Participants: Senez Rodriguez (Host), Tom Shepherd
Series Code: HPOV
Program Code: HPOV000027A
00:01 Heaven's Point of View.
00:15 Welcome to Heaven's Point of View. 00:18 As you have seen, 00:20 this is a series of the important topics 00:23 related to love, marriage, sex and divorce 00:27 according to the New Testament. 00:28 Our special guest is Dr. Tom Sheperd 00:33 who is a professor of New Testament interpretation 00:36 at Andrews University, so welcome all of you. 00:39 Yeah, thank you... 00:41 Now, from Ephesians 5 is one of the most talked about 00:49 chapters written about this issue, 00:53 and in the book of Ephesians, there is a lot to say 00:58 but this is one of the most talked about, why is that? 01:02 Yes, Ephesians 5 is where we have the passage 01:06 that we will study a lot in this section on Marriage 01:10 that talks about relationships within the household. 01:14 Wives and husbands, children and parents, 01:18 slaves and masters 01:20 and, of course, the one that tends to get the biggest focus 01:23 I think... in discussions 01:24 is the relationship between wives or husbands and wives 01:28 and because Paul talks about submission, 01:31 this is not too popular in our culture today 01:35 and so it becomes an area where people have questions 01:40 and where there's lots of controversy 01:43 so, actually though, before we launch into the study 01:46 of that central passage starting in Ephesians 5:21, 01:50 we need to place the whole passage in its context 01:54 and... in fact the context 01:57 helps to resolve some of the disputes. 01:59 Now, what is the context then? 02:01 So, the context is... 02:03 in our last study we talked about Ephesians 5 in general, 02:07 maybe we will just turn over to Ephesians 5 02:09 in our Bibles up there 02:10 and last time we looked at Ephesians chapter 5 02:15 verses 1 through verse 14, 02:19 and that was when I was with Yvonne Lewis 02:24 for that presentation and we noticed that there were 02:27 kind of... the passage could be divided 02:30 this entry in the beginning of Ephesians 5 02:33 could be divided into two sections of unequal length, 02:36 chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 02:39 and then chapter 5 verses 3 through 14, 02:43 and in chapter 5 verse 1, 02:48 well, why don't you read verses 1 and 2, 02:50 what version of the Bible that you are using? 02:52 I am using the King James Version. 02:53 Yes, and you told me 02:55 you have the Spanish version right next to it. Senez: Yes. 02:58 Tom: That's wonderful. Senez: Absolutely, I have both. 03:02 So, Ephesians 5 verses 1 and 2, why don't you read that? 03:05 5:1 and 2 says, "Be ye therefore 03:08 followers of God, as dear children; 03:11 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, 03:17 and hath given himself for us an offering 03:21 and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. " 03:29 For a sweet-smelling savor... yeah... 03:31 interestingly, in my version, 03:34 I'm reading from the English Standard Version, 03:36 okay, and verse 1 says, "Therefore be imitators of God 03:41 as beloved children," 03:42 I think your version said, "followers" 03:44 Dr. Senez: Yes. 03:45 You know, you're "imitating," you're "following... " 03:46 you're following His pattern 03:48 so, this is Paul's kind of thesis... you could say... 03:51 for, I suppose... this whole... kind of section here 03:56 that you imitate God and Jesus Christ's life of sacrifice 04:00 is presented as the paradigm by which to understand 04:04 that imitative process of how you walk in love, 04:09 then in contrast, 04:11 in verses 3 all the way down through verse 14, 04:15 Paul illustrates what the Christian life 04:20 is not supposed to be 04:21 it is not supposed to be like the dark world around us 04:26 he stress that we cannot participate in the debauchery 04:30 and the evil practices... that we must not imitate them 04:34 since they are not imitators of God. 04:37 Okay, so, he refers there to sexual immorality, 04:42 and impurity, and covetousness, 04:45 and goes on talking about this for some time, 04:49 he actually argues, we could say, from three levels 04:54 he starts with eschatology, 04:58 he says that you mustn't be like them 05:01 because these evil doers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 05:04 That's in verses 5 and 6, then he turns to 05:08 what we might call a salvation history, 05:12 kind of an argument, he says, 05:14 "You used to be in darkness but now, you are in light" 05:19 so there was a change that took place 05:21 you went from darkness to light, 05:23 you went from your past to your present, 05:25 remember where you came from? 05:27 You can't be like those people anymore. 