Showing posts with label Ephesians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ephesians. Show all posts

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ephesians Overview


As I have explained in the past, one of the reasons I am doing this blog is I am curious to see what kind of messages one might get from reading the bible. What might one learn as a take-away. Here is my quick summary of the good and bad from Ephesians.

(note: the chapter link takes you to my page on that chapter, the verse link takes you to the verse on biblestudytools.com)

Good:

2:8-9 Don't boast about being among the saved

4:2 encourages humility, gentleness, and patience

4:25 Don't lie

4:31-32 avoid bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander. Be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving.

5:1-2 Imitate the best things about Jesus

6:1-4 Encourage families to get along


Bad:

1:5,11 Who is and isn't a Christian is predestined by God (note: this is bad because of hell)

4:19,22 If you are not a Christian you are evil

5:3,5 encourages fear and repression of sex

5:4 no dirty jokes

5:18 no wine

5:22-23 misogynist garbage

6:5-9 slavery is fine as long as masters stop threatening their slaves


Noteworthy: (I'm not sure if this fits in good or bad, but I might want to reference it later)

4:26-27 don't go to bed angry

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Ephesians 6

Children and Parents (v.1-4)

Children, obey your parent. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but instead bring them up in the lord.

This is good, kids should obey their parents for the most part. Typically kids don't know what the hell is going on and parents can help them. The more they grow and learn and can think for themselves and protect themselves the less it seems important that they obey. It's also interesting to see what is deemed important enough to write down as a rule. What does it say about a society where you need to tell fathers not to provoke their children to anger? Finally, it is interesting that they don't address the mothers, just another sign that this was written by/for a misogynistic society.

I want to put something of this in the good part of the overview, but I am not completely sure what to write. I have been thinking of this project from the perspective of an adult, so the fact that it instructs the child to obey their parents doesn't really fit into the box I'm using here, but in general it is a good thing. Also, telling the father not to provoke their children is good, but just saying it implies it is not completely obvious and it makes me feel dirty considering it a good thing. I think I'll just put a blanket thing for both ideas.

Slaves and Masters (v. 5-9)

Slaves should obey their masters as they would obey Christ. Don't just give lip service, instead obey from your heart. Know that whether slave or free you will receive back what you give from the lord. Masters, stop threatening your slaves, know that he who is master to both of you is in heaven.

Well, here is slavery in the new testament. Does it say that slavery is bad and people shouldn't own each other? Nope! It says that slaves should obey their masters with all their hearts and that masters should stop threatening their slaves. If this was a book written by God, the perfect moral authority on everything, then why is the mention of slavery just that you should stop threatening your slaves? You might say that at the time slaves were treated badly and this was a step up. Perhaps this is true, however, just like yesterday with husbands and wives, even if this is true it makes for an interesting historical study, but it is not a moral authority for modern times.

The Whole Armor of God (v. 10-20)

There is much evil in this day, so put on your armor of God so you can fight back. The armor consists of

  • belt of truth
  • breastplate of righteousness
  • gospel of peace for your shoes?
  • shield of faith
  • helmet of salvation
  • sword of the spirit
Pray at all times so that when necessary, the words will come to you so you can boldly proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

I remember this stuff from Sunday school, they would talk about these things and they had props and everything. I was too young to really understand what a metaphor was and I remember this confusing the hell out of me.

Final Greetings (v.21-24)

I have sent Tychicus the beloved brother to you to encourage you in the lord.

Nothing to see here.


For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation) 

Good:

6:1-4 Encourage families to get along

Bad:

6:5-9 slavery is fine as long as masters stop threatening their slaves

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Ephesians 5

Walk in Love (v. 1-21)

This section seems to boil down to a big list of things to do and not do. I had trouble boiling them down like I usually try to do, so I'm pretty much just going to hit them one at a time here.

v. 1-2: Try to imitate God, he was so loving he was willing to sacrifice himself for them.

This is good, care about other people and try to imitate the best things about Jesus. The people who often get labeled as "good Christians" often follow this kind of advice. Taken too far these people can be easily taken advantage of, but apart from that this is good stuff.

v. 3: You should not be sexually immoral, impure, or covetous. Don't do anything that would not be proper for a saint.

