​Ephesians 5 [Author’s Translation]
 
1 Therefore (according to what preceded) you are to be imitators of the God as dearly loved children. 
2 And walk in all-encompassing love agape[G], just as also the Messiah has loved agape[G] us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to the God for an aroma, a fragrant scent (alt. a quieting aroma).
3 But sexual sin and all impurity or greed, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for kedoshim holy ones (saints); 
4 not obscenity, nor foolish talk, nor vulgar jesting, which are not fitting, but rather greater thankfulness. 
5 For this you see, knowing that no sexual sinner, unclean person, or covetous person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and God. 
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these the wrath of the God is on the sons/children of disobedience.(2:2) 
7 Therefore do not be co-participants with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord/LORD. As children of Light walk 
9 (for the fruit of the Light is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 
10 examining, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord/LORD. 
11 And don’t be co-participants with the unfruitful works of darkness, but to a greater degree refute them. 
12 For it’s shameful to even speak of those things done by them in secret. 
13 But all these things are refuted by the Light, in order that everything be exposed by the manifest Light.  
14 Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead, [ref. Jonah 1:6]
And the light of Messiah will shine on you.” [ref. Isaiah 9:2, 26:19, 60:1]
15 See to it that you walk diligently, not as fools but as wise ones, 
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Because of this do not be foolish, but understand what is the will of the Lord/LORD. 
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery; but be filled in the Spirit, 
19 speaking to one another in psalms of strings and songs of praise and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your heart to the Lord/LORD, 
20 Be thankful always in/beyond all things in the Name of our Lord/LORD, Yeshua the Messiah, the God and Father, 
21 Submit yourselves equitably one to another in the fearful awe of Messiah.
22 The wife to her own husband as to the Lord/LORD.
23 Because a husband is to be head, first (in order), of the wife, like also the Messiah is the head, first (in order) of the gathered believers. He the Saviour, Deliverer, Preserver of the body.
24 Nevertheless in the same way the gathered believers submit to the Messiah, in this manner also the wife, the husband, in place always each one.
25 The husband is to love agape[G] (fully in every way) the wife, as also the Messiah loves (fully in every way) the gathered believers, indeed, giving Himself (Messiah) for her (gathered believers).
26 In order that He (Messiah) might separate, acknowledge, dedicate, hallow, cleanse by the washing with the water of the living voice, spoken word rhema[G].
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious assembly, without stain or wrinkle or any such thing, in order that she should be holy and blameless, without spot or blemish. 
28 So husbands owe a debt of all-encompassing love agape[G] to their own wives as to their own bodies; he who fully loves agape[G] his wife fully loves agape[G] himself. 
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cares for it, just as the Messiah does for the assembly of believers. 
30 Since we are members of His body. 
31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5; Mark 10:7] 
32 This, the mystery is great, but I speak concerning Messiah and toward the assembly of believers. 
33 However, let each one of you himself in the same way, fully love agape[G] his own wife as himself, and let the wife show reverent awe for her husband.
 
Line By Line
 
1 Therefore (according to what preceded) you are to be imitators of the God as dearly loved children. 
 
Because in Messiah, God has forgiven us in all-encompassing love (4:32), we are to imitate Him according to the overflow of His love poured out upon us as treasured בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ (b’nai HaElohim) children of the God.
 
In short, because we are secure in His love we are to express that love to one another. This is especially important in the context of marriage, and is part of the reason for the exhortation of verses 25-29.
 
The love of God expressed to others is therefore the overarching force in all our relationships.
 
“Speak to all the congregation of the B’nai Yisrael (children of Israel), and say to them: ‘Become kedoshim (saints) holy ones, because Holy Am I YHVH (Mercy) your Elohim (God, Judge).”
 
-Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:2 [Author’s translation]
 
Here Paul exhorts believers (predominantly Gentile) to be imitators of God, Who is holy. He is teaching a now predominantly Gentile Ephesian faith community one of the core instructions of Biblical Jewish faith. Elsewhere Paul, John and Barnabas (Author of the book of Hebrews), exhort all believers to be imitators of Messiah (1 Cor. 11:1; Philippians 2:5; 1 Thess. 1:6; Heb. 12:2; 1 John 2:6), thus the unity of the Godhead is reflected in the New Testament exhortations to imitate the character of YHVH.
 
Jewish tradition teaches that humans should be merciful in imitation of God’s mercy:
 
“Abba Shaul says: Ve’anveihu should be interpreted as if it were written in two words: Ani vaHu, me and Him [God]. Be similar, as it were, to Him, the Almighty: Just as He is compassionate and merciful, so too should you be compassionate and merciful.”
 
-Talmud Bavliy, Shabbat 133b:6
 
It’s interesting to note that the rabbi quoted in this Talmudic passage is a תנא Tana (founding interpreter: teacher) of the Mishnaic period (200 CE), and shares his name with Paul the Apostle, who’s Hebrew name is Shaul. Additionally, Abba Shaul of the תנאים Tannaim, a disciple of Rabbi Akiva, was known for his unique perspectives on certain halakhot and traditions, in which he differed from his contemporaries.
 
2 And walk in all-encompassing love agape[G], just as also the Messiah has loved agape[G] us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to the God for an aroma, a fragrant scent (alt. a quieting aroma).
 
The love we walk in is to reflect the love of Messiah. Note that His love is sacrificial, in fact the love of God displayed in this sin affected world is made manifest through sacrifice.
 
Many in the modern faith community are happy to take the love of God but reticent to exhibit the same sacrificial love to others. The false gospel lacks the accountability required to inspire selfless love in the believer. Like Messiah we are to love (in and from Him) by giving ourselves up for the good of others, which is a sweet smelling aroma, an offering pleasing to the Father.
 
The TaNaKh (OT) speaks of sacrifices, both animal and grain offerings as being “an aroma of quieting.” This is in fact what Paul is quoting when he refers to Yeshua’s atoning death as a “Fragrant scent.” In the context God’s post flood promise following the sacrifice offered by Noah we read:
 
“And the LORD smelled an aroma of quieting. Then the LORD said in His core being, ‘I will never again curse the ground (ha-adamah) because of humanity (ha-adam), although the inclination (yetzer) of the heart of a human is evil (ra) from youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I’ve done.’”
 
-Bereishit (Genesis) 8:21 [Author’s translation]
 
(Ref. Gen. 8:21; Ex. 29:18, 25, 41; Lev. 1:9, 13, 17, 3:16)
 
The Hebrew phrase in Genesis 8:21 is וַיָּ֣רַח יְהוָה אֶת־רֵ֣יחַ הַנִּיחֹחַ֒ vayarach Adonay et-reiach haniychoach and translates literally as, “And YHVH smelled an aroma of quieting,” that is, an aroma that quiets the just wrath of God. This is why many English translations render the Hebrew “a pleasing aroma.” The translators are attempting to convey the idea that God is pleased by the aroma because it comes from a blood sacrifice that atones for sin, or an associated offering connected to the Sanctuary rites, and therefore satisfies His just wrath and makes way for forgiveness, repentance and reconciliation.
 
Ezekiel speaks of a future time when, in true repentance, all Israel will be accepted in a quieting aroma, and as a result God will be worshipped as holy among the Jewish people in the presence of the Gentile nations. This is exactly the message Paul is relaying in affirming that the Gospel makes way for the inclusion of the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel.
 
“39 ‘As for you, O house of Israel,’ thus says Adonay YHVH: ‘Go, serve every one of you his idols. But afterward you will certainly listen to Me and no longer profane My Holy Name with your gifts and idols. 40 For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel,’ says Adonay YHVH, ‘there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me; there I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your tributes, together with all your holy things. 41 In an aroma of quieting I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be worshipped as holy in you before the Gentiles.’”
 
-Ezekiel 20:39-41 [Author’s translation]
 
Therefore, Messiah’s sacrifice has become an all effective aroma of quieting to God the Father and makes it possible for us to become a quieting aroma in Him.
 
It's important to recognize that the love described throughout this chapter, including between husband and wife, is agape[G] (all-encompassing love). It does not concern sexuality except as part of a godly marriage. Sexuality is to do with knowledge יָדַע yada[H], not love אהבה ahavah[H].
 
3 But sexual sin and all impurity or greed, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for kedoshim holy ones (saints); 
 
Both Paul and John include lists of vices in their writings as indictments against such acts. This was apparently common practice among some forms of ancient writing. (Rom. 1:29-31; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8)
 
Sexual perversions and greed of many kinds were prevalent in Greco-Roman society and in reality, have and continue to be prevalent among humans of all tribes and tongues.
 
Sexual sin was clearly also a significant problem among people of Messianic faith in Greco-Roman society. It remains a significant problem in the modern body of believers.
 
Sexual sin includes all sexual acts forbidden by Torah:
 
Adultery, premarital sex (defiles the wedding bed), the homosexual sex act, the lesbian sex act, intercourse with animals, sexual intercourse with close relatives, and, as Yeshua illuminates, sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman (Mark 10:11-12).
 
Sexual sin is linked to all forms of impurity and greed, and is therefore the practice of idolatry (the worship of something other than God). This is why the TaNaKh (OT) often uses sexual immorality as a metaphor for idol worship.
 
Paul admonishes the Ephesian believers not even to discuss these things in social conversation, not casually, not at all.
 
