Ephesians 6: An Ambassador in Bonds Asks for Prayer

Verse 20 is a small phrase near the end of a chapter most people leave at verse 17. Paul calls himself "an ambassador in bonds." An ambassador travels with protection and standing, and Paul has managed to be one while wearing a chain. The man who gave us the helmet and the shield and the sword wrote all of it in custody.

Ephesians doesn't say where he was, but Acts 28:16 has him in Rome, allowed to live "by himself with a soldier that kept him," and the usual view is that this letter comes from those years. I'd keep that in mind through the whole chapter, because it changes how the armor passage sounds and what he asks for when he's finished describing it.

What does "in the Lord" add to "obey your parents"?

The chapter opens on a house, and it takes the youngest people in it first. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1). The letter was presumably read aloud to the congregation, which means an eight-year-old sitting on a bench heard her own verse addressed to her directly. Most ancient writing wouldn't bother. He does the same for fathers, servants and masters in the next five verses, so I think he meant it.

The phrase to watch is "in the Lord," because Colossians 3:20 has nearly the same instruction and says "in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." Ephesians drops "all things." It puts the Lord inside the sentence instead, and I read that as the limit on the instruction, which I'll come back to in the questions below.

Then he quotes a commandment, and he does it a little loosely. Exodus 20:12 promises that "thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Ephesians 6:3 has "That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." The "well with thee" clause comes from Deuteronomy 5:16 where the commandment is repeated, and the land has become the earth. He's allowed to combine them.

Verse 4 is addressed to me, and I can't pretend otherwise: "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Children get three verses and fathers get one, and the one is mostly a prohibition. Colossians 3:21 gives the reason, "lest they be discouraged."

Caleb starts sixth grade on Wednesday and will treat verse 1 as policy and verse 4 as a rebuttal, which is how eleven-year-olds read everything.

I'd note that both ends of the arrangement get the Lord in the sentence. The children obey "in the Lord" and the fathers raise them "of the Lord."

Verses 5 to 9 are the part of the chapter that gets skipped on purpose. Servants are told to be obedient "with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart," where Colossians 3:22 has "fearing God," and then "as unto Christ" and "not with eyeservice, as menpleasers," and verse 8 says that whatever good thing a man does, he receives it of the Lord, "whether he be bond or free." The surprise comes in verse 9. "And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven."

The same things. The slave is to work from the heart as to the Lord, and the man who owns him is told to do the same things, and to stop threatening, because he has a Master too. I wouldn't claim the passage argues the institution away, since it doesn't try. But it doesn't leave a master any room to stand on, either.

Why does Paul switch to "we" in verse 12?

Through verses 10 and 11 he's been talking to his readers. "Be strong in the Lord," "put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand." Then verse 12 turns around.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12

Paul puts himself in the fight in the middle of describing it. After eleven verses of telling the Ephesians what to do, he's down on the mat with them. I wrote about a similar shift of pronoun in Ephesians 1 and the small word that changes the pronoun, and I've started watching for it in his letters. He rarely uses "we" by accident.

The other thing about verse 12 is where it sits, which is right after a father, a child, a servant and a master. After a chapter spent on the people in your own house and your own workplace, the verse says the fight isn't with flesh and blood. That's my reading, and I'll admit it's the kind of reading that suits me, but it seems to me that anyone annoyed at a person in verses 1 to 9 is the intended audience for verse 12. The person across the table has a role in the household and a role on the job. He or she isn't in the list of principalities.

The six pieces, and what the passage keeps saying about standing

The list in verses 14 to 17 starts with loins girt about with truth and the breastplate of righteousness, then feet shod with "the preparation of the gospel of peace," the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. Five of those protect you and one is for attack. The sword gets defined in the same breath, "which is the word of God," so the only offensive item in the kit turns out to be something you can read on a Saturday.

