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:

What powers or authorities are active in our world and your life today? How do these powers manifest themselves, tempting believers to honor and respect them rather than to give undiluted loyalty to the exalted Christ?
In the context of God’s “fullness-of-time” plan to unite all things in Christ, Paul expresses hope for the future. Review his uses of the word “hope” in Ephesians 1:18, Ephesians 2:12, and Ephesians 4:4. Why does he believe there is hope for the future?
In the following passages in Ephesians, how does Paul point to the great, future hope of Christ’s return? Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 2:7; Ephesians 4:30; Ephesians 5:5. What does this hope mean for us right now?