Week two – 9/14/25 – Stephanie Rollins
Read: Ephesians 4:7-10
“The experts don’t agree on how to interpret the text [Eph. 4:7-10]: What it means – what it’s getting at… the purpose… why these verses are here… or the words themselves…how we translate them… not just what it says but how it says it. And as it turns out, they don’t even agree on the context. [Was] Paul really the author… even written to the Ephesians… in prison in Rome… at the time…? Disputed! This text is a letter about unity. The irony is the ‘thing’ they [the experts] can’t find consensus on is unity.” – Stephanie Rollins
1. What part of Stephanie’s list of scholarly disagreements surprised/disappointed/encouraged you the most?
“It’s as if Paul is watching us drive our cars, and watching us comment on social media, and watching our news, and over the cacophony of our anger and our disagreement, through these pages he’s shaking us and urging us to get along. To remember what we have in common. To remember why we’re here. It is not unity despite individuals. It is unity through individuals.” – Stephanie Rollins
2. Re: social and modern mass/mainstream media: How can we, as humans created in God’s image, best cope with and withstand the ‘cacophony of our anger and disagreement’ in these arenas and platforms?
3. What is your response to the phrase: “Would you rather be right, or be well?”
4. Why do you think it is so hard to find unity through ourselves as individuals?
Read Ephesians 4:25-32; Ephesians 6:10-12
“Paul says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” it’s against hatred and division itself. And our armor isn’t weapons, or even our own sharp wit and biting tongue. It’s truth, and righteousness, and the gospel of peace. Jesus showed us what it looks like with his life. And from his prison facing down a death sentence, Paul did the same. And they urged us to love. Not just our friends and our neighbors, but our enemies. That’s how we disarm evil. That’s how we work toward unity. And that’s how we fill the universe with the fragrance of Christ.” – Stephanie Rollins
5. Discuss these passages and Stephanie’s call outs.
a. Where do you see improvement needed in yourself?
b. How can you best ‘love your enemies?’
6. What is your understanding of the what/who that is being spoken of in Eph. 6:12?
Going Deeper:
Read Matt. 25:14-30; 1 Cor. 12:7-27
“[The] victory was freedom, and healing, and peace, and joy, forgiveness and new life. And just like in Psalm 68, as soon as He had it He gave it away. Specifically, He shared it with us.
So if God gave away his gifts with a heart for others, and if Jesus gave away his gifts with a heart for others, and He’s given us gifts, the expectation is clear: we are meant to give ours away, too.
That’s been the plan from the very beginning: to bring everything together – united in and under Christ. But for right now, in this age, he does that through us. We’re invited to be a part of it. To bring our unique gifts in service to this community and beyond it to the world. Paul is saying it is on us – each one of us gets to have a hand in it. We do it by bringing our unique gifts – not squandering it away.” – Stephanie Rollins
7. When have you realized a need and been motivated to respond because you have been uniquely qualified and equipped for that need (within, or outside the Church – and not just Riverbend)?
Should we measure our own efforts to that of others in meeting those needs? If so, how?
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