4 not obscenity, nor foolish talk, nor vulgar jesting, which are not fitting, but rather greater thankfulness. 
 
This is a concise list of the type of talk that comes to the tongue from a heart that is intent on engaging in illicit practices. This is associated with a broader meaning of לָשׁוֹן הָרַע lashon hara (wicked tongue/slander/gossip) as a unique aspect of its literal meaning “tongue of evil.”
 
Obscenity of the mouth נבול פה nebul peh, is a familiar phrase in Rabbinical commentary.
 
“א. מִי שֶׁמְּדַבֵּר נִבּוּל־פֶּה, בְּיָדוּעַ שֶׁלִּבּוֹ חוֹשֵׁב מַחֲשָׁבוֹת אָוֶן.
 
Whoever speaks obscenities clearly has been thinking sinful thoughts.
 
ב. עַל־יְדֵי נִבּוּל־פֶּה בָּא חֲנֻפָּה.
 
Obscene language leads to flattery.
 
ג. בַּעֲווֹן נִבּוּל־פֶּה צָרוֹת וּגְזֵרוֹת מִתְחַדְּשׁוֹת, וּבַחוּרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵתִים, חַס וְשָׁלוֹם, וִיתוֹמִים וְאַלְמָנוֹת צוֹעֲקִים וְאֵינָם נַעֲנִין.
 
Because of the sin of obscene language, suffering and harsh decrees are renewed; the young men of Israel die, God forbid; and orphans and widows cry out, but are not answered.”
 
-Sefer HaMiddot, Obscene Language 1-3
 
Pornographic content was prolific in Roman cities and throughout the Greco-Roman world. Pornographic images were drawn on the walls of inns depicting the various acts a prostitute might engage in with a prospective customer and the prices for each respective act.
 
Sexually explicit joking and innuendos were prominent in all forms of entertainment, specifically in the mimes and comic novels of the first century Roman culture.
 
The same can be said of popular media, entertainment, and everyday conversation in the Western world today (which is in fact the progeny of Greco-Roman Empire).
 
Thankfulness in greater amounts is a practical solution for combatting sexual immorality and impurity of every kind. A tongue engaged in thankfulness toward God is born of a heart focussed on Messiah. When our parts are employed in worship of God there is no room for them to be misused.
 
5 For this you see, knowing that no sexual sinner, unclean person, or covetous person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and God. 
 
This describes perpetual and unrepentant sin practice. No one who continues to wilfully engage in a lifestyle of intentional sin will inherit the Kingdom of God.
 
“19 Now the works of the flesh (evil inclination) are manifest, they are these: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, shamelessness, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, drunken carousing, and the like; concerning which I warn you beforehand, just as I also warned in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
 
-Galatians 5:19-21 [Author’s translation]
 
“But those who practice cowardice, the faithless, disgusting souls, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
 
-Revelation 21:8 [Author’s translation]
 
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these the wrath of the God is on the sons/children of disobedience. (2:2) 
 
Empty words refers to false doctrines that deceive. The phrase also refers to words that are technically correct but are not reflected in a person’s actions.
 
As in the first century CE, so too today in the modern body of believers (church) there are those who teach a compromised pseudo-moral gospel that allows for the aforementioned sin practices to be syncretised with a “Christian” or “Jewish” faith lifestyle.
 
Among those who teach such things today are theologians, pastors rabbis and so on. We are not to allow them to deceive us or those we shepherd. Those who teach that God is okay with adultery, pre-marital sex (which defiles the wedding bed), homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderism etc, who say, “Love is love” in an attempt to camouflage perversity, are apostate and according to Scripture, “the wrath of the God is on” them. Not “will be on them,” but “is on them.”
 
The “Children of disobedience” refers the reader back to chapter 2 and those who under the influence of “the prince of the permitted power of the lower air.” They are in wilful disobedience and therefore under wrath.
 
“in which, in the past, you walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the power permitted over the lower air, the spirit who is now active in the children of the disobedience/obstinate opposition/wilful rebellion,”
 
-Ephesians 2:2 [Author’s translation]
 
(Ref. Rom. 1:18; Col. 3:6; Rev. 19:15)
 
7 Therefore do not be co-participants with them.
 
Those who abide the aforementioned false teachers, who, knowing what they teach, nonetheless allow them to continue in the community of faith, dine with them, consider them friends, are walking in disobedience. We are not to participate with such false teachers in any way.
 
“But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother or sister in Messiah, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a swindler—don’t even to eat with such a person!”
 
- 1 Corinthians 5:11
 
(Ref. 1 Cor. 5:9-14, 7:12-16; 2 Cor. 6:14; 2 Peter 2)
 
We live in a sin affected world where deceivers abound and their theories and empty words permeate our media and places of education. Paul does not say “remove yourselves from the world” but, “do not be co-participants with them.”
 
This reflects the principle present in Yeshua’s prayer for believers (John 17:16-26).
 
8 For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord/LORD. As children of Light walk 9 (for the fruit of the Light is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 
10 examining, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord/LORD. 
 
“This is the message we have heard from Him (Yeshua) and announce to you, that God is Light (all existing), and in Him there is no darkness.”
 
-1 John 1:5 [Author’s translation]
 
God has called Israel in Messiah to be a “light to the Gentiles,” manifesting this calling in the fullness of time through the King Messiah Yeshua (Isa. 42:6, 49:6, 60:3). Therefore, the inclusion of certain Messiah essential Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel according to the Gospel of Yeshua means that those Gentiles saved by grace through faith, who join the commonwealth of Israel are also called “children of Light” just as the God fearing Jews of every generation have been known throughout Biblical history and to this day.
 
The writers of the New Testament use light and darkness in a figurative sense to represent good and evil. The Scriptures teach that God is all existing Light but not that created light is God. The Scriptures teach that darkness as a figure for evil has no place in the manifest presence of God, however, the created darkness, like all things, exists in God the Creator.
 
In Rabbinical literature the Gentiles are considered to be as darkness. Rav Shaul is once again emphasizing the fact that the Gentile believers in Ephesus were once alienated from the covenants of God and were under wrath. They were, “darkness, but are now light in the LORD.”
 
“ויבדל אלקים בין האור ובין החושך "and G'd separated the light from the darkness."...This is an allusion to the separation between the Jewish people and the Gentile nations, the former always looking forward to the Messiah and redemption, whereas the Gentiles are content to remain in spiritual...darkness.”
 
- Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 1:2:5
 
Our identity is informed by the one we worship. We were darkness (figuratively speaking) before we received Messiah, but now in Him Who is the all existing Light, we become light (figuratively speaking) in YHVH. Therefore, we walk as children of the Light in His goodness, righteousness, and truth. We test, examine and prove all things according to His Spirit in us and present to God that which pleases Him.
 
Yeshua says, “I am the Light of the world!” (John 8:12), and also calls His disciples “the light of the world,” in reflection of His all existing Light (Matthew 5:14-16).
 
Yeshua also refers to those who belong to God as “sons of light” (Luke 16:8; John 12:36).
 
Elsewhere Paul refers to believers as “sons of light” (1 Thessalonians 5:5).
 
This figurative language was also common to the Essenes and certain priests of the intertestamental and first century period (cf. Milhamah Scroll [Qumran Cave 1] and Serek Hayahad [Qumran Cave 1] 3:13-4:14).
 
“the fruit of the Light,” albeit a mixed metaphor, denotes the productive power of light. For example, in the growth of a plant. Those who receive God’s all exiting Light produce righteousness, the actions of light reflecting the character of God. Those who live in darkness, like seeds planted in darkness, produce nothing good, decaying and rotting away unto death.
 
“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no torah (indictment).”
 
-Galatians 5:22-23 [Author’s translation]
 
Compare John 1:4-5, 8-9, 3:19-21, 12:36.
 
11 And don’t be co-participants with the unfruitful works of darkness, but to a greater degree refute them. 
 
We note that there is, “fruit of the Light,” but that the works of darkness are, “unfruitful.”
 
The ancient initiations into Greek mystery cults normally occurred at night and often involved immoral sexual acts. Nocturnal banquets that involved orgies were also practiced in ancient Roman cities. All these acts were fruitless in both the physical and spiritual sense.
 
To the Corinthian community of faith Paul writes:
 
“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship does righteousness have with unrighteousness? and what communion does light have with darkness?”
 
-2 Corinthians 6:14 [Author’s translation]
 
To the Corinthian believers, as to the Ephesians, Paul is making a d’rash (comparative teaching) concerning mismatched things that cannot work together:
 
“You shall not plow with an ox and an ass yoked together.”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 22:10
 
Our rabbis write:
 
"(Deut. 22:10) intimates that a righteous man, שלא ישתתף, "should have no fellowship" with a wicked man;''
 
- Baal HaTurim on D’varim (Deuteronomy) 22:10
 
Not only are we not to be co-participants with the unfruitful works of darkness, we are tasked with actively and intentionally refuting them, and to do so to a greater and greater degree. We are not only to refuse to associate with false teachers, we are also to refute them. The false gospel of “nice” doesn’t allow for this, but the Scripture demands it in Messiah.
 
“Therefore, to he/she who knows the good he/she should do and does not do it, to him/her it is sin.”
 
