Covenant Ephesus

This blog will take a quick look at the STRUCTURE of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. I believe that this letter’s STRUCTURE is the same as that of the ancient COVENANT which YHWH made with Israel on Mt. Sinai, and afterwards when he RENEWED that covenant with succeeding generations. Let’s see why I think that’s so.

Pretty much all the good Bible scholars say that the Epistle to the Ephesians consists of TWO PARTS. Chapters 1-3 comprise PART 1, and chapters 4-6 comprise PART 2. They also pretty much agree that PART 1 consists of THEORY, whereas PART 2 consists of PRAGMATICS. The contents of PART 1 constitute big picture THEOLOGICAL concepts. The contents of PART 2 constitute mostly COMMANDMENTS for personal and social CONDUCT.

In my COVENANT blogs, I briefly talk about the STRUCTURE of the ancient Covenant (based on the ancient Hittite Suzerainty Treaties, examples of correspondence of which you can read in the Amarna Letters). The most important fact you need to grasp is, the Covenant is a BINDING LEGAL AGREEMENT between the parties. The covenant’s structure contains a PREAMBLE and STIPULATIONS, among other sections. Here’s my point:

Ephesians chapters 1-3 read like the PREAMBLE of a Covenant, whereas Ephesians 4-6 read like the STIPULATIONS of a Covenant. Based on the above scholarly consensus, I think Paul wrote his letter to the church at Ephesus IN THE COVENANT FORM (and style). Part I of this letter is the PREAMBLE of the New Covenant, whereas Part 2 is the STIPULATIONS of the New Covenant. Paul, a former lawyer and very powerful upper level bureaucrat (remember, he had the power of life and death – Acts 9:1, Philippians 3:4ff, 1 Timothy 1:13), is telling the people at Ephesus that they have made a BINDING LEGAL AGREEMENT with The Almighty when they believed in Jesus, to ‘re-connect’ with their Creator. Part I explains THE WONDERFUL THINGS THE GREAT KING OF THE COVENANT HAS DONE FOR THEM, whereas Part 2 explains THE PEOPLE’S COVENANT DUTIES TOWARDS THE GREAT KING. Like all Biblical Covenants, there’s BLESSINGS for OBEDIENCE, and CURSING for DISOBEDIENCE.

If my hypothesis is true, then a number of serious implications arise that are not considered in the realm of Christian RELIGION. So let’s briefly consider some of the IMPLICATIONS of Paul’s letter to Ephesus being in COVENANT FORM:

1. First thing we must realize is, the covenant FORM is everything. In ‘legal land’, FORM DETERMINES PROCESS. And anybody who knows anything about today’s legal process also knows that PROCESS IS EVERYTHING. Same w/this ancient treaty. FORM MAKES PROCESS, and PROCESS IS EVERYTHING.
2. So, when you ENTER INTO COVENANT with God, you are signing-on to a LEGAL PROCESS that ends only if you are OUSTED from the covenant. Believe me when I tell you, you DO NOT want to be OUSTED from God’s Covenant in Jesus. You shouldn’t sign up to begin with if that’s the case.
3. The next thing that’s vital to understand is, GOD is the GREATER party in this agreement, whereas the PERSON or group of PEOPLE is the LESSER party.
4. The GREATER PARTY always dictates the TERMS of the agreement, not vice versa.
   That means you can’t tell God what to do, you can’t order God around. He ain’t your ‘errand boy’. And if stuff happens in your life that you don’t like, even though you ‘prayed about it’, you can’t blame it on God. We had a saying when I studied in Israel, “putting God in a box”. It was a reference to when the ancient Israelites took the arc of the covenant (the proverbial box) with them to Aphek (1 Samuel 4), thinking that they could force God to ensure for them a victory in battle by reason of the fact that they toted God along for the ride. Noooooooot! Their motive was WRONG, so they suffered severe casualties.
5. ‘Entering into the covenant’ is A PERSONAL CHOICE. In fact, it’s YOUR choice, and YOURS ALONE. It’s not FORCED UPON you, like auto insurance (illegally, I might add) or TAXES, or WARS, or CORPORATE SLAVERY, or MEDICINE, or … (you name it, pretty much everything today is shoved down our throats, unless you’re too brainwashed to see what’s really happening). So, YOU YOURSELF make this choice.
6. Your covenant ‘RELATIONSHIP’ is BINDING on the parties – which means, when a person ‘gets saved’ (or ‘asks Jesus into their heart’, becomes a Christian, ‘walks the isle’, or any number of versions of CONVERSION), they’re making a LIFE-LONG BINDING COMMITMENT to God, whether they know it or not.
7. OBEDIENCE to God is obligatory not optional. In other words, OBEDIENCE IS MANDATORY not VOLUNTARY. So, you can’t become a Christians’ and then IGNORE or REPUDIATE or NEGLECT (or whatever churchianity has been doing all these years), GOD’S LAW (the stipulations of the covenant). You are OBLIGATED to LEARN and OBEY God’s law. AND, you’re OBLIGATED to learn how to LIVE AMICABLY with EVERYBODY else in the covenant. That means, NO ‘in-fighting’, no politics, no emotional game playing, etc. NONE OF THAT! Read all of Paul’s letters to see what I mean, especially his letter to the Corinthian people.
8. Another important point is, the person making the decision (entering into the covenant relationship) is the BENEFICIARY, not the BENEFACTOR.  The person is the RECIPIENT of God’s blessings, not the GIVER of blessings to God. In other words, GOD DOES NOT NEED US, but instead, WE NEED GOD.
9. All the blessings that God gives to use are based on OUR obedience to his law. The blessings come in two packages: 1. PERSONAL and 2 SOCIAL. The most substantial blessings come in the STRUCTURE OF COVENANT SOCIETY. In other words, when your community bases its LAW AND ORDER on GOD’S LAW (note that I do NOT mean ‘rabbinic law’ or ‘Jewish law’! … or American man-made laws), most of your blessings come from the LIBERTY you have from living in a GOD-FEARING SOCIETY.
10. That brings us to the biggest part of this Covenant Relationship:
                                              CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE.
    First I want to point out that this aspect of your ‘relationship with God‘ is COMPLETELY IGNORED by modern Christians, and it is REPUDIATED in modern Christian theology (except for a minuscule sub-culture scattered around the world). This subject boils down to WHO IN THE RELATIONSHIP IS REQUIRED TO CHANGE. Considering that God is UNCHANGING and CHANGELESS (Divine attributes), the question of God changing is a non-subject. By nature, God doesn’t need to do any changing. But, WE DO. That’s what life is all about. It’s about CONSTANT CHANGE. Let me rephrase that: Life is all about CONSTANTLY ADJUSTING OUR BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE SO THAT WE ALL LIVE LIKE JESUS DID, AND SO THAT ALL OUR COMMUNITIES ARE MODELED AFTER GOD’S DESIGN FOR HUMANITY. The CHANGE related to your covenant relationship is based on GOD’S LAW. The Apostle John calls this LOVE, which you can see in 1 John 5:2-3 & 2 John 5-6 (I discussed COVENANT LOVE in previous blogs). The community at Philippi was on the right track in this, according to the tone of Paul’s letter to them. CHANGE is all about REPENTANCE. REPENTANCE is the corollary of OBEDIENCE, because you have to repent in order to obey.
11. The implications of all the above are quite far reaching when comparing that ideology to the modern churchian ideology. They don’t obey God’s law. Moreover, they DENY their OBLIGATION to obey God’s law, so they don’t even TEACH God’s law! Those fools say, “Jesus fulfilled the law, so we don’t have to.” So modern churchians are in serious need of CHANGE, which means they need to REPENT and begin learning about OBEDIENCE to God’s Law (which are their obligations under the covenant). Otherwise, God considers such persons REJECTED (for more on this, read the prophets in the OTm and look at the lifespan of ancient Israel, noting especially the CAUSE of their ‘captivity’). Nehemiah said it like this, “Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath” (Nehemiah 13:18). Apparently Nehemiah figured it out!
12. Another implication for churchians is the WRONG gospel message they learn, which the religious ministers ‘preach and teach’ them. They teach the redemptive work of Jesus, but totally FAIL to teach anything about God’s KINGDOM. God’s Kingdom operates on the basis of God’s Law. That’s how all societies function. Considering that Jesus’ ‘mission’ was to publicize GOD’S KINGDOM, one would think that the church would do the same, right?
    1. But He [Jesus] said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the
       other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” (Luke 4:43)
13. Repenting about one’s ideology is not a simple matter, especially when one’s entire lifestyle has to change in order to get on track! So, God is PATIENT:
    1. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness,
       but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all
       to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
    2. Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
    3. Consider the many texts in the OT showing the patience of God towards His disobedient people, ancient Israel, before He drove them off into slavery (for their failure and refusal to REPENT and OBEY!
14. But, we should NOT use God’s patience as an excuse to SLACK:
    1. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12)
15. Finally, I want to point out to you the SUBJECTS of OBEDIENCE that Paul COMMANDS the Ephesians to follow (the Covenant STIPULATIONS). Note that Paul’s ‘commands’ are couched in the form of EXHORTATIONS to his readers. He doesn’t issue JUDICIAL ORDERS (like those coming from a judge, that are enforced by a police bureaucracy). I believe he does that because he’s addressing RICH PEOPLE and HIGH LEVEL PUBLIC OFFICIALS (for the most part). You can’t boss them around or brow-beat them, or they’ll get their feelings hurt and disregard you. Typical of people with a high emotional IQ. Plus, they’re perceptive enough to not need to be smacked in the head or yelled at to get it through their thick skulls. You talk to them reasonably, but with urgency. They get the point. And the dull ones among them will be carried along by the force of community activity and social custom. So here is a summary list of the Covenant Subjects in the Ephesian letter (aka, the Stipulations of the Covenant):
    1. Community UNITY: Ephesians 4:1-16
    2. Community FELLOWSHIP/RELATIONSHIPS: Ephesians 4:17-5:21
    3. MARRIAGE: Ephesians 5:22-33
    4. CHILDREN: Ephesians 6:1-3
    5. FATHERS: Ephesians 6:4
    6. SLAVES/EMPLOYEES: Ephesians 6:5-8
    7. MASTERS/EMPLOYERS: Ephesians 6:9
    8. SECULAR GOVERNMENT POLITICS: Ephesians 6:10-20