Two small things in the list caught on me, and the first is that "Above all" in verse 16 attaches to the shield, which is fourth in the list, so it's ranking the shield above the pieces before it and says nothing about the order of putting them on. The second is "the preparation of the gospel of peace," which is about the feet, the piece nobody draws on the Sunday School poster. I don't know what Paul means by preparation there. Readiness, footing, something delivered ahead of time are all possible and the text doesn't choose.

Doctrine and Covenants 27:15-18 has the same list nearly word for word and the differences are worth a look. It's "my whole armor," where Ephesians has "the whole armour of God." After the feet it adds "which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you," so the preparation is something delivered and not something you built. And where Paul says the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, verse 18 says "the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you." The armor in that passage is handed over.

Now the verb.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Ephesians 6:13

The word stand turns up four times between verse 11 and verse 14, if you count "withstand." Nobody in the passage advances. The soldier in this picture isn't in a charge or a rescue. He has dressed with care in advance, and the outcome Paul wants is that after the evil day and after "having done all," he is still on his feet. I've had weeks at work where that was the whole accomplishment, and verse 13 is accurate about them. D&C 27:15 echoes it with "having done all, that ye may be able to stand."

The grammar of "take unto you" matters too, since the command comes before the evil day with the day itself still ahead of the reader, and that's the reason I wouldn't treat this as a crisis passage.

What Paul asks for at the end

I think the chapter turns out to be about something other than armor, and that shows at the end. Verse 17 ends with a colon, and verse 18 starts with "Praying," continuing the same run. Prayer isn't a seventh piece, since nobody gets a seventh piece. It's what the soldier does after he's dressed. And it's "for all saints."

Then Paul asks for himself.

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:19-20

He doesn't ask to be let out, and the request he makes instead is for boldness, which he says twice, "boldly" in verse 19 and "boldly" again in verse 20, and the second time he adds "as I ought to speak." It reads like a man who's not sure he's doing what he should be doing, in a place where doing it costs him. I'd take him at his word. He's the apostle, and he's asking the Ephesians to pray that he won't flinch.

It's a small version of what he tells the Galatians in Galatians 6, where the burdens are borne together and carried alone. He prays for all of them and then he asks them to carry some of his.

The last real item in the chapter is a man, and Paul introduces him this way: "Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things" (Ephesians 6:21). Acts 20:4 lists him among Paul's companions "of Asia," the province Ephesus is in, which would make this a trip home for him. Paul says he's sending him "that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do," and then gives the purpose in verse 22: "that he might comfort your hearts." The letter will be delivered by a person who can answer questions. Paul spends the chapter on armor and prayer and then ends by sending someone to say how he is, in the hope that the news will do the Ephesians good. A man in chains could have skipped that for one more instruction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Ephesians 6:1 mean a child has to obey a parent who says to do something wrong?

I read "in the Lord" as the boundary. Paul didn't write "in all things" the way he did in Colossians 3:20, and the phrase puts the Lord's will inside the instruction. A child who's told to lie hasn't disobeyed anything in this verse by refusing. The text doesn't walk through cases, so I'd want a parent who raised children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" to be the one answering that for their own house.

What are the six pieces of the armor of God?

Truth around the loins, the breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which verse 17 says is the word of God. D&C 27:15-18 has the same list. Five protect and one cuts, and all of it is described in verses 14 to 17.

Is Ephesians 6:5-9 an endorsement of slavery?

I don't read it that way, and I wouldn't use it to defend the practice. Paul speaks to people already inside the arrangement. He tells masters to do "the same things," to stop threatening and to remember that their Master "also is in heaven." There's no instruction in the passage that an owner can follow and still be an owner in any comfortable sense, and I'd leave it at that.

Is the armor only for when something bad is happening?

Verse 13 says "take unto you" so that you "may be able to withstand in the evil day." The dressing comes first and the day comes after. That order suggests you put it on before you need it.

The letter's last two verses give "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith" and grace "with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." After eight verses about standing in the evil day, none of the closing verses say who won. They say peace and grace, and that's where Paul stops.

— D.