-Yaakov (James) 4:17 [Author’s translation]

Light exposes darkness. Therefore, in Messiah we who are children of Light will by nature of our identity, expose the darkness in the lives of those around us.
 
12 For it’s shameful to even speak of those things done by them in secret. 
 
Paul reinforces for emphasis the fact that it’s shameful even to speak of the wicked things done by the wilfully disobedient in secret.
 
Paul, by the Holy Spirit, is calling those things that Greco-Roman society prided itself in, shameful. As then, so today, many in the body are praising things that God has called “wicked,” even, “abomination.” Paul’s instruction to the believers at Ephesus leaves no room for this kind of pseudo-Christian compromise. We should take note and walk accordingly.
 
13 But all these things are refuted by the Light, in order that everything be exposed by the manifest Light. 
 
The Light Himself, Yeshua, Who lives in us by His Spirit, refutes the immoral things so that all the deeds done in secret/darkness are brought into the Light. This is a process of sanctification that is at work among believers in order to purify the Bride of Messiah.
 
Sin is exposed in the community so as to bring us to repentance. Those who refuse to repent prove that Messiah is not in them and should therefore be put out of the community of faith. This applies specifically to those who claim to be Messiah followers but prove by their fruit that they are not.
 
“9 I wrote to you in my letter that you should not keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly didn’t mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother or sister (In Messiah), who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a mischievous brawler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—don’t even eat with such a person. 12 For what do I have to do with judging those also who are outside (the body of believers)? Are you not to judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Therefore “remove the evil person from among yourselves.”
 
-1 Corinthians 5:9-13 [Author’s translation]
 
14 Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead, [ref. Jonah 1:6]
And the light of Messiah will shine on you.” [ref. Isaiah 9:2, 26:19, 60:1]
 
While most scholars attribute this quote to an early Messianic prayer or hymn, I am inclined to understand it as a quote from the scroll of the prophet Jonah. The preceding verse refers to the Light Himself, Yeshua Who refutes and exposes all things by His resurrected glory and eternal majesty.
 
The phrasing “Therefore it is spoken,” also translated, “Therefore He says,” could be interpreted as referring to a saying of the early church inspired by the Holy Spirit. However, it seems more consistent with Paul’s style of writing to attribute what follows to Scripture. Given that elsewhere when Paul uses this introductory phrase it is to introduce a Scripture quote. 2 Timothy 2:11 uses the phrase, Πιστὸς ὁ λόγος Pistos ho logos, “This is a faithful word,” to refer to a saying of the early body of believers, whereas the present text reads, διὸ λέγει Dio legei, “Therefore it says.” Notice that 2 Timothy allows for the understanding that what follows is a truth from a common saying among believers, whereas Ephesians 5:14 allows only for an understanding synonymous with, “It is written.” A clear reference to Scripture. The only question then is, “Which scripture or scriptures is Paul alluding to?”
 
As a result of hyper literal interpretation many have concluded that the words that follow do not exactly match a Scripture text, and therefore can’t refer to Scripture. This position fails to consider the Targums and Midrashim that paraphrase Scripture and therefore often word the text in a slightly different but consistent way. I believe Paul is quoting the scroll of Jonah 1:6.
 
 וַיִּקְרַ֤ב אֵלָיו֙ רַ֣ב הַחֹבֵ֔ל וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹ מַה־לְּךָ֣ נִרְדָּ֑ם ק֚וּם קְרָ֣א אֶל־אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ אוּלַ֞י יִתְעַשֵּׁ֧ת הָאֱלֹהִ֛ים לָ֖נוּ וְלֹ֥א נֹאבֵֽד׃
 
“So the great pilot (captain) approached him (Jonah), and said to him, “How is it that you sleep? Arise! Call on your God; perhaps your God will shine (yit’asheit) on us, so that we may not perish.”
 
-Yonah (Jonah) 1:6 [Author’s translation]
 
The Hebrew יִתְעַשֵּׁ֧ת yit’asheit, from the root עשת ashat, means, “to be smooth, shine, gleam, and to think.” All these are correct English renderings for the text. Therefore, I have translated it as follows: “perhaps your God will shine (yit’asheit) on us.”
 
Messiah has already been established as God with us and is called in this letter of Paul “Yeshua the Messiah, the God and Father.” (v.20)
 
Therefore, “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead (sleep)” equals, “How is it that you sleep? Arise!” And, “the light of Messiah will shine on you,” equals, “your God will shine (yit’asheit) on us.”
 
It seems that Paul is in fact making a d’rash (comparative teaching) on the text of Jonah. Jonah being a prefigure for the King Messiah.
 
The captain and crew of the boat carrying Jonah were sailing away from Israel, the place where God had placed His Name. Nonetheless, in the storm they repented and turned to God through Jonah, whom they asked to awake (Yeshua also slept in a boat), and arise (resurrection), and ask that God (in Messiah) shine on them.
 
Paul, by the Holy Spirit appears to be saying (based on the preceding verse) that the believers of Ephesus (and indeed all believers), should arise from their sleep (lack of diligence) and allow Messiah to raise them from the death of the fallen world, so that His light will shine on them in their redeemed state and therefore expose the evil deeds kept secret in the community of faith.
 
Paul may also be collecting together the following passages from Isaiah 9:2, 26:19, 60:1:
 
“1 (2) The people (ha-am: people of Israel) whose walking's (Haholchim) are in darkness (Choshek: Genesis 1:2) have seen, (perceived and understood) great light (Or gadol: Genesis 1:3-5); those living (dwelling, remaining) in the land (B’eretz: Land of Israel) that lies in the shadow of death, light has enlightened (rested upon) them.”
 
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 9:1 (2) [Author’s translation]
 
“Your dead will live; my dead body will arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in the dust; for your tal dew (night mist) is oraot lights, talecha your night mist, vearetz and the land/earth will cast forth the dead.”
 
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 26:19 (2) [Author’s translation]
 
“Kumiy Get up (arising), Oriy shine; kiy va oreich for your light is come, uchevod and the glory of HaShem (YHVH: Mercy) alayich upon you zarach rises, breaks out.”
 
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 60:1 [Author’s translation]
 
The Mishneh Torah links the awaking of sleeping ones to repentance
 
“Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if [the shofar's call] is saying:

‘Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator. Those who forget the truth in the vanities of time and throughout the entire year, devote their energies to vanity and emptiness which will not benefit or save: Look to your souls. Improve your ways and your deeds and let every one of you abandon his evil path and thoughts.’”
 
- Mishneh Torah, Teshuvah
 
There is a sense of urgency in Paul’s exhortation that connects it with his exhortation to the Roman community of faith:
 
“11 Do this, knowing that at the present time (olam hazeh), it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; For now, salvation (Yeshua) is nearer to us than when we first believed. 12 The night (olam hazeh, the present world subject to wrath) is almost gone, and the day (olam haba, the world to come) is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the hoplon (Greek shield) of light (Hebrew: Or, to illuminate, expose, lay bare, unhidden, revealed, shine, luminous). 13 Let us walk (halakh) properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy. ”
 
-Romans 13:11-13 [Author’s translation]
 
15 See to it that you walk diligently, not as fools but as wise ones, 
 
Walking well means being diligent, not swayed by the winds of false doctrine and conspiracy like fools, but instead living in the wisdom of God, which is imparted by His Spirit to every believer.
 
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
 
The time in question is sin affected. Time and space as they exist in the fallen creation, are by nature sin affected and in need of redemption. Thus, in Messiah our every moment is a journey of redemption. His work in us, overflowing to others.
 
Time that was once used for impure acts must, in Messiah, be employed for acts of righteousness.
 
In Hebrew, right actions that redeem the time are collectively seen in the practice of תיקון עולם Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). Sadly, the modern rabbinical form of Tikkun Olam concerns our efforts to repair rather than being a practiced outworking of God’s work. It is therefore a false gospel of works for God rather than the true Gospel of right action in and from God. We cannot save ourselves or our world. Salvation is in and from God alone. We receive it or we don’t, anything else is a false gospel.
 
(Ref. Acts 2:40; Gal. 1:4)
 
17 Because of this do not be foolish, but understand what is the will of the Lord/LORD. 
 
Because the days are evil we are tasked with turning our backs on vile thoughts and actions and in Messiah understanding what the will of God is.
 
What is the will of God?
 
“12 ‘And now, Israel, what does YHVH (Mercy) the Lord your Elohim (God, Judge) require of you, but to fear YHVH (Mercy) the Lord your Elohim (God, Judge), to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve YHVH (Mercy) the Lord your Elohim (God, Judge) with all your core being (heart) and with all your soul, 13 and to keep YHVH (Mercy) the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?’”
 
-D’varim (Deuteronomy) 10:12-13 [Author’s translation]
 
“He has told you, human, what is good;
And what YHVH (Mercy) the Lord requires of you
But to act justly, to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your Elohim (God, Judge)?”
 
-Micah 6:8 [Author’s translation]
 
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to obtain and provide for his own vessel in sanctification and honour, in in lust chasing sinful desire, like the Gentiles who do not know God;”
 
-1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 [Author’s translation]
 
“Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful unto repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not be damaged in anything through us. For godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation without regret, but the sorrow of this world produces death.”
 
