In The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God Tom Wright invites readers to take several steps backwards and see the larger picture of God’s purpose for the world. All too frequently verses of the Bible are chunked out into specific parts or topics like being “saved by grace through faith” (Eph 2:8), or praying for God to do “more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20), the importance of “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15), wives and husbands lining up neatly into expected roles (Eph 5:22ff), or everyone donning their spiritual armor (Eph 6). In doing so, it’s easy to forget — or not even see — how these admonitions relate to the main theme or vision of the book.
In this release, Wright makes it abundantly clear in every chapter that the “vision” of Ephesians is the glory of God. All other topics or ‘parts’ are related to the whole. We need to swing open the door and see all the furniture in the room, rather than continue looking through the keyhole seeing only the corner of a chair.
For those familiar with the book of Ephesians, it should come as no surprise that the first half is dedicated to a theology of God’s goal for the entire world (chapters 1-3). The second half of the letter unpacks how this goal is worked out in everyday life (chapters 4-6). The structure is simple: theology first, then ethics.
Sadly, some bypass the theological framework that forms the basis for ethical instructions, and fast forward to practical implications of a text. In a firm resolve (or haste) to answer the “So what?” question, we forget — or worse, ignore — what it is that should actually ground our behavior; what desires propel us to move in this or that direction.
For example, many well-intentioned believers understand Ephesians 5:21-6:9 to be dictating roles in marriage (husband, wife), or structures for the home and society (children, slaves). But Wright argues we must not divorce ethical teaching from its theological flooring, because doing so falls short of what the biblical writers intend. Put differently, maintaining a ‘what-this-means-to-me’ posture will have little to no lasting impact if we’re just turning what we think Scripture demands into our preferred cultural traditions, which come and go as culture changes.
Instead, with Ephesians 5:21-6:9 we should ask: Does marriage factor into “the task of the church and the glory of God?” Is there any connection at all? Or, have we detached ethics (how we ought to behave) from theology (what God is doing)? Are we handicapped by a kind of existential myopia that suffers from excessive concern over the significance of a text that we fail to see its theological underpinnings? This is the burden of Chapter 8, namely, to show how Ephesians 5:21-6:9 is linked to what Paul has written in the previous chapters. And, this is a vitally important lesson to learn for hermeneutics (principles of interpretation).
In sweeping summary, Wright paints a cohesive picture showing the linkage between Ephesians 1:1-5:20 and Ephesians 5:21-6:9.
At the end of chapter 1, Paul’s great prayer comes together with the picture of the church as the Messiah’s body, ‘the fullness of him who fills all in all’. Then, at the end of chapter 2, he sees the church growing into a holy temple, where God himself comes to live by the spirit. The prayer of chapter 3 reaches its climax in knowing the Messiah’s love, and in God, filling his people with all his fullness. The picture of multiple ministries in the church in chapter 4 insists that we must together grow up into the Messiah from whom the whole body receives its growth and mutual relation, building itself up in love. Then, in the rest of chapter 4 and the first half of chapter 5, he has sketched the radical differences between a world of anger, bitterness and darkness and a world of love, forgiveness and light. And now here [Eph 5:21-6:9], he builds up to saying that the marriage command in Genesis 2 points forward to the relation of the Messiah and his people, the church. Every bit of the letter so far has prepared us for the present passage; or, if you like, what Paul says here about marriage and family grows naturally and appropriately out of the visionary theology that he’s already expounded (p 116, emphasis original).
And, if that were not sufficient to show how the dots connect, Wright says again,
Chapter 1 verse 10 speaks of God’s eternal purpose: to draw together in the Messiah all things in heaven and earth. Chapter 2 verses 11-22 see this cosmic plan symbolized by the coming together of Judaean and Gentile into a single new humanity, growing into the spirit-filled temple. At the start of chapter 3, Paul describes that coming together of the two into one as ‘mystery’ of the gospel, which, in 3:10, confronts the principalities and powers with God’s new creation. Then, in chapter 4, this single new humanity is sustained by God’s gift of multiple ministries designed to help it, in love, to grow up in every way into the Head, the Messiah himself (4:15). And now, not as detached pragmatic advice but in a kind of theological crescendo, we have the matching ‘mystery’: the Messiah’s own self-giving love as the radical model for the husband’s vocation to serve his bride (pp 117-118, emphasis original).
What strikes me here is the contrast between “detached pragmatic advice” and “theological crescendo.” That is, Paul’s teaching on marriage is not isolated from what he has already written in the letter as a whole. Marriage is a part of the overall scene Paul is painting for us. Imagine viewing Van Gogh’s famous Café Terrace at Night, located in the Place du Forum of Arles, and focusing only on one table of that setting rather than taking in the whole vibrant scene? Seeing how parts relate to their whole is absolutely crucial in understanding the inspired text (or paintings, for that matter)!
And so,
what Paul says about marriage in [chapter 5] verses 28-32 is explicitly and organically related to what’s gone before. At the end of the paragraph … he sees the marriage of man and woman in relation to the Messiah’s role vis-à-vis his body, the church. He quotes Genesis 2:24 about the man leaving father and mother and becoming one flesh with the woman. Yes, he says (verse 32), there are deep hidden meanings here: the word he uses is ‘mystery’. But he reads that text as referring to the Messiah and the church. The mystery, as ever, is revealed in the gospel (p 117).
Marriage is a relational model for Christ and his church that is intended to bring God glory on earth. Again, Wright links it all together.
We learn about marriage by thinking of Messiah and church; but we learn even more about Messiah and church by thinking of marriage. Heaven and earth; Gentile and Judaean together; the body building itself up in love; and now female plus male in marriage. The mystery revealed. The Bible in miniature. Tinker with it at your peril.
Think how, in Genesis, God constructs his heaven-and-earth world as a temple, a home for his own use, with his image, male and female together, at its heart. The gospel then generates the new temple where God dwells by the spirit. Now, as in Revelation, the bodily union of male and female symbolizes the new creation, the new template. Creation; temple; marriage (p 118).
Striking implications here! This means that the relationship I have with my bride matters. Why? Because my marriage is a working model intended to reflect the story of Christ and his church, which has the goal of bringing God glory here on earth. The way this is done is by following Christ’s example of self-giving love through mutual submission. That is what I am called to. That is my vocation and together we bring God glory on earth as it is in heaven!
Of course, this discussion around marriage does not address the single life nor Matthew 22:30 and our consummate eschatological state (on the latter, see Ian Paul’s excellent essay, “What will it mean for us to ‘be like the angels’ in Luke 20?“). Neither is it intended to do so. My point here is simply that my marriage, indeed every word uttered and every breath taken, is designed to bring God glory. This is the task of the church and the point of marriage, until the “fullness of him who fills all in all” is realized.
Do pick up a copy of Tom Wright’s book and see how all the dots connect. You’ll be glad you did!