Ephesians: May 28, 2020 Class 9 Chapter 5:21- 6:9

Theme: The Christian Household

            Paul is continuing the arc of this letter from the theology of Christianity, to the structure and working of the church, then to the individual in Christ, and finally to the Christian household/family.   We need to remember that a household, even one without a lot of money, was an extended one.  Most families would have three generations live together as well as servants or slaves.  And often the servants would be a family that was serving the larger family.  Slavery was usually economically driven.  Slaves were often people who had indentured themselves for money to pay off loans, or children who had been indentured for a period of time to get money.  Slavery could be for life but often the slave would transition to a paying servant after their time of indentured servitude was over.  Also the “household” would probably be running a family business of which the slaves/servants would also be working in to provide income for everyone.

5:21  Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ  

            Paul is usually associated with the phrase: Wives obey your husbands.  The above phrase makes us question just what Paul meant by be subject.  EVERYONE in the Christian community was supposed to listen and support each other.  Paul recognized that in the household people had different jobs and responsibilities that were called for.  A husband shouldn’t dictate to his wife how she should be running or doing her work – it was a waste of time.  Instead, if conflicts arose between what should be done the parties should listen to one another and work out a solution.  Working together is really the theme in this section not domination of one person over the other.

Class Discussion Points:  Paul is talking about a Partnership vs. a Dictatorship

Husbands and Wives

5:22-24  This is the section about wives listening to their husbands.  Men were the legal representatives of the family in society.  Women were allowed to own property under Roman Law; Jewish Law had a way for a woman to own property if all the male members of the family had died – this didn’t happen very often.  Since men were the legal representatives of the family the women needed to trust that a husband was going to do what was best socially for the family.  

Class Discussion Points:  This passage has often been used to suppress women.  

By taking it literally woman have been regulated to the role of a servant, not a partner, in a marriage.  

It is important for a woman to have financial freedom in order to be a good provider and have say in a marriage.

5:25-32   It is interesting to note that we have 3 verses about wives listening to husbands, but we have 8 verses about husbands listening to wives.  The joke in history/economic/sociology studies is: The larger amount of writing on a subject indicates how big the problem was.  Obviously for Paul the problem wasn’t women not listening to men, it was men not listening to and valuing the advice of women.  Paul equates the relationship of a husband and wife to the relationship between Christ and the Church. 

Q:  Paul tells men to love their wives.    

How do we show in a relationship that we love and respect each other with our spouses?

How does this carry over into our public relationships in church or in society?

* Don’t volunteer your spouse for jobs * Be respectful * Don’t open each other’s mail * Be aware of the other spouse * Be private * Don’t swear at your spouse * Follow the Golden Rule * No Double standards * Don’t open old wounds

* Don’t volunteer your friends or assume they can do things.  Maybe they can’t. * Be respectful of others time * Be aware of what is your business and what isn’t.  If someone asks you to help then do – but maybe your talents can’t help in which case you shouldn’t intrude. * Don’t swear at other people: even when you’re mad you should show some respect * Don’t remind people of stupid things they did – let them move on.

5:28    Paul says that husbands should love their wives as they love themselves.  

Q:  How do we love ourselves?  How does this compare to how we love other people?

Class Discussion Points:  When you love yourself, you love others.  Treat people how you want to be treated.  By respecting yourself you create good boundaries in your dealings with others.

Children and Parents

6:1-4   In this section Paul uses the stronger word “obey” for children.  As we know children often don’t know what is safe or good for them so demanding some obedience is a necessary form of safety and a way to teach right and wrong behavior.  

Q:  What do you think Paul means when he says to not provoke children to anger?

You want to model for your children how you should act.

When you do things in anger you make stupid choices.

If children think what they say will make their parents angry they won’t confide in them.

Q: How do we bring them up in the discipline and instruction of God and Christ?  

The way we teach and speak – by being loving and kind, explaining in terms for their age group we can help them understand life.

When possible give choices;  let them learn from their mistakes; try to understand their feelings.  

If a child forgets homework they have to deal with what happens.

Sometimes it helps to write down expectations.