-2 Corinthians 7:9-10 [Author’s translation]
 
“Who gave Himself  (Messiah) for our sins so that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of the God and Father of us,”
 
-Galatians 1:4 [Author’s translation]
 
“to whom (kedoshim: saints) God willed to make known what are the riches of the judgement of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory.”
 
-Colossians 1:27 [Author’s translation]
 
“in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Messiah Yeshua.”
 
-1 Thessalonians 5:18 [Author’s translation]
 
“For this is the will of God, that by righteous actions you make silent the wilful ignorance of foolish people.”
 
-1 Peter 2:15 [Author’s translation]
 
“Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit the guarding of their souls to Him doing what is right according to the faithful Creator.”
 
-1 Peter 4:19 [Author’s translation]

“7 But the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire by His Word, reserved for the day of judgment and destruction of those people who hate God. 8 But beloved, don’t be ignorant of this one thing, that with the Lord/LORD one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord/LORD is not slow in fulfilling His promise, as some assess slowness, but is longsuffering toward you (Jewish believers, the original recipients of Peter’s works), not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”

-2 Peter 3:7-9 [Author’s translation]
 
Therefore God’s will is:
 
1.     To fear God and walk in His ways (Deuteronomy10:12-13)
2.     To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8)
3.     That we be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5)
4.     That we be made sorrowful unto repentance and salvation (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)
5.     That Messiah die in order to deliver us from the present evil world (Galatians 1:4)
6.     To make known to the holy ones (saints) the riches of His glory in the inclusion of the Gentiles (Colossians 1:27)
7.     That we give thanks in all things in Messiah Yeshua (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
8.     That by right actions (in Him) we shut the mouths of wilfully ignorant, foolish people (1 Peter 2:15)
9.     That in suffering we trust ourselves to God the Creator and do what is right (1 Peter 4:19)
10.  The destruction by fire of the wicked (2 Peter 3:7)
11.  That none among the believing Jewish community should perish eternally (2 Peter 3:9)
 
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery; but be filled in the Spirit, 
 
Biblical Jewish faith tradition despises drunkenness.
 
“Sexual immorality, wine, and new wine take away the heart (core being, inner person).”
 
-Hosea 4:11 [Author’s translation]
 
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink a roar of rage,
And whoever is deceived by them proves unwise.”
 
-Proverbs 20:1 [Author’s translation]
 
“19 You listen, my son, and be wise,
And guide your heart (core being) in the way.
20 Don’t hang out with heavy drinkers,
Or with gluttonous eaters of flesh;
21 For the drunkard and the glutton will be overcome with poverty,
And a hangover will clothe a person in rags.

-Proverbs 23:19-21 [Author’s translation] (ref. 29-35)
 
Ancient Greco-Roman religion and philosophy gave licence for drunkenness and the use of substances for inducing spiritual experiences.
 
Drunken debauchery was common in the Mediterranean culture of the time, and was practised at late night banquets/sex parties predominantly attended by the upper class. The poor too had access to such immoral opportunities. Local taverns provided ample alcohol and bar maids that offered sexual services to patrons.
 
Intoxication induced by alcohol and other substances was employed for pagan religious rites and used for inspiration. One such practice invoked possession by the Greek god of wine Dionysus. Rites like this often also included sexual promiscuity and violence.
 
Wine is not the problem, Yeshua drank wine. Intoxication is the problem, in all its forms, because it weakens the integrity of the intoxicated person by impairing their mental faculties and it defiles the sound reason of the mind, leading the one who is intoxicated to lose control. Thus it heightens the human propensity toward evil which ends in debauchery and death.
 
We note that, “Be filled with the Spirit,” is an exhortation to trust God to fill us with His Spirit.
 
“Be filled with the Spirit,” is in the Greek present tense and denotes an ongoing and repeated filling of the Spirit of God unto inspiration in spiritual matters. This does not discount the mark/seal of the Spirit upon every believer as an established sign of salvation unto eternal life (Eph. 1:13-14), nor does it discount the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is received by grace through faith and in immersion (John 14:16-17; Romans 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19). Nor does it refer to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is a one-time event that is part of the baptism commanded by Messiah. The exceptions in Scripture occur during the early growth of the church and the progression of learning about the various baptisms. In all cases where a genuine believer receives the baptism commanded by Yeshua, that person is baptised in and receives the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
 
The text does not say, “Be drunk with the Spirit,” as some false teachers say. This misrepresentation is satanic, abhorrent to God, because it impugns the character of God’s Spirit. Have nothing to do with people that teach this practice. They are being made drunk by a spirit, and not by the Spirit of God.
 
19 speaking to one another in psalms of strings and songs of praise and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your heart to the Lord/LORD, 
 
This is said to all. It’s something that is done individually and corporately. Even one who is not talented musically can make music in his heart (core being).
 
Why does Paul specify so many types of psalms, songs? I believe he is alluding to the various types of Psalms recorded in the scroll of Tehillim (Psalms).
 
“Speaking to one another in psalms מִכְתָּם Miktam (a sacred psalm), of strings נְגִינוֹת Negiynot (psalm played on a stringed instrument), and songs of praise הלל Hallel (Psalms of ascent), and spiritual songs משכיל Maschil (a thoughtful or instructional psalm), שִׁגָּיוֹן Shigayon (a lament or passionate song)…”
 
By making a list of specific types of Psalms Paul is educating the Gentile Ephesian believers in the ways of Israel’s faith history and the use of the Biblical Psalms in praise and worship.
 
In one sense, Paul is saying that every Spirit filled believer, can, like David, make music in their heart (core being) to YHVH.
 
20 Be thankful always in/beyond/above all things in the Name of our Lord/LORD, Yeshua the Messiah, the God and Father,  
 
The Greek ὑπὲρ hyper, translated “for” in many English versions, means, “above, beyond, more than, in, for” respectively. This is why I’ve chosen the translation, “Be thankful always in/beyond/above all things,” which is more consistent with the context of Paul’s writing and establishes the truth that in Messiah we can be transcendently thankful in the midst of any and every circumstance. In short, Paul is not saying “be thankful always for all things,” but “be thankful always in and beyond all things in the Name of our LORD, Yeshua the Messiah, the God and Father.”
 
Therefore, this does not mean that we are to be thankful for evil things. At best it may include being thankful for deliverance from evil things. The key to understanding this is the phrase, “in the Name.” We are to be thankful always in all things in the Name of our LORD YHVH, Yeshua the Messiah, the God and Father. Meaning, in His character, nature, being, identity, deity.
 
Thankfulness in and of itself is not godly. Many today as part of the so called mindfulness movement, teach thankfulness mantras as a means for wellbeing in and of themselves.
 
Thankful for what and to whom? Unless thankfulness is to God in Whom we exist and have life, our thankfulness is empty. Any peace derived from vain thankfulness is empty temporal peace. The thankfulness Paul speaks of here is “in the Name of our LORD, Yeshua the Messiah, the God and Father!”
 
Note that the Greek text when translated literally reads, “in the Name of our LORD, Yeshua the Messiah, the God and Father.” Yeshua is God. He is God the Son and the manifestation of God the Father in Human form (Col. 2:9).
 
21 Submit yourselves equitably one to another in the fearful awe of Messiah.
 
This speaks of everyone in the body of believers and therefore speaks to both husband and wife as an equally important exhortation.
 
Paul need not begin this section of his letter with an exhortation to, “love one another” because that has already been well established in chapter 4 and verse 2 of the present chapter. Therefore, the love of God at work in us is the foundation for the instruction unto submission in fear of Messiah.
 
Notice that Messiah is placed in the phrase “fearful awe of Messiah” where God would usually be placed “fearful awe of God.” Fear of Messiah is fear of God. Without fear of Messiah the believer is incapable of godly submission to another believer in any relationship.
 
Verse 21 begins a Messianic code of conduct for household relationships. In God’s love mutual submission to one another in Messiah is rule one. Therefore, the following instructions must submit to rule one. This is something that misogynistic leaders fail to realise.
 
As early as the fourth century BC Greek philosophers codified household conduct that established protocol for how the male leaders of wealthy families should manage the relationships and affairs of the home. These household codes taught the male head how to rule over the subordinate members of the household, wives, children and slaves.
 
Romans were suspicious of the Biblical Jewish family and the way it valued members of the household as equal and uniquely gifted contributors to the wellbeing of the family unit. In ancient Biblical Judaism as today, the women of the Jewish home were honoured as carriers of faith tradition to be passed on to children generationally. Jewish rituals such as the Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony pay special attention to the honouring of women. These aspects of Jewish practice made Roman men uncomfortable.
 
On the other hand, certain Greco-Roman cities practiced a Matriarchal societal norm which often demeaned men and established another kind of inequity within households.
 
Paul brings a Messiah essential Jewish code of conduct that, having been established in love begins with mutual submission. He establishes his teaching in the teaching of Yeshua the King Messiah, Whom he has personally and transcendently encountered (Acts 9).
 