So there you have it. Those STIPULATIONS OF THE COVENANT are pretty straight forward. They have to do with all the basic SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, especially the Christian Covenant COMMUNITY. Bottom line: You, as a Christian, are REQUIRED to obey Paul in these areas of life, THEY WAY HE TELLS YOU TO. If you don’t, then you aren’t being ‘Christian’. Instead, you are derelict in your duties, and if you take your disobedience far enough, you make yourself an ENEMY of God, Christ and Christians. One thing I can promise you is, OBEDIENCE BECOMES EASY after a while. In fact, once you establish God’s Law into the fabric of your lifestyle, YOU’VE ARRIVED. You really don’t have to RELEARN it. It’s not like the constant change shoved down our throats in modern society designed to keep us distracted while ‘the idle rich’ plunder us and corral us into around as their chattel slaves. No. it’s not like that at all. You merely have to keep APPLYING God’s law to your everyday circumstances (even when it hurts!). So this isn’t like the constant BAIT AND SWITCH scams that businessmen and governments saddle you with. It’s SIMPLE and STRAIGHT FORWARD. The struggle comes when you are confronted with people and groups who are ENEMIES OF GOD and of Christian MORALITY. But that’s another story.

Now compare the above list with all that’s going on today in politics and society. Take an honest look at the ‘revolution’ that going on in America right now, with all it’s attendant death and destruction by political insurgents, which public officials (who are anti-American infiltrators) are WINKING AT. Jesus said it like this:

YOU SHALL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS. (Matthew 7:16)

So I ask you, who do you want to TRUST AND OBEY? God, or the present regime in political office, and the bureaucrats at the corporation where you work? If they’re telling you to do things that God (through Paul) prohibits, then what will your response be? Obey THEM or GOD?

Meanwhile, you may find that you have a LOT OF WORK to do to get up to speed on your COVENANT OBLIGATIONS based on the STIPULATIONS OF THE COVENANT which you find in the OT & NT. Remember that the Ephesian letter is not the only place where you find COMMANDMENTS in the NT.

Thanx for considering my viewpoint. See you in the next blog!