OPENING UP EPHESIANS
By Peter Jeffery
Evangelical Press/Solid Ground. 102 pages. £4.95
ISBN 0971016976
Peter Jeffery has written the first of a series of books for teenagers 'opening up' the whole Scriptures. The book has 12 chapters with questions at the end of each chapter and then a section of 12 pages for 'digging deeper' divided into questions for individual study, group discussion, and prayerful reflection.
The publishers acknowledge the person who suggested a series of commentaries for young people. The author denies that this is a commentary. The spelling is American. The illustrations are from British history. The lack of one clear market target is a weakness of this book.
I was reminded of doctrine and right behaviour, but there was nothing to make me see the impact of the letter in an idolatrous city to real believers grappling with their culture. Mr Jeffrey sees the letter as a summary of doctrine rather than the ministry into a life situation such as Arnold Clinton proposes. References to the Holy Spirit seemed rarer than in the Bible text.
The splendour of Ephesians is so great that no book on it by an evangelical writer can fail to reveal the glory of the gospel. A serious teenager in a conservative church might appreciate this book as a help to reading through the letter, but the average British teenager would probably not be thrilled by it. The author's frequent references to 'youngsters today', 'teenage years', etc., make this feel like a book written at young people rather than for them. Long quotes from Martyn Lloyd-Jones and slips into AV phrases gives it an old-fashioned feel.