“42 But Yeshua called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones wield power over them. 43 But, it will not be so among you; rather whoever desires to become great among you will be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first will be servant of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
 
- Mark 10:42-45 [Author’s translation] (Ref. John 13:14-15)
 
When counselling married Christian and Messiah following Jewish couples my wife and I first remind each one that in Messiah they are fully loved and secure, therefore, having been filled with Messiah’s love they are tasked not with seeking what they can get out of the marriage but with allowing the overflow of the love of God to minister to the other. Once again, this emphasises self-sacrificial love. Next, we remind each person in the marriage that the Scriptures written to men are to be the focus of the man, and the Scriptures written to women are to be the focus of the woman. In short, stop using Scriptures written to your partner as ammunition, instead concentrate on your obligation according to Scripture.
 
Pastors, teachers, Rabbis and laypeople would do well to remember this when teaching these Scriptures to their communities.

22 The wife to her own husband as to the Lord/LORD.
 
It was not uncommon in Greco-Roman society and therefore in Ephesus, for a man to have a wife and a consort, or for a wife to have sexual relations with a favoured male servant, and so on. Paul has just admonished the community to turn away from sexual immorality, and so he continues to detail what that means here.
 
The wife is to submit herself (her sex) to her own husband and to no other, just as she and all believers are to submit to One God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
 
Paul has established mutual love (Eph. 4) and mutual submission (Eph. 5:21). He now focuses on the respective areas that women and men struggle to excel in.
 
Women are inclined toward love and devotion, whereas men are more inclined toward conquering and ruling.
 
Women find submission difficult primarily based on the fruit of the first sin of humanity. And men take rule for granted based on that same sinful fruit.
 
“Your desire will be to usurp your husband’s authority,
And yet he shall rule over you.”
 
-Genesis 3:16 [Author’s translation]
 
God created the man and the woman to be partners with unique roles who submit one to the other in Him. Sin left this ideal unbalanced and opened the way for an ungodly power struggle between the man and the woman.
 
Paul’s exhortation first teaches Gentile believers the Biblical Jewish ideal and then focusses on those areas each partner will struggle with. For the woman that area is submission and for the man that area is all-encompassing love agape[G] (not sex).
 
It’s important to note that a wife’s submission to her husband is premised on mutual submission, as previously stated, and that the wife is not required to submit to abuse or participation in sinful practices, which would contradict the Torah and the context of Paul’s teaching. (Ref. 1 Samuel 25)
 
““For YHVH the Lord Elohim God/Judge of Israel says That He hates divorce, and one who wears violence as a garment,” Says YHVH the Lord Who goes warring (of hosts). “Therefore practice self-control over your spirit, That you do not deal faithlessly.”
 
-Malachi 2:16

23 Because a husband is to be head, first (in order), of the wife, like also the Messiah is the head, first (in order) of the gathered believers. He the Saviour, Deliverer, Preserver of the body.
 
The husband is first in order as a reflection of Messiah being the Origin, first in order over the body of faith (the Bride). When a husband performs his role well he has no need to demand submission from a godly wife. Seeing Messiah in him she is willing to submit to his God appointed role.

24 Nevertheless in the same way the gathered believers submit to the Messiah, in this manner also the wife, the husband, in place always each one.
 
Look carefully husband. There is a great weight of obligation on you unto purity. After all, if the wife is to submit to the husband in order of authority she does so providing the husband is submitted to Messiah in that same order.
 
Therefore, know your place and walk in humility.
 
Wife, you also be warned. Failure to submit to a husband who is endeavouring to honour Messiah and lead the household in a godly way is an equally weighty obligation. A wife who won’t allow her husband to lead, sins against the LORD, her husband, and herself.

25 The husband is to love agape[G] (fully in every way) the wife, as also the Messiah loves (fully in every way) the gathered believers, indeed, giving Himself (Messiah) for her (gathered believers).
 
The believing husband’s love for his wife must reflect the self-sacrificial love of the King Messiah.
 
A husband that makes only demands and is concerned only with his own rights and what he can get from his wife is not exhibiting the love of Messiah.
 
In truth, a godly wife longs for a Messiah-like husband who through self-sacrificial love leads his household in righteousness. The wife of such a husband willingly submits to his God given authority. The wife that does not, proves herself to be ungodly.

26 In order that He (Messiah) might separate, acknowledge, dedicate, hallow, cleanse by the washing with the water of the living voice, spoken word rhema[G].
 
The “He” here is the Messiah, Who gave Himself for all believers so that in His resurrection power He might separate out sin from us, dedicate His love in us, hallow the set apart nature of us in Him, and by the water of His living voice, wash us, sanctifying us within time and space on our journey toward eternity.
 
The washing of the water of the living voice of Messiah is reflected in the ancient (and modern orthodox) Jewish betrothal קידושין kiddushin (sanctifying, setting apart) rite of טבילה במקווה tevilah b’mikveh (immersion in the mikveh). This is entered into by both the bride and the groom prior to the wedding ceremony. We note that Yeshua was immersed by John, not because of a need for cleansing but as High Priest and Groom, in preparation for the fullness of His role. We in turn, having agreed to His proposal, enter immersion (baptism) in preparation for the wedding feast of the Lamb.
 
For more detail on the ancient Jewish betrothal and wedding customs, please read my article titled Eternal Security in the Ancient Jewish Art of Betrothal & Marriage 

​27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious assembly, without stain or wrinkle or any such thing, in order that she should be holy and blameless, without spot or blemish. 
 
The Mishnah Ketubot draws a corelation between blemishes that make a priest unfit for marriage and blemishes that make a woman unfit for marriage:
 
“If he betrothed her on condition that she has no blemishes, and it was subsequently discovered that she did have blemishes, she is not betrothed. But if he married her without specification, and it was subsequently discovered that she had blemishes, she may be divorced without payment of her marriage contract. The mishnah clarifies what qualifies as a blemish: All of the blemishes that are listed in tractate Bekhorot involving significant physical deformities that disqualify priests from service similarly disqualify betrothal of women, as a mistaken transaction.”
 
- Mishnah Ketubot 7:7b
 
Messiah prepares us through His blood and by His Spirit, insuring that every blemish is removed from our wedding garments by His precious blood atoning work.
 
“You are complete in beauty, my love,
There is no blemish in you.”
 
-Song of songs 4:7 [Author’s translation]
 
See my article on the Jewish wedding rites:
 
https://www.bethmelekh.com/yaakovs-commentary/eternal-security-in-the-ancient-jewish-art-of-betrothal-marriage-revised-updated
 
28 So husbands owe a debt of all-encompassing love agape[G] to their own wives as to their own bodies; he who fully loves agape[G] his wife fully loves agape[G] himself. 
 
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
 
-Genesis 2:24
 
Rabbinical tradition teaches that a man’s wife is כגופו kegufo, “as his own body” (Talmud Bavliy Berakhot 24a:6; Hilchot Bechorot c.2 sect. 7; Tzror HaMor 18:2 ).
 
“The Sages taught: One who loves his wife as he loves himself, and who honours her more than himself, and who instructs his sons and daughters in an upright path, and who marries them off near the time when they reach maturity, about him the verse states: And you shall know that your tent is in peace.”
 
-Talmud Bavliy Yevamot 62b
 
This practical example is also a beautiful promise. Messiah is Groom to the body of believers (v.32) and thus loves us as His own body.
 
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cares for it, just as the Messiah does for the assembly of believers. 
 
There is an allusion here to the kind of fasting that pleases the LORD.
 
“Is it (the fasting God requires) not to divide to the hungry your bread, and the poor that are wandering  bring in to thy house; when you see a naked one, and you cover him; and from your own flesh, do not hide?”
 
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 58:7 [Author’s translation]
 
The bar for the husband is set in the highest heaven according to the Messiah’s care for the body of faith. A husband with His mind on Messiah has little time to complain about his wife’s performance.
 
30 Since we are members of His body. 
 
This is both an assurance of security and an exhortation to purity.
 
31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5; Mark 10:7] 
 
Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, a passage authored by and quoted on the lips of Messiah (Matt. 19:5; Mark 10:7) in emphasising the purity that God demands must be present in marriage. Why? Because of what follows.
 
32 This, the mystery is great, but I speak concerning Messiah and toward the assembly of believers. 
 
Just as God is Husband to Israel, Yeshua is Groom to the body of believers. This is not a mystery hidden but one that is being revealed in Messiah unto the fullness of all things. It is now and not yet fully revealed to us.
 
Marriage between a man and a woman reflects the love relationship God desires to have with humanity. This is why the Torah requires the death penalty for adultery. The defiling of the marriage bed (both adultery and premarital sex) is an affront to the redemptive, reconciliatory love relationship established through Messiah between God and humanity.
 
33 However, let each one of you himself in the same way, fully love agape[G] his own wife as himself, and let the wife show reverent awe for her husband.
 
To the men first, love your wives, and second, to the wives, show reverent awe for your husbands.
 
When either partner refuses to obey God’s instruction by the Holy Spirit upon the pen of Paul, the marriage relationship descends into a sinful war set on domination, each one seeking to rule over the other.
 
When we seek to rule over our marriage partner we prove that we are not submitted to God in love. The man who refuses to love his wife sacrificially is in rebellion toward God and the woman who refuses to submit to her husband is equally in rebellion toward God (abuse and infidelity notwithstanding).
 
Therefore, “Submit yourselves equitably one to another in the fearful awe of Messiah.”
 
