Week 49 Ephesians 4-6
I have two conclusions about Ephesians 1-3.
Conclusion #1 is that Paul did have one Big Idea in these chapters (it was that Non-Jewish People would not be Outsiders any more).
Conclusion #2 is that I think Paul stayed pretty much on topic for those three chapters.
But things are looking quite a bit different in chapters 4-5-6. I would title Ephesians 4-6: Advice About How I Should Live My Life.
The first half of that section (51 verses) lists Things to Do & Things to Avoid and each of those things are subdivided into either Specific Directives or General Principles.
By Specific Directives I mean things like this:
be patient with each other
stop stealing
get rid of all anger, harsh words, and slander.
I found about 30 of those explicit rules.
General Principles aren’t so definite:
lead a life worthy of your calling
follow God’s example in everything you do
be careful how you live.
There are eight or ten of those guidelines.
(Then there’s another whole 22-verse section about how relationships in a social hierarchy are supposed to work. Lots of people think hierarchies are dinosaurian but my bigger concern is: where is Paul going with this? Does it relate?)
The long-and-short is that things are breaking-up on me now. My Prime Directive was to see a) if Paul had One Big Idea and b) if he stuck with it. Right now it looks likes the answers are: a) likely and b) doubtful.
Note: quotes from Ephesians 4:2 28 31 & 4:1 5:1 15 (NLT)