TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

IHOP BIBLE STUDY

# 5 – Ephesians 5: 22 to 6: 24  – with commentary. The purpose of the Ephesians Letter describes, “Guidelines For Living The Enlightened Life As New Selves.” Today’s study is the LAST of 5 lessons.

 

PLEASE NOTE the new section toward the end of this study page.

 

According to our Study Chart: This is the second major section of our chart, “Guidelines for Living as New Selves.” This is the 1st of 2 lessons in this section. (For more information, see the master Ephesians Chart previously sent to you.  Also, it is available at www.triumc.org/web1/biblestudy. Are you having trouble downloading the Chart? Send an email directly to me at wsalmon@cox.net and I’ll snail-mail you a copy.

 

Read the assigned reading at one time: Ephesians 5: 22 to 6: 24.

 

The chart of the weekly reading:

 

The purpose of the Letter to the Ephesians “Guidelines For Living The Enlightened Life As New Selves”

Section 2: “Guidelines for Living as New Selves”

(The second of two lessons in this section) “Guidelines for living as New Selves through Christ” “Defining our interdependent and our inner-dependent relationships through Christ”

Defining our inter-dependent relationships through our surrender to Christ

Defining our relationship to the messengers of hopelessness

Wives and Husbands

Children and fathers

Slaves and Masters

Defining what it means to stand firm in Christ and to stand against the messengers of hopelessness

Final Greetings

Submit to hus-band

Wash wives with The Word

Love her as you love you own body

Unite in the Mys-tery

The im-pera-tive

Child-ren obey the 5th com-mand-ment

Do not exas-perate your child-ren

Slaves do the will of God from your heart

Mas-ters be gen-tle

Take stand against messen-gers of hope-less ness

Take up tools of sou-ful-ness and fulfill our inten-ded pur-pose

Use and Prac-tice the tool of prayer

Peace and love with our surren-der to awa-ken-ment

5: 22-24

25-26

27-30

31-32

33

6: 1 – 3

4

5-8

9

10 – 13

14 – 17

18-20

21 – 24

 

 

 

I.          Review section

A.         Vs. 6: 6, How do we experience “the will of God?”

WS: To be the creation we are! Leslie Weatherhead in his famous 1944 book on The Will of God  writes that we experience the will of God in three ways: The Intentional Will of God, The Circumstantial Will of God, and the Ultimate Will of God. This book is only 56 pages long but it the most succinct book on the topic. (This book frequently is available from Amazon on the used book list for less than a dollar!).

 

B.         Vs. 5: 23, How do we experience the “savior?”

WS: We are saved FROM living the antithesis of our intended purpose. We experience this as a healing.

 

C.        Vs. 5: 26, How do we experience the “Word?”

WS: The “Word” is the Good News. 1) ALL IS GOOD, the PRESENT IS RECEIVED, the PAST IS APPROVED AND FORGOTTEN, and the FUTURE IS OPEN;  2) We can stop waiting for the bus because the bus doesn’t stop here anymore; we can stop waiting for our ‘ship to come in,” it’s already in; 3) while we are victimized, we have the choice of living as victims or as victors.  NOW THIS IS REALLY GOOD NEWS!

 

D.        Vs. 6: 5, What does it mean to be a slave through the will of God?

WS: We choose to be obedient to fulfilling our intended creation.

 

E.         Vs. 5: 23, What does it mean to be a spouse “as Christ died for the church?”

WS: We can follow Haggai’s example to declare, “The Church is my mother. She’s a whore but I love her.” Unconditional love – agape love.

 

F.         Vs. 5: 26, What does it mean to “wash your spouse with the Word?”

WS: “Keep her bathed in the Good News.”  Ask the question, “Are you fun to live with?”

 

G.        Vs. 6: 10, Explain the experience of “being strong in the Lord”

WS: Surrender all that we are to living obediently to the Divine Commandment. One IHOPer noted the necessity of engaging in spiritual warfare.

 

H.         Vs. 6: 11, Explain the experience of relating to the “messengers of meaninglessness.”

WS: The messengers of meaninglessness are those who want to victimize us and then tell us that life is hopeless.  To paraphrase Job, “I’ll be the hopeful against the day when everyone will live the hopeful life!”

 

I.          Vs. 6: 12, How do we experience the “heavenly realms?”

WS: The “heavenly realms” is not a place, it is a relationship.

J.         Vs. 6:10, How does being “strong in the Lord” aid us in the struggle against the      messengers of hopelessness?

WS: To be “strong in the Lord” is to live as if there are no hopeless situations.  Our human situation (cancer, death, fear, car accidents, etc.) is not our enemy. Our enemy is the one who tells us there is no hope.

 

 

II. The second assignment is to answer the following questions in our usual

format.

It is helpful to begin to brood about WHY the Ephesian churches were unable to solve these problems themselves. When we get around to asking this question we’ll be dealing with one of the “contradictions” preventing their own solutions.     These contradictions are not always named in the scripture, but frequently implied. However, Paul provides his solution which gives us some idea about this very deep barrier. At this point we do some intuitional work that always is revealing.

 

A. How does this material express the surface barriers or problems?

WS: Check out Vs. 5:23 to 6:6

The Ephesian churches forgot that Christ is the context for living the abundant life.