05:29 So, first... eschatology, 05:32 they're not going to inherit the Kingdom of God 05:34 but of course you will because you have given 05:36 your life to Jesus, salvation history, 05:39 remember where you have come from, 05:41 where you are now and if you think of the eschatology, 05:44 you think of where you're going, right? 05:46 Right... so the past, the present and the future, 05:49 and the past does not determine 05:53 or does not define your present 05:57 because of the change that's taking place in your life, 06:00 now, you're looking forward to that future. 06:02 Then he also argues... that was salvation history 06:07 is kind of in verse 8 and then 06:08 he argues from morality in verses 12 and 13 06:13 he talks of their shameful deeds that are exposed by light. 06:19 So, basically, in this passage we have this sharp contrast 06:24 between the Christian and the world around them, 06:27 very strong difference, there's an interesting... 06:30 Paul doesn't use the term here, 06:32 but there's an interesting concept from the ancient world 06:35 that's interesting to understand 06:38 and it plays into this whole idea, 06:41 it's the idea of conscience, 06:42 now, we usually think of conscience as kind of a... 06:47 like an internal compass or clock, that says 06:52 when you take that cookie you shouldn't have taken... 06:55 "no... you shouldn't have, 06:57 now you'd better go walk two miles" 06:58 or something like that... 06:59 but, for the ancients, at least in some respects, 07:05 they thought of conscience as something external, 07:07 so, it's sometimes translated not as conscience 07:11 but as consciousness, so you're conscious 07:15 of the values of the people around you 07:19 of your primary group. 07:20 So people's opinion of you was part of their conscience. 07:24 Yeah, the people around you would be part of your conscience 07:27 and you would reflect, 07:29 you would take on the values of that group around you. 07:33 that's a pretty strong idea that is still around us today 07:36 we see people wearing designer clothes... 07:37 why do they wear those? 07:39 Because everybody else is wearing those clothes 07:41 and young people very much want to be like that. 07:43 Well, Paul... and Peter does this... 07:46 but Paul has some of these... to reflect some of these ideas 07:49 in some of his other passages too, 07:50 has this idea that you are now conscious of God. 07:53 You're conscious of a different set of values 07:56 that have changed your life 07:58 and you're not following that old way of the world, 08:01 it's like you don't see them anymore, 08:04 they're not the primary group for you, 08:07 so it's kind of interesting that this whole idea of 08:11 the walk that's involved 08:15 is based out of an idea of being different from the world 08:21 and following Jesus, so, thinking about that, 08:26 we should not be surprised that the household rules 08:30 that the Apostle Paul is going to present to us 08:34 follow the ways of the Scriptures, 08:39 they link into God's values and they eschew or leave behind 08:44 or reject the world's ways, so we shouldn't be surprised 08:49 if his household rules actually are at odds 08:51 with the typical household structure 08:54 of the Greco-Roman world 08:55 and we're going to see something interesting here 08:57 when we study all through this 08:59 that he uses some of the same categories 09:03 as people of his day... some of the same... groupings... 09:09 there are wives and husbands, there are children and parents, 09:12 there are slaves and masters, these were groups of people 09:15 that were all in the Greco-Roman-world household 09:18 but he changes their roles, he modifies what they're like 09:24 and actually the people that he spoke the most to... 09:28 are husbands and slaves, 09:29 he has more to say to them than to anybody else 09:31 probably because they had the most to change 09:33 and some of the others were just... like they had been 09:37 so, this really brings us now to our passage of study 09:41 for our discussion today 09:43 and that's Ephesians 5 verses 15 through 21 09:48 Should we read it now then? Yes, please. 