Copyright 2025 Yaakov (Brown) Ben Yehoshua

Ephesians 2 [Author’s Translation]
 
1And you who are now to be (the body 1:22-23), were dead in your deviation from the truth and missing the mark set by God’s holiness, 
2 in which, in the past, you walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the power permitted over the lower air, the spirit who is now active in the children of the disobedience/obstinate opposition/wilful rebellion, 
3 among whom we (Jews/Paul & the other Apostles & those first to believe) too once lived (overturning ourselves) in the lusts of our flesh (physical body, evil inclination), acting out the desires of the flesh and of the mind (inner thoughts), and were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest.
4 But the God, Who is rich in mercy, by means of His great love which He loved us with, 
5 even when we were dead in our deviation from the truth, He made us alive together with the Messiah. [By grace/loving kindness you have been saved/rescued/kept safe], 
6 and raised us up together, and sitting us down together in the heavens in Messiah Yeshua, 
7 In order to show in the ages that are to arrive, His surpassing riches, His grace in moral purity/integrity/kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua. 
8 For by the grace/loving kindness you have been saved through faith/trust/belief (in conviction of the truth), and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 
9 not by works/deeds/actions, in order that no one should boast. 
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua unto (upon) good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we should walk in them.
11 Therefore remember that you, formerly Gentiles in the flesh (physical body)—who are called Uncircumcision (Pagans) by those called the Circumcision (Jews) made in the flesh (body) by hands— 
12 that at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and foreigners (pagans without access) to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in this world. 
13 But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.
14 For He Himself is our peace, Who has made both (Jews & Gentiles) one (echad [H]), and has broken down the wall/partition, the barrier/fence, 
15 in order to loose the hostility in His flesh (body, nature), the Torah, the commandment in doctrine, which is to be unemployed/idle/inactive, so as to create in Himself one new person/human being from the two, thus making peace, 
16 Indeed, that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, thereby putting to death that which caused the hostility. 
17 And He came to speak the good news of peace to you who were far off (Gentiles) and to those who were near (Jews). 
18 For through, and of Him (Messiah) we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19 Now, therefore (based on what has already been stated), you are no longer foreigners (pagans without access) and neighbours without citizenship, but fellow citizens with the holy ones kedoshim[H] (saints, specifically Messiah essential Jews) and members of the household of God, 
20 having been built on the foundation of השליחים (ha-sh’lichim[H]) the sent ones (Apostles: all of whom are Jews) and prophets (of the TaNaKh [OT], Jews with the possible exception of Job), Yeshua the Messiah Himself being the highest corner/pinnacle, 
21 in Him the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord/LORD (Κυρίῳ  [kyrio] YHVH, Both the Father and the Son), 
22 in Whom you together are also being built toward the dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
 
Line by Line:
 
1And you who are now to be (the body 1:22-23), were dead in your deviation from the truth and missing the mark set by God’s holiness, 
 
“You who are now to be the body,” as alluded to in the previous two verses (1:22-23):
 
“22 And He put all under His foot, and gave Him headship over all the assembly (ecclesia: body of believers), 23 which is His body, the fullness of the all in all to completion.”
 
-Ephesians 1:22-23 [Author’s translation]
 
Those in the Ephesian community of faith who are truly Messiah essential people are being affirmed as having joined the body of Messiah even though at this point in time many of them are not Jews. At the same time they’re being reminded where they have come from, having once been spiritually dead in their sinful deviation, the missing of the mark set by God’s holiness.
 
Jewish tradition sees the descriptors deceiver, idolater, and a dead man, as synonymous:
 
“Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will be in his eyes as a deceiver כִּמְתַעְתֵּעַ
[kimetatei’a]” – like a dead man/corpse כְּמֵת [kemeit], an aberration וּכְתוֹעֶה [ukheto’eh], and an idolater.”
 
-Bereshit Rabbah 65:15 [Sefaria]
 
2 in which, in the past, you walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the power permitted over the lower air, the spirit who is now active in the children of the disobedience/obstinate opposition/wilful rebellion, 
 
“The age of this world,” reflects the sin affected created order and the death that has resulted.
 
The Ephesian believers once walked according to the evil inclination, a practice that was seeded by the “Ruler of the power permitted over the lower air.” This refers to Satan as having been cast down into the earth’s atmosphere and permitted to have temporal power within the earth’s atmosphere (Rev. 12:9). Its (his) spirit is at work influencing those who rebel against God. Satan is not omnipresent but has a host of fallen angelic beings with it (him) in service of its (his) self-deifying rebellion.
 
Ruler/Prince of the Air
 
בַּעַל־זְבוּב (Baal-zevuv/Beelzebub), meaning Master/Husband/Lord of the Flies (Matt. 12:24), is, based on the airborne ability of the fly, another title reflecting the Prince of the Air, Satan. The flies it (he) is lord over are of course the fallen angels/demons who are aligned with it (him).
 
Babylonians/Chaldeans, Greeks (Pythagoras, and Plato), and Jews all believed that demonic forces were in the air באויר (bavir).
 
Jewish tradition calls the Prince of the Air רַבְּהוֹן דְּרוּחָיָא (Rabehon Deruchaya), Prince of the spirits:
 
“He went to kindle the lamp and a demon, the prince of the spirits, accosted him.”
 
-Vayikra Rabbah 5:1 [Sefaria]
 
Children of the disobedience
 
Children of disobedience are those who by their own wilful and continued rejection of God, continue to walk in unrepentant pride (self-deification), in line with the modus operandi of the Prince of the Air, Satan.
 
Children of disobedience is synonymous with בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם (benot haadam) [Gen. 6:2], daughters of man (Adam). In other words, daughters (those who give birth to progeny) of the evil inclination of humanity. Both Children of disobedience, and בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם (benot haadam) are the opposite of בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ (b’nai HaElohim), children of the God (Judge), also known in the latter Jewish tradition as בְּנִי מְהֵימְנוּתָא (beniy meheiymenuta), children from faithfulness (Zohar Bereshit 83:230)
 
3 among whom we (Jews/Paul & the other Apostles & those first to believe) too once lived (overturning ourselves) in the lusts of our flesh (physical body, evil inclination), acting out the desires of the flesh and of the mind (inner thoughts), and were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest.
 
Paul acknowledges that the Jewish believers were also once given over to sinful rebellion against God, acting out the same lusts of the fallen nature that the Gentiles perform. We note that both the sinful lusts of the physical body and the sinful lusts of the mind are addressed. We’re reminded that the Torah speaks against physical acts of sin (You shall not murder [Ex. 20:13]) and against thought sin (You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife [Ex. 20:17]). Yeshua reaffirms this when He says, “If a man lusts after a woman in his heart (core being) he has committed adultery with her.” (Matt. 5:28)
 
Paul goes on to affirm that the Jewish people were also once children of wrath just as the Gentiles are.
 
“Children of wrath,” is synonymous with “Children of disobedience,” (v.2) and refers to those who are under God’s righteous judgement condemned to just punishment except for the remission of sin purchased through blood atonement.
 
“2 YHVH (Mercy) the LORD looks down from the heavens
    on all humanity
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 14:2-3 [Author’s translation]
 
“for all have missed the mark set by God’s holiness (sinned) and fall short (have failed to meet the standard) of the glory of God”
 
-Romans 3:23 [Author’s translation]
 
“how can you say that you have not sinned? and behold your first father has sinned, and he is the first man, for man מוטבע בחטא (mutba bechatei) [imprinted in sin], ‘is naturally in sin’;”
 
-Rav David Kimchi RaDaK [Sefaria]
 
“And seeing, יהוה  HaShem, what  רַבָּה רָעַתrabah ra’at great evil humanity perpetuated in the earth, and that all the inclination and the thoughts of their core being לִבּוֹ libo were only evil all the day.”
 
-Bereishsit (Genesis) 6:5 [Author’s translation]
 
“The believer in, on, toward, for Him is not separated, condemned, put asunder: but the disbeliever, one who has chosen disbelief, is separated, condemned, put asunder already, because he has not believed, trusted in, become convinced of the Name (identity, character, nature) of the One only begotten (Singular in kind) the Son of the God.”
 
-John 3:18 [Author’s translation]
 
4 But the God, Who is rich in mercy, by means of His great love which He loved us with, 5 even when we were dead in our deviation from the truth, He made us alive together with the Messiah. [By grace/loving kindness you have been saved/rescued/kept safe], 6 and raised us up together, and seated us down together in the heavens in Messiah Yeshua,
 
The good news that Paul is reiterating to the Ephesian community of faith is that God has had mercy on the Jewish people and so can be trusted to have mercy on all people who come to Him in Messiah by grace through faith.
 
God’s great love is eternally present. This is why the text says, “by means of His great love which He loved us with.”
 
So great is God’s love that even when we were in a state of wilful rebellion, hating Him and His holiness, reaping death, He came to make us alive in Messiah the sacrificial Lamb, God with us. Paul interjects, “By grace/loving kindness you have been saved/rescued/kept safe,” and concludes, “and raised us up together, and seated us down together in the heavens in Messiah Yeshua,”
 
“Seated us down together in the heavens in Messiah Yeshua.” Some misuse this part of the text to claim that we go to heaven when we die. Scripture teaches that when we die, we who are in Messiah go to Sheol and into Paradise where we await the resurrection and the Judgement, and following the Judgement that we who are in Messiah enter the World to Come (New Earth) where we dwell in and with God forever (Luke 16:19-31; John 3:13; Hebrews 9:27). It does not teach that we go to heaven when we die.
 
