilled in the New Testament as God bridges he linguistic gap among people through the Holy Spirit.   

This equips the church to take to the Gospel to the ends of the earth, to all foreigners, everywhere.

Back to the story, Simon Peter stands up among the crowd what has happened.  He cites a prophecy of Joel 2:28-32 discussing the "last days" and interprets it to mean a time when the Spirit of God is given to all people, young and old, male and female, that they may see visions and dream dreams.  They will experience wondrous things, perhaps even disturbing and unexplainable, like the sun turning to darkness, fire, and blood.  But the Spirit of God must be released on people before the day of the Lord.

Peter then ties this to the ministry of Christ and salvation of all mankind.  He gives a long speech explaining that Christ was the Messiah.

After this testimony alongside the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, about 3,000 people become believers.  So, the church grew from about 120 to about 3,120 in a single day.

Based on this, what can we say about the Holy Sprit?  

Its presence can be analogized to fire or the sound of wind.  It can supernaturally give people the ability to speak other languages.  Based on Peter's interpretation of Joel 2 within the chapter, the Holy Spirit can produce dreams and visions.

Also, the "Last Days" perhaps started at Pentacost.  Other possibilities based on this text could be the Resurrection or Ascension of Christ.

The chapter ends with a discussion about the early church.  They met every day for prayer and Scripture and pooled their financial resources together to meet the needs of the group.