09:54 Okay, 5:15 to 21, "See then that ye walk 10:00 circumspectly, not as fools, 10:03 but as wise. 10:05 Redeeming the time, 10:07 because the days are evil. 10:10 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding 10:15 what the will of the Lord is. 10:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; 10:23 but be filled with the Spirit; 10:27 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns 10:31 and spiritual songs, singing and making melody 10:35 in your heart to the Lord; 10:37 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father 10:43 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 10:46 Submitting yourselves one to another 10:50 in the fear of God. " 10:52 Hmmm... hmmm... okay... 10:54 Now, what does Paul mean here by the issue of "walk?" 10:59 What does that...? 11:01 Yeah, it's kind of an interesting term, 11:03 it actually borrows... it borrows from Judaism 11:06 and it is a term that... for the Jews the idea of "walk," 11:14 the Hebrew word is "Halakha... " Ha la ha... 11:21 and Halakha is an idea of... 11:25 it's the verb or the word that means walk... 11:29 now, what they had in the Old Testament stories 11:32 that they called, "haggadah," 11:34 which basically means... narratives... 11:36 but the commands of the Old Testament, 11:38 they're called "halakha" 11:40 and the halakha word... these commands... 11:42 that show you how you should live your life, 11:46 and I suppose, you know, you teach a child 11:50 how to walk... and maybe they got it 11:51 from some of those things, 11:53 but the idea of the commands and how you live your life 11:57 so, it's linked up with the idea of a way of life. 12:02 Now, interestingly enough, verse 15... 12:05 before we come to the word "walk" 12:08 it has the word "look" look... 12:11 and that's a word that sometimes is left out of translations 12:18 unfortunately, though, you'll see sometimes 12:21 they put it in the King James, I like that you said, "behold" 12:24 Senez: yes or "see" Tom: see... 12:26 and the concept of "behold" in the stories of the Old Testament 12:33 is an idea of a changed point of view or perspective, 12:37 it's as though... here at 3ABN we're taping with cameras, 12:41 it's as though... you switch cameras? 12:43 you went from one camera to the other camera, 12:45 you have a different perspective or point of view 12:47 you're now looking from a different angle, 12:49 so Paul may have linked into that 12:53 from his Hebrew background, and said, "look" or "behold" 12:56 it's like, "Wait, you need this different perspective" 12:59 and we, already have been saying 13:01 that in Ephesians 5:1-14, Paul has suggested and stated 13:07 that the Christian is... got a different point of view, 13:12 conscious of God, 13:14 the ways of the world have been left behind, 13:16 the Christian is now living for God, and so... 13:19 this "look carefully" could tie into that. 13:22 It could also tie into somewhat of the eschatological viewpoint 13:27 that Jesus provides in places like Mark 15 and Matthew 24 13:30 when he says, "keep watch, be on your guard 13:34 because the Master will come back when you're not expecting" 13:37 so Paul is giving them a warning 13:40 there's probably some tie into eschatology here, 13:43 they certainly tie into the idea of... 13:46 the Jewish idea of the way you live, the walk, 13:49 and so, he says, 13:51 "be careful how you walk not as unwise but as wise" 13:55 he continues to call for this contrast from the world 14:00 and he continues the eschatological note as well 14:05 because in verse 16 he talks about 14:08 the word of "redeeming the time" 14:11 now, my translation says, 14:14 "Making the best use of the time" 14:15 I kind of like the "redeeming the time" better. 14:17 It's got a little more ring to it. 14:19 "Redeem" has the focus of the shortness of time 14:22 in the last days and how you have to be 14:26 really careful to make the most of the time, it's so short, 14:30 it's so precious for developing the right kind of character 14:34 it's like finding water in the desert. 