Now, as we look at this, we seek first to understand what the original writer, the inspired writer of Scripture, was intending to convey to that original audience. What was Paul seeking to teach the Ephesians? What error was he correcting? What truth was he impressing upon them? And then, that sort of makes a channel, a channel in which all legitimate implications that we have flow today. A wrong approach to Scripture is just to kind of jump down into it and, "Oh, this makes me think of this," or "Suddenly I feel this," as opposed to, saying, well, you know, God gave his Word in history and to particular persons, particular times, for a reason. And we respect that channel, even as we see there are many implications, countless implications which flow out of that channel of meaning for our lives today.
Dr. Robert L. Plummer is the Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.