Week 49 Ephesians 1-3
Thinking back a couple of days I remember that my Ephesians Task had two parts. Part One: see if Paul wrote about one single idea. Part Two: see if he could stay on-track and avoid tangents.
So far it’s looking to me like Ephesians 1-3 concentrates on the Lord’s Plan – to invite all non-Jewish people into the family of God. So now I’m taking time for a quick re-read to see whether Paul stayed on-track.
I think that Paul does more-or-less stick with the topic of The Plan. But I see two exceptions. The first one is the last paragraph of chapter one where Paul inserts a prayer for the Ephesians. The second one is another prayer that ends chapter three.
To me these seem like definite getting-off-topic sections. Paul is not talking about The Plan. But there’s two things I think about this.
First I have to admit that Paul Did Not Stay On Topic in these two passages. No two-ways-about-it.
But the second thing is this. When I was looking for Paul to go off-script I was thinking about him discussing the topic of – let’s say – elephants…but then suddenly turning a corner and talking about chihuahuas. But I think that’s a bit different than inserting these two prayers into the letter.
So for now I’m cutting Paul some slack. Did he go off-topic? Yes. But not totally. It’s more like he was adding a footnote and not starting a brand new chapter.
Note: prayer #1 Ephesians 1:15-23 & #2 3:14-21