Several Bible scholars conclude that Ephesians is Paul’s most impersonal letter. Those scholars suggest that the letter might be addressed to Christians who live in the region surrounding Ephesus, not just the local church in that city. For me, as a disciple, it’s intriguing to think about the setting and realize that I can never know for sure the entire setting of this profound Scripture. If one expects everything in the Bible to be black and white, what intrigues me probably bothers such a person.
Anyway, the section we are looking at this week (Ephesians 5:21-6:9) is fairly specific. It’s not general doctrines which appear in so much of Ephesians, but specific instruction to husbands, wives, parents, children, masters and slaves. A legitimate question is: “What is this stuff doing in the book of Ephesians?” We won’t be dealing with it verse by verse, but rather gleaning from it another ripple-making idea. I will say the specific instructions to those husbands, wives, parents, children, masters and slaves are as radical for that society as anything anyone ever wrote in all the Bible. We won’t be analyzing all of that. We used a great deal of that information last spring when we had the relationship sermons that are still available on our website.
What strikes me this time about this section of Ephesians is how important my wife, my children, my co-workers and friends are to me. These are the people I rub shoulders with the most. The easiest place for me to make a ripple in my world is with them. Where’s the easiest place for you to make a ripple? Can you think of specific people who you know really well, who need what you have to offer? Now that you have that possibility in mind, are you going to do something about that?