Slaves (servants) and Masters

6:5-9   Paul here is telling slaves that they need to obey their owners and serve them with the love of Christ in their heart.  It should be noted that when a household became Christian the slaves often became Christian as well.  In the church, household members, servants, and slaves would all worship together.  Paul is equalizing the slaves and servants spiritually, even though they might not be social equals.  In America we don’t have slavery, but we still create barriers for people who we don’t think are worthy – and we also don’t treat groups of people as brothers and sisters of Christ.  We could extend this passage in our modern times to say that Paul is talking about the Christian relationship between employers and employees

Q:  Today what sort of behavior would be considered “unworthy of Christ” between employers and employees?

Employees	Employers
* Not caring about work * Comes late/leaves early * Takes credit for other’s work * Takes home office supplies – steals * Is verbally disrespectful of co-workers * Doesn’t attempt to work as a team * Doesn’t follow rules	* Doesn’t pay fair wages * Verbally disrespects workers * Harassment on the job * Takes credit for worker’s job as their own * Doesn’t listen to employment problems * Covers up or ignores safety issues * Doesn’t provide insurance

The opposite actions are how employees and employers should behave toward each other.

Ephesians: May 21, 2020 Class 8; Chapter 5:1-14

Theme: Live as Children of Light

5:1-2   Imitators of God/Christ:  This is a transition from the last section which outlined stopping bad habits and the rules for a new life.  Paul is reminding us to be imitators of Christ and to live in the Third Commandment: To love each other as Christ loved us.

5:3-5  Talking about bad behavior:  Paul takes the idea of living a Christian life to include not even discussing bad behavior, but it is more along the lines of the bad behavior of what people did before they became Christian.  We should discuss bad behavior to define it and to instruct others not to participate in bad behavior.  But we all talk about foolish things that we did in our youth and I am sure that there were people who would brag at how bad they were before they became Christians, without being very contrite about how their bad behavior hurt themselves or others.  As an example, I once knew someone who wouldn’t go to a specific AA meeting because most of the people would simply get up and brag about their exploits before they became sober.  He found an AA meeting that was more interested in taking the next steps in recovery.

Q: Has anyone encountered a person who boosts of their sin?  Most people said that they had encountered people who “glorify their behavior.” 

5:6-7   Deceivers with empty words.  We can see that people have been using sales’ tactics all the way back in the first century.  Paul is warning people about not falling back into bad habits by listening to words or phrases that might lead them to thinking that their old habits weren’t so bad after all.

Q:  What words or phrases do people use to get you to do something that you might not want to do?   And

Q: What words or phrases do people use to convince themselves that they can do something that they shouldn’t? 

Just one/just one time won’t matter.

Don’t you want to enjoy life?

I dare you!

This will solve all your problems

You’re such a goody-two-shoe!

You’re so righteous.

It won’t take long

It won’t hurt you or someone else.

No one will ever know.

You can afford it.

I’ve done this before and nothing bad happened.

            Also to change the pressure: Move a muscle – change a thought.

5: 8-14   Darkness vs. Light also Secrecy vs. Transparency:  Some of this gets back to conflict with Christianity as a very open religion as opposed to a mystery religion, which were very prominent in the 1^st century.  When you joined a mystery religion you had to go through rituals that were secret and at each level you were given a set of tasks that would help you attain knowledge and then you would have a ritual to level up where you would get another set of tasks.  Although we have no evidence that some churches that Paul was associated with did this it is possible that some might have been experimenting with the system.  There were some early  Gnostic-Christians sects that did start to do this, many of them were connected to Greek traditions, but they were denounced as heretical in the 2^nd century and band outright in the 3^rd and 4^th century when Christianity became a more official and acceptable religion.

            But socially sin is able to continue and spread in darkness, when people don’t know about it, so Paul encouraged people to bring sin into the light and deal with it.

Q:  In a given situation how do we find out what is pleasing to God?  

When in doubt ask a pastor or someone who you admire as a Christian.  

Write down your Pro’s and Con’s to figure out your consequences.  

     (Pro’s move you toward God.  Con’s move you away from God.) 

Pray and ask God for guidance.  

Q:  What unfruitful works of darkness exist in our day that we need to expose?

Murder

Misinformation from those in power

Pedophilia

Harassment: sexual and otherwise

Physical abuse

Bullying

Rape

Slavery

Exploitation of workers

5:15-20   How to live: Below is a list of some pointers to living a Christian life:

            Be Careful and try to act in wisdom

            Make the most of your time

            Do not act foolishly

            Do not get drunk

            Sing psalms

            Give thanks to God.

