Wives, Children, Slaves — Andrew Forrest

My apologies for missing last Friday’s post—I preach every Thursday evening, and I was focused on that and just totally forgot about the Friday post. Today’s post will actually cover from Friday through tomorrow, since it’s all the same long topic. (So, there will NOT be a separate post tomorrow on Ephesians.)

Today’s Ephesians Reading: Ephesians 5:21-6:9

This entire passage is a further commentary on Paul’s command in 5:18: “Be filled with the Spirit.” What does it look like for us to be filled with the Spirit in context of our everyday relationships? That’s what this long and controversial passage is about.

I taught an hour-long Bible study on this entire passage a few weeks ago, and I’ve included the video below.

Ephesians Bible Study Part 2.mp4 from Munger Place Church on Vimeo.

But, if you don’t want to watch the video, I think Tim Mackey’s overview on this passage is helpful:

“Ephesians 5:21-6:9 fits the literary form of a well-known Greco-Roman tradition, where a patriarch is informed of his responsibility to order his household as a miniature Roman Empire.
“By speaking directly to wives, children, slaves, Paul is giving them a level of status and dignity that they did not have in the Greco-Roman culture of the day.”

“Tim points out that Paul was not a social revolutionary. At least, that wasn’t his goal. Rather, Paul is an apocalyptic imaginary, imagining life as the new humanity. In that way he is radical! Paul is on a mission to help people live out the radically equalizing nature of grace. It's God's grace that levels the playing field, and to live out that grace in a consistent way takes an apocalyptic imagination. For Paul, this isn’t socialism or anarchy. This is the new world order.”

What would it look like for you to live into the New Creation today?