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Part Two of “The Factual Data” Sheet is to assist the preacher in taking the three steps in Bible Study:

Step One: Observe, Which answers the question: “What does this text say?”

Step Two: Interpret, Which answers the question: “What does this text mean?”

Step Three: Apply, Which answers the question: “What does this text have to do with me?”

Here is what Mark Dever says about these three important steps:

• Exegesis is simply drawing meaning out of a text. The three steps are observe, interpret, and apply. These steps will often overlap. But try to do one at a time.
• Observing the text is simply asking “What does the text say?” So here you’re looking for repeated words or ideas, conjunctions, subject and object of actions, comparisons, contrasts, transitions, literary structure, verb tenses.
• In observing the text, it helps to type the passage out, print it, and then mark up the printout using different colors to highlight the different lexical, grammatical, and syntactical features of the text.
• Interpreting the text is simply asking “What does the text mean?” So here you’re synthesizing your observations, discovering principles, drawing conclusions, and seeking to discover what claim the text lays on your life.
• Applying the text is simply asking “What does the text mean for me?” So here you’re looking for concrete ways to obey the claim of the text on your life, or to put the principle into practice. The first of Mark Dever’s 9 Marks of a healthy church is expositional preaching and is worth reading.

I.  STUDY THE CONTEXT (Macro Hermeneuctics)

     I am only partially answering some of these questions to demonstrate how “The Factual Data” Sheet works.

  1) Who is speaking or writing?Paul according to Ephesians 1:1; 3:1. Gather pertinent material concerning his background, life, and work. The background on Paul can be gathered from Harold W. Hoehner’s commentary on Ephesians and D. Edmond Hiebert’s An Introduction the New Testament, Vol. Two.)

 2) To whom was the passage addressed and why? The believers at Ephesus. The background is Acts 18:19ff.

 3) Where (locate on the map) was this book written? Ephesians was written from Rome during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment. Look up Rome on the map.

 4) Locate on the map any other places referred to in the passage. There is no other city or country mentioned in Ephesians. In Colossians 4:13, Paul mentions Laodicea and Hierapolis. If you were filling out  “The Factual Data” sheet on Colossians you would locate these cities on the map.

 5) When was this book written? A.D. 60-62 in Paul’s first Roman imprisonment in Acts 28. This becomes important, for example, in the significance of the Prison Epistle Prayers which (1:15-23; 3:14-21) are always for others, not Paul’s needs, and also are always for spiritual needs and not physical or material, even while Paul had both physical and material needs while in prison.

 6) What is the purpose for the author writing this book? To encourage God’s people to love each other and God in order for there to be unity in the church. Harold W. Hoehner documents this well. 

7) What is the theme of the book? The Unity that Love can Bring. “What did it mean to the original audience?” must precede “What does it mean to my audience?”

8) Give the development of the theme (the overall outline of the book).

       I. Theological Unity in Ephesians (Chapters 1-3)

             A. Theological Example of the Trinity (1:3-2:10)

             B. Theological Example of the Church (2:11-3:21)

     II. Practical Unity in Ephesians (Chapters 4-6) Seen in the 5 “Therefore Walk” passages.

            A. “Therefore Walk” in Unity (4:1-16)

            B. “Therefore Walk” not as the Unsaved (4:17-32)

            C. “Therefore Walk” in Love (5:1-6)

            D. “Therefore Walk” in the Light (5:7-14)

            E. “Therefore Walk” in Wisdom (5:15-6:9)

9) Are there parallel passages elsewhere in Scripture that can help me understand this passage? Of the 155 verses in Ephesians, the content of 78 of them is repeated in Colossians with some differences. This is why the two books are called the “Twin Epistles” (Robert Gromacki. New Testament Survey, page 241). The parallel passage of Ephesians 4:24 inColossians 3:10 helps us understand that at salvation the image of God lost with the Fall of Adam was regained through Christ at our conversion.

2. EXAMINE THE DETAILS OF THE PASSAGE SELECTED TO PREACH (Micro Hermeneutics)

 1) Identify important doctrines

      A. The doctrine of the Trinity is mentioned 8 times: 1:3-14; 1:17; 2:18; 2:22; 3:4-5; 3:14-17; 4:4-6; 5:18-20. The Trinity is Paul’s perfect example of unity for the church to emulate.

