We shall become the perfect creation
1 ① Therefore I, the prisoner of Christ, invite you to live the vocation you have received. 2Be humble, kind, patient, and bear with one another in love.
3Make every effort to keep among you the unity of Spirit through bonds of peace. 4Let there be one body and one spirit, for God, in calling you, gave the same Spirit to all. 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 6One God, the Father of all, who is above all and works through all and is in all.
7But to each of us divine grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it is said: When he ascended to the heights, he brought captives and gave his gifts to people.
9He ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended to the lower parts of the world? 10He himself who went down, then ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things. 11As for his gifts, to some he gave to be apostles, to others prophets, or even evangelists, or pastors and teachers. 12So he prepared those who belong to him for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, 13until we are all united in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Thus we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity and sharing the fullness of Christ.
14Then no longer shall we be like children tossed about by any wave or wind of doctrine, and deceived by the cunning of people who drag them along into error. 15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we shall grow in every way towards him who is the head, Christ. 16From him comes the growth of the whole body to which a network of joints gives order and cohesion, taking into account and making use of the function of each one. So the body builds itself in love.
Put on the new self
17 ② I say to you, then, and with insistence I advise you in the Lord: do not imitate the pagans who live an aimless kind of life. 18Their understanding is in darkness and they remain in ignorance because of their blind conscience, very far from the life of God. 19As a result of their corruption, they have abandoned themselves to sensuality and have eagerly given themselves to every kind of immorality.
20But it is not for this that you have followed Christ. 21For I suppose that you heard of him and received his teaching which is seen in Jesus himself. 22You must give up your former way of living, the old self, whose deceitful desires bring self-destruction. 23Renew yourselves spiritually, from inside, 24and put on the new self, or self according to God, that is created in true righteousness and holiness.
25Therefore, give up lying; let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin: do not let your anger last until the end of the day, 27lest you give the devil a foothold.
28Let the one who used to steal, steal no more, but busy himself working usefully with his hands so that he may have something to share with the needy. 29Do not let even one bad word come from your mouth, but only good words that will encourage when necessary and be helpful to those who hear.
30Do not sadden the Holy Spirit of God which you were marked with. It will be your distinctive mark on the day of salvation. 31Do away with all quarreling, rage, anger, insults and every kind of malice: 32be good and understanding, mutually forgiving one another as God forgave you in Christ.
- Here, Paul returns to an important problem in communities where the style was still very free, we might say very charismatic, since the community counted on the unpredictable action of the Spirit through the charisms of different members. It is necessary that all in their own vocation work for the building up of the one body. Paul enthusiastically names all that we have in common through Christ and the action of the Spirit. It is not merely a temple that is constructed (see chapter 2:19-22); it is the Body of Christ, of the Perfect Man the mature one, in which Christ expresses his fullness.
Jesus of Nazareth lived humbly until his death only once, but having been made the Head of humanity through his resurrection, he suffers everywhere; he works in every field of human activity; gives his life in every possible way; he gathers in himself every form of love, and lives the whole diversity of human existence in the person of his members.
Then, we will no longer be like children. Paul suggests that the Ephesians are still children, at least from time to time, when they allow themselves to be influenced by some trend of opinion. He invites them to become a mature community, capable of being led by the truth, and of building itself up through love. We too should ask ourselves if we have really gone beyond the time when the “faithful” constantly waited for others to think for them, guide them and push them. - The old self and the new self. This image of Paul opposes two kinds of life that coexist in every society and in a certain sense, in each of us. Conversion has not installed us in a state of perfection; even if we are at peace with God in a very real sense (Rom 5:1) unity is not in us. We experience temptation and struggle; our decisions both small and great lead us in one of two directions, either the old self hopelessly ruined and a slave of selfishness, or a person transfigured by love.
The self according to God. God created Man in his image, but the one who is truly this image is the risen Christ, conqueror of sin and of death. Here, as elsewhere in the Bible, Man is both Christ and humanity at the same time, and it is each one of us at our place in the “Body.” All that we admire in Christ is also for our benefit.
The white garment that adults put on at baptism denotes the change of life that they are beginning. This renewal may also take place after a retreat or when God unexpectedly makes us abandon a routine Christian life devoid of ambition. Then we put on Christ with rediscovered faith.
Paul immediately points out some of the moral requirements of this daily renewal: frankness, sobriety, cleanliness of language and imagination. Christian faith does not allow us to live in a carefree way, as did the oriental religions in the time of Paul. There much was said about renaissance and knowledge of mysteries, but nothing about the slavery of sex and the evil of social life.
Old self, new self correspond with other expressions of Paul: “according to the flesh” or “according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:5); “children of darkness” or “children of light” (Eph 5:8); “slaves of sin” or “persons free in Christ” (Gal 5:1).
Do not sadden the Holy Spirit. It is easy to understand this expression if we think of the sadness we feel each time we reject a good idea, a desire to do better: sadness of the “Holy Spirit” who suggested it in the first place, sadness of our own spirit, for it knows what we have lost.
