Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Ephesians (Full Book, Chapters 1–6)
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 4 (doctrine matrix) for the Ephesians curriculum in Japanese. It is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json: the same 26 doctrines, the same risk tiers, and the same review routing are used throughout. Supporting passages are drawn exclusively from Ephesians. Per the full-book coverage mandate, every chapter is walked through explicitly in Part B, including sections that carry no new doctrinal load, so that no verse range is silently skipped.
Part A: Doctrine Matrix
| # | Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Translation Risk (Japanese-specific) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salvation by Grace through Faith | Critical | 1:7; 2:1-10; 3:2,7-8 | Core-passage doctrine. On-giri (恩・義理) reciprocity and Buddhist merit (功徳) risk reframing 恵み as a favor requiring repayment; v.9’s excluded 行い and v.10’s affirmed 良い行い use near-identical vocabulary, risking an apparent contradiction without explicit “fruit not root” scaffolding. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Election and Predestination in Christ | Critical | 1:4-5; 1:11 | 予定 (yotei) risks reducing eternal decree to calendar scheduling; 選び (election) risks import of Japan’s merit-based exam/hiring “selection” culture (受験, 選抜). Both distortions run in opposite directions and must be corrected together. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Redemption through Christ’s Blood | High | 1:7; 1:14; 4:30 | 贖い (aganai) is formal, low-frequency vocabulary — a biblical-illiteracy risk. The ransom/price-paid structure (“through his blood”) must be actively taught or the term collapses into vague generic rescue. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Adoption into God’s Family | Medium | 1:5; 2:19; 1:11,14,18 | Japan’s adult-heir adoption practice (養子縁組) and modern inheritance culture (相続) are a genuine positive bridge; main task is building relational family-warmth against Japan’s “absent father” cultural trope, not correcting a false concept. | Native speaker review |
| 5 | Universal Human Accountability | High | 2:1-3; 4:18-19 | ”Children of wrath by nature” (2:3) risks processing through shame (恥) or impersonal karma-consequence logic rather than personal guilt before a holy God; 怒り (wrath) risks a capricious-temper reading rather than settled judicial anger. | Human theologian |
| 6 | The Mystery of Christ Revealed | High | 1:9; 3:3-9; 5:32; 6:19 | 奥義 (ougi) carries strong martial-arts/esoteric-Buddhism “secret technique reserved for initiates” connotations, directly inverting Paul’s point that the μυστήριον is now openly disclosed to all, Jew and Gentile alike. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Sealing of the Holy Spirit | Medium | 1:13-14; 4:30 | Japan’s personal-seal culture (印鑑/実印) is a vivid positive bridge; caution only to keep 聖霊 explicit as the personal sealing agent rather than an abstract guarantee. | Native speaker review |
| 8 | Inheritance in Christ | Medium | 1:11,14,18; 5:5 | 相続 is salient modern estate/succession vocabulary; risk of importing secular expectations of competitive or unequal division onto a guaranteed, undivided, common inheritance. | Native speaker review |
| 9 | Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of God | Medium | 1:8,17; 3:10 | 知恵 risks collapsing into Japan’s rich secular proverbial-wisdom tradition rather than God’s specific revealed redemptive plan; 啓示 is unfamiliar formal vocabulary (illiteracy risk). | Native speaker review |
| 10 | The Church as the Body of Christ | Critical | 1:22-23; 4:4,12,16; 5:23,30 | 教会 must carry a heavier organic-union load here (Christ’s own body and fullness, πλήρωμα) than in Romans’ more institutional usage; 神殿 (temple) must be sharply distinguished from Japan’s ubiquitous shrine (神社)/temple (寺) buildings. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity | Critical | 2:11-22; 3:6 | Directly confronts Japan’s uchi-soto (内・外) insider/outsider instinct; 和解 (reconciliation) shares its first kanji with wa harmony values, risking collapse into ongoing socially-negotiated harmony rather than an objective, once-for-all, cross-accomplished reality. | Human theologian |
| 12 | Access to God through Christ | Medium | 2:18; 3:12 | Japan’s dominant religious patterns (shrine visits, temple rites) involve ritual/priestly mediation; direct, unmediated, confident access through Christ alone is a significant positive contrast that must be made explicit, not assumed. | Native speaker review |
