I’m glad to be done with last week. Even while recognizing that God was working his power toward me for my good in the last couple of weeks, I’m emotionally pooped. When a friend asked me “how do you have the bandwidth to write?” I didn’t understand what she was talking about. Now I do. Danger is over for now, brain is winding down. Only I think my brain is winding down past normal function into mush. One foot in front of the other, doing the next thing. I will be brain-full again.
And back into the word; another way to put one foot in front of the other. Having a pattern installed in my life, when life is over-the-top tumultuous, there is a stable and steady norm that helps me put my life back together. Added bonus is that it is common in my studies that whatever is going nuts in my life, God is speaking to that situation. When circumstances caused me to be doing 360s down the highway of life, the whole time God is whispering in my ear, “I’ve got it.”
I worship you, Father.
Identifying the Passage
Study of a new passage is before us! I hope you’ve taken the opportunity to read through the book again. It will surprise you how much more cohesive the parts become when you have familiarity with the whole. As a student of the word, we want to continually keep our objectives in front of us.
- Observation
- Interpretation
- Application
When we have growing understanding of the letter in its entirety, observations and lists begin to jump out. Themes become more obvious in interpretation. Paul’s hope and desire for his beloved audience will be tangible in application. Keep reading!
Beginning from the middle of Ephesians 1 and continuing into chapter 2, we have the purpose of finding the break in the text.
Remember from Bite 9:
“Try not to rely on what the translators decided would be where the passage breaks are. We are watching for a change in topic or thought. Key words for these transitions might be therefore, now, for, or finally. Sometimes there also will be a complete change of subject. The topic will be entirely different.”
Me in Bite 9
Do you see any verbal roadsigns like that in chapter 2? I see a but in verse 4, which seems to indicate a change in thought from the recipients as a topic to the topic of God, however 4 verses isn’t enough to sink our teeth into and the contrast the but indicates are actually related to each other. In verse 8 and 10 there are two times for is used, but again those are dependent on what came before.
At verse 11, we have a therefore. In this case, Paul describes the process by which the audience received salvation. Then Paul describes it again, designated by the therefore, beginning in verse 11. Repeating concepts typically indicate important information. If Paul has anything to do about it, these folks are going to know how desperate their situation was and how God did all the work in salvation. The first time Paul explains it is Ephesians 2:1-10 and I think that is our passage.
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)
Sentence Diagramming
Perhaps it’s the mush that is my brain currently, but I had more trouble seeing connections and modifiers in this passage than normal. Yet, the one foot in front of the other concept keeps me from bowing my head and wagging it in discouragement. In some ways, I don’t need to think at this point exactly, I need to follow the pattern. It isn’t like I’m breaking trail snowshoeing in 3 feet of snow (for any non-snow people, it’s super hard), I’m following a trail that goes through 3 feet of snow.
Beginning with the typical and, we will leave it on the left to be the connector Paul intended. There will be other ands and they will line up over there.
In English, we see the sentence you were dead. If you continue reading, there are a string of modifiers for that sentence or a string of modifiers for the modifiers. Attempting to make order out of the stream of descriptors Paul uses, I simply made what looks like a word waterfall across the page.
I left in the trespasses and sins on the same line as you were dead. But then kept asking questions. What trespasses and sins? The ones in which they walked in. I placed the answer under the question, so to speak. On my sentence diagram, in which you once walked goes under the “trespasses” phrase so I can see what it’s modifying.
Next, I asked the question, “how did they walk?” Answer, by following. Paul uses two phrases to describe how they walked. I lined those up under the “walked” phrase. The second time Paul uses the word following, he modifies it with two more modifiers. See what I mean about modifiers modifying? Since those two phrases (the “prince” phrase and the “spirit” phrase) both answer the question, “what were they following?” I lined those up on top of each other. Like this:
Do you see why I think it looks like a waterfall?
Continuing, there is mention of a group of people, the sons of disobedience, and the next phrase answers a question like, “what relation did Paul and the audience have with them?” They were among them. Modifying that, the next phrase answers a question like, “how were they among them?” They lived. Keep the waterfall flowing, staggering the phrases under what they modify.
