In this article I have begun sharing thoughts about Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Though the imagery is drawn from warfare, it is clear that it is metaphorical: the armor of God and Christians is truth, righteousness or justice, faith, salvation, the Spirit and the word of God. Many of the people who read letter clearly understood this type of military language.

Ephesians also includes rules or directives for the structuring of Christian life. The household code for Christians that appears for the first time in nine verses in Colossians (3:18-4:1) is expanded in Ephesians (5:21-6:9) to twenty-two verses. Some of its language is familiar from its use in Christian marriage rituals:

Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church (5:22-25)
Though these verses affirm that both wives and husbands have obligations to each other, they are not equal: wives are to be subject. This is quite different from the equality and mutuality recommended in Galatians 3:28 and 1 Corinthians 7.

The household code continues with an admonition to children to be obedient to their parents. The Paul of the seven genuine letters would not have opposed this – but he never mentioned it. His passion was not for reinforcing conventional patterns of behavior, but proclaim Christ crucified, Jesus is Lord and the new creation.

The household code concludes with the relationship between slaves and masters:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free (6:5-8)

The letter takes it for granted that Christians may have Christian slaves, and this text has often been used in the history of Christianity to legitimate slavery. This does not truly represent the message of Christ!