| 13 | Exaltation and Headship of Christ | High | 1:20-23; 4:8-10; 5:23 | Cosmic supremacy language (far above all ἀρχή/ἐξουσία) risks being reduced to Japan’s corporate-hierarchy vocabulary (社長, 会長); must be kept tied to 5:25’s self-sacrificial-love redefinition, not command authority alone. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Gifts for Building Up the Church | High | 4:7-13 | 賜物 (ministry gifts) must be kept strictly distinct from the 2:8 salvation-gift (贈り物) to avoid conflating grace-for-salvation with grace-for-ministry, two distinct Ephesians concepts sharing one Greek root. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Unity of the Spirit | High | 4:1-6; 4:13 | 一致 is standard secular vocabulary for business/political consensus, risking assimilation into Japan’s wa conformity culture (a socially-achieved harmony) rather than a Spirit-given reality overriding uchi-soto categories. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Walking in Newness of Life | High | 2:10; 4:1,17-24; 5:1-2,8,15 | 新しい人 (new self) at 4:24 risks collapsing into secular self-help “new me” culture (自己啓発) or the idiom 生まれ変わり (“reborn,” carrying Buddhist rebirth resonance) rather than a definitive Spirit-wrought re-creation. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Renewal of the Mind | High | 4:22-24 | Must be distinguished from Japan’s self-improvement/mindset-change culture (自己啓発) and from Zen meditative mind-clearing (座禅); this is Spirit-given reorientation toward God’s righteousness, not self-achieved mental discipline. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships | Critical | 5:21-33; 6:1-9 | Japan’s historic 家制度 (ie system, pre-1947 authoritarian household-head structure, still culturally residual) risks these codes being heard as one-directional hierarchy; must never be separated from 5:21 mutual submission, 5:25 self-giving headship, and the “in the Lord” gospel motivation for children’s/servants’ obedience. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Marriage as a Picture of Christ and the Church | Critical | 5:22-32 | Compounds doctrines 6 and 18: the μυστήριον (5:32, 奥義) applied to marriage must be read as revealed truth, not esoteric secret; 一体となる (one flesh) must stay covenantal, not merely physical, while submission/headship carry the ie-system risk above. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Spirit-Filled Living | High | 5:18 | Must be sharply distinguished from Japanese folk-religious spirit-possession (かみがかり) and anime/manga possession tropes; Spirit-filling is sanctifying, self-controlled empowerment, explicitly contrasted with drunkenness’s loss of control — not a trance-state loss of self. | Human theologian |
| 21 | Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God | Critical | 6:10-17 | Samurai-armor (甲冑) imagery is a vivid bridge but risks romanticized historical combat framing or unwanted resonance with Japan’s 20th-century militarist period (echoing baseline’s 神国日本 caution); requires careful non-triumphalist framing. | Human theologian |
| 22 | Reality of Evil Spiritual Powers | High | 2:2; 6:12 | Japan’s mainstream animistic spirit-world (幽霊, 妖怪) risks trivializing these into folklore entities; secular illiteracy risks the opposite error of dismissing them as mere metaphor for systemic evil. Must be taught as real personal beings already under Christ’s authority (1:20-21). | Human theologian |
| 23 | Prayer and Intercession | Medium | 1:16-19; 3:14-19; 6:18 | Direct access to God in Christ’s name must be distinguished from Shinto/Buddhist ritual petition (お参り, おみくじ); 6:18’s “at all times in the Spirit” is Spirit-enabled, not formulaic ritual repetition. | Native speaker review |
| 24 | Stewardship of the Gospel Mystery | Medium | 3:2-9; 6:19-20 | 務め must not drift toward the modern economic term 経済 (etymologically related but fully secularized); this names a specific God-given charge to disclose the mystery, not a generic job. | Native speaker review |
| 25 | Glory of God in Christ | Medium | 1:6,12,14,17,18; 3:13,16,21 | Avoid collapsing 栄光 into 名誉 (secular honor/reputation); every blessing in the ch.1 doxology is oriented toward God’s glory, not human prestige. | Native speaker review |
| 26 | Thanksgiving | Low | 1:16; 5:4,20 | Standard term; minor risk of generic secular gratitude detached from reference to God specifically. | Automated review |
Corrected risk summary (26 doctrines total, matching doctrine_risk_registry.json per-doctrine tiers):
Critical: 7 · High: 10 · Medium: 8 · Low: 1 · Total requiring theologian review: 17 · Total requiring native speaker review: 8 · Total automated-only: 1
Part B: Chapter-by-Chapter Full-Book Coverage
Ephesians 1
- 1:1-2 (salutation: “Paul, an apostle… grace and peace to you”): Reuses baseline terms 使徒, 恵み, 平安 exactly. No new doctrine introduced; reviewed and confirmed low-risk, consistent with Romans 1:1,7 baseline handling.
