One New Humanity: Mission in Ephesiansنموونە

Bible Reading: Ephesians 5:1–33

We can sometimes think of God’s mission exclusively in terms of evangelism, by which we mean a verbal proclamation of the Gospel. But this passage strongly emphasizes that this Good News must be lived out. Our lives must be a daily testimony to the transforming power of the Gospel if its message is to be heard. That’s why Paul begins this chapter saying “therefore”—that is, because of everything he has just shared—be imitators of God (v. 1). This exhortation governs everything that Paul wants to say to us in this chapter.

This Gospel focuses on Christ’s death on the cross for our sins. Paul calls all of us to “walk” (behave) in love, just as Christ, in his love, “gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (v. 2; see also vv. 8, 15). Then, later in the chapter, Paul issues that same call to husbands: “Love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (v. 25). What an incredible thought! Not only our words, but our actions, can witness to Christ’s dying in love for us. We can become an embodied testimony to the very message we seek to bring to the world.

Jesus, who is the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5), also called us to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14–16). As those who are “light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8), we must bear the fruit of the light in everything that is right and true and pleases God (v. 9–10)—in the way we speak and the way we behave (vv. 3–5). We must not be partners together with those who walk in darkness (vv. 7, 11) but expose that darkness to the light of Christ (vv. 13–14). This testifies to the world that we have been transformed from darkness to light (v. 7), or to put it another way, from disobedient children (v. 6) to beloved children of light (vv. 1, 8). God will empower us to live this way before the world if we allow ourselves to be filled with his Spirit (v. 18), leading to praise and proclamation (vv. 19–21).

God will reach the world, through a unified, purified church that submits to one another (vv. 21, 26–27). The greatest example of this is in Christian marriage. Wives submit to their husbands as part of the wider command to everyone to practice submission (v. 22). This is in the context of a relationship where husbands love and care for their wives so tenderly that it resembles the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus himself (vv. 25–30). Marriage is an acted parable of the relationship between Christ and the church (vv. 31–32) and another witness to an unbelieving world of what Christ has achieved through the cross.