Bite 90: These are Not Just “Good Thoughts” in Ephesians 6

People’s Default

You’ve been there. In the midst of a trial or you’ve got a big event coming where you need to perform well. What do friends and family frequently say? I have a relative who always says this:

“I’m sending you good thoughts.”

I’ve always wondered what that means. Where does that come from? If we trace back through Western thinking’s trajectory, what caused our minds to decide this means anything?

Our thoughts have no power because our thoughts have no being. Plus, sending the thoughts to me? I don’t have a “good thoughts” mitt in which to catch them. There are no radio towers to bounce these thoughts around. What should I do with them were I to catch them? Why are you sending them? What do you hope to accomplish?

Thanks for the sentiment, but I find it curious.

At the end of Paul’s letter, he offers a closing that is completely unrelated with regard to its efficacy to this idea of sending good thoughts. Let’s look at what I found in my study and, more importantly, see some of how I arrived there.

What Do We Have Here?

Often at the end of letters, though Paul doesn’t exclusively reserve these sentiments for the close, he regularly breaks into prayers of blessing for his audience. Even if it isn’t labeled, what Paul is praying over all of Asia, and eventually over the whole earth, is a benediction.

Looking at the word benediction, we can see the etymology gives us clues to its meaning. Bene-diction? Words like benefit, benefactor, beneficial, are all from the same Latin root which means good or well. And diction has to do with spoken words. Well-speaking.

Paul speaks blessing originating from the Triune God over his friends.

Now that we know the technical sort of term for this section, let’s look more closely at the content of it.

Content of Benediction

If we refer back to our structural diagram, we can see the outline clearly.

Let’s zoom in on the section on which we’re working.

• Peace to brothers
• Love with faith from God and Jesus
• Grace be with all who love Christ

Just for funsies I’m digging into these particular words in the original language. Why? I’ve been attempting to pull back and be clear about the big picture, haven’t I? So why am I zeroing in on the definitions of individual words?

Whether it was his primary, secondary, or tertiary purpose, Paul is teaching us to pray. As he’s teaching by his example, what is the content of his prayer? What exactly is he asking for? Because in our day for example, what the news touts as a “mostly peaceful protest” when everything is on fire behind the reporter, that doesn’t seem like a good thing to pray for people. What does Paul mean when he wrote in his original tongue? Let’s explore a little, shall we?

First, Peace

I first read through what BDAG has to say and I will discuss that, but what I gathered from those scholars was more encompassing of both grace and peace together. Instead of taking two bites at once, I’d rather focus on one word at a time before I take them together.

Then I read through Mounce’s scholarship to see what comments he has on this word peace. Paul has thoughts as he uses the word in Greek and since his linguistic choices are effects with causes, what historical use of the concept of peace is in the mind of Paul as he pens scripture? To discover the historical meaning, I considered Mounce’s information about peace in the OT in the Hebrew language.

Peace in the OT

This is the Hebrew word שָׁלוֹם (šālôm). I’ve heard this word pronounced shalom. You probably have too. This is arguably one of the more significant words to be found in the OT. Mounce informs me that this word has a range of meaning described by words like prosperity, well-being, health, completeness, safety. Within the OT, he says that this word is used at least 60 times to describe this absence of strife. Mounce also notes that peace can prevail when violence of war rages. And that the reverse is also true: internal strife can be present while peace reigns in the land. ¹

Moving through time, the OT was translated into Greek, into the LXX. Those translators replaced salom with the Greek word eirene which will help us to connect OT to NT in a moment. First, let’s look at Isaiah 9:6 for half a second. Which will also help us connect Old with New.

For to us a child is born, 
to us a son is given; 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, 
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, 
Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

If you’ve been running around church for any time, you know this is a prophecy about Jesus. One of his monikers in English is Prince of Peace. In the LXX, that word for peace is that Greek transliteration eirene. See how there is a connection? There is all kinds of desire for peace in the OT and then Jesus arrives in the NT as peace.