- 1:3-14 (doxology): Doctrines #2 Election and Predestination, #3 Redemption, #7 Sealing of the Spirit, #8 Inheritance, #25 Glory all load-bearing here. This is the single densest doctrinal unit in the book for Critical/High terms outside the core passage.
- 1:15-23 (prayer and Christ’s exaltation): Doctrines #9 Wisdom and Revelation, #10 Church as Body of Christ (fullness, πλήρωμα), #13 Exaltation and Headship, #23 Prayer and Intercession, #25 Glory.
Ephesians 2
- 2:1-10 (core passage): Doctrines #1 Salvation by Grace through Faith (Critical anchor), #5 Universal Human Accountability, #16 Walking in Newness of Life (introduced via “created… for good works,” v.10), #22 Reality of Evil Spiritual Powers (v.2, “ruler of the power of the air”).
- 2:11-22: Doctrines #11 Unity of Jews and Gentiles (Critical), #12 Access to God through Christ, #10 Church as Body of Christ (temple, cornerstone), #4 Adoption/Household of God (2:19).
Ephesians 3
- 3:1-13: Doctrines #6 Mystery of Christ Revealed, #24 Stewardship of the Gospel Mystery, #11 Unity of Jews and Gentiles (continued), #12 Access to God (boldness, 3:12).
- 3:14-21: Doctrines #23 Prayer and Intercession, #25 Glory, #10 Church as Body of Christ (fullness, 3:19). No new terms beyond those already flagged; reviewed and confirmed.
Ephesians 4
- 4:1-6: Doctrine #15 Unity of the Spirit (Critical-adjacent High).
- 4:7-13: Doctrine #14 Gifts for Building Up the Church.
- 4:14-16: Doctrine #10 Church as Body of Christ (growth/maturity language); reviewed, no new doctrine beyond #10 and #14.
- 4:17-24: Doctrines #16 Walking in Newness of Life, #17 Renewal of the Mind (old self/new self contrast).
- 4:25-32: Practical exhortations (truth-telling, anger, theft, speech, kindness/forgiveness) and the reuse of #7 Sealing of the Spirit at 4:30. No new doctrine beyond those already registered; explicitly reviewed as the ethical outworking of #16/#17 rather than a fresh doctrinal category.
Ephesians 5
- 5:1-2: Doctrine #16 Walking in Newness of Life (imitation of God, sacrificial love as pattern).
- 5:3-14: Doctrine #16 continued (light/darkness contrast); reviewed, no additional doctrine beyond the registry’s walking/light-darkness key terms.
- 5:15-17: Doctrine #16 continued (wise walking); reviewed, no new doctrine.
- 5:18-20: Doctrine #20 Spirit-Filled Living, #26 Thanksgiving.
- 5:21-33: Doctrines #18 Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships, #19 Marriage as a Picture of Christ and the Church (Critical).
Ephesians 6
- 6:1-4: Doctrine #18 Household Codes (children/parents).
- 6:5-9: Doctrine #18 Household Codes (slaves/masters, literal κύριος sense — explicitly distinguished from divine Lord usage per glossary).
- 6:10-17: Doctrines #21 Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God (Critical), #22 Reality of Evil Spiritual Powers.
- 6:18-20: Doctrines #23 Prayer and Intercession, #24 Stewardship of the Gospel Mystery (Paul as “ambassador in chains,” 6:20).
- 6:21-24: Closing greeting and benediction (“grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ”). Reuses baseline 恵み/主/イエス・キリスト exactly. No new doctrine introduced; reviewed and confirmed as consistent closing benediction, structurally parallel to Romans 16’s closing material.
