I’m very excited to announce the release of the second book in The Eden Book Series! It is based on the episode transcripts of Season Two of The Eden Podcast! It is titled – Beyond Eden, Ephesians 5-6!! I’d be honored to have you read and review it! Here’s the description showing on Amazon.
Many people look to Ephesians 5 for its teaching on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Many think Ephesians 5-6 is all about marriage. But the main idea of Ephesians 5:15-6:9 is Christ’s relationship with believers and their relationships in the church. This is the Great Mystery now revealed in 5:32.
It is essential to recognize the literary structures built into this passage by Paul. It starts with 5:15 and ends with 6:9. Paul uses a jump, jump, high jump pattern throughout. The high point of the high jump, and therefore the controlling idea of the passage, is 5:32. The chapters of Beyond Eden, Ephesians 5-6 make special reference to this pattern throughout the book. Readers will become thought leaders on this passage as they grasp the big picture and the patterns in this passage.
The high jump (of verses 5:22-6:9) takes off from 5:21. In this verse Paul redefines submission. The traditional “vertical” meaning of submission is replaced with a “horizontal” reciprocating submission. Spirit-filled believers submit themselves to the teaching and correction they receive from one another (19a and 21).
Great marriages between two believers embody the kind of reciprocating care Paul teaches in this famous passage. Most of all Christ’s example embodies his sacrificial care and love for the church. (5:22-31)
Great families also embody this kind of reciprocating care. Husbands-and-wives do so on the horizontal level. And even in the vertical relationships of children-and-parents and slaves-and-masters all practice reciprocating care for one another in Spirit-filled and beneficial relationships. (5:33-6:9).
What is not taught in Ephesians 5:15-6:9?
– There is no teaching on gifts of the Spirit.
– There is no teaching on headship in any way.
– There is no teaching that husbands are responsible for a wife’s wrinkles, physical or spiritual.
– There is no teaching that wives must obey their husbands.
– There is no teaching that fathers are leaders in the home any more than mothers.
– There is no teaching that some are called to be masters while others are called to be slaves.
It is worth our time to observe the message Paul is getting across in this fifth “therefore walk” section of Ephesians 4-6. We learn that we are intimately united with Christ in his body. And we learn that we are built up and cared for by all the other believers in his body.
Here’s the link to start reading ASAP! https://amzn.to/36juW6T
