The Spirit-Filled Life (Ephesians 5&6)

Imitators of God (5:1-2)

• The invitation to “become imitators of God” follows from the description of the “new human that is being created according to God” (4:24).
• Notice also that being an imitator of God requires imitating the self-sacrificing love of the Messiah. The two are so closely aligned in Paul’s mind that to imitate one is to imitate the other, which was introduced already in 4:32, “just as God in Christ forgave you.”

Immorality, Impurity, Greed(5:3-6)

• The passage develops the portrait of the old humanity of 4:22 (contrasted with the new humanity of 4:23-24), which is summarized in terms of sex and idolatry.

The contrasts (5:15-18)

• Paul here creates a triad of opposites (unwise/wise, foolish/discerning, drunk with wine/filled with the Spirit), exploring the contrast between the old humanity and the new. This is an addition to the various metaphors he has used to describe this contrast all through the letter (light/darkness, death/life, aliens/members of family, fruitful/unfruitful).

Filled by the Spirit (5:18)

• The opposite of being drunk with wine isn’t to be drunk with the Spirit; it is to be filled with the Spirit. This contrast is about giving yourself to be influenced, and Paul goes on to make a list of outward expressions of being under the Spirit’s influence: singing, speaking, giving thanks, submitting.
• Based on the construction in Greek, it’s better to translate this as. “filled by (or by means of) the Spirit. The Spirit is the agent, and not the content of the filling. This is also corroborated by Paul’s other references to being filled in the letter.
• 1:22-23: “The church, which is his body, that which is filled up by the one who fills all things in all things.”
• 2:21-22: “The entire building…grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are built together into a dwelling place of God by means of the Spirit.”
• 3:16-17, 19: “That you might be strengthened through the Spirit in your inner human, that the Messiah might dwell in your hearts…to know the love of the Messiah, so that you might be filled unto all the fullness of God.”
• 4:10: “The one who descended is also the one who ascended above all the heavenly realms, in order that he might fill all things.”
• 4:13: “Until we all attain…unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Messiah.”

“In the light of these earlier instances of the ‘fullness’ language, then, we conclude that the content with which believers have been (or are being) filled is the fullness of (the triune) God or of Christ. No other text in Ephesians (or elsewhere in Paul) focuses specifically on the Holy Spirit as the content of this fullness. It is better, then, to understand 5:18 in terms of the Spirit’s mediating the fullness of God and Christ to believers…. To be admonished, ‘Be filled by the Spirit’, then, means that Paul’s readers are urged to let the Spirit change them more and more into the image of God and Christ, a notion which is consistent with Pauline theology elsewhere.” — PETER THOMAS O’B RIEN, THE LE T TER TO THE EPHESIANS, THE PILLAR NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY, 391.

• Paul gives a very similar list of effects of both being filled by the Spirit. and the message of Christ dwelling in us richly

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16

Submitting To One Another (5:21)

• This would have been a very radical statement to make in Paul’s Greco-Roman context, where the society was very big on rank, hierarchy and social status.
• It can be considered a parallel statement to Philippians 2:3-4 and Galatians 5:13b

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4

but through love become slaves to one another. Galatians 5:13b (NRSV)

New Humanity & The Family (5:21-6:9)

• Verses 18-24 are actually one sentence in the Greek
• This section should be seen as an outflow of being filled up by the Spirit
• Ephesians 5:21-6:9 fits the literary form of a well-known Greco-Roman tradition, where a patriarch is informed of his responsibility to order his household as a miniature Roman empire. The relationship always fall into a triad: husband-wife, father-child, master-slave.
• Household code instructions were always addressed to the man alone, who ruled over his household that consisted of women, children, and slaves that were “by nature” inferior. Paul addressing women, slaves and children directly (and also addressing them first) was definitely a downplaying of that culture.

“Contemporary household codes were given for the benefit of patriarchs in that they were advised in how to manage or control their households— wives included—for their own benefit and for a stable society. In contrast to this, Paul addresses wives directly, exhorting them to participate fully and willingly in the New Humanity. He subverts the contemporary notion that the ordering of the household should be for the benefit of the patriarch or for those in power when he sets in parallel the “headship” of the husband in relation to his wife and that of Christ in relation to the church (5:23). The headship of Christ is characterized by his providing salvation for the church, recalling Christ’s giving himself to death for the salvation of the church. This is the kind of “headship” Paul has in mind, so that those in subordinate positions in the New Humanity do not exist for the comfort of those at the top. Rather, those who have authority or power are to use it for the good, protection, and nurture of those subordinate to them.” — GOMBIS, “ THE RADICALLY NEW HUMANITY,” 326.

• Paul’s address to the patriarch in all three roles is a radical undermining of his inherent male authority. Instead, he becomes an agent of the Messiah’s dignifying love to each group in his household.
• We know that Paul cared about how the Christian household appeared to their Greek and Roman neighbors and that misbehavior could harm the reputation of the entire movement.

All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. 1 Timothy 6:1

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. Titus 2:3-8

• It is significant that Paul asks wives to submit voluntarily, and not out of compulsion (as would have been the case in their Greco-Roman context).
• Paul’s description of the Messiah’s actions towards the body depicts Jesus as taking up the domestic duties that were typically assigned to women in the Greco-Roman household.

Armor of God (6:10-20)

“There is one further important point to make about this passage. It is very easy to read this discussion of the armor of God and then to assume that this is a set of instructions to individual believers to take up the armor of God. That is not the way the text reads. Rather, the command to take up the armor of God is a summons to the community as a whole. Taking up the armor of God is a communal practice integrally tied to the unity of the church and the church’s witness to the powers (3:10). In this respect, 6:10–20 continues the emphasis on the common life of the church that began in 4:1.” — STEPHEN E. FOWL, EPHESIANS: A COMMENTARY, THE NEW TESTAMENT LIBRARY, 20 –201.

• Paul wants his communities to know that their real enemy is never another human but the larger social, economic, political, and religious forces that govern and shape human existence. Paul, along with all Jews shaped by the biblical traditions, viewed these forces a manifestations of spiritual rulers, authorities, etc. who are opposed to the cosmic reign of the Messiah.

Tychicus (6:21)

Tychicus was an Ephesian who served as a trusted friend and colleague of Paul, and was often sent on missions on his behalf. He was the bearer of the letters to the Colossian and Ephesian churches, and possibly also together with Onesimus, the letter to Philemon. He is also mentioned in Titus as someone who might be sent to him at Crete.

Ephesians & Colossians

Colossians and Ephesians are very alike in a number of ways, such that the overlaps cannot go unnoticed. 34% of Colossians' words appear in Ephesians, and 26% of Ephesians' words appear in Colossians. The verses about Tychicus contain an exact match of 29 consecutive words (Eph 6:21–22 and Col 4:7–8).

Prison Epistles

The letters of Ephesians and Colossians are both considered to be "prison epistles" because they were written by Paul while he was in prison. They are also both addressed to churches in Asia Minor, and they share many similarities in terms of their content. However, there are also some important differences between the two letters.

Same Letter-Bearer

Considering how expensive it was to get the letters from Rome to Asia Minor, it makes absolute sense that Paul wrote the Colossian and Ephesian letters, as well as the letter to Philemon at the same time, and had Tychicus and Onesimus deliver those letters since they were on the same route.

Thematic Overlaps