14:36 Now, how does Paul continue the idea of a "careful walk" 14:42 in verses 17 and 18? 14:45 All right, why don't we read those verses again 14:47 just so everybody has the context and understands it well. 14:50 "Wherefore be ye not unwise, 14:55 but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 15:01 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; 15:07 but be filled with the Spirit... " 15:10 Okay, so he continues, he has a set of 15:15 four commands, we call them in Greek, 15:19 we speak of "imperative" we have that in English too, 15:21 "Do this, don't do that" 15:22 so, he has these four imperatives 15:25 two of them are negative and two of them are positive, 15:29 which continues again this whole contrast 15:33 between the worldly way and the Christian way. 15:35 so, on the negative, he says, "don't be foolish, 15:39 that's what the worldly way is" it's the foolish way, 15:43 he says, "Don't be drunk with wine" 15:46 now I can hear the Adventists saying, "Amen" 15:48 as we teach people not to use alcohol, I'm thankful we do, 15:55 it's been such a blessing in my life 15:58 and in my family not to use alcoholic beverages 16:02 and if I take off my "Theologian hat" 16:05 and put my "Public Health hat" on, 16:07 a little bit... for a moment, alcohol is actually a sedative 16:11 and it has the effect of putting the mind to sleep 16:15 it starts with the frontal area where judgment is 16:19 so, sometimes people will drink 16:21 because they want to be uninhabited 16:23 and their inhibitions are put to sleep, 16:25 if you drink too much it just keeps working backwards 16:27 and it works it's way down down and it will eventually kill you. 16:30 It's an anesthetic but not a good one 16:34 because the distance between what would put you to sleep 16:37 and what will kill you is not very far. 16:39 The medical doctors don't like that kind of stuff, 16:41 so he says, "Don't be drunk with wine," 16:42 he says, "Don't be foolish, 16:44 instead understand the will of God... the Lord" 16:48 that's an idea of wisdom, 16:49 he says, "Don't be drunk with wine 16:51 but instead be filled with the Spirit" 16:53 so the Spirit of God is 16:55 is supposed to take the place of those things 16:57 and where alcohol puts you to sleep, 16:59 the Holy Spirit keeps you awake. 17:01 The Holy Spirit fills you with joy 17:03 where alcohol has a false joy 17:05 but the Holy Spirit has the true joy 17:07 that He gives to your life. 17:08 So Paul is trying to continue with this contrast 17:11 between the old and the new... the day and the darkness 17:15 and so... this is part of his line of thought. 17:18 That's exactly right and that brings us down 17:22 to verses 19 to 21, 17:25 why don't you read those verses for us. 17:28 "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns 17:32 and spiritual songs, singing and making melody 17:35 in your heart to the Lord; 17:37 Giving thanks always for all things unto God 17:42 and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" 17:46 And verse 21... 17:48 "Submitting yourself one to another in the fear of God. " 17:53 Okay, this is an interesting passage 17:57 some Bible translations 17:59 lists these verses as a further series of commands, 18:03 they will say, "Speak to one... or address one another 18:07 in Psalms and hymns, sing, 18:09 make melody in your heart, give thanks to God, 18:12 submit to one another out of reverence for Christ" 18:15 Some will do it that way... now the King James doesn't... 18:19 and my version also does not, 18:21 it leaves it in what we call "participles" 18:25 addressing and singing and making melody 18:28 and giving thanks and submitting. 18:30 So they put it in that kind of a format, 18:33 these five terms, speaking, singing, making melody 18:41 giving thanks, and submitting. 18:44 In Greek, they're all five of them... participles, 18:48 now, "Participle" is simply a verbal adjective, 18:51 when we take a word and put the "ing" on the end of it 18:56 in English, like "run" becomes "running," 18:59 "go" becomes "going," 19:01 those are, what we call, present participles, 19:06 and they express actions but they could also say, 19:10 "Oh did you see that running man" 19:11 so they have an adjectival kind of a sense to them, 19:15 now, the problem for us in translating 19:19 from Greek to English was that the Greek participle was 19:22 very flexible... very flexible, 19:25 God must love participles, He made so many of them. 19:27 Smile... 