Depending on what you mean by sexually immoral and impure, this might be decent advice, but the way that this kind of stuff seems to be taken by my religious people it goes way too far. People are basically afraid of sex, and that is a shame. Sleeping around can have plenty of bad consequences, apart from diseases and unwanted children, it can just be bad for you emotionally, but a healthy sex life is a good thing.

v. 4: Don't be filthy, nor engage in foolish talk or crude joking.

I don't understand this, is bad language really that big of a deal? I absolutely love dirty jokes and crude humor. It doesn't hurt anybody, what is the problem?

v. 5: Anyone who is sexually immoral, impure, or an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Now this is interesting, if you do those things you don't get into heaven. But I thought the only thing that mattered was faith. So if I am sexually immoral but I also have faith do I get into heaven? This verse seems to say no.

v. 6-10 Don't let those with empty words deceive you. Do not become partners with the sons of disobedience, walk in the light not the darkness. Try to discern what is pleasing to the lord.

Good things are light, bad things dark, got it.

v. 11-14 Don't take part in the works of darkness but instead expose them. It is shameful to even speak of what they do in secret, expose it to the light.

If you can't even speak of it how the hell are you supposed to expose it? If it is so shameful that speaking of it is bad I assume we aren't supposed to be exposing the actual act to literal light.

v. 15-16 Walk like the wise, make the best use of time because the days are evil.

What does that mean? I'm just confused here.

v. 18-20 Do not get drunk with wine, that is debauchery, instead give thanks for everything and sing song and hymns and psalms.

First of all, how is singing a replacement for drinking? Seems to me that the two go hand in hand. Second, didn't Jesus turn water to wine? I think that should be a ringing endorsement that drinking is a fine thing to do.

Wives and Husbands (v. 22-33)

Wives submit to your husband as to the lord. The husband is the head of the wive as Jesus is the head of the church. Husbands love your wives as Jesus loves the church. If you love your wife you love yourself for the two of you are one.

I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone, but this came from a male dominated society. This is obviously terrible. The man is supposed to love the woman and she is supposed to submit to him? Just terrible. Some might argue that given the surrounding society, this was progress, this was better than women of the time would often get so it should be seen as progressive. Let's assume that is true, does it follow that we should use this book for our morality today? Hell no!



For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation) 

Good:


5:1-2 Imitate the best things about Jesus

Bad:

5:3,5 encourages fear and repression of sex

5:4 no dirty jokes

5:18 no wine

5:22-23 misogynist garbage

Monday, September 10, 2012

Ephesians 4

Unity in the Body of Christ (v. 1-16)

I am a prisoner of the lord and urge you to walk in a manner worthy of his calling. That is, with humility, gentleness, and patience.

I'm not sure the purpose of the 'prisoner of the lord' statement, it sounds pretty negative to me. But apart from that, this is a good message.

God created the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers so the saints could learn from them and build the body of Christ. Their goal is for us to all join together in Christ and mature so we don't have to follow the doctrine of man, but instead work together in Christ. Christ is the head and we are the body.

This is another one of those passages that I don't necessarily find offensive or anything, but it is really weird. God created all of those people primarily for the benefit of the saints, this is a strange idea. And the idea of us being the body and Christ being the head is also weird. To me, it implies that we can't do our own bidding, but instead just have to follow instructions given from Christ. This seems to fit well into the ideas of us being slaves to Christ, so I don't think I'm being unfair in interpreting it that way, but it seems really bad to me. Why do people want to follow a faith that makes them slaves?

The New Life (v. 17-32)

You must no longer act as the gentiles do. They are separated from God and have given themselves to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But this is not what it is like to be in Christ, put away you former life of corruption and deceitful desires. Instead be renewed in the spirit.

Fuck that! This basically says if you are not a Christian you are a piece of shit. If you are a gentile then clearly you want to practice impurity and your life is full of corruption and deceitful desires. This message is absolute poison. I try to line up the good vs the bad in these pages, but it really isn't that simple. A lot of the time the bad stuff cancels out the good. If you tell people they should be nice to everyone, but then also tell them that people who aren't like them are evil pieces of shit, then in a lot of cases the "be nice to people" part will fall away when dealing with an out group.

Do not lie.

This is good, I guess it should get a mention in the summary.

Be angry but do not sin, don't let the sun go down on your anger, don't give the devil the opportunity.

