I frequently tell people that I'm a "late bloomer," because there are multiple areas in my life where I feel like I matured or developed much later in life than the average person. I've had several breakthrough or "ah-ha!" moments in my late 20s and 30s that would have been useful earlier in life. I recently felt like I had one such breakthrough in regards to the epistles of Paul, but the book of Ephesians in particular. My mention of being a late bloomer is kind of a disclaimer saying that what I'm able to say may be super obvious info that most readers already understood.
The Problem
The first three chapter of Ephesians, and several other places in the epistles, have always been a little hazy for me to read... like they wash over me, but I don't absorb much. Or the sentences just go completely over my head. The first three chapters of Ephesians are rich and full of theology, but I've always found myself reading it, being encouraged by a sentence here and there, but mostly overwhelmed and clueless as to what it really means "for me." There are some obvious exceptions like the reality of our "predestination to adoption as sons," but large chunks have just felt like an abstract painting that looks cool but doesn't "speak to me." Chapters 4-6 contain much more applicable verses to everyday living, so I can more easily remember the teaching in these chapters.
The problem was that I've always read these passages, one verse at a time, trying to find their direct application to ME and find the "eternal truths" and principles that I can immediately claim and apply, as if Paul was writing a theological how-to textbook. But by taking a microscope to these verses, I lost the forest for the trees. And it's ironic that in an attempt to understand with the microscope method, the result was a lack of understanding. Our problematic tendency in our approach to interpreting scripture is that we prioritize "archetypal principles" and "eternal truths," and immediately insert ourselves into the text with little regard to the original context of the writing. What's embarrassing is the fact that I've known "context is important!" for a long time, but only recently did Ephesians open up to me in a new way -- simply because of this idea of original context. Side note: when we're taught to consider the context of a passage, often we think that just means look at the few verses before and the few verses after. But the other things to consider are 1) who exactly was Paul (or Peter, John, etc.) writing to, and 2) what did those readers think/feel/experience that might necessitate a letter like this?
The Solution
When I recently read the book of Ephesians in its entirety in one sitting, as one cohesive letter to a specific recipient, the veil was finally lifted, and the mystery was revealed. In an extreme case of irony, the key to the "mystery" I had always struggling with, -- in terms of the meaning of all these rich verses -- is right in Eph. 3:6 when Paul reveals the mystery of Christ. The whole purpose of this letter was to assure the Gentile Christians that they had a seat at the table and were no longer outsiders in God's story! Now, rather than continue writing about the implications of that and what we see in Ephesians, I want to approach this another way. This may be slightly controversial, so please bear with me. In order to help you read Ephesians, I am going to write a fictional letter to Paul from the church in Ephesus. Anyone could write this letter in a number of different ways. All I'm trying to do is use a mirrored approach to highlighting the meaning of Paul's words in Ephesians. So what I encourage you to do is this: read my letter below, then immediately either listen to or read the book of Ephesians from start to finish. It's only 6 chapters, and it takes about 18 minutes to listen to the whole book.
Last thing I feel I should mention: many Bible scholars believe that the letter to the Ephesians was kind of a "general" letter that Paul wrote to Gentile Christians that was passed along to several different communities. Unlike the letters to the Corinthians, which was very specific in addressing problems of a particular congregation, Ephesians is more broad in scope. So this is very much pretending and "sanctified imagining" if you will, but I still believe it will be helpful.
Dear Paul,
We hope you are well, and we are ever grateful for your visit and preaching the message of Jesus Christ to us.
This is all so new, strange, and still sometimes confusing. We are reckoning with and wrestling with the scriptures, trying to remember all you told us, but still trying to understand. We've even been discouraged at times. You told us we need not be circumcised to be part of Christ's church. But that still seems to be such a divide between ourselves and the Jews -- not just for them, but for us as well. Our city of Ephesus is so full of pagan worship and sinful practices--it is the way of life here among our people. We're almost ashamed to call ourselves Ephesians, but that's what we are. Is there really hope for us to have a place in Christ's church? Can we be anything other than lowly, needy, outcast Gentiles? How can it be that we might in any way be included in God's promises to His Israelite people...the promises He made time and again for generations? We barely just arrived on the scene! What business do we have with God's covenants with Abraham, David, etc?
We heard about the Messiah's conversation with the Gentile woman who told Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” We have these crumbs, and we are exceedingly grateful for them. But is this the way Yahweh will always see us? Are we hungry dogs forever? Will we be merely fortunate to receive whatever is left over after the Firstborn receives his inheritance? The Jews have all these promises of inheritance, glory, and communion with God. How can it be that we are part of the same community in Christ? Even some of the Jewish Christians that come through town seem to struggle with the issue of our uncircumcision, our dietary practices, and other cultural differences. What does Christ want from us? How are we to live? Which customs and laws should we make sure we are observing? We want to give Him thanks and praise, and we hope to be included among His people, even though we might not partake in the full inheritance that He reserved for the Jews. We know that God chose you, Paul, a son of Israel. A Hebrew of Hebrews. You are part of the Chosen People. We stand here, hoping to be so much as doorkeepers at the house of the Lord, rather than dwelling in the tents of the wicked (Psalm 84:10). Though we hesitate to even draw a line between ourselves and "the wicked" referred to in Psalm 84. "The wicked" was us.
In short, we as Gentiles know that we are akin to foreign slaves, spoils of war - products of the Victory of Jesus - who now live just outside of the house of God and thus reap some of the rewards and benefits of living among the righteous. But it is nevertheless difficult to be second-class and to have assurance of God's love and care for us. Do you have answers? When you were with us, preaching to us, you used the words "us" and "we" in a way that put yourself and us in the same category. Were you just trying to come down to our level out of hospitality? Was that a mistake? Do we actually share much in common beyond our allegiance to Christ?
Sincerely,
The Church of Christ in Ephesus
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