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Scripture Reading: Eph. 5:1—6:9
The revelation in the book of Ephesians is progressive. According to this principle, we would expect chapter 5 to be more advanced than the previous four chapters. In chapter 1 there is a sketch with a plan. Then in chapter 2 this plan is carried out, it advances in chapter 3, and it comes to its development in chapter 4. In this chapter we will consider the progress in chapter 5 of Ephesians.
It is not easy to understand the book of Ephesians because it was written in a very deep way. When we read this book, we need to dig into its depths in order to discover the basic elements.
Another principle is that a writer always has a basic thought within him before he writes something. This principle applies to Paul’s writing in Ephesians 5. Chapter 5 of Ephesians must have certain basic elements or factors. If we can find these basic factors, we will have the key to understanding this chapter.
In the foregoing chapter we saw that in chapter 4 of Ephesians there were certain basic factors: the Body, the Body mingled with the Divine Trinity, the development in life and grace and reality. One point I did not emphasize in the previous chapter is that the Body mingled with the Trinity in the development of life and grace and reality is altogether for the new man. The concept of the church as the Body is found in chapter 1. The issue of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity is the church, which is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (v. 23). Hence, the first concept concerning the church in Ephesians is that of the Body. In chapter 2 the Body is mentioned again, and the thought of the new man is brought in. In His death on the cross, Christ abolished all of the commandments in ordinances to create a new man out of the Jews and the Gentiles (v. 15). This new man in chapter 2 is the Body. In chapter 1 the thought of the Body is introduced, and in chapter 2 the thought of the new man is introduced. However, in chapter 1 the Body is not developed, and in chapter 2 the new man is not developed. In Ephesians 4 there is the development of the Body. In chapter 4 we see that the Body is mingled with the Trinity in life, grace, and reality. Eventually, in its development the Body is the new man. Therefore, the development of the Body in its being mingled with the Divine Trinity in life, grace, and reality is for the new man.
Now let us come to chapter 5 of Ephesians. According to the principle of progression, this chapter should be another step of advancement.
It is not easy for us to see what is in Ephesians 5 because we have layer upon layer of veils covering our spiritual eyes. No matter what our background may be, we may say that we Christians all have four layers of veils that hinder our sight. Because of these veils, we may read the Word and yet not see anything. The first veil is related to the fact that we are natural. Every living creature has a certain kind of nature. A dog has a dog’s nature, and a cat has a cat’s nature. Of course, as human beings, we have a nature that is higher than that of a dog or a cat. The human nature created by God includes an ethical element. This means that by nature we are ethical. It is according to our created human nature to do good and to be good. Even little children have in their nature the inclination or tendency to be good. When they are right, they are proud and want you to see them, but when they are wrong, they want to stay away from you. They do not want others to see that they are wrong or know that they are wrong. This indicates that by nature human beings are ethical. This comes from God’s creation. The first veil is this ethical element in our created human nature.
The second veil is culture. Every race of mankind has its culture. It is extremely difficult for us to forget our culture. Culture is a thick veil that keeps us from seeing the truth in the Bible.
The third veil is religion. Very few people have no religion at all. Christianity is a religion with many different beliefs. In a sense, every belief is a religion.
The fourth veil is also related to the ethics that come from education and training, not the ethics that are in man’s nature by creation. For example, the ethical teachings of Confucius have influenced people of different nationalities in the Far East. In the West people are influenced by ethics that are according to the teachings of Christianity.
Everyone has these four layers of veils: the natural makeup with its ethical element, culture, religion, and the ethics acquired through teaching or training. These four matters have become part of our constitution. This means that our being is constituted of our nature, culture, religion, and ethics.
If you are still under these four layers of veils as you read Ephesians 5, you will not be able to understand this chapter properly. You will not understand such matters as being imitators of God as beloved children or walking in love. However, if you are a wife, you may be happy to learn that Ephesians 5:25 commands husbands to love their wives. Suppose a sister has been bothered by her husband and feels that he has been rather cold toward her. While she is thinking this way about her husband, she reads chapter 5 of Ephesians. Although she may not understand any other verse, she may pay attention to the verse regarding husbands loving their wives. Actually, she does not receive anything from the Scriptures. Instead, she inserts her own thought into the Bible.