Coverage confirmation: All six chapters of Ephesians have been reviewed verse-range by verse-range. No chapter or section was silently omitted; sections without new doctrinal load are explicitly marked “reviewed, no new doctrine” above.
This document must be read together with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (the authoritative machine-readable risk source) and analysis/08_core_glossary.md (the term-level glossary). See analysis/04_comparative_theology.md for cross-tradition interpretive analysis of the doctrines listed above.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Salvation by Grace through Faith
Japanese name: 恵みによる信仰による救い
Key terms: grace, faith, salvation, gift_of_salvation, works, good_works
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: this is the curriculum’s core-passage doctrine. Japan’s on-giri reciprocal-obligation system (恩・義理) and the Buddhist-merit concept 功徳 (kudoku) risk processing grace as a favor requiring repayment through good deeds, and ‘not by works’ (2:9) as a strange or suspicious claim rather than good news. The near-identical Japanese wording for v.9’s excluded 行い and v.10’s affirmed 良い行い compounds the risk of Paul appearing self-contradictory without explicit scaffolding.
Election and Predestination in Christ
Japanese name: キリストにおける選びと予定
Key terms: election, predestination, called, calling
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 予定 (yotei), the ordinary Japanese word for a scheduled plan or calendar appointment, risks reducing God’s eternal sovereign decree to mundane scheduling vocabulary. Conversely, Japan’s competitive exam/hiring ‘selection’ culture (受験, 選抜) risks importing a merit-based selection framework onto 選び (election). Both distortions run in opposite directions and must be actively corrected together.
The Church as the Body of Christ
Japanese name: キリストの体としての教会
Key terms: church, fullness, headship, cornerstone, temple
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL for this curriculum: the baseline’s 教会 (church, Medium risk in Romans) must carry a substantially heavier organic-union doctrinal load here — the church as Christ’s own body and fullness (πλήρωμα) — that goes well beyond Romans’ institutional usage. 神殿 (temple) must be distinguished from Japan’s ubiquitous physical shrine (神社) and temple (寺) buildings, since Paul’s temple is the corporate believing community with no building in view.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Japanese name: ユダヤ人と異邦人が一つの新しい人となること
Key terms: gentiles, dividing_wall, reconciliation, one_new_humanity, circumcision_uncircumcision
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: directly confronts Japan’s deeply embedded insider/outsider social framework (内・外, uchi-soto). Readers may intellectually grasp the ‘dividing wall’ (隔ての壁) image while unconsciously retaining their own uchi-soto instincts when applying the doctrine relationally. 和解 (reconciliation) shares its first kanji 和 with Japan’s wa harmony value, risking collapse into an ongoing, socially-negotiated harmony rather than an objective, once-for-all, cross-accomplished reality. This doctrine must never be softened toward diplomatic or merely social-harmony language.
Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships
Japanese name: キリスト中心の家庭における生き方
Key terms: submission, headship, honor_parents, slaves_masters, obedience
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Japan’s historic 家制度 (ie system, the pre-1947 civil-code family structure legally subordinating wives and children to a household head, 家長, still culturally influential though formally abolished) creates significant risk that these codes are heard as reinforcing authoritarian, one-directional hierarchy. Must never be taught apart from 5:21’s mutual submission and 5:25’s self-sacrificial redefinition of headship; children’s and servants’ obedience must be anchored to its explicit ‘in the Lord’ gospel motivation, not generic hierarchical compliance drawn from senpai-kohai or corporate-seniority culture.
Marriage as a Picture of Christ and the Church
Japanese name: キリストと教会を映す結婚
Key terms: one_flesh, mystery, headship, submission
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: this passage’s μυστήριον (5:32, 奥義) applied specifically to marriage compounds the doctrine’s stakes — readers must grasp both that marriage pictures a real spiritual truth now revealed (not an esoteric secret) and that the one-flesh union (一体となる) is covenantal, not merely physical, all while the submission/headship terms carry the ie-system authoritarian-hierarchy risk noted above.
Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Japanese name: 霊的な戦いと神の武具
Key terms: armor_of_god, rulers_authorities, armor_pieces
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: samurai armor imagery (甲冑) offers a vivid cultural bridge but risks over-literalizing into romanticized historical combat, or unwanted resonance with Japan’s 20th-century militarist period, echoing the baseline’s caution around martial/national-glory language (cf. 神国日本). This doctrine also names real personal evil spiritual powers, requiring careful framing against both trivializing folklore-spirit assimilation and secular demythologization into mere ‘systemic evil.‘
High Risk Doctrines
Redemption through Christ’s Blood
Japanese name: キリストの血による贖い
Key terms: redemption, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
贖い (aganai) is formal, low-frequency vocabulary for secular Japanese readers, a biblical-illiteracy risk rather than a false-concept collision; the ransom/price-paid structure (‘through his blood’) must be actively taught, not left to be inferred, or the term risks collapsing into a vague sense of generic rescue.
Universal Human Accountability
Japanese name: 全人類の神への責任
Key terms: sin, trespasses, wrath, flesh, dead_in_sin
Review routing: Human theologian
Extends the Romans baseline’s shame-vs-guilt risk: ‘children of wrath by nature’ (2:3) risks being processed through Japan’s shame orientation (恥) or an impersonal karma-consequence framework rather than as personal guilt before a holy, personal God whose ὀργή (怒り) is settled judicial anger, not capricious temper.
The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Japanese name: キリストの奥義の啓示
Key terms: mystery, wisdom, revelation, stewardship
Review routing: Human theologian
奥義 (ougi) is widely used in Japanese martial arts, video games, and popular fiction for a ‘secret ultimate technique’ passed only to an inner circle of initiates, reinforced by esoteric Buddhism’s own 密教 (‘secret teaching’). This directly inverts Paul’s point that the μυστήριον is a formerly hidden truth now thrown open to everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, not an ongoing secret reserved for insiders.
Exaltation and Headship of Christ
Japanese name: キリストの高挙と首位
Key terms: headship, power_of_god, church
Review routing: Human theologian
Christ’s headship over the church, described with cosmic supremacy language (far above all ἀρχή and ἐξουσία, 1:21), must be kept distinct from Japan’s corporate/social hierarchy vocabulary (社長, kaichou) which could reduce it to organizational top-down authority; this headship is redefined by self-sacrificial love (5:25), not command authority alone.
Gifts for Building Up the Church
Japanese name: 教会を建てるための賜物
Key terms: spiritual_gifts, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, mature_manhood
Review routing: Human theologian
賜物 (spiritual gifts) must be kept strictly distinct from the 2:8 salvation-gift (δῶρον, rendered 贈り物) to prevent conflating grace-gift-for-salvation with grace-gifts-for-ministry, two distinct Ephesians concepts sharing the underlying Greek root χάρις/χάρισμα.
Unity of the Spirit
Japanese name: 御霊による一致
Key terms: unity, holy_spirit, baptism
Review routing: Human theologian
一致 (unity) is standard secular Japanese for agreement/consensus in business and politics, risking assimilation into Japan’s wa harmony-and-conformity culture — a socially-achieved consensus — rather than a Spirit-given spiritual reality that transcends and overrides the uchi-soto categories underlying that harmony culture.
Walking in Newness of Life
Japanese name: 新しいいのちに歩むこと
Key terms: walk_conduct, old_self, one_new_humanity, light_darkness
Review routing: Human theologian
新しい人 (new self), applied individually at 4:24, risks collapsing into Japan’s popular secular self-help ‘new me’ framing (自己啓発) or being assimilated to the common idiom 生まれ変わり (‘to be reborn,’ literally carrying Buddhist rebirth connotations even in secular use), rather than being taught as a definitive, Spirit-wrought re-creation in Christ’s righteousness and holiness.
Renewal of the Mind
Japanese name: 心の霊における新たにされること
Key terms: renewed_mind, old_self
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be distinguished from Japan’s generic self-improvement/mindset-change culture (自己啓発) and from meditative mind-clearing practices associated with Zen Buddhism (座禅, zazen); this is Spirit-given re-orientation toward God’s righteousness, not self-achieved mental discipline.