These are very similar to the General Rules that John Wesley formulated for the Methodist Societies.  (See Attachments)

  

Three Basic Rules	How do we live them?
Do No Harm	We ran out of time to do a full discussion, but it was agreed that the General Rules offer a good list of Do’s and  Don’ts.  The modern rule list is below for you to look at.
Do Good
Connect to God

General Rules of the United Methodist Church: A MODERN VERSION

How to be a Methodist and work toward the perfection of your connection to God

     The General Rules are a collection of guidelines that John Wesley put together over the years from the interactions that he had with the Methodist Societies in England.  The Societies were a sub-group of the Episcopal church that would meet weekly and try to figure out how their members could live Christian lives.  This is an updated version both in language (John Wesley lived in the 1700's) and in putting in into the social context of today.  But actually not much has changed.

Do no Harm: Avoid the Following

Don’t use God’s name to take an oath or make a promise to something that you don’t intend to honor or fulfill. Don’t use God’s name as a swear word.  

On your Sabbath Day, don’t do ordinary work.  Do something purposefully that will reset you, get you in touch with God, and allow you to feel your connection.  

Avoid Addiction:  Do not get involved with taking, buying, or selling, addictive substances or negative actions that can control you. Responsible partaking of alcohol is okay, but be aware of your addiction and seek help for it.

Don’t partake in the enslavement or exploitation of people for profit.  Pay people a living wage so that they can make a living with dignity.

Don’t indulge in anger and control for the sake of personal power.  Or in argument for the sake of domination and winning for the sake of winning.

Learn how to control your anger.  Learn how to express yourself in an understanding and reasonable manner. Learn how to compromise.

Don’t buy illegally made products, or products that have been made from the exploitation of people.  Be reasonable with your loans.  Don’t live beyond your means.

Don’t gossip about people

Don’t do to people what you don’t want them to do to you.

And don’t complain about it when it rebounds on you.

Don’t spend your money on things you don’t need.  Buy what you are going to use and need. 

Don’t do things that are not Christian in action.  Avoid acts that are destructive.  Do acts that are positive and build God’s kingdom.

Watch out for media that wastes your time and distracts you from your purpose of becoming a better, more loving and productive person.  Some items: pornography, violent video games.  

Don’t be lazy.  Don’t let yourself be unhealthy.

Don’t save your money to the point of being greedy.  We save so that we can turn around and give. 

Don’t get yourself so in debt that you can’t get out of it.

Do Good: Do the Following

Do what you can to the best of your ability to help people physically.  Feed the hungry, clothe people in want, visit and help people who are sick, help people who are in prison.

Do what you can to the best of your ability to help people mentally, emotionally and spiritually.   Be a counselor and Friend; set an example for them in your own life.  And don’t fall into the trap that you can’t help people unless you are “fully equipped to do so.”  Start the process and God will take care of the rest.

Help your fellow Christians and those who are trying to be Christians.  

Give them employment and support their businesses as best you can.

Be as productive in your life as you can.  In your job and in your home. 

Be patient with your life.  Give things time to develop.  Don’t complain when things get hard to do.  Keep relying and connecting with God and your fellow Christians for strength.

Don’t worry about what other people say about you – that you are too good or too caring.  Remember that the opinion of the world isn’t important.  It is the opinion of God that is.

Nurture Your God Connection: Don’t Neglect These

Find a church and attend it.  Give yourself a chance to worship with others and to be strengthened by their faith.   

Give yourself a Sabbath: Time to connect with God.

Read and study the Bible.  Question and work with it.  How does it fit into your life?  Allow yourself to read commentaries or attend Bible class to work through the difficult bits.

Take communion so that you are reminded that you are sitting at the table of the world.

Remember that every meal is also a communion with your family or friends.

Take time to pray daily and don’t be afraid to pray with your family for things.

Don’t be afraid to deny your self what is bad for you and to substitute for the bad stuff what is good for you.

