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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

Week 49  Ephesians 2-3

I made a mistake a couple of days ago when I thought I’d nailed down Paul’s Big Idea in Ephesians: that the Lord had a Plan.
It’s not that the Lord did Not have a Plan. He definitely had a plan. My mistake was thinking that since I knew there was a Plan that that’s all I needed to know. Now as I keep reading I’m seeing that Paul intention is to spell out the content of The Plan.
He plainly says: and this is the secret plan: The Gentiles have an equal share with the Jews. Which is pretty novel. The OT story is that there’s a select group of people (Jewish people) – Insiders. Everyone else is an Outsider.
Now Paul is explaining how The Plan has taken a turn. He tells his Ephesian-Gentile audience about a Before & After.
Before you were:
outsiders by birth
living apart
excluded
without God
But now:
you belong…
There’s peace between us
We’re all one people
There’s no more wall of hostility
the whole system of exclusion is over
The Plan was to make peace between Jewish & non-Jewish people
Now we’re all reconciled to God
All of us…may come to the Father
Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners
They’re citizens
They’re members of God’s family.
The OT was a story of separation.
The NT – the Secret Plan Revealed – is about incorporation.

Note: quotes from Ephesians 3:6 & 2:11 12a 12b 15 12c 13 14a 14b 15a 15b 16a 18 19a 19b 19c 20 (NLT)

Week 49  Ephesians 2

In chapter 2 Paul gives a short description of what things were like in The State of Things Before Christ: once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil — the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
I spent about eight months this year reading the 39 Books of the OT – all of them written during The State of Things Before Christ – written in what Paul would call the once-you-were-dead time. A long time of waiting. Biding time. Sitting-tight until Christ arrived.
It’s not like the centuries were a complete waste of time. There was the Abraham family. Egypt & the Exodus. The Promised Land. The Judges and then the Kings. The Collapse of Kingdoms. Exile and Return from Exile. A lot of things going on. Quite a few people finding the Lord even in that preliminary & prototypical & preparatory & cooling-their-heels test-case scenario that was The State of Things Before Christ. A long time of disconnect when things were flying apart.
But Christ came and things started to slowly be reconstructed.

Note: quote from Ephesians 2:1-3 (NLT)

Week 49  Ephesians 1

My goal in re-reading Ephesians was to see if Paul had one single idea (an Ephesians Focal-Point). Something he talked about through the whole letter. (I also wanted to see if he could talk about that thing without wandering too far off-track.)
Yesterday it looked to me like Paul’s Big Idea was The Lord’s Plan. I felt okay with it and left it at that. But today I’m seeing that The Plan has a lot of moving parts. For instance one element of The Plan was that at some future time the Lord would: bring everything together under the authority of Christ.
I wonder for a bit about what that meant. For one thing I think it’s saying that Before Christ everything was Not Together. That things in-heaven-&-earth were Not Unified. That things were in a state of dividedness or fragmentation or differentiation or friction. That things weren’t consolidated or homogeneous. That the world was a busted-to-pieces Humpty Dumpty place from Genesis to Malachi. Israel. Egypt. Asia. The states of Africa & India & the East. The Americas. All of them in a state of Fracturization.
It’s like there’s two temporal episodes: a) The State of Things Before Christ and b) the State of Things After Christ. In The State of Things Before Christ everything was disconnected. And in the State of Things After Christ? God has put all things under the authority of Christ. A reconsolidation.

Note: quotes from Ephesians 1:10 22 (NLT)

Week 49  Ephesians 1

I’m looking to find Paul’s Central Idea in Ephesians. My basic rule-of-thumb was: if Paul keeps repeating the same idea then that’s probably his Central Idea.
So I’m not too far into the first chapter before I start to see Paul focusing on what he calls the plan. He referred to it half a dozen times (sometimes calling it ‘the plan’ and other times the Lord’s decision or purpose or promise). The Plan seemed to fall off the table in chapter two (boo). But then Paul started talking about it again (maybe another half-dozen times) in chapter three (yay).
The Plan was a long-term purpose that the Lord had. For a lonnnng-time The Plan wasn’t obvious. But – says Paul – God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago…This is his plan: at the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ. Paul expanded on it a bit later: and this is the secret plan: the Gentiles have an equal share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God’s children…Both are part of the same body.
I’m starting to think that The Plan might be my key to Ephesians 1-3. So now I have to a) confirm that The Plan is Paul’s Central Idea. And b) I have to see if Paul sticks with his Central Idea from start-to-finish.

Note: quotes from Ephesians 1:9-10 & 3:6-7 (NLT)

Week 49  Ephesians

I decided to look a bit more carefully at Ephesians this year. It’s not like I have a bunch of extra time but I’ve been wondering about Paul’s writing style. His habit seems to be: a) start writing about something but then b) charge off in some other direction. It might make perfect sense to him. But I’m left wondering.
So anyway I thought I’d use Ephesians as a test case to see if Paul did – or didn’t – stick to a single central idea.
One thing I see right away is that the letter divides pretty nicely into two big sections. The first 66-verses are mostly what I’d call religious theoreticals. The section is pretty abstract. By that I don’t mean the section is pure imagination. It’s more like this: I see a guy walking down the street. I see a pedestrian. But Paul is thinking about his circulatory & respiratory & skeletal & muscular systems. I just see a guy. Paul is assessing his bio-engineering. That’s what I think I’m seeing in the first three chapters.
The second half of the letter – about 99-verses – is very different. There’s a lot of instructions on how-I-should-live-my-life.
So my first impression carving-up Ephesians is that it’s like a live-theatre performance. I know that behind the curtain a lot of necessary production stuff is going on to make the show work. And then out in front of the curtain under the lights are the performers .
Ephesians 1-3 backstage.
Ephesians 4-6 front-and-centre.