 

B. Describe Paul’s solution.

WS: Check out Vs.6:6, 5:23, 5:26

We do the will of God as we fulfill our intended purpose and choose to be obedient to it.

 

C. What does Paul’s solution suggest about the Deeper Problem? (Note: this

usually results in new information.)

WS: Check out Vss. 6:10 to 20

The deeper, underlying, problem is that the Ephesian churches failed to stand firm in Christ, and have become victims to the messengers of meaninglessness.

 

 

III.        Words to be added to your lexicon – or list of words and definitions. For the foreseeable future, I’m adding a few words for you to write down the Gut Trip Analysis (definition) in a small notebook. You may want to put these in some kind of alphabetical order so that you can refer to them when you’ve forgotten how these words ARE EXPEREINCED.

            (For those familiar with Microsoft Excel—or any spread sheet, or data base, these words can be entered in any order, and then they can be alphabetized by the computer.)

            One of the persistent problems people face in this Bible Study is the struggle to push our old Christian Code Words from Head Trip explanations into Gut Trip experiences. Although, we been at this task just over six years, the struggle remains. It is time for us to move beyond this fundamental exercise.

            In order to find Gut Trip Analysis useful, it will be helpful to become self-conscious about these definitions. I’ll provide the Gut Trip definition, and you can illuminate the word by writing down your own personal experience. Each week two or three new words will be added to this list.

            Give it a try. Will you?

 

SAVE THE FOLLOWING AND CREATE YOUR OWN LEXICON!

Refer to them when you can’t think of your definition.

 

Refer to in when you can’t think of your definition.

 

Old Christian Code Word	Gut Trip Analysis Definition	Salmon’s definition	Your personal definition
God	The experience of Perfect At-One-Ment that we embody as we live the humane life.	I experience the antithesis of At-One-Ment when I get so frustrated that I have a language change, and I’m almost beside my-self.
Jesus	The demonstrator of living the humane life.	When I finally get my act together, then my wife affirms that I’m living the humane life; i.e., that I living the Jesus life.
Christ	The EVENT in which, or by which, we are awakened from living in the anti-thesis of At-One-Ment, and in which we are awakened to live the humane life.	When Beverly confronts my potty mouth, then at this moment I am convicted of living the antithesis of At-One-Ment. In this same event I am confronted with the possibility of living the humane life.    Actually, any kind of a confrontation has the possibility of being a Christ event. Theologically, this is called ontological (reality) thinking. Also, Gut Trip Analysis calls it the indicative or The Way Life Is.
Holy Spirit	The act of choosing to be obedient to living the Christ-like life as humane human beings. Actually, the freedom we have to be the obedient ones behalf of a world that is not obedient against the day when all the world will be obedient in living the humane life.	When we choose to live the humane life we are experiencing what Christian tradition points to in the word The Holy Spirit, i.e., the empowerment to live the human life.    The humane life is lived when others affirm we are helpful and pleasant to be around, or can embrace our leadership at the moment. Also, it is as we do acts of justice and mercy—that is that we no longer participate in racist or sexist jokes—that we participate in the activity of the Holy Spirit.
The Church	The church is the gathered body of those who live the awakened life. The Church is what the church does; when the church is living out of the ethic of WWJD it is the church. This is a universal principle and is not necessarily applied just to Christian organizations.	An example of a large group of people acting as The Awakened People living the Human Life is that of the Turks rallying against the Islamic fundamentalists who wish to turn the country away from its secular roots. OUR DANGER  IS IN MAKING CHRIST TOO SMALL; THE BODY OF CHRIST IS UNIVERSA, JUST AS CHRIST IS UNIVERSAL.
The human situation (How did we humans became a part of creation, and then what happened to us? Take seriously Genesis 2 – 11!	The human situation is to live spiritual unaware of our intended purpose for living the humane life. This predicament is illustrated in the murder of Able by Cain, in the desire of the people to replace God in the Tower of Babel, and in the Noah story about God’s wrath.	Frequently, when my sense of frustration gets the best of me I experience being “beside myself.” This is not the experience God wants for me. God’s purpose for me is to live self-consciously!
Sin	Sin is living in a state of separation. This is an unavoidable situation and predicament illustrated in our gender, race and culture.	My human situation (John Wesley’s “predicament”) is to be male. My wife, Beverly’s, situation is to be female. While we have been married for 50 years we still are wired differently. It is only in coitus that we approach some measure of unity (as promised in the Bible), yet each of us will approach death by ourselves.
Righteousness	Getting right with God who is experienced as Perfect At-One-Ment.	Living in the context of God’s love and forgiveness. When we are “right” with neighbor, and we feel good about ourselves, then we a living “right” with God who is experienced as Perfect At-One-Ment.
Justification	Awakening to the reality that we are actually created to live At-One with neighbor, self and God. In this way we fulfill the Divine Commandment.	Always there is a “wake up moment” to discover we though we are living “at home” when in reality we have been “living on vacation.” IHOPer additions: “I was sinking deep in sin. . . wheee,”  and, “Love lifted me.”
The Cross	The DEMONSTRATION that, like Jesus, we can die to the barriers preventing us from living and fulfilling our intended purpose.	Getting over the fact that I’m different because of my awakenment. To live out of the message of the cross is to die to the barriers preventing me from living the humane life.

 

Alright folks, talk to me!