Notes on the Book of Ephesians
Taken at a Bible Study Led by Walt Henrichsen
In San Francisco, 19-23 March 2007
Table of Contents
Chapter 5 1
Outline of chapters 5 and 6 1
Self-sacrifice and love (5:1,2) 2
Covetousness and fornication (5:3,5) 3
Humor and laughter (5:4) 4
Relating to people with empty words (5:6,7) 4
Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord (5:10) 4
Redeeming the Time (5:16) 4
Thoughts on the velocity of life today 5
Dealing with impurity in a society without shame (5:11,12) 6
Singing to the Lord (5:19) 6
Mutual submission and family relationships (5:21) 6
Submit in relationships out of fear of God (5:21) 7
Fearing God vs. respecting God 7
Fearing God and pleasing the Lover of your soul 8
Children obey your parents (6:1) 8
Fear is essential in society and in your relationship with God 8
Lee Yih’s story of fearing God at a big meal 9
Cultivating fear 9
Mutual submission (5:21) 9
Trouble-shooting the wife not in submission to her husband (5:22) 10
Exercising headship 0.01% of the time 10
Certain things have got to be true for your wife to be in submission to you 10
The evolution of the role of women in society 11
Husbands must protect their wives 12
Wives in the marketplace 12
“Cleanse her with the washing of water with the Word” (5:26) 12
Ideas on discipling your family 13
The mystery of Christ and the Church (5:32) 13
Chapter 5
Outline of chapters 5 and 6
· 5:1-14 free from vice
· 5:15-21 filled with the Spirit
· 5:22-33 family relationships
· 6:1-3 family relationships continued
· 6:11-18 fighting the devil
Self-sacrifice and love (5:1,2)
Q: In 5:1,2 is there a difference between offering and sacrifice?
· Offering – after the harvest; sacrifice – blood
Q: Does the Bible tell us whether or not God enjoyed the smell of burnt offerings?
· Gen 8:20-22 – Noah offered burnt offerings … and the Lord smelled the soothing aroma …
· A sacrifice is an extreme form of obedience.
· In Isaiah 1 He said your offerings are odious, because your heart is not with Me.
· I suggest the thing that makes it sweet smelling is that He gave Himself.
· It was a freely given sacrifice. And Paul said it was an odor that God enjoyed.
Q: What is the relationship between loving as Christ loved us and self-sacrifice?
Q: Is all love is sacrificial? Is that the definition of love?
· No. It’s not always but sometimes it’s expressed as such.
· Jn. 12:24 – kernel of wheat must die.
· Eros love is not in the Bible; it’s antithetical to all love of the Bible
Q: Does agape love require sacrifice?
· Does every act of love toward your wife require sacrifice?
· Example: if I have 2 billion dollars and give 1 million to someone, it may or may not require sacrifice.
· If a person does not sacrifice, though, you won’t feel he really loves you.
Q: If your next-door neighbor sees you downtown, and you offer him a ride home, is that an act of love?
· Yes.
Q: Where’s the sacrifice?
· A spoonful of gas.
· It becomes a sacrifice when you are not in agreement.
Q: Would you say that man’s agape love for his wife is not natural?
· Sacrifice by definition has an expectation of return.
· So love seeks the best good of another and does not expect returned benefits from that person.
· In your part of the world, to give a gift when visiting a home is appropriate,
but it must be proportional so that the person does not feel obligated to give more than planned.
· Thus, to give sacrificially may not necessarily be in love. It is just fulfilling an obligation.
· The question is not can love be sacrificial. The question is does it have to be?
Q: Don’t you have to have the Spirit [to agape]?
· Are you suggesting that the non-Christian cannot agape?
· The pagan mother who protects her child at great cost, maybe even her own life – how is such a thing possible?
Q: Does agape just mean seeking someone else’s good or is there a divine element?
· The former.
Q: Then if the pagan does that with her child, then what is it?
· She would say it’s motherhood.
· John 15:13 – greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for a friend or daughter.
· A non-Christian cannot live a life of perpetual self-sacrifice, because that requires an eternal hope.
· But he/she can love sacrificially.
Covetousness and fornication (5:3,5)
Q: In 5:3,5 Paul says basically the same thing. Why do you think he does that – cover it twice?
· Verse 5 gives the reason for verse 3 – they will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
· Emphasizing the importance of the content.
Q: Is there always a link between fornicators, unclean, covetous and idolaters?
· Yes, these things keep you out of the kingdom.
· One thing is for sure: illicit sex is an environment in which all three meet.
· That is, if I have sex outside marriage, then I am a fornicator, I am impure and I am a covetous man.
· The three are not synonyms, but when you commit the first, you commit the other two.
Q: What is the difference between desire and coveting?
· Coveting is wanting something that is not your own. Desiring can be legitimate.
· Remember, because God wants you to have a temporal hope, coveting is one of the most difficult sins to identify in your life.
· In this case [5:3,5], it is bad because I am desiring that which God expressly forbids.
· Because covetousness is not identified by the senses, as Paul says in Rom. 7:7,
it is one vice that most Christians in the Church call a virtue.
· Note also that covetousness and competition are not synonyms, but they live in the same house.
· Most competition is covetousness. That’s why you see grown men cry.
· They coveted the prize, and they missed it.
· Covetousness is another word for ambition.
· Godly ambition: if it’s to be His obedient slave, then there’s no problem.
· The line between covetousness and temporal hope is real but invisible.
Q: Is it a matter of motivation rather than what you desire?
· I don’t know.
· I encourage all of you to have an agreement with God, “I’m going to ask You for everything – [because James 4:2 says] ‘you ask not, because you have not’, but I beg You not to give it unless You want me to have it. Don’t grant me my request and send leanness to my soul!”
