Markus Barth says, “the logic of the argument [of the Divine Armor] is this: if these arms are spiritual, and if they are sufficient for God and Jesus Christ—they will certainly be good enough for the saints.

Tim Mackie says: “The gospel of Jesus enters the first-century situation and transforms it. We read Ephesians faithfully when we read it to gain wisdom for how the gospel seeks to enter our situation and transform it!”

Paul subverts the notion that the ordering of the household should be for the benefit of those in power by setting in parallel the “headship” of the husband in relation to his wife and that of Christ in relation to the church.

We have a choice as to what our influences are going to be. If we submit ourselves to the influence of the Spirit, we will be filled up with a life of the new creation.

Our holy lives ought to resist corrupted practices and replace them with life-giving patterns of conduct that draw on and radiate the resurrection power of Jesus.

Borrowing what we did for the last week of Advent, we stayed on a diverted course from our normal dive into Ephesians by recapping Ephesians 2 — especially as it pertains to what we need for a faithful, abiding 2023.

We took diverted from our normal rhythm in Ephesians and examined it through the lens of Advent. When you see the full Christmas narrative (Gen. 1-3, The Gospel accounts, Revelation 12, etc.), Ephesians takes on a whole new light.

Our ‘growing up in Christ’ does not create our holy status but reflects it, honors God by it, and aids others through our expression of it. Ephesians 4:17-5:2 invite us not to become someone new but to become like who we really are.

The world was made by a God who is a community of persons who have loved each other for all eternity. [We] were made for mutually self-giving, other-directed love. Self-centeredness destroys the fabric of what God has made.