22nd September 2020

Thankfully we don’t get asked the question anymore. When the twins were young and enjoying a ride in the stroller, we were often asked if they were identical. To which we would patiently reply that one was a boy and the other was a girl. “Yes, but are they identical?” would inevitably be the next sentence in the conversation!

The most famous fraternal twins in the Bible are Jacob and Esau, but the loveliest are not people but books! Colossians and Ephesians, share many similar traits, including their author, and could perhaps be mistaken for being identical, but they are different, and the difference is their glory.

Colossians speaks much about the Head, while Ephesians speaks about the Body. To be more clear, Colossians speaks of the Son, while Ephesians speaks of the Church, and what lovely things are said of each. Colossians says that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And that He is before all things and that in Him all things hold together. Ephesians says that the Church is the body of Christ, and even His bride, and a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. And the place where God reveals His manifold wisdom.

In some real sense however, Colossians and Ephesians could be thought of as identical, for says Paul as he writes about Christ and the Church, “I tell you a mystery: The two will become one flesh.” And there’s a wonder of intimate connection that only Christians know.

DM 22^nd September 2020