On Sunday, January 21st, I will be preaching Ephesians. What follows is a nonlinear series of observations, questions, and potential threads from Eph. 2:1-3:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
You: Eph. 1:3-14 portrays ‘your’ salvation ‘in Christ’, and vv. 15-23 begin to characterize their identity more particularly. Paul has heard of ‘your’ faith in Jesus and love for all the saints. It seems important to note that ‘dead in your trespasses and sins’ (2:1) is not their first characterization in the letter.
Were dead: Christ has already been ‘raised’ from the ‘dead’ (nekros, 1:20) and then ‘seated’, and Paul mishmashes some verses from Isaiah together to make , ‘Arise from the dead’ (5:14) and exhortation to the Church. From the 1:20 vocabulary, he repeats ‘dead’, ‘raise’, and ‘seated.’ They go together is the point.
Trespasses and sins: Why is it both? He mentions trespasses at 1:7 as forgiven according to the ‘riches’ of his ‘grace’, two more hot words in 2:1-10. I’m no Paul scholar, but I feel like Paul uses ‘sin’ in Romans to talk about the powers—e.g., ‘sin reigned in death’ (Rom. 5:21)—and opposing it to grace. I don’t want to force that, though.
Walked: ‘You’ formerly ‘walked’ (peripateo) in sin (2:1), and ‘we’ should ‘walk’ (peripateo) in good works (2:10). ‘Walking’ bookends the paragraph.
Course: Mm, misleading translation. It’s literally ‘according to (kata) the age (ton aiona) of this world (tou kosnou toutou).’ Age (aiona) is also repeated and inverted at 2:7—‘that He may show in the coming ages (tois aoisin tois eperchomenois) the exceeding riches of His grace.’
Prince: That makes the Prince not the leader of a course, but the ruler of an age, which makes more sense. You once walked in that age (2:1); now you are seated (2:6) and walking differently (2:10); and God reigns in the future ages (2:7).
Spirit: I like the inclusion of Spirit, because one of the main points of Ephesians is that the Spirit unites all things in heaven and earth, and especially the Church, in Christ. So it’s an other point of contrast.
We all once lived: Paul shifts from ‘you’ to ‘we,’ and he includes ‘the rest of mankind.’ Why? I mean, it’s a universalizing epistle, but I don’t know why do a ‘you’ before a ‘we.’
Carrying out: Another misleading translation that obscures an important foil. It’s poieō, which is the root of poiēma in 2:9—‘for we are his making (poiēma), created in Christ Jesus for good deeds. So here’s another way of writing these two verses: ‘among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind… but we are God’s carrying out, created in Christ Jesus for good deeds.
Children of wrath: Again, there’s a foil: ‘walk (peripateo) as children of Light’ (5:8).
So many of the terms that Paul uses to articulate this ‘bad news’ seem to derive from more constructive, positive passages. What is true of all terms in Scripture—that they should be interpreted in light of their use at other places within the same book—seems especially true here. Dead? Christ was dead, and he was raised and seated. The spirit working disobedience among you? There’s a different Spirit; walk according to him who works obedience in you. You carried out your desires (poieō)? Now you are the carrying out of God’s desires. You know this age (aion)? Well the future ages are for the pouring out of God’s kindess. Walking as children of wrath? Walk now as children of the light.
Sin is a negative category, and Paul can’t even write this ‘bad news’ paragraph except as a parody of the ‘good news’ of the gospel.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.