Answering the question “how did they live?” I lined up next two phrases in the passions of the flesh and carrying out the desires. And since the next phrase didn’t fit on the page, I stuck it under the word desires because the phrase of the body and the mind modifies it anyway. I’m sure the print is tiny, but if you squinny your eyes, you will be able to see more waterfall steps like this:
Like I said, I was running out of room on my page. Fortunately, the next phrase is again describing the audience. All the way back up at verse 1, Paul said and you were dead. He’s described the trespasses and sins and now he’s describing a different aspect of their previous situation. We will line up the and were by nature children of wrath with verse 1. Can you see it is the same topic?
The last phrase connected there is like the rest of mankind and I see that modifying the children of wrath. Here is where we are so far:
Verse 4 has a but which indicates a change in specific topic, as we discussed earlier, though it is still part of the flow of Paul’s discourse. Verse 1-3 was the recipients’ predicament and now Paul transitions to information about God. We will line up the but God on the left side, showing a new topic.
After the but God, I see three distinct phrases that don’t modify anything that has come before. As a (nerdy) student of the word trying to sentence diagram, I find this construction unsettling. I prefer to have the modified phrase come before the modifiers. However, we take scripture in the order it comes and in this case, the modifiers come before the modified. Trying to show myself the flow of the sentence, I scoot the three phrases over a smidge and line those up. Below that, I line up the made us alive back under God. Pictures are handy:
I’m aware that in previous sentence diagramming Bites, I’ve said that I’d like you to give the discipline a try on your own. And I still would like you to be able to do that in this passage, however it seems like the sentence constructions are a little more complicated. Having been the student who looks at it and says, “What do I do here?”, I’d like to explain how I handle it so that in the future you are more comfortable.
In reality, my technique morphs. I learn a little more and I adjust for that new information. As you learn and grow, you will most likely also develop your own method. We are going to diagram a few more verses and then I’ll set you loose again for the last few.
Returning to the passage, we have but God and three modifiers scooted over and made us alive lined up with God again. In this way, our eyes can see and read the simplified sentence as but God made us alive. We’re not ignoring the modifiers, but we want to be able to identify the sentence for clarity.
Following the made us alive are three more modifiers. These answer a question like “how are they made alive?” They’ve been made alive together, with Christ, and by grace. Let’s line those phrases up under the word alive.
Then we want to continue to line up what God did in contrast to the recipients. “But God did what?” Verse 6 tells us and raised up. The and is merely a conjunction so we will stick it over to the left and line up the verbs made and raised.
After the verb raised are two modifiers: up and with him. We will line those up under the raised.
One more verb and I’ll show you what mine looks like. The last of the three phrases that describe what God did is and seated us. Again, the and will get tucked to the left and the seated will line up under the other verbs made and raised. Following the seated are three modifiers: with him, in the heavenly places, and in Christ Jesus. Let’s line those up under seated. Here’s where we’ve gotten so far:
Recognizing my nerd is showing again, isn’t it satisfying to have all of those verbs and their modifiers lined up in an orderly fashion? It’s easy to identify the sentence parts and move into list making.
Without straying into interpretation before we are prepared to do so, we can look at verse 7 and see that there is an explanation coming. So that explains why God did the preceding actions. I didn’t line up the so with the seated because it isn’t another verb, and I didn’t line it up with the other modifiers because it didn’t seem like the same type of question was getting answered. I moved over just a few spaces, under the line-up of verbs so the so that in the coming ages is obviously connected to the the actions in some way.
Looking at the next phrase, he might show the immeasurable riches, it appears to be attached to the so that in the coming ages. I moved over a couple of spaces and stayed on the same line.
After this phrase, is another string of modifiers. Where do they go? What do they modify? I’m going to let you wrestle with the rest of the passage and you can see what you come up with. At the end, I will again leave the link so you can print your own sentence diagram, if you desire.
Wrap Up
I love the sentence diagramming. In the past, it used to give me fits. Now I enjoy it when things line up and questions get answered. For me, it’s a concrete exercise that will yield results even if I find later on that I’d have done it differently if I’d understood the text better.
Our Bite for today is along a familiar theme. And yet I think it is an important one for study as well as soundness of mind.
Have a routine of study. Have a plan that fits into your schedule. I’m not talking about a regimen that causes guilt or shame if you take a day off or even a week off. I’m talking about a routine of comfort and joy that is so commonplace for you that when the world is blowing up all around you, it is your happy place. The routine that allows you to curl up in our Father’s lap and not only tell him your woes but allows him to tell you that he’s got you in the palm of his hand.
Next time we will have our printed structural diagram in hand and we will begin making lists.