19:29 But students in my classroom 19:32 sometimes will be a little challenged 19:33 because, participles can be used in a whole variety of ways, 19:39 they can be used as substantives like a noun, 19:41 they can be used as an adjective and they can be used adverbially 19:45 so... and it's like about 10 to 15 different ways 19:48 that they can be used, 19:50 they're trying to figure out exactly 19:52 what kind of participle is this, 19:54 so it's always the student scratching his head, 19:56 and the student makes some kind of choice 19:58 and then, lo and behold, 20:00 it turns out it is the wrong choice, 20:03 it looks like, anyway, 20:05 at least in terms of what the Professor thought, okay. 20:07 so, we want to look at these five participles 20:10 and one of our main interests is that the very last one 20:14 is the word, "submitting. " 20:17 That's the one that is problematic for some people. 20:20 Yes, that's the beginning one 20:22 for the whole instruction to the household... see... 20:25 and so they land on that one and they worry about that one 20:30 but we don't want to worry about it yet, 20:32 we want to try to get it... understand it... okay... 20:35 so the first one of the participles 20:38 is the word "addressing" or "speaking" 20:41 okay, and the last one is the word, "submitting" 20:45 now, these two participles of the five, 20:49 the first one and the last one, deal with relationships 20:52 between believers, okay, 20:55 speaking to one another, he says, 20:57 and then, he says, "submitting to one another" 21:01 so, the first and the last deal with relationships 21:05 the second, the third, and the fourth, 21:09 deal with the Christian's relationship to God, 21:13 singing, singing praises and giving thanks, 21:18 the first four, 21:22 one was about addressing one another, 21:25 and then... singing and praising and giving thanks, 21:28 the first four are about communication 21:31 I'm sure, you as a Counselor, 21:33 are really... you're big on the idea of communication 21:36 these four... first four... about communication, 21:39 the unique... last participle... the fifth one, 21:43 is not about communication, 21:45 instead, it's about power relationships 21:49 within the community, and... 21:51 But it's interesting because you cannot submit to anything 21:55 unless you have clear communication 21:58 and understanding of each other in a relationship. 22:00 Yeah... or... if you don't, it becomes the basis of fear 22:05 or misunderstanding. Senez: Exactly. 22:07 you know, that there are children 22:08 who submit to their parents because they're afraid, 22:11 they don't understand what the father is doing, 22:13 but they're afraid of that that spanking 22:16 or some kind of punishment that they will get. 22:18 So, yeah, communication, they are interlinked, 22:21 there's an interlinkage between them. 22:23 Now, all five of these participial phrases, 22:26 are phrases in the life that is oriented with God and 22:32 Christ as the reference point, 22:33 the five participles also illustrate a thankful, 22:39 joyous and solemn demeanor. 22:42 Now, how... the question is, you see, 22:45 how does the Christian get that? 22:48 How do you become a singing Christian 22:52 instead of a complaining one, yeah. 22:56 How do you become a thankful Christian 23:00 instead of a complaining or downcast or discouraged one? 23:05 and how did you learn how to address each other with psalms 23:09 and hymns and how do you learn how to submit to each other? 23:13 Well, you see, all of these are participles, 23:19 none of them are what we would call indicative verbs, 23:23 none of them are verbs that you'd say, 23:25 "That's the main verb in this sentence" 23:27 and if I just started the sentence by saying... 23:30 addressing one another in psalms and hymns, 23:32 singing and making melody, giving thanks, submitting... 23:36 you say, "Yes, that's all very nice" 23:39 but those are all partial clauses 23:42 that's a subsidiary clause, 23:44 where is the main verb, where is the main idea? 23:46 The main idea is actually in verse 18, 23:51 so read verse 18 again. 