Week 48

December 1…I’m into the last month of the reading year and today I did my last Reading Review progress-check. I know that by November 30 I need to read 92% of the bible. So I’m relieved to see that I’ve read 95%. I’m glad to be ahead. (I’m especially glad since December is the hardest reading-month for me because a) there’s a bunch of preoccupying seasonal busynesses and b) I’ll be faced with Revelation at the end (one of bible-reading’s Heartbreak Hills). But barring some Major Unexpected Event I figure I can finish on time.
There’s one glitch though. I’ve been reading Paul’s letters. Whenever I read Paul I’m faced with a low-grade frustration over the way he writes. He seems to be all-over-the-map. Normally I just accept the annoyance. But this past month a surprising thought came to me. What if Paul is more coherent than I think? What if I’m just not getting it?
So I’m going to go back and re-read the Ephesians letter a couple more times. It’s an add-on exercise I’m giving myself: does Paul have a consistent theme through one whole letter (my suspicion is that he doesn’t – so he’ll have to prove I’m wrong).
I’ve still got to keep up with my December reading – that’s my priority. But I’m curious enough that I’ll be looking at Ephesians for the next couple of days. It’s an extra task during a busy month. So we’ll see.

Week 46  1 Corinthians 6

Last week I discovered two groups of people:
Group A (people with no interest in the Lord) and
Group B (people attracted to the Lord)
Today I landed on a list of a few Group A practices: idolatry adultery prostitution homosexuality theft greed alcohol-abuse dishonesty. So on the upside people in Group A can do pretty much whatever they want. Unfortunately none of them will inherit the Kingdom of God (but I’m guessing Group A don’t really care about the kingdom.)
Anyway last week I was thinking that it was a big change for a person to shift from Group A to Group B. (For instance it’s a bit more complex than – let’s say – deciding to quit smoking.) Since there are lots of attractive & compelling things to do in Group A Paul says that other invisible things need to happen to help propel my decision. For instance:
You have been set apart for God
You have been made right with God
Your sins have been washed away.
Without these Special Assisters it’s unlikely I’d have the motivation to leave Group A. But with them I can make the jump. With them I can start taking some Group B action steps.
While I’m in Group A I love Group A practices.
But when I get help to shift to Group B then having a shot at the kingdom of God starts to be a more attractive option.

Note: quote & Paul’s list are from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NLT)

Week 45  1 Corinthians 3

A couple of days ago I saw where Paul identified two groups of people in Rome. Group A people were: dominated by a sinful nature and Group B were: controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Here in 1 Corinthians Paul was talking to church people – Group B people. But he told them he couldn’t talk to them like advanced or mature Group B people: I had to talk to you as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life.
This is a pretty useful comment because it looks like even though these (formerly) Group A people had shifted over to Group B they were still so Group A-oriented that it’s like they never left Group A. Other people in Corinth’s Group B showed some Group B qualities – but only at a pretty elementary level. It’s like they had no Group B chops. Group B Juveniles. Paul told them they were still:
controlled by evil desires
jealous of one another
quarrelling with each other
acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord.
So they were technical members of Group B…but with a case of Group B Rookie Blues.
But it’s no real surprise. Starting in on something brand new there’s two things going on. First I’m on a steep up-curve learning a lot of new things. Second – and at the same time – I’m unloading a bunch of old familiar things.

Note: quotes from Romans 8:5 and 1 Corinthians 3:1 & 3 (NLT)

Week 45  Romans 8

Paul categorizes people into two big groups (I’ll call them Group A and Group B).
If I’m in Group A I’m dominated by my sinful nature.
In Group B I’m controlled by the Holy Spirit.
The two groups are obviously different.
In Group A my sinful nature controls my mind. My focus is on sinful things. My destination is death.
In Group B the Spirit controls my mind. I think about pleasing the Spirit. I’m headed for peace & life.
The two seem to be totally separated. Isolated opposites. No common ground. It’s easy to get the impression there’s an Impenetrable Wall between them. But that’s not really the case.
It’s pretty clear that if I’m in Group A I have the potential to move in the direction the Lord. Paul wants people to move to a new master…a new controller. The Gospels & Acts have plenty of stories of people shifting from Group A to Group B.
And it works both ways. If I’m in Group B I could start dilly-dallying with Group A values. Maybe I don’t go back. But maybe I do.
Group Membership has a dynamic element to it. I shift from Group A to Group B. But maybe I shift back from Group B to Group A. It’s not so hard. I think that’s the point of the parable of the farmer planting seed. A > B > A.

Note: quotes from Romans 8:5 (NLT). See 8:5-17 and Matthew 13:1-23