Spirit-Filled Living
Japanese name: 御霊に満たされて生きること
Key terms: filled_with_spirit, holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be sharply distinguished from Japanese folk-religious spirit-possession phenomena (かみがかり, kamigakari) and the pervasive spirit-possession genre in Japanese fiction/anime; Spirit-filling is sanctifying, self-controlled empowerment of the believer’s own character, explicitly contrasted in the same verse with drunkenness’s loss of self-control, not a trance-state loss of self to an external entity.
Reality of Evil Spiritual Powers
Japanese name: 悪の霊的な力の実在
Key terms: rulers_authorities
Review routing: Human theologian
Japan’s vivid, culturally mainstream animistic spirit-world (幽霊, 妖怪) risks trivializing these beings into folklore entities, while secular biblical illiteracy risks the opposite error of dismissing them as metaphor for impersonal systemic evil; must be taught as real personal beings already under Christ’s ultimate authority (1:20-21).
Medium Risk Doctrines
Adoption into God’s Family
Japanese name: 神の家族の子とされること
Key terms: adoption, father, household_of_god, inheritance
Review routing: Native speaker review
Japan’s established adult-heir adoption practice (養子縁組) and its prominent modern inheritance-succession culture (相続) remain a genuine positive cultural bridge, as in the Romans baseline; the main task is building relational family-warmth, not correcting a false concept.
Sealing of the Holy Spirit
Japanese name: 聖霊による証印
Key terms: seal_of_spirit, holy_spirit
Review routing: Native speaker review
Japan’s personal-seal culture (印鑑/実印) provides an unusually vivid, positive bridge for this metaphor; the only caution is keeping 聖霊 explicit as the personal agent of sealing rather than letting the metaphor stand as an abstract guarantee alone.
Inheritance in Christ
Japanese name: キリストにある相続
Key terms: inheritance, adoption, kingdom_of_god
Review routing: Native speaker review
相続 is highly salient modern Japanese vocabulary (inheritance tax, business succession); risk lies in readers importing secular estate-division expectations onto a spiritual inheritance that is guaranteed, undivided, and held in common by all believers rather than competitively or unequally distributed.
Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of God
Japanese name: 神を知るための知恵と啓示
Key terms: wisdom, revelation
Review routing: Native speaker review
知恵 (wisdom) risks collapsing into generic secular proverbial life-wisdom, of which Japan has a rich cultural tradition, rather than the specific revealed wisdom of God’s redemptive plan in Christ; 啓示 is unfamiliar formal vocabulary, a biblical-illiteracy risk.
Access to God through Christ
Japanese name: キリストを通して神に近づくこと
Key terms: access_boldness, father
Review routing: Native speaker review
Japan’s dominant religious practice patterns (Shinto shrine visits, Buddhist temple rites) typically involve ritual, priestly mediation, or formulaic petition. Direct, unmediated, confident access to God grounded solely in Christ’s finished work is a significant positive contrast that must be made explicit rather than assumed.
Prayer and Intercession
Japanese name: 祈りととりなし
Key terms: access_boldness, holy_spirit
Review routing: Native speaker review
Extends the Romans baseline note: direct access to God in Christ’s name, distinguished from Shinto/Buddhist ritual petition at a shrine or temple (お参り, おみくじ). Ephesians 6:18’s ‘praying at all times in the Spirit’ should be taught as Spirit-enabled, not formulaic ritual repetition.
Stewardship of the Gospel Mystery
Japanese name: 福音の奥義の務め
Key terms: stewardship, mystery, mission
Review routing: Native speaker review
務め (stewardship) must not drift toward the modern economic term 経済 (etymologically related to οἰκονομία but now fully secularized); this names a specific God-given administrative charge to disclose the mystery, not a generic job or vocation.
Glory of God in Christ
Japanese name: キリストにある神の栄光
Key terms: glory, power_of_god
Review routing: Native speaker review
Extends the Romans baseline note: avoid collapsing 栄光 into 名誉 (secular honor/reputation); every blessing in Ephesians 1’s opening doxology is explicitly oriented toward God’s glory, not human prestige.
Low Risk Doctrines
Thanksgiving
Japanese name: 感謝
Key terms: thanksgiving
Review routing: Automated review
Standard term; minor risk of generic secular gratitude without reference to God specifically, consistent with the Romans baseline note.
Referenced passages