Ephesians: May 14, 2020 Class 7 Chapter 4:17-32

Theme:  Two Ways of Life  (Gentile vs. Christian)

            This section is addressing the Gentile-Christians who were not raised in the Jewish tradition.  It's trying to create an equalizing of the two moralistic traditions.  Just as the Jewish-Christians had to accept people who were not from the tribe of Abraham into the fold, the Gentiles also had to accept that belonging to the covenant meant that they had to rethink some practices.  Although Paul doesn’t specifically mention some practices we can guess from the generalities what he is talking about.

4:17-18  Futility of their minds; Hardness of Heart:  This is probably a reference to the philosophical practices in the Greek tradition.  Although we owe a lot to the Greeks for their championing of the different ideas of rational thought (we wouldn’t have modern science without it) actual ethics and social obligation and responsibility were often left out of it – it was considered that a rational person would be a good citizen – but there wasn’t much discussion of what a good citizen looked like.

            The Jewish religion on the other hand was very long on ethical behavior toward your neighbor, but it was mostly restricted to Jewish people interacting with Jewish people.  This is why Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan was so challenging, because it asked the audience to think outside of who was the “normal” neighbor. 

Q:  How do we discriminate others based on education or other things?  

* Lack of education

* Race/Color

* Knowledge

* Mental or physical abilities or disabilities

* Other religions

* Other areas of the country

* Women earning less money than men for the same job 

Q: What neighbors do we exclude or harden our hearts to in life?  

* Different Opinions

* Political Divide

* Social-economic level

* Levels of Licensing in professions 

* People who are married and don’t have children

* People with addictions

* Unwed mothers

* LGBTQ

4:19  Licentiousness, greedy to practice impurities:  Paul is probably referring to the idea of the practice among some religions of temple prostitution.  Sleeping with a low-level priest or priestess was a form of fertility rite, and of course the temple received a fee.  But there were other social practices, such as funeral feasts where people got very drunk and would not remember where they slept that night.  There was a certain amount of moral forgiveness, but also of permissiveness.  This did not line up with Jewish morality and the idea of living in a covenant.  

Also, these behaviors distracted people from the life of Christ.

Q:  What bad life practices keep or distract us from following God and Christ?

* Bad Habits – like overeating

* Being negative about self or others

* Exclusivity

* Workaholic

* Video Gaming

* Binge Watching TV

4:20 – 24:  Stopping your old bad habits with Christ:  This is a progression that Paul puts forward.

                                                                        

Paul’s Progression	How do we experience it?
1. Hear about Christ	Sunday School; Periodicals; Mission Examples; Someone comes to your aid; Invitation to church
2 Taught about Christ’s truth	Examples from friends;  When God provides you something you need; Experiencing God’s presence; Watch people who are a model of how to live in holiness.
3. Taught to put away former life with its bad habits	Good habits keep you from bad habits Read the Bible; Bible Study Get involved with mission
4. Renewed in the Spirit of the mind	Prayer; study Being with other Christians in a positive way
5. Create a new self that you live in in holiness	Try to be the best Christian you can be by being: kind, positive, sympathetic, knowledgeable, motivated & motivating, willing to always learn & improve.

4:25 - 32:  Rules For the New Life

Paul’s Rules	How do we experience?
Be truthful to one another leads to . . .	Respected; you become believable & trusted; people go to you with problem; you try to help
Being angry is okay, but help each other	Understand that there is placed and displaced anger.  See that anger is often an indication that something is not right.
Don’t let anger control you	Try to fix what is wrong. Work toward the common good.
Thieves give up stealing: Slaves were notorious for stealing, but other kinds of theft were related to high-interest rates and foreclosing on land or possessions	Bernie Madoff Medication prices Exploitative employment practices  Scams to defraud
Do not disparage, but build each other up	Put someone down vs. Build someone up Elitism vs. Inclusion
Don’t do something that would disappoint God	Don’t fall into bad habits – try to stay in good habits
Put away bitterness, anger, wrangling slander& malice	These keep you from being kind and put you into a negative mental condition.  Also you fall into a me vs. the world mentality
Be kind, forgiving and compassionate	These put you into a positive mental condition and keep you in connection with people.  You are part of the world and working with it not against it.

Ephesians: May 7, 2020 Class 4 Chapter 4:1-16

Theme:  Living as a Christian

4:1-16  Building the Body of Christ

            Paul is now moving from his own life example to how the people in the congregation want to live their lives as Christian.  In this section he moves from the church as a group to the individual worshiper and back again.       

