Friday: Further Thought ~ Paul and the Ephesians
Further Thought:
The story of the exorcists misusing the names of Jesus and Paul (Acts 19:13-20; see Sunday’s study) helps explain why Paul uses so much language about power in Ephesians.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Some new believers, under fresh conviction of the sovereignty of Jesus, throw their expensive magic manuals into the flames. Thanks to the discovery of some 250 papyri dealing with magic as well as other finds, we have ample illustrations of rituals, spells, formulas, curses, etc., similar to those likely featured in these manuals of magic. The volumes had advised believers how to conduct such rituals to persuade gods, goddesses, and spirit powers to do whatever they would ask.
Luke tells us that these volumes were worth 50,000 silver coins, or 50,000 days of wages. (In today’s setting, if you allow for $80/day of wages for a skilled laborer, this amounts to $4 million!). This detail demonstrates the importance and centrality of these volumes to their everyday lives. “It took the sovereign intervention of God for them to be sufficiently convicted that they should completely repent of their ongoing utilization of amulets, charms, invocations, and traditional means of gaining spiritual power.” — Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), p. 34.
We come to understand that Ephesians was written to believers who needed instruction about “how to cope with the continuing influence and attacks of the sinister cosmic ‘powers.’ ” — Clinton E. Arnold, Power and Magic: The Concept of Power in Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1992), p. 165. Paul’s response is the Epistle to the Ephesians, in which he points to Christ as the One who has been exalted above every power (Ephesians 1:20-23) and emphasizes the superiority of the strength that God provides to believers (Ephesians 2:15-19, Ephesians 3:14-21, Ephesians 6:10-20).
Discussion Questions:
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I had a wry smile to myself when I read about the impact of Christianity on the "Diana/Artemis" based religion of the Ephesians. The people who stirred up most of the fuss were the commercial people who were making money out of it. The reason I smiled was that when I visited Europe I found cathedrals and the like surrounded by the tourist bric-a-brac trinket market. It made me wonder whether we had learned anything in the meantime.
More recently I visited a Christian bookstore, which of course sells a lot more than just books. Wall plaques with cute Christian sayings, desk, and table objects, and so on. Then I visited a pastor's office and noted that the walls were lined with dozens of books, all with Christian-sounding titles. The wicked thought came to me that the books may just be decoration, like the wall plaques and so on. And maybe the real winners were the commercial operators who made these objects.
Nowadays we have gone electronic and have story items on Facebook with Christian themes to decorate our Facebook pages and get linked to all our Facebook friends whether they want them or not.
Religion has often had its artwork and iconography to represent key ideas. And, there have always been commercial operators in the background to exploit this and make a quick buck out of it.
Then, along comes Paul who has a message about living religion, not just collecting religious icons. It is a radical message that strikes at the very heart of religious observance. Maybe the Epistle is more radical than we have thought.
Maurice – I agree with your statement that “the Epistle is more radical than we have thought’. You put your finger into the ‘wounds’ the 'Faith of Christ' has been made to accept and live with as it became one of great, organized world religions. The vestiges of the old pagan religions have not vanished, but have become incorporated in very subtle ways into the religious life of the unaware followers of Christ's Faith.
The Light of the Truth of God, the heart of the Gospel Message, has been obscured by the pagan 'bells and cymbals' and all manners of its 'trimmings' in order to make Christianity attractive to the 'world'. I am presently reading a book entitled “The Paganism in our Christianity” by Arthur Weigall. You might want to take a read.
"...the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:23
We need this fullness! (I need it.) The completion of our souls exists, and there is joy in it. Being empty of self and full of Love (God) is marvelous. Unfortunately, our nature fights this e feeds on garbage. Isn't it positive to bind restoration and eternal life? With Jesus, the representation of the highest Love, the future is brilliant! The clock is ticking, but there is Hope!
I can’t wait to refresh Ephesians 2:8-10. Prison letters are special.
Those in Paul’s audience familiar with ‘principalities, powers, might and dominion by having attempted to access them through ‘utilization of amulets, charms, invocations, and traditional means in order to gain power’, were most likely those who first recognized best what Paul spoke to them about. Paul prayed that God would grant them instead ‘to be strengthened with might through His[God’s] Holy Spirit in the inner man’ - Eph.3:16.
All true believers seek to deepen the understanding of their faith, that which they believe in to be the spiritual Truth radiating its effects into all areas of their life. The new believer, regardless which persuasion he/she held prior to coming to believe the powers vested in the teachings of Jesus Christ, is aware that it will transform his/her life – 1Cor.13:11.
We are called into the family of God – His Body – to express the power of the Glory of His Grace, and admonished to recognize/expect that ‘the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of His [God’s] calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,’ Eph. 1:18.
Paul intreats and assures the believer that all who want to live their life in the kingdom of God, all those who sincerely believe, ‘are sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession [the believer], to the praise of His Glory’ - Eph.1:13-14.
‘Paul and the Ephesians’ might as well have been titled ‘Paul and the Ekklesia’ – the ‘Called-out-Ones’. The letter’s message is applicable to all who want to come out of this world still steeped in ‘pagan mysticism’, and enter life illuminated by God’s Light of Truth. Those hungering and seeking after righteousness find the ultimate ‘Power of Life’ vested in the Truth of the Word of God shared by our Savior Jesus Christ, and are part of the 'gathering together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth’. Eph.1:9-10.