Side Note

I’m not pretending that I can read the LXX, in fact it took me a minute to get my bearings because in the Greek OT, verse 5 is verse 6 in the English OT. I don’t know the story about that, but I’m not going to get sucked into the interesting rabbit hole that must be because it is not part of my study objectives. However, I am letting you know that just because I don’t know all the intricacies of the LXX doesn’t mean I can’t use it digitally and let the software help me navigate.

Peace in Paul’s Time

Defining the word according to the era in which Paul was using it, Mounce defines the word peace not differently but seems to add nuance. He states that “in classical Gk. eirēnē describes a situation that results from the cessation of hostilities or war and can also refer to the state of law and order that makes the fruits of prosperity possible.”²

The request for peace by Paul for the congregation is a request for the opposite of disorder. Which I find curious and fitting since Jesus himself is our peace from Ephesians 2:14. I’ve made other connections between this request in the benediction for peace and Jesus, but I will restrain myself and let you wander around a bit in Ephesians and make some connections for yourself. Perhaps we’ll touch on these connections more in our time of reflection. If you make some connections for yourself, it would make my day.

Next, Love

To study this phrase that Paul well-speaks over the congregation, I first went to one of my main dictionaries, TDNTA. It told me that often love and faith are connected (and often includes hope), which related immediately to our text because we have love with faith in the benediction. So I decided to consider what that meant in the whole context of Ephesians. Love with faith.

Skimming Through Ephesians

Immediately preceding this benediction, Paul just described Tychicus as the beloved brother and faithful minister. Well, that’s interesting since this is the trusty fellow Paul sent as his emissary. What qualities does Paul use space on his papyrus to describe Tychicus in Ephesians 6:21? Love and faith. I realize the love is an action toward Tychicus and faith is Tychicus’s action toward others, but he’s loved because of who he is. His actions flow from his faith. And immediately following, Paul well-speaks over the recipients that they too would have love with faith.

I see elements of love with faith with regard to the armor as well. In order to be a cohesive unit of force against the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, each of us needs to be ready for action. If we don’t prepare and use the equipment God has provided, are we loving with faith really? Just a humble question not entirely directed at you but definitely directed at me.

Going backwards through Ephesians there are all sorts of relationships which are good and right when governed by love with faith. The one that seems like the pinnacle of them all is in Ephesians 2 where there are no longer two men, Jew and Gentile, but there is one new man. How else can that happen if there isn’t love with faith? As TDNTA says, it’s “a fellowship that is based on Christ’s mercy and Christ’s death.”³ There are new relationships with their foundations built on the work of Christ and then proceeding from the believers’ belief in that work.

Back to the Dictionary

Since I want to understand what Paul is praying for the recipients so that I can learn and mimic, I would like to have a more technical definition. One that Paul would’ve had in mind as he wrote. Knowing that every there are pre-suppositions about this particular Greek word out there, I want to go back to the beginning on the definition.

Side Note

I have to interject a note whenever the topic of defining love comes up. Compulsion to do it.

We’ve all heard that Greek is so precise that there are different words for different kinds of love. Let’s be clear. Greek is like all the other languages: one word can always have a range of meaning. You’ve heard that this word, agape, is the word for selfless love, right?

Did you know that in the Septuagint it’s the Greek word used to replace the Hebrew word for love all the way through Song of Solomon? I do think that there is selfless love present in marriage and even in the intimacy of the marriage that Solomon describes, but I can guarantee Solomon is not talking about the same selfless love that God calls for between all brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. This is a warning for us both to not succumb to the pre-suppositions that float around without thinking them through. A good question for the student of the Word to ask is, “How do I know what I know?”

Hang on, let me climb off my soap box and we’ll get back to studying.

BDAG

TDNTA was interesting as the word was used throughout history. However, like I said, I’d like a definition for this word. As Paul understood and used it. The editors of BDAG define the word in one of the definitions as “the quality of warm regard for and interest in another, esteem, affection, regard, love.”⁴

Insertion of Definitions

So let’s get the text down to the bare bones without prepositions and insert this definition to see what Paul is saying. I’m crossing out the prepositions which modify to make the sentence more simple.

Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Conditions that promote prosperity be to the brothers and warm regard/interest/affection with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Let’s just sit and ruminate on that for a moment. Paul well-speaks these benefits from our God over his people. Writing this benediction, Paul speaks God’s words after him. If you have a view of God that he isn’t for you, that he might even be against you as a believer, let this text start to wash that impression out of your mind.

Finally, Grace

Back into BDAG, the editors tell us the Greek word behind the English word grace, as used in this verse, is “a beneficent disposition toward someone, favor, grace, gracious care/help, goodwill”⁵

More specifically, they note that in letters from Paul, this Greek word is frequently found with its “sense of divine favor at the beginning and the end.”

Again, if you have a view of God as a believer that he isn’t for you, that he might even be against you as a believer, let this text wash that wrong view out of your mind. Even in the most corrective correspondence Paul is recorded as having written (I think 1 Corinthians and Galatians are neck-in-neck for most corrective where he doesn’t pull his punches), under inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, there is a benediction of may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with the audience. Even after firm rebukes.

I picture it like when I still had short people at home still who needed discipline but when the discipline was over, all the hugs and kisses because the discipline is ultimately for good. Not harm. Discipline is for the sake of unity. Not division.

Not Universal Benediction

An important distinction that Paul inserts is that this well-speaking is not universal. This well-speaking is for particular people. Let’s examine it closely.

Peace be to the brothers, 
and love with faith, 
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.6

If you look at what I made bold, you can see that the audience is not a universal inclusive. And before you accuse Paul of being sexist, remember that as aspiring students of the Word, we attempt to interpret Paul’s meaning rather than a wooden reading of the English text.

At this point, what is could be a question we might want to ask? There isn’t just one, but there is one that comes to my mind. Any that rise to the surface for you?

Who Are Brothers?

I’m not the only person who has asked an iteration of this question. Matthew records Jesus’ conversation over this same topic. In Matthew 12:48-50, the query of “who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” was posed to Jesus. What does he say? How does he answer?

And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, 
“Here are my mother and my brothers! 
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven 
is my brother and sister and mother.”7

Jesus didn’t lay out elaborate rituals or rites that earned access and acceptance into the Father’s family. One thing matters: the heart. How does the heart know and do the will of the Father? Is there anything we’ve studied together in the last year or so that answers this question? Perhaps even in Ephesians? There are multiple places Paul explains the answer, but here is the first place in Ephesians I see it:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, 
that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 
he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, 
according to the purpose of his will, 
to the praise of his glorious grace, 
with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 

In him we have redemption through his blood, 
the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 
which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, 
which he set forth in Christ 
as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, 
things in heaven and things on earth.8

You recall that in Ephesians 2:1-10 that the believers in the audience were dead in their sin, right? But God was rich in mercy and made them alive together with Christ. By grace they were saved. Not by their own work so that no one could boast.

Who are brothers? And sisters? Those who have been made alive with Christ to know the will of the Father and those who do it.

Reflection

I have two different points that I’m reflecting on as I study this section. Indulge me a little further because I would love to share what God has been showing me.

Grace and Peace Together

Just a moment ago, we touched on the idea from BDAG that Paul invented a new way of greeting believers: grace and peace to you. He combined the two. As usual, a question that occurs to me is why? What is Paul conveying as he organizes words which originate from two cultures into one greeting? What I mean is there is a word in Hebrew that expresses grace and there is a word in Greek that expresses peace in some form. Why does he include phraseology from both?

When I was first learning about Bible study and was under the teaching of Pastor Dax up in Washington state, I remember him telling me that when Paul combined the words grace and peace, he was greeting an audience that contained both Hebrews and Greeks. That it was a clue to the makeup of the audience. I think there may be merit to that idea, however, after extensively studying this letter (again), I have a different hypothesis. Or perhaps a more nuanced hypothesis.

