Ephesians 5:21-6:9 “The Gospel Lived Out: Marriage, Families and Work”
The last three weeks have considered how the gospel affects how we live the gospel in this world, with a particular focus on living in a way that pleases God in that vertical relationship we have. The focus this week is primarily horizontally focused on our relationships in the home and workplace. V.21 sets out the general principle for the Christian life which is that we are to submit to one another, that is to look to each other’s good and interests, rather than ourselves, in reverence to Jesus. He has set us free from our selfish old self, and given us a new self which is self-sacrificial in love as we seek to be incarnational in our gospel living.
1) The Gospel Shaped Marriage (v.22-33)
*It is crucial to see that every time Paul says that a husband or wife should do something in such a way, it is always followed up by saying: “as to the Lord” (v.22), “even as Christ” (v.23), “submits to Christ, so also…” (v.24), “as Christ” (v.25), “in the same way” (v.28), “just as Christ” (v.29), “refers to Christ and the church” (v.32). It is as John Piper says in his book “This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence” the purpose of the marriage relationship in this life is not to stay in love; rather it is to put on display God’s love and covenant faithfulness to the world. This has always been the purpose of marriage, but it was something hidden in the Old Testament only to be fully revealed in the New, thus why Paul says (quoting Genesis) the one flesh union of man and wife is a “mystery” (v.31-32).
A) Picture for wives:
• submits to her husband as a picture of how the church submits to Christ. The church lovingly and willingly submits to Christ, because of the incredible love and care He has shown her in His self-sacrificial offering of His life so she might have life. Likewise a wife is to love her husband and willingly submit to him as he seeks to care for her and lead.
• Submitting also involves submitting to authority, because Jesus has authority over His church. The husband’s authority comes from Christ and is “in everything” (v.24) [in fuller context of scripture and pastorally-minded, provided it is not contrary to scripture, violating her God-given conscience, or leading to sin]. The husband is given a God-given responsibility as her “head” – just as Christ is the head of the church (v.23). This does not mean a dictatorship, but rather than he has the primary responsibility to protect, provide and lead the relationship according to God’s will – just as Adam did in the original creation *this is a principle of creation, not a matter of culture! (See 1 Corinthians 14 for more on this)
• Stott’s commentary says: “whenever the husband’s headship mirrors the headship of Christ, then the wife’s submission to the protection and provision of his love, far from detracting from her womanhood, will positively enrich it”.
B)Picture for husbands:
• is to self-sacrificially love his wife as Christ has given up Himself for the church (a very high calling and demanding responsibility men!) (v.25).
• this works out as having initiative (not necessarily doing everything all the time though), as the head has the initiative that causes and leads the rest of the body to respond and act.
• This also works out as leading spiritually so