A brother who is a husband may do the same thing with the verse that says that wives should be subject to their own husbands. He may not pay attention to Paul’s word about husbands loving their wives, but he may be happy to read that Paul tells the wives to be subject to their own husbands.
These two illustrations show us our problem when we come to the Word. Whenever we come to the Bible, we come with our thought, concept, desire, aspiration, attitude, opinion, or understanding. All these things have their source in our nature, culture, religion, and ethics. It is difficult to find a Christian who comes to the Bible free from the influence of these four things. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). If we are truly poor in spirit, we will not be occupied by our nature, culture, religion, or ethics. Then we will come to the Word with an empty spirit, a pure heart, and a sober mind.
Ephesians 5 opens with these words: “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love...” (vv. 1-2). Then in the following verses Paul goes on to say that we need to walk as children of light (vv. 2-14) who understand the will of the Lord (vv. 15-17). In chapter 4 we saw two striking matters — grace and reality. In chapter 5 there are also two striking matters — love and light. Verse 2 says that we should walk in love, and verse 8 says that we should walk as children of light. In the divine reality grace and truth are a pair, and love and light also are a pair.
In his Gospel the apostle John emphasizes grace and reality. He says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality (1:14). But in his first Epistle John does not emphasize grace and reality; instead, he emphasizes love and light. In 4:8 he says that God is love and in 1:5 that God is light. He does not say that God has love or light; he says that God is love and light. Love and light, therefore, are actually God Himself. They are God’s being, His essence.
Although the Bible tells us that God is love and light, there is no verse which says that God is grace. Rather, we are told that grace and reality came (John 1:17). The word came is significant in what it indicates. This word indicates that grace has a source, that grace came from somewhere. When Christ was incarnated, He came with grace and reality. We know, of course, that the source of the Lord Jesus was God, for He came from God the Father. No doubt, grace and reality also came from God the Father. Therefore, God is the source of grace and reality. God the Father is love and light. Love is the source of grace, and light is the source of reality.
This understanding is confirmed by 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” In this verse the love of God is the source, the grace of Christ is what proceeds from that source, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the transmission, that which passes on this grace to us. Likewise, love is a source, and grace is the outcome. Light is a source, and reality is the outcome. Grace and reality come out of God the Father, but love and light are God the Father. Once we receive grace and reality, we may go back to God to contact Him and have fellowship with Him. When we go back to God in this way, we reach love and light. This means that we touch the source of grace and reality. First, we believe in the Lord Jesus and receive grace and reality. Then by enjoying grace and reality we are brought back to the source of grace and reality — God the Father as love and light. By staying in such a fellowship we become a beloved child of God walking in love.
What is revealed in chapter 5 of Ephesians concerning love and light is deeper than what is revealed in chapter 4 concerning grace and reality. In chapter 4 we walk in grace, but in chapter 5 we walk in love. By walking in love we become a child of light, not just a person of reality. It is in this way that we can become an imitator of God, the One who is love and light. This is a great advancement and progression, an advancement from grace to love and from reality to light. We who seek Christ and love God should be children of light walking in love. Because both light and love are God, this means that we are children of God walking in God. To be children of light walking in love actually means that we are children of God walking in God.
How can we be the children of light walking in love? This is possible only by the Father dispensing Himself into us in the Son through the Spirit. When the Triune God is dispensed into us, we become in a practical way the children of God, who is light. Then as children of light, not only do we live by grace, but we live directly in God, who is light and love. Therefore, the dispensing of the Divine Trinity constitutes us children of light walking in love, or we may say children of God walking in God.
Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity we all need to be filled in our spirit with the Spirit as the divine wine (v. 18). If we are filled in our spirit in this way, then we will speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (v. 19a); we will be singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord (v. 19b); and we will be giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father (v. 20). When we have the Triune God dispensed into us thoroughly to make us children of light walking in love, we will be able to declare, “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.” We will praise Him with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Psalms are long poems, hymns are of medium length, and spiritual songs are short verses.