Now this is interesting, I'm not sure if this is actually all that good of advice. There are definitely times when it is important to hash things out and not let them fester, but there are also times when it is to everyone's benefit for everyone to cool off. There are certainly times that I get all worked up over something that doesn't really matter. Part of me knows that it doesn't actually matter, and yet I'm angry about it. Why get in a fight over something that doesn't matter when I can just sleep on it and in the morning I won't care? As often happens, real answers require some nuance, blanket rules like this can lead to problems.

Do not speak 'corrupting talk'. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander be put away from you.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, and forgiving.

I like that it tells people not to talk shit. It also tells people to be nice and forgiving. It also says to stay away from those bad things.

For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation) 


Good: 

4:2 encourages humility, gentleness, and patience

4:25 Don't lie

4:31-32 avoid bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander. Be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving.

Bad:

4:19,22 If you are not a Christian you are evil

Noteworthy: (I'm not sure if this fits in good or bad, but I might want to reference it later)

4:26-27 don't go to bed angry

Friday, September 7, 2012

Ephesians 3

The Mystery of the Gospel Revealed (v.1-13)

Paul was made to understand through revelation that gentiles are eligible to take part in the gospel through Jesus. God gave him the job of preaching to the gentiles, he is the least of the saints.

So basically Paul is saying that he is bringing the gentiles into the fold. He is basically saying to the people he is talking to that they are also eligible for heaven. I think he was trying to be humble when he said he was the least of the saints, but it was right next to a line about how he is in charge of bringing gentiles to Christ, so it almost reads like it is a dig at them. I don't think that is the intention or anything, but it did make me laugh.

Prayer for Spiritual Strength (v.14-21)

This basically just says that everyone should pray for strength.


Thursday, September 6, 2012

Ephesians 2

By Grace Through Faith (v. 1-10)

You used to do bad things just like everybody else, but now you walk with Christ because God loves you and showed mercy on you. You have been saved through faith, but it is not your own doing. God loved you and created you in a way that you would follow Christ and be saved, so you shouldn't boast about it.

The idea that you shouldn't boast about being among the saved seems very good, from either perspective. If you are an outsider and the Christians are constantly boasting, they will likely come off as jerks, being around a bunch of people like that can be very troublesome. From the Christian perspective, if you are boasting you might turn potential converts away which would be bad for you. So in either case, encouraging Christians to not be boastful seems like a good thing.

Another thing here, this says that God made you in such a way that you are saved because "you are his workmanship" and he loves you. But he created you in such a way that you will be saved before you existed. This seems very strange to me because there do exist people who will not be saved, so does that imply that he does not love them? Is his workmanship not as good in them? He knew all of that before he created them right? So why did he still create the "lower quality" people? Not sure if I'd exactly call this a contradiction or anything, but it is certainly something to think about.

One in Christ (v. 11-22)

We used to be divided, circumcised and uncircumcised, but now we are together in Christ. Jesus preached peace to everyone.

I guess it is a good message, we should all work together. Although this isn't so much a command as it is a declaration. It also seems quite incorrect, look at the huge number of different denominations, they are certainly divided on many issues, and we see a problem with faith based stuff, there is no real way to reconcile a disagreement. "I believe X and you believe Y, we both believe it because of faith so there is no convincing each other...uhh...kill each other?" Also, it is simply incorrect that Jesus taught peace to everyone.



For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation) 

Good:

2:8-9 Don't boast about being among the saved

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Ephesians 1

This is apparently another letter from Paul, although according to the Wikipedia article there is some debate that it might be a Paul groupie.

Greeting (v1-2)

Paul says hi and wishes the Ephesians grace from God.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ (v3-14)

Blessed be to God who has saved us. He predestined us since before the creation of the world to be followers of Christ and to be blessed.

This seems to be one of those things that is only good if you don't think about it too hard. It might sound great to be predestined to be one of the lucky ones. But then what about anyone who doesn't follow Christ? Doesn't it follow that they were also predestined to not follow him? You are basically being rewarded and they are being punished because of a decision God made long before you were even born. Even if you try to justify it by saying they are sinners and you are not, it still comes down to the fact that God decided before the earth was created that you would be saved (and therefore didn't sin) and they would not (and therefore did sin).

Thanksgiving and Prayer(v15-23)

Paul says that he is happy at the Ephesians faith and then talks about how awesome God is.



For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation) 

Bad:

1:5,11 Who is and isn't a Christian is predestined by God (note: this is bad because of hell)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...