Paul has an emphasis throughout his correspondence that while there were two separate groups of folks, now in Christ they are of one body. That at one time, there were Gentiles in the flesh called the “uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision (Ephesians 2:11).

No one needs their particular group spoken to–they are one unit now. Both can accept the language and greeting of the other because they are no longer exclusively Jew or exclusively Gentile. Just like believers here and now in our day are not distinct because of colors or races. In the body of Christ, we are all one new united man which is united and distinct from the rest of mankind because of the blood (Ephesians 2:11-22).

The Father’s Intent Toward His Own

The other aspect to this text that kept rising to the surface of my study is this idea about the Father’s intent toward the audience.

There have been times in my life have I been witnessing to lost souls only to hear them say that they think they are so sinful that God can’t save them. Or alternately, once they have been saved by grace, they think and articulate that God is going to “get” them for their sin now. That he even might be capricious in his actions. I’m telling you here and now, these categories for God are blasphemy.

How do I know? Or right now more important in my mind is how can YOU know? My dear fellow student of the Word, some elementary evidence defying these accusations of God is before us in this benediction. What does the eternally righteous and just Holy Spirit compel Paul to say to these folks in Asia?

Peace.
Love.
Grace.
To the brothers.

God wants conditions that promote prosperity. He has warm regard/interest/affection. And he exercises divine favor. All of these well-speak items are toward his own.

I See Your Pain

I grant you that this benediction doesn’t address the question of being “too bad to save” but lest you get sucked into the toilet bowl swirl of that kind of thinking, consider Paul. You, friend who despairs of any hope in God, right now, stop reading this blog and read Paul’s testimony in Acts 22:1-11. What kind of messed up dude goes looking for his neighbors to chain up and haul off to prison? Just because they don’t agree with him?

There is hope for you as there was hope for Paul and this benediction is not just by the hand of Paul but it also directed at Paul because he is a brother and one who loves the Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

The Father’s intent toward his own? Categories of prosperity, kindness and warm regard, and divine favor are all directed at the Beloved. For my own self, am I walking in this today? Do I see whatsoever comes to pass as events sanctioned by the Father with these emotions in his heart and mind?

Wrap Up

Our Bible Study Bite today is the question of epistemology.

I’m grinning to myself as I even say that to you. As someone who dearly loves a good vocabulary word, it’s exciting to have learned a word and then use it in conversation with you. What is epistemology, you ask? In basic terms, it is the study of how someone knows what they know.

Remember in our conversation I said that there is a good question for us as students of the Word to ask ourselves? Do you remember the question?

How do you know what you know?

This is epistemology. In our development of theology and doctrine, how do we know what we know? How do we know it is correct? How do we know truth?

• I’ve heard definitions kicked around in church for years for the definition of love. I can ask the question, “says who?”
• There is a verse on a bumper sticker or coffee cup. With that verse taken out of context, I need to ask the question “how do I know it is written specifically for me?”
• Pre-suppositions. How do I know that something should be pre-supposed? Can it be proven and I can stand on truth rather than have faith in faith?

We Can Know Truth

This is what we’ve been working on as we walk through Ephesians together. While we can position ourselves under good teaching on Sunday at church, or Monday morning while we listen to a podcast on the drive, or as we read a book on doctrine with the nightstand light, we can additionally ask questions. How do we know what we know? I know that I don’t want some caricature of God that someone has devised. And since you’re still sitting across from me and engaging with me, I don’t think you do either.

Taking study a Bite at a time, we can both bit by bit come to firmer standing of truth. If I know why and how I know truth, I can more clearly articulate it when critics have their guns sighted on me.

Thanks for studying with me today! If you’ve found anything helpful here, please like and subscribe. And if you know of other students of the Word, would you please share so we can all study and encourage each other with what we’re learning?

1. Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 503). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
2. Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 503). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
3. Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (p. 9). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
4. Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 6). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5. Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 1079). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Eph 6:23–24). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
7. Matthew 12:49–50 (ESV)
8. Ephesians 1:3–10 (ESV)