According to verse 18, we should not be drunk with wine, but we should be filled in spirit. We should be filled with God, even “drunk” with Him, not drunk with wine. God’s love is better than wine. Song of Songs 1:2 says, “Your love is better than wine.” We do not care to drink wine, but we desire to drink God’s love, which is better than wine. We want to soak in His love, to bathe in it. We want to be those who are permeated and saturated with God’s love and even drunk with His love.
One who is a child of light, walking in love, will be beside himself with God. This means that a child of light should be drunk with God. A proper Christian is one who is beside himself with the enjoyment of the Lord. If we are always silent, we are not typical Christians. Typical Christians should be drunk with the love of the Lord. We all need to be drunk with God as our love and light. Then we will truly be children of light walking in love.
If we are drunk with God and walk in Him as love and light, we will have genuine holiness. Real holiness is not a matter of following certain regulations. True holiness is the very God whose children we are and in whom we walk. Hallelujah, we have been born of God, and we are children of light walking in love! We should go on to be filled with God, saturated and permeated with Him, and soaked in Him. This is the dispensing of the Triune God into our being.
A real Christian is one who experiences such a dispensing, and the aggregate of all such Christians is the church. The church should be composed of those who are drunk with God, composed of those who are children of light walking daily, hourly, and even moment by moment in love. This is the proper church life. The proper church life is not composed of people who are sober in a natural way. On the contrary, the church is a group of people who are drunk with God. However, although these believers are drunk with the Lord, they are not foolish. Instead, they are wise.
If we are drunk with God through His dispensing, we will be happy, and we will rejoice and exult. In this way we will have the real enjoyment of the processed God in His Divine Trinity in our daily life.
The issue of the divine dispensing is that we can be in subjection to one another in the fear of Christ (Eph. 5:21) for the proper Christian life. Verse 21 says, “Being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” This is a continuation of the preceding verses, which speak of being filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord, and giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father. It is only when we are drunk with God that we are willing to subject ourselves to others. When we are sober, we are clear where others are wrong. We should not be sober in such a way, but we should be drunk with God in our spirit. We should be filled in our spirit with the Triune God. Instead of being filled with wrath, anger, or indignation, we should be filled with all that God is, filled even to the fullness of God. When our spirit is filled with the Triune God who has been dispensed into us, we will be drunken, not in our body but in our spirit, not in our outer man but in our inner man. This kind of drunkenness makes us soft, meek, flexible, and sympathetic. As a result, we are willing to subject ourselves to others.
As long as we have such a subjection among us in the church life, there will not be any problems. The wives will subject themselves to their husbands, even as the church is subject to Christ (vv. 22-24). The husbands will love their wives as Christ loves the church (vv. 25-33). The children will obey their parents in the Lord and honor them (6:1-3). The fathers will not provoke their children but will nurture them in the discipline and admonition of the Lord (v. 4). The slaves will obey their masters (vv. 5-8), and the masters will not threaten the slaves (v. 9). How can such a subjection be produced? This subjection is possible only when you are drunk with God. You can be drunk with God only by opening yourself to the divine dispensing. Let the living water come in to flood you, saturate you, permeate you, and even carry you away. This will cause you to be drunk with the Lord, and it will make you submissive in every situation and to everyone.
Although chapter 5 is quite long, the extract of this chapter is short and simple. In this extract we have children of light walking in love and filled with the Triune God. Therefore, these children of light are speaking, singing, psalming, thanking, and living a life of subjection to one another.
Eventually, these believers will become the bride of Christ. In chapter 4 we have the new man for the accomplishment of God’s purpose. The new man needs grace and reality. But in chapter 5 we have a loving bride for the satisfaction of the Husband. The bride needs love and light. Hence, grace and reality are for the new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose, but love and light are for the bride to satisfy Christ as the Husband.
If we have this view of Ephesians 5, we will see where the church should be and what the church should be like. The church should be a group of children of light walking in love. Eventually, such a people will become the bride for the satisfaction of Christ the Husband. All this is through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity into our being.