              

4:1-3  Here Paul lists some of the characteristics that a person should strive for who lives in Christ.  

Characteristic	What it looks likes
Humility	Opposite of egotistical; Smile – look at people; Give credit to others; Give credit to God and Christ.
Gentleness	Kind, Understanding, Friendly, Good Listener, Helpful
Patience	Have persistence and endurance; Willing to wait and see; Not live in the drama
Bearing with one another in love	Listen to and try to understand someone Show support even if you can’t help
Making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace	All of the above Take on the Goal to Live in Christ

4:4-6  This part is emphasizing the unity of everyone under God and the unity of God.  We need to remember that God as a singularity was accepted by the Jews, but God was not a singularity with the gentiles; they worshiped many gods, major, minor, and demi-gods.  On the other hand, introducing Christ to the Jews might have been difficult because it was adding another aspect to God.  God was now a trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit was actually a part of Jewish worship, but adding the Son might have been difficult to comprehend.  

Q: What are some way that we can we explain the Trinity to people?

Father: All powerful; Compassion; All knowing and understanding; Creation Force; Divine Parent (Both male and female/beyond male and female)

Son: God’s Son;  Incarnation as human Jesus ; Show us that God understands us because He lived as human – This is our Blessed Assurance.

Holy Spirit: Prompting from God;  God’s whisper or God’s breeze that gives you direction when you need it.  Our personal guide from God.

4:7  This is emphasizing the individual in Christ and introducing the idea that everyone has gifts and graces.

4:8  “Captivity” is a difficult concept for us to wrap our minds around.  The 21^st century is much more individualistic and self-owned than in the 1^st century.  Many people were slaves or indentured servants, so you couldn’t get away from your employer if you wanted to; you just had to accept the fact that you were going to work for them until they died or you paid off your debt.  But just like today there were good owners and bad owners.  The idea of being captive in Christ is that you were willing to accept Christ as your Lord and in turn all good things would flow from him.  

Q:  What words for captivity/captive can we use today that express this idea, but are perhaps a bit more acceptable? 

            Follower; Disciple; Volunteer; Employer/Employee (God is my boss)

4:9 -10:  The idea of Christ ascending and descending gives Christ dominion over every place.  Even in Hell (Sheol – the deepest pit) Christ has dominion.

Q:  What are some of the deepest pits that we can fall into?       

            Depression; Addiction; Abuse – both physical and mental; Life-Threatening Illness; Poverty; Loneliness; Broken Relationships; 

How do we know that Christ is with us when we are there?

            Feeing of peace within; Help from someone; Continual connection with people.

4:11  List of individual gifts & the work of ministry, bringing us into maturity

  

Indivi- dual Gifts	Actions  1st Century & Today	Examples: People
Apostles	These are the people who lived w/ Jesus & were trained by him.	Ministers and Lay people who have gone through special spiritual training.
Prophets	Tell the future and warn about what is going to happen if things don’t change	People today: Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi
Evangel- ists	Preachers who inspire us to be spiritual	Any preacher that gives you inspiration Billy Graham Obama (Doesn’t have to be a minister)
Pastors	People who minister to others and make sure people are cared for	Mother Teresa Social Workers Anyone who cares for others
Teachers	Teaching spiritual discipline	Ministers and Special Spiritual Counselors or Trainers.

4: 14 – 15   Children here are contrasted with adults continuing the theme of maturity.  Children are influenced by people whereas adults have learned better.

                         

Child Attitudes & Beliefs	Adult Attitudes and Beliefs
I don’t have to do what I’m told	Knows that structure, rules, and boundaries are important and helpful
Live ONLY in the moment; can’t see the results of actions	Understand the concept of how the past, present and future relate to each other
Child perceives themselves as the center of the universe	Understands the connectivity and interdependence of relationships
Children’s beliefs are influenced by the moment.	Reasoning and beliefs are informed by comparative experience and past decisions of success or failure.

4:16  The body joined together has to function together in coordination.  In the first century it was believed that the body was made of Four Humors: Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, and Black Bile.  If one of these humors was weak then it created disease.  

            Paul is expressing the idea that the body & spirit must be in balance.  The way to do this is to continue to in Christ and “to speak truth in love,” then we are able to mature into adulthood in spirituality .