Redeemer reads Ephesians 5
In today’s video, based around Ephesians 5, Steve talks to us about how we can imitate our heavenly father!
Welcome! Here at Redeemer we believe that the Bible is the word of God, that it’s alive, and that its words can and should shape every aspect of our lives as Christians. But we also know it’s not easy to get into the habit of reading it every day! So we are following the CBR Bible Reading plan - which can be found below - to help us read the bible together.
We are currently reading the book of Ephesians, and every week day we will be releasing a video on our social media & YouTube accounts, with a member of our Redeemer family explaining what they feel God is saying to them through the passage!
Today we hear from Steve as he shares with us from Ephesians 5.
If you have time, and a desire to know more, you’ll find ideas for further study of todays passage below.
Further Study
One of the verses in Ephesians 5 which sticks out, especially when reading it in today’s culture, is Ephesians 5:22 - Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
In this blog - Confessions of a Reluctant Complementarian - Rebecca McLaughlin talks honestly about how she grappled with this verse and it’s implications in how she should live her life.
You can read the blog by following the link below.
Rebecca McLaughlin holds a PhD from Cambridge University and a theology degree from Oak Hill seminary in London. She is a regular writer for The Gospel Coalition and author of Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion (Crossway, 2019). You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram, or her own website.
#RedeemerRecommends - Confronting Christianity
#RedeemerRecommends a book which uses big questions of Christianity as signposts pointing to the hope of the world, Jesus Christ.
Every year in the run up to Christmas I have the same conversation with frustrated members of my family as they desperately ask me what I want! As gifts is not high on my list of love languages I often respond with a shrug and an unhelpful phrase, something along the lines of - ’Whatever you feel like getting me I guess?’
I have come to learn over the years that when someone is trying to be generous, it helps to be a little more specific than that! So this year I sent my family the link to the Gospel Coalition’s books of the year, as a sort of Christmas list! You can find it here, just in case you’ve got a friend or family member with a January birthday coming up and (like me) your gift giving ideas ran dry about half way through December….
One of the books on the list which I was lucky enough to receive this Christmas was Rebecca McLaughlin’s ‘Confronting Christianity - 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Hardest Religion’.
The book poses 12 common objections to the Christian faith, and flips those challenges on their heads, using them to point to the goodness of God.
McLaughlin is fantastic at confronting the general lack of biblical knowledge which seems to influence many people’s objections to the Christian faith, and focusing on the biblical truth which can provide clear answers to questions like ‘Doesn’t Christianity Crush Diversity?’ And ‘Isn’t Christianity Homophobic?’. She has also clearly done her research (as is to be expected with a book like this), and not only does she highlight biblical truth, but also aligns it with findings of modern science to construct arguments which provide answers to those with big questions for Christianity, regardless of their knowledge of the bible.
I have no doubt that this is a book which would appeal to those who would not call themselves Christian, but simply have some questions to ask. It will also provide a great foundation for those Christians who have friends who are asking questions, and would love some guidance as to how to answer them!
There are countless books out there which pose the ‘Big Questions’ of the world and aim to answer them, but what this book does so well is that combination of evidence alongside the biblical narrative. In every answer to every question this book is pointing unequivocally to the only source of true hope, the incredible, fully God, fully man, Jesus Christ. I will end this #RedeemerRecommends with a paragraph from the last page of the book, as McLaughlin brings us to the reason why all these questions need an answer, and why the story of the bible is the best place to turn.
In Jesus’s world, we find connective tissue between the truths of science and morality. We find a basis for saying that all human beings are created equal, and a deep call to love across diversity. We find a name for evil, and a means of forgiveness. We find a vision of love that is so much deeper than our current hearts can hold, and a true intimacy better than our weak bodies could ever experience. We find a diagnosis of human nature as shot through with sin and yet as redeemable by grace. We find a call to care for the poor, oppressed, and lonely, a call springing from the heart of God himself and grounded in the hope that one day every tear will be wiped away, every stomach will be filled, and every outcast will be embraced. But we do not find glib answers or an easy road. Instead, we find a call to come and die. (page 222)