This week, we finish Ephesians by exploring the armour of God. We will discuss the realities of evil spirits in some technical detail and then see how, for most of us, most of the time, our spiritual warfare is what we have come to see as normal Christian discipleship.

Paul describes the reality of a spiritual struggle against spiritual opponents, which is not often how we envision the world. This text opens us up to see more clearly that the nature of reality, our true opponents, the real struggle, and finally, how to be equipped to “stand” firm.

This week, we continue our look at Paul's household codes and approach some lessons for how we can be spirit-filled in our family and working relationships.

The Spirit is the power we need to fuel the Christian community to live in a revolutionary way: to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Over the next two weeks, we’ll see how Paul offers a revolutionary word on how that kind of mutual submission works within a household. This week, we’ll key in on Christian marriage.

As we look at Ephesians 5: 7-21, we see how Paul uses this powerful metaphor of how Jesus’ followers are light in the Lord and that our missional call is to essentially “leave the light on,” that in the power and filling of the Spirit, our lives illuminate the darkness and bring more and more people to the light.

In Ephesians 5: 1-6, Paul is defining the culture of the Kingdom. We see in this text that the contours of the Kingdom name both positive features to embody, and negative ones to avoid. At the heart, Paul makes the staggering claim that we are to be “imitators of God,” which is only made possible because we are already God’s “beloved children.”

This week, we explore the things that grieve the Holy Spirit of God and tear us apart: lying, anger, stealing, foul speech, and malice. We learn that Christianity is not just a 'what' but a 'how.'

In Ephesians 4: 17-24, we are called to put off the old way of life, like taking off a set of dirty clothes, to put on a whole new way of life. We have “learned Christ” and, in him, we are being renewed and created anew to be like God.

In the second half of Ephesians, chapters 4-6, Paul now shifts from the vast and sweeping wonder of the gospel (chapters 1-3) to say, “Now here’s how you walk this out in the everyday realities of life.” And this starts with our unity, diversity, and growth into Christ-like maturity.

We explore Paul's famous prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, calling us into a life where we participate in God's loving power, are strengthened in our inner person, live in a world where, with the Father, there is immeasurably more than we need, and are invited to see God's love as something we do together with all of the Lord's Holy People.