      B. The doctrine of the Church or the Body of Christ is also important because there is also perfect unity of Jews and Gentiles positionally in the body of Christ. The word “one” is mentioned by Paul 14 times in Ephesians. Jews and Gentiles, who were bitter enemies in the Old Testament, are now “one” (2:13-15).  These two doctrines help the preacher know what is the big theme of the book.

2) Identify the grammatical introductory words: Around these three words: Eph 4:17 “Therefore,” 4:20 “But,” 4:25 “Wherefore,” this section, (4:17-32) can be outlined.

        Proposition: We must not live like the Unsaved (Eph 4:17).

         I. Because the unsaved are totally depraved (4:17-19). “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not  as other Gentiles walk” (4:17).

       II. Because believers have been changed (4:20-24). “But you have not so learned Christ” (4:20).

     III. Because believers do not practice the sins of the unsaved (4:25-32). “Wherefore putting away lying” (4:25).

3) Identify important theological words. Paul piles up the theological words in the 4:17-19 that describe the totally depraved nature of the unsaved. Notice that the division of these theological words becomes the subdivision for main point I.

Proposition: We must not live like the Unsaved (Eph 4:17).

I. Because the unsaved are totally depraved (4:17-19). “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not  as other Gentiles walk” (4:17).

      A. Sinners are totally depraved in their minds: “vanity of their minds,” “the understanding darkened,” “the ignorance that is in them,” “blindness of the hearts or mind.”

      B. Sinners are totally depraved in their emotions: “who being passed feeling.”

      C. Sinners are totally depraved in their will: “Have given themselves over unto lasciviousness.”

4) Identify important tenses. The differences in the tenses in 4:22-24 form the subdivision for point II.

Proposition: We must not live like the Unsaved (Eph 4:17).

I. Because the unsaved are totally depraved (4:17-19).

II. Because believers have been changed (4:20-24).

     A. The tense of “put off the old man” in 4:22 is aorist. The old unregenerated man has been put off and is final.

     B.  The tense of “be renewed in the mind” in 4:23 is present or continual. The new nature is being renewed by the Holy Spirit (3:16).

     C. The tense of “put on the new man” in 4:23 is aorist. The new regenerated man has been put on and is final.

5) Identify important patterns. The identical pattern of the five “therefore walk” sections is how the theme of unity is developed in the practical second half of Ephesians as seen above. The identical pattern in 4:25-32 become the subdivisions for point III. Each of the fives ways believers do not practice the sins of the unsaved has an identical pattern of a negative command, positive command, and a reason for the positive command. Here is what it looks like:

Proposition: We must not live like the Unsaved (Eph 4:17).

I. Because the unsaved are totally depraved (4:17-19).

II. Because believers have been changed (4:20-24).

III. Because believers do not practice the sins of the unsaved (4:25-32). 

     A. Lying (4:25)

      1) Negative command

      2) Positive command

      3) Reason for the positive command

    B. Anger (4:26-27)

      1) Negative command

      2) Positive command

      3) Reason for the positive command

   C. Stealing (4:28)

      1) Negative command    

      2) Positive command:

      3) Reason for the positive command

   D. Corrupt Speech (4:29-30)

     1) Negative command

    2) Positive command

     3) Reason for the positive command

   E. Bitterness (4:31-32). I am only developing this point because it is linked to the “therefore” in 5:1.

    1) Negative command: “Let all bitterness…. be put away.” These sins from bad interpersonal relationships begin internally with bitterness and anger and if not confessed become outward outbursts. Like a boiling pot of water which spills out all over the kitchen doing all kinds of damage.

    2) Positive command: “And be kind one to another tenderhearted, forgiving one another.” Just as God is unconditionally kind to us (Luke 6:35b), tenderhearted or compassionate and forgiving of us so should we be to others who have hurt and disappointed and even betrayed us. For all of these sins we have committed against God.

    3) Reason for the positive command: “Even as God in Christ has forgiven you.” God has forgiven us unconditionally. We should forgive without exacting first a pound of flesh. God has forgiven us eternally. We should forgive and not hold grudges. God has forgiven us completely. He is not keeping records. “Love doesn’t keep records” in 1 Corinthians 13:5. If we keep bringing up someone’s fault against us then we have not forgiven. The unsaved get even. Believers forgive like our Savior who on the cross prayed for His enemies, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Is there someone for whom you need to pray this prayer and act like Christ rather than the getting like even world?