23:53 "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; 23:59 but be filled with the Spirit... " 24:02 Yes, now this is an imperative but Paul is challenging them 24:07 he says, "Be filled with the Spirit" 24:09 and then the actions... the five participles 24:14 are actually how the expression of 24:18 "being filled with the Spirit" is seen in life, 24:21 when a person is filled with the Spirit... what happens? 24:24 They address one another in psalms and hymns, 24:27 they sing songs to God and make melody in the heart, 24:31 they give thanks to God and they submit to one another. 24:35 You see, it is impossible, 24:39 it is impossible to fulfill 24:42 this household code, 24:44 it is impossible to be 24:46 the singing Christian instead of the complaining Christian, 24:49 the only way that is possible is with the Spirit, 24:52 the Holy Spirit in our life. 24:54 Without the Spirit, we don't have it. 24:57 You know, I like that... 24:58 I heard this a while back from my mother-in-law 25:01 that 3ABN was having people pray at 7 and 7... 25:04 and you're still praying... it's still going on? 25:06 Senez: Yes. Tom: You pray at 7 and 7... 25:07 my wife has set up a little alarm clock that goes off 25:10 for those are times... times that we're home 25:12 and so... if we're at breakfast or something, 25:14 we say, "Well, it's time to pray" 25:15 and if we have our grandchildren with us, 25:18 then we've already said prayer for the breakfast 25:21 or prayer for the evening meal, 25:22 we say, "Oh, it's time to pray again" 25:26 and we're praying for the Holy Spirit 25:29 to touch our lives... to touch other people's lives, 25:32 it's the Holy Spirit that must imbue our homes 25:36 in order for this thankfulness to be seen. 25:40 And there's one more characteristic 25:43 that I want to note here, one last note on this prelude 25:47 to the instructions to the Christian home 25:50 and that is that the Trinity is active 25:54 in this whole idea, okay, 25:56 the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit 26:01 are active in this whole experience of becoming, 26:07 what shall I say, of walking the walk, 26:11 following the Christian walk, because if you notice here... 26:15 look at verse 18, "Do not get drunk with wine, 26:18 for that is debauchery, but be filled with... " 26:20 Senez: the Spirit Tom: he's filled with the Spirit 26:23 that's got to be the Holy Spirit 26:24 Senez: Right, Tom: Right... "Be filled with the Spirit, 26:26 addressing one another in Psalms and Hymns 26:29 and Spiritual Songs singing and making melody 26:34 to the Lord with your heart, the Lord here being, 26:38 the Lord Jesus Christ, okay, 26:40 Then verse 20, "Giving thanks always 26:44 and for everything to God the Father 26:47 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" 26:50 so there you have reference to the Spirit of God, 26:52 you have reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, 26:57 and you have reference to the Father. 27:02 So, all of these are involved in this whole process 27:06 wherever you see the Trinity in the New Testament 27:10 and the Trinity comes in various places, 27:12 most often we think of, you know, 27:14 "I baptize you in the name of the Father, 27:16 the Son and the Holy Spirit... " 27:17 As if they were different ranks. 27:19 Well, but they're... 27:21 the Father is usually listed first, 27:23 this is true, but we notice here, 27:25 the Spirit is listed first in this passage 27:28 and sometimes Jesus might be... 27:29 so, they work together to bring us God's grace, 27:32 but wherever these three are working together, 27:35 there, we have something important happening 27:37 and that's happening in our homes today. 27:40 Wow! well, it's been a pleasure to hear your thoughts 27:45 about this topic, 27:46 thank you Dr. Sheperd for your thoughts on this, 27:49 my friends, the time is running out 27:52 but we are happy that you have been with us 27:55 on this important topic 27:56 and we hope and I'm sure that in the future ones, 27:59 you are certainly going to have an excellent experience 28:03 in understanding the "Ephesians" topic 28:06 on this issue that we have been discussing here, 28:09 I hope that you will see us next time. |
Revised 2016-03-21