In Ephesians 6, Paul continues his theme of people submitting to each other. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” he said in the previous chapter, before talking about married life. Now he moves on to children and parents, and – controversially – the relationship of slaves and masters. Children and parents He…

Translating the Bible requires a lot of judgment calls. As readers, we generally value publishers inserting helpful subheadings in the text. These weren’t in the original manuscripts but they help us navigate the pages. In today’s article, we look at the tail end of Ephesians 5. And I think the NIV makes gets the judgment…

Sometimes it’s possible to buy technology a bit too early. I made this mistake when I bought a digital camera before they got really good. It captured pictures with a full one megapixel, as the marketing pointed out. But it just didn’t let in enough light when you took a photo indoors. The result was…

Nearly a decade ago, I heard a former vice-president of a big American tech business speak. He explained his view that the key to success in life was to express your analysis of what’s going wrong with brutal honesty. I have certainly seen people being put in charge of projects through this imperious approach. It…

Paul’s mission to the Gentiles is costly. He begins Ephesians with an incomplete sentence (NIV), but one that explains his predicament: For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles This is not someone making a theoretical argument. It’s not a social media warrior tweeting from their armchair…

In Ephesians 2, Paul talks about how God’s grace extends to Gentiles. It brings them into “one body”, which also contains those who were saved under the old covenant. Was the old covenant an exclusive club? I once listened to a speaker at a church talk about how in the Old Testament, Christianity was like…

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians talks about the Holy Spirit acting as a guarantee. He writes (Ephesians 1:8-14, NIV): With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment—to…