The present text is not saying we literally go up to heaven and sit beside Yeshua. How can it mean that, given that Paul uses the past tense making our position in Messiah a completed reality, and yet Paul is still alive on earth when writing the text and the recipients are still alive reading, and hearing the text.
 
Therefore, Paul is emphasizing the fact that through Messiah’s death and resurrection we are delivered from death into life and our eternity is established with Him in His reign and authority at the right hand of the Father. A reign and authority that will be made fully manifest at His return when He will descend to reign over the New Earth, bringing our established life in Him, with Him. We are at present together with Messiah in spirit in the same way meant when Paul says elsewhere “I am with you in spirit” (1 Corinthians 5:3-4; Colossians 2:5).
 
7 In order to show in the ages that are to arrive, His surpassing riches, His grace in moral purity/integrity/kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua. 
 
Our salvation, resurrection and life everlasting are established now in Messiah in order to show what is to come. That is, “His surpassing riches, His grace in moral purity/integrity/kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua” in the עולם הבא )Olam Haba(, World to Come.
 
We note that the Greek text reads ages/worlds plural, denoting worlds/ages everlasting. Perhaps meaning that, at the return of the Messiah, distinct ages unfold within the day/season of the Judgement and the transition to the World to Come. We are reminded that in a transcendant view of time a day is as a thousand years to HaShem. Meaning time is relative in eternity. In eternity where there is no beginning or end, how would one establish a measure for time? If one were to count time passing where would one begin? If there were a beginning (there is neither beginning or end in eternity), what end is one counting toward in a world without end?
 
8 For by the grace/loving kindness you have been saved through faith/trust/belief (in conviction of the truth), and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not by works/deeds/actions, in order that no one should boast. 
 
We see that neither grace nor faith are of ourselves but are a unity and converge as the gift of God, grace being the impartation of unmerited favour through the faith given by God.
 
All are saved by God’s grace through the faith אמן (aman) given to us by God in Messiah, Who is the faith agreement, the “Amen” (Rev. 3:14) of every believer. Our salvation is eternally established in Salvation (Yeshua) Himself and cannot be established or disestablished by our actions. Once received (freewill), because our salvation is not our work but His (decided beforehand), it cannot be lost! It is the gift of God. And, in order to receive the benefit of a gift one must open it (freewill). Therefore, salvation is pre-established (decided beforehand) because God knows the end from the beginning, and it is received by a choice of will (freewill) by those who acknowledge their need and open the gift. Thus, predestination and freewill are distinct parts of a whole and not, as some foolishly continue to insist upon, a debate over “this or that!”
 
In order to be absolutely clear Paul states explicitly “and that not of yourselves!” And again, “not by works/deeds/actions, in order that no one should boast.” In short, don’t say “I have changed my standing before God by doing what’s right” because the very ability to do what’s right and the clean slate afforded you prior to your turning from evil toward God, are all the work of God. Therefore, He alone is worthy of the credit, and in Messiah the faith He has given you, which you have received, is accredited to you as righteousness. Messiah is your righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21).
 
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua unto (upon) good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we should walk in them.
 
We are His workmanship, and not our workmanship. This reinforces the fact that we are saved by grace through faith.
 
We are not “created for good works” as some mistranslate, rather we are “created in Messiah Yeshua unto (upon) good works.” The good works are the fruit of Messiah in us the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). In Messiah we do not do for God but in and from Him. We are created in Messiah upon His good deeds and unto good deeds that originate with Him. Therefore, being in Him we walk in His good works.
 
We are not created for good works, worship or any other thing, rather we are created in relationship unto right relationship, worship and good deeds being the acts of returning to God that which He has given us.
 
The good works are prepared beforehand so that we might walk in them, and not so that we might invent or create them. Therefore, the good works we do in Messiah are received, an opportunity to walk in God’s established will. We don’t manufacture deeds, rather we look for what God is doing and we agree with it and join in it, in Messiah. None of this is done in our own strength but in His strength. Thus in Him we become Messiah essential versions of ourselves, redeemed, rescued from the perversion of self that we once engaged in.
 
It's worth noting that human beings receive the wages of sin because we have worked for those wages by sinning. Whereas, we receive the gift of Salvation, not by our work, but according to the works of God. Wages are earned, the gift is received.
 
Put concisely, God created us in Messiah. We are created upon Messiah’s good works. Our right actions result from Messiah in us. All of which is established before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) in order that the fullness of God’s love might be revealed to us in eternity.
 
11 Therefore remember that you, formerly Gentiles in the flesh (physical body)—who are called Uncircumcision (Pagans) by those called the Circumcision (Jews) made in the flesh (body) by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and foreigners (pagans without access) to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in this world. 
 
Like the prior warning Paul had given the Gentiles in the Roman community of faith (57 CE), the present warning reminds the Gentile believers in Ephesus that without the Jewish Messiah Yeshua they cannot access the covenant promises of God (Rom. 11:13-36). Likewise, Paul alludes to his former rebuke of the arrogance of certain Jewish believers in the Roman community of faith (Rom. 2:17-29)
 
Paul adds to this an explanation of spiritual conversion beyond physical circumcision. He is alluding to the circumcision of the heart, which God had demanded of Israel from her earliest days of disobedience (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4). By inference Paul now reminds the Gentile believers of Ephesus that in Messiah they have received circumcision of the heart.
 
Prior to the revelation of Messiah, the Gentile believers were aliens, pagans who worshipped false gods or had no god and were therefore in either case not part of the commonwealth of Israel. They were foreigners, idol worshippers who had no access to the covenants and therefore were devoid of hope for eternal life and without the comfort of God in the present age.
 
We note that “commonwealth” here is like the commonwealth of Great Britain. Paul is referring to both ethnic religious Israelites and those Gentile foreigners who submitted to the God of Israel and the Jewish people and thus lived among the commonwealth of Israel, even as early as the Exodus from Egypt. Paul is not inferring that Gentiles who receive Messiah become “Spiritual Jews” (an oxymoron that mixes an ethnic noun with a spiritual paradigm). In order to understand this in simple terms one need only know that Israel is an ethnic noun referring uniquely to blood descendants of Jacob and his twelve sons. Post Babylonian exile when all the tribes returned to Judea, the locational use of the noun Judah became a synonym for Israel and is now the ethnic noun that describes all Israel’s tribes. Therefore, Jews and Israel are synonymous today, both being ethnic nouns describing the 12 tribes of Israel, the blood descendants of Jacob the historical human being.
 
Therefore, a converted Gentile is invited to join the commonwealth of Israel but does not lose their ethnic uniqueness in order to do so. The converted Gentile is a converted soul and not a converted ethnicity. Likewise, the converted Jew remains a Jew because it is his soul that is turned from sin toward God (conversion), while his ethnicity, sex, skin colour etc do not change.
 
13 But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.
 
In Messiah Gentiles are welcomed into the commonwealth of Israel and afforded access to the covenants of God that are not ethnically specific.  
 
14 For He Himself is our peace, Who has made both (Jews & Gentiles) one (echad [H]), and has broken down the wall/partition, the barrier/fence, 15 in order to loose the hostility in His flesh (body, nature), the Torah, the commandment in doctrine, which is to be unemployed/idle/inactive, so as to create in Himself one new person/human being from the two, thus making peace,  
 
Messiah Yeshua is our peace, wholeness and wellbeing, and has made both Jews and Gentiles who receive Him, one people, diverse and unified.
 
“Even the name of the Messiah is called שלום, "peace"; as it is said, (Isa. 9:6) ‘the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace’;”
 
-Rabbi Yosef the Galilean (Contemporary of Rabbi Akivah) [Sefaria]
 
“Who has made both (Jews & Gentiles) one (echad [H]), and has broken down the wall/barrier, the partition/fence, 15 in order to loose the hostility in His flesh (body, nature),”
 
The Greek text does not say “dividing wall” but “wall/partition.” While it’s true that walls divide, the text does not say that specifically but infers it.
 
The Hebrew equivalent to the Greek text is מחיצה (m’chitzah), “the middle wall of the boundary fence.”
 
This is without doubt the wall חיצה (chitzah) surrounding the first century Temple, on which there was a sign “which forbade any foreigner to go on pain of death.” Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 15:11:5; War of the Jews 5:5:2, 6:2:4.
 
In a similar way to the tearing of the veil at the entry to the Holy of Holies, which opened access to intimacy with God to all who would receive Yeshua’s atoning work, so too the wall separating Gentiles from Jews has been torn down by Messiah.
 
We note that just as there was a dividing wall that kept Gentiles from entering into the court of Israel, there was also a wall of separation preventing women from entering beyond the court of women.
 
In modern orthodox synagogues there is a מחיצה (m’chitzah) separating the women from the men. This reflects the first century Temple. No such wall existed in the synagogues of the first century, where men and women worshipped together, an ancient Jewish equivalent to a community centre, with the added component of Scripture readings and worship rites.
 
