A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Chapter Five

This second edition of this commentary has redone much of the writing on Ephesians 5:15-27. It has also changed that part of the text from two chapters to three chapters. Having said that, the first part of this book begins with Paul's final days of freedom before being arrested in Jerusalem. The timeframe would have been at the end of his third Bible-recorded missionary journey. He had been going there so that he could attend the celebration of Pentecost. He had also gone there to take some financial aid to the church in Jerusalem. While there, he had participated in a Nazarite ritual with four men who had taken a vow. Following that ritual, he had gone to the synagogue with those same four men. However, as soon as some of the Jewish people from Asia had seen him, they immediately had accused him and had attacked him. Given the opportunity, they would have killed him right there on the spot.

But the Roman chief captain in Jerusalem had intervened by taking him into custody. However, even though he had only been taken from the crowd for his own protection, Paul had then remained in custody for most of the next four or five years. While under Roman control, he had appeared before Procurator Felix, Procurator Festus, and King Agrippa. Then he had been sent to Rome to where he had appeared before Caesar Augustus. Towards the end of his imprisonment in Rome, he had written a letter to each of the three churches in Philippi, Colosse, and Ephesus, respectively. He had also written a letter to a man named Philemon. While the exact order of those letters is not known with absolute certainty, the best evidence will be presented to determine when he had probably written each one. Then, because of their similarities, a comparison of his letters to the churches in Colosse and Ephesus will be shared.

Once those matters have been handled, certain parts of Paul's specific letter to the church at Ephesus will be carefully examined. First, Ephesians 4:24-32 will be discussed as an introduction to Ephesians, chapter five. Then each verse of the fifth chapter will be considered. The fifth chapter is especially important because Paul had written in verses twenty-two and twenty-three that wives should be in submission to their husbands and that the husband is the head of the wife. Those verses have long been controversial for present day Christians. So it is important to put them into their correct context to understand EXACTLY what Paul had been saying and why he had been saying it. However, there is much more in the fifth chapter of his letter to that church than just what he had written about a wife being in submission.

For example, in verses three through five, he had written about those who will NOT inherit the kingdom of God. Does that mean that people REALLY are saved by their good works? Does it mean that they might possibly LOSE their salvation if they do certain bad things? Both questions will be answered in this book. Paul had also written about the Christian lifestyle and about walking in the Spirit. Those topics will be discussed in this book. As was just indicated, he had written about submission and Christian duty. So those topics will be discussed. Finally, he had compared the marriage between ONE man and ONE woman to the spiritual marriage between Christ and His church. So that, too, will be discussed. One can learn much from Ephesians, chapter five. So the goal of this book will be to explore as much as possible.