Q: Why does he repeat [the mention of fornication and covetousness in] 5:3,5?
· The same reason he repeat the commands to the husband – because we are such slow learners.
Q: Is the idolatry related to all three or just the 3rd?
· I think the first two [fornication and all uncleanness] are manifestations of the third [covetousness].
· In the Greek and RSV it seems they all are.
Q: Can you give me an illustration of illicit sex that is not covetousness?
· If forced to at gunpoint.
Q: When a man gives himself to impurity – pornographic literature, for example – is that or is it not covetousness?
· It is, because if you are not content with what God has given you, there’s no need to.
· If I have such a hard time drawing the line between temporal hope and covetousness,
then why would I want to do something that is obviously covetousness?
Q: How would you advise a guy who is looking at Internet pornography?
· If a man says to you, “I’m a follower of Christ, but I do not love my wife, and I care not what the Bible says about it,” then in this case, you discipline him, because he tells you [he’s a willfully sinner].
· But in other cases you cannot tell a man he doesn’t love his wife.
Humor and laughter (5:4)
Q: 5:4 says to not have silly talk / coarse talking and jesting / levity / humorous pleasantries intended to be humorous but silly. Who are some people in the Bible who come to your mind when you want to illustrate laughing?
· Ps. 2:4 – God laughs here and in other psalms and proverbs
· But in every instance it is an act of derision [the use of ridicule or scorn to show contempt, despising]
Q: Can a man be in excruciating pain and rejoice?
· Mt. 5:11,12 – “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad”
[“when reviled … b/c great is your reward in heaven”].
· [Gen. 18:12] – Sarah laughed in unbelief [when she heard the Lord say she would have a son].
· It’s interesting how little laughing, jesting and joking have a play in scripture.
· Lk. 6:21 – “Blessed are you who weep (klaio in Greek – mourn, lament), for one day you shall laugh”
· Ecc. 2:1-2 laughter makes a man mad and lose his sanity.
· 5:4 is not talking about innocent humor but using obscene speech to cheer others up.
· It’s possibly related to 3:3,5 – which are related to immoral uncleanness.
· I have no problem with laughter or joking unless the Bible prohibits it.
· Sometimes humor can help people when they are tense to relax and not worry too much.
· Yep. God knows I laugh.
Relating to people with empty words (5:6,7)
Q: What does Paul mean in 5:6 by “empty words / vain words”?
· Words of no purpose
· Be careful. He says in 5:7, “Do not be partakers with these people.”
· I think Paul does not mean separation, but emulation.
Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord (5:10)
Q: What does 5:10 mean?
· Prove / test (dokimos in Greek) what is acceptable to the Lord
· It’s best for us to test everything that comes into our lives, to ask God Almighty in a spirit of brokenness and dependence, “Is this really where You want me to be spending my time?”
· I don’t think anyone can answer that for another man unless he gets into filth,
but it’s a question we have to ask ourselves.
Redeeming the Time (5:16)
· 5:16 – “Redeem the time because the days are evil.”
· Pr. 6:6 says, “Go to the ant you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise.”
· But we see a greater emphasis on not wasting time in the NT, than there is in the OT.
Q: [Rom. 13:12] “The night is far spent, the day is at hand,” so buy up the opportunities – why is that?
· Because the end times are near – like the readiness of the 10 virgins
Q: Do you think the readiness of the 10 virgins had to do with time usage?
· Not in terms of day-to-day living, but how we live our lives, not taking time for granted.
· 1 Cor 7:29 – Time is short, so husbands with wives should live as if they had none.
Q: Do you remember when the watch or clock was invented [or when it became widely used]?
· The railroad – prior to that there were [virtually] no clocks.
· Only when railroads came into existence did people need to strictly follow a schedule.
· Today, time is money.
Thoughts on the velocity of life today
· It increases your margin for error. Ex: bicycle at 10 vs. 100 mph.
· It gives you a false sense of accomplishment. One of my many weaknesses is to fight the feeling that I'm less than productive if I’m like going to the airport than otherwise.
· It is addicting, like a narcotic. It gives you a high.
· It distorts your perception of reality. I was going to the airport after a conference with a guy in his pickup truck, and he was going 80mph with one hand behind the seat. He had completely distorted reality – didn't know how fast he was going. The smallest mistake would mean disaster.
· Remember, go, go, go does not mean grow, grow, grow.
· Whenever I visited HK, I always came always having the feeling that they had defined velocity in a whole new way.
· All it does is ratchet up expectations.
· My dad used to do business in San Francisco.
· It took him 3-4 days to get a contract, a few days to read it, then 3-4 days to send it back.
· Now, people fax it to you in the morning and expect you to send it back before lunch.
· That’s why psychiatric units getting more and more busy.
· Whatever redeeming the time looks like, it must include doing those things that you know you need to do.
Q: Could it not also be too much time in the Bible?
· We are at this table free men, so how we spend our time is a reflection of our values.
· Every man has time for things that he thinks are important to him.
Q: Why is redeeming time tied with the fact that the days are evil?
· We live in the U.S. in an entertainment-crazed society. Increasingly, silence is a luxury.
· When I travel and I meet a guy, and he turns the ignition on, almost always the radio is on.
· Men do not want to be alone with their thoughts.
· One guy said men don’t want to think. So many people want to be fed.
· One brother: If I don’t grab the opportunity, I won’t be wise, so I set priorities.
· None of us should succumb to the temptation to allow circumstances to rule our lives.
Q: Why is it opportunity – kairos – opportunity at the appropriate time?