gengwall

Craig – I’m glad you brought up Eph 5. Take a careful read and note where the authority is applied (I sugest NASB, but you can get multiple versions at blueletterbible.org). Is it authority of head over body or is the authority aspect outside of the metaphor. I think you will find tha Christ’s authority is expressed over “principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named”. CHrist’s authority is oevr the world and is for the benefit of His body.

It is also important to continue reading into chapter 2, for the passage continues as Paul speaks specifically of the body.

Eph 2:1-2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the [fn] course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

The “all things” that chapter one speaks of, which Christ is over, are all things of “the world”, which we were once a part of. But no more.

2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead [fn] in our transgressions, made us alive together [fn] with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”

And especially don’t miss this

2:6 “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”

Not only is Jesus’ authority over the world exercised for the benfit of His body, /but we will share in that authority!

Chapter 2 ends with some great and encouraging words. The metaphor has changed to a temple, with Jesus the cornerstone. We are the remains of the building, in a sense, the body of the temple, “growing” up from that cornerstone. We are still part of the whole, not outsiders who the cornerstone is in authority over. Notice, even in the temple metaphor, how the language is very similar to the head/body language of Col 2:19.

Eph 2:19-22 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the [fn] saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner (kephale/head) stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

In the final analysis, the question that needs to be asked is – “is the authority in Eph 1 being expressed within the head/body metaphor, creating a hierarchy, or outside of it creating a symbiosis that benefits and joins in that authority”. What say you Craig?