Contrast Society

The back end of Ephesians chapter 4 starts a train of thought that has been set up for us in the previous chapters. As a people called to mission there is to be something noticeable about our community. It can't simply look like the Gentile life with a Christian veneer (v17), that would not be worthy of our calling (v1).

So its our lifestyle choices (e.g. pension fund allocation), and a whole lot more. There's a whole new way of thinking to take on board here.

But before we reach for the 'bullet-list' button on this blogging tool to create a list of cans & can'ts, lets remember what Paul is on about and why.

The point is that God is calling people to be a contrast-society (Lohfink, 'Jesus and Community' is helpful here). Not withdrawing from society but staying within it while maintaining the contrast. This maintains the trajectory we saw earlier, being holy and blameless from way back in 1:4. This is going to affect the way we relate to each other (we will return to this in the future), our diligence, what we do and what we say.

The point is, as in 5:1 to be imitators of God, living a life of love. And of course that continues this trajectory of mission once again, since God is a God of mission, not just a holy club.