Therefore: Week 5
This series will focus on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which challenges readers to claim a new life, identity, and purpose in the hope of the resurrection.
Read Ephesians 5:21-33. Do you have any prior understanding of these passages? If so, how was that understanding either challenged, changed, or deepened by Pete’s sermon this week?
Read this same passage from Ephesians in The Message translation and discuss. Does Eugene Peterson’s translation clarify or open up the meaning behind Paul’s words for you?
Focus on Ephesians 5:25-28 (you may want to read all the way to verse 33). Discuss the counter-cultural nature of Paul’s instructions to husbands for his time and place.
Discuss Pete’s point that Paul is not describing the ideal relationship between husbands and wives (any more than he is advocating for slavery), as much as he is prescribing a “posture that creates space to restore and redeem that which is broken by sin.” What do you make of this thought? Does it help you understand the passage differently?
Read Philippians 2:1-8. How does Paul demonstrate the same way of relating to others that he writes about in Ephesians? What is most challenging to you about the idea of willingly humbling yourself before another? What is difficult about actually practicing this?
Commit yourself to praying with, and for, those with whom you are in close relationship: remember that we cannot do this on our own strength—the Holy Spirit is with us and for us. Pray for that same Spirit to empower you to follow Christ in submitting to others.