Paul’s teaching to the Galatians seems to allude to a diaspora synagogue practice of separating women from men. Concerning salvation through faith in Messiah Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile… male nor female” (Galatians 3:28)
 
Therefore, Messiah has torn the veil, broken down the wall separating the Gentiles and the wall separating the women, and the wall separating the Israelite from the priests, and has opened clear access to all who receive Him, right through to the Holy of holies and intimacy with the Father God.
 
Note that where the wall in the synagogue which separates men and women is taken down in the reformed or progressive synagogue of today, and men and women sit together as in the first century synagogues of the land of Israel, that they sit together but do not lose their unique physiology. Their sex doesn’t change based on their location. So too, when the wall separating out Gentiles is removed the Gentiles come in toward the Holy of holies and join in worship with their Jewish brothers and sisters but do not change their ethnicity. In Messiah Jews remain Jews and Gentiles remain Gentiles. We are one in the Spirit of Messiah, a diverse unity. A commonwealth. Paul is not teaching Gentiles to appropriate Jewish life but to be the Messiah essential persons that God has created them to be.
 
As a Messiah follower and a Jew I ask you not to appropriate our culture, or God forbid, claim to be a Jew when you are not, but instead according to Scripture, I welcome you in Messiah to Join with us, and honour Messiah by being your Messiah essential self.
 
Put concisely, through His blood atoning substitutionary sacrifice and resurrection Messiah has made it possible for Jews and Gentiles to come together without the hostility of the sinful inclination that took advantage of the indictment of Torah, getting in the way.
 
The wall was viewed as divisive, causing hostility between Jews and Gentiles in the sense that the Jews were seen as having special access to YHVH that Gentiles didn’t have. However, the hostility or enmity is not concerning the wall alone but also “the Torah, the commandment in doctrine, which is to be unemployed.”
 
Jewish commentators describe the Torah figuratively as a “Wall”:
 
“When Reish Lakish came before Rabbi Yoḥanan and reported the exchange to him, Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: What is the reason that you did not quote this verse to him: “I am a wall and my breasts are like...towers”, which may be explained as follows: “I am a wall”; this is referring to the Torah.”
 
-Bava Batra 7b:16 [Sefaria]
 
“The Gemara interprets another verse: “I am a wall and my breasts are like towers” . Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “I am a wall”; this is a reference to the Torah....“And my breasts are like towers”; these are the Torah scholars, who, by disseminating their Torah and influencing the masses protect them like watchtowers....And Rava said: “I am a wall”; this is the Congregation of Israel....“And my breasts are like towers”; these are the synagogues and study halls in which the Congregation of Israel is nurtured by the Torah, from which it draws its spiritual strength.”
 
-Pesachim 87a:8 [Sefaria]
 
The Torah itself is not hostility/enmity, nor is it the cause of the hostility/enmity (Rom. 7:5-14), rather, as an indictment against sin the Torah’s existence means sin has an opportunity by misusing Torah as a trigger for the idea of acting on the sin which is commanded against (Rom. 5:12-21).
 
For the Messiah essential person Torah becomes unemployed in the sense that our nature is being transformed and sanctified to reflect the Person of Messiah. There is no need for a law that says “You shall not steal” if by nature a person doesn’t steal. Therefore, the law exists only as an indictment against the one who steals. The law is a warning that points to Messiah. Once Messiah is met, and as long as the believer’s eyes are set on Him, there is no need of Torah. Torah remains until the fullness of all things as a measure against sin (Matt. 5:18).
 
Therefore, in Messiah, having been made new creations, the old sin nature gone, the new Messiah nature come, we sin when we forget who we are. Thus the Torah points us back to Messiah and the knowledge of who we are in Him. The result of right relationship in Messiah is right action without Torah. After all, in the Olam Haba where there is no sin there is no need of commandments against sin. Thus, Messiah is not Torah but the Author of Torah. Messiah is the דבר Davar Word essence and not Torah the Instruction. The perfect Instructor is not subject to the instruction but is the Author of it.
 
In Messiah Jews and Gentiles are made one new human being. Again, this is not literal. We do not become a transgender multi-ethnic blob of humanity. To the contrary, we are one in spirit in Messiah and remain unique parts of the body of Messiah. Not all are hands, not all are feet, not all are heart or brain, but all are one body.
 
It is more than foolish, it is satanic to say as some do, “See, being Jewish or Navajo, or Britain, or Celt, or Maori doesn’t matter anymore because we are all one new man.” What utter nonsense! To steal the uniqueness of ethnic identity and assimilate it into a collective soup is to oppose Scripture:
 
“9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation (Yeshua) belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
 
-Revelation 7:9-10 [Author’s translation]
 
The Kingdom of God is a unique and diverse unity and not an assimilating empire.
 
The peace that is in Messiah comes through His blood and establishes a celebration of all that is godly in every ethnicity and culture. Peace is not the denying of uniqueness but the celebrating of it.
 
16 Indeed, that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, thereby putting to death that which caused the hostility. 
 
Messiah comes to reconcile us through His sacrifice, first to God and also to one another. His saving work puts to death the cause of the hostility between us. Messiah’s sacrificial death has put to death idolatrous rebellion, which is the root of all sin.
 
In Messiah we are no longer seeking our own elevation, rather, because Messiah is elevated above all, and we are submitted to God in Him, we elevate one another in Him. The one who has received the fullness of God’s love in Messiah is tasked with allowing that love to overflow toward others in perfect unity. Being your unique Messiah essential self is a gift to the body of faith. Don’t steal that gift by pretending to be something or someone you are not. Be tribal, but don’t practice tribalism.
 
17 And He came to speak the good news of peace to you who were far off (Gentiles) and to those who were near (Jews). 
 
The good news of Messiah is for all, perpetually first to the Jew and also perpetually to the nations (Romans 1:16).
 
18 For through, and of Him (Messiah) we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
 
Messiah alone gives as access to the father, Jew and Gentile.
 
19 Now, therefore (based on what has already been stated), you are no longer foreigners (pagans without access) and neighbours without citizenship, but fellow citizens with the holy ones kedoshim[H] (saints, specifically Messiah essential Jews) and members of the household of God, 
 
Now, in Messiah, the Gentile believers of Ephesus, and by extension all Gentile followers of Yeshua, are no longer pagans and foreigners estranged from God’s people but are now grafted into the commonwealth of Israel by grace through faith and have become fellow citizens with the Jewish believers and members of God’s household/family. Heirs in His House/Temple (heavenly).
 
20 having been built on the foundation of השליחים (ha-sh’lichim[H]) the sent ones (Apostles: all of whom are Jews) and prophets (of the TaNaKh [OT], Jews with the possible exception of Job), Yeshua the Messiah Himself being the highest corner/ pinnacle, 21 in Him the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord/LORD (Κυρίῳ  [kyrio] YHVH, Both the Father and the Son), 
 
Paul reminds the Gentile believers again that all this has been made possible through Messiah and built on the foundational work of God established through the Jewish Apostles and their predecessors the Prophets of Israel (Jews). All these being established in Messiah Who is the highest Corner, the top point of the House/Temple of God (alternatively, the foundational cornerstone of the Temple of God).
 
In Messiah both Jew and Gentile grow together into an everlasting metaphysical Temple. Not a Temple made of stone but a living Temple made up of unique people who are one in Messiah to the glory of God (1 Peter 2:4-9; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19). Thus, the New Jerusalem will have no Temple, because God Himself and the Lamb are its Temple (Rev. 21:22).
 
“Yeshua the Messiah Himself being the highest corner,” refers to Psalms 118:22, which reads:
 
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner”
 
-Tehillim (Psalms) 118:22 [Author’s translation]
 
We note that while many versions translate “cornerstone,” neither the Greek nor the Hebrew text explicitly say this. While it’s possible the corner foundation stone of certain ancient buildings might be meant (Isa. 28:16; Matt. 21:42; 1 Peter 2:6-8), it seems more likely that in the context of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian community, in keeping with Paul’s description of Yeshua as being above all things, that he is in fact referring to the highest panicle of the Temple and Yeshua’s headship over the body of believers, who are being referred to here as the living stones of the Temple which is Messiah’s body.
 
There is at very least a remez (hint) here at a connection between Messiah’s headship over the living temple of the body of believers and the attempt by Satan to get Yeshua to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem. The symbolism is clear. The Enemy is tempting Yeshua to put God to the test and to throw down His headship and authority over the ecclesia (coming body of believers) [Matt. 4:5].
 
That being said, there is a mystical Jewish tradition that speaks of the world being founded through the foundation stone האבן (Ha-even) in the Holy of Holies, which is also said to be the stone on which Jacob lay his head on the night he received the vision of the stairway to the heavens, the same stone being said to be the place where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac and the stone through which man was created (M. Yoma 5:2; T. Yoma 2:14; B. Yoma 54b; Lev. Rabah 20:4 etc.). While this is a mystical tradition and not Scripture, it’s nonetheless consistent with the creating Word, God with us, Yeshua the King Messiah, through Whom all things are created (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16).
 
22 in Whom you together are also being built toward the dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
 
And where will the manifest dwelling place of God be in the future fullness of the World to come? It will be on the New Earth in the New Jerusalem, the city being the sum of its inhabitants (Rev. 21).
 
Therefore, this last verse of chapter 2 is ultimately pointing to eternal life in God for all who receive and are bound together in Messiah.
 
Copyright 2025 Yaakov (Brown) Ben Yehoshua