EPHESIANS
Encouragement and joy in Christ
By Paul Gardner. Christian Focus. 192 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978-1-84550-264-5
This is the latest addition to the Focus on the Bible commentary series.
It’s probably helpful to locate it in terms of a familiar series and say that this is somewhat shorter and simpler than John Stott’s excellent The Message of Ephesians in The Bible Speaks Today series. So it’s a non-technical commentary, which handles the text soundly and carefully and also provides applications at the end of most sections. With Paul Gardner we are in safe hands. Discussions of authorship and background are brief, but sufficient for its purpose. The book could well be used for thoughtful personal devotions or to back up group Bible studies. Something more detailed would really be needed for expository preaching.
Perhaps it’s a little picky of me, but I would query the chosen subtitle. Isn’t Ephesians primarily about God’s glorious purposes to bring (and keep and hold) all things together in Christ and only secondly about our personal sense of encouragement? The ‘further applications’ are well written with an eye on the contemporary world: thus the implications of chapter 2 for our individualism and introspectiveness are brought out.
However, little is said about the radical implications of this wonderful chapter for factionalism and racism in the church — much of which tends to creep in ‘under our radar’ — ideally, this should have been tackled. On the other hand, the handling and application of the passage about wives and husbands in chapter 5 is outstanding.
A Scripture and a subject index are provided and I would have liked a ‘further reading’ section for those who want to go deeper.
Steve Wilmshurst,
Director of Training at Kensington Baptist Church, Bristol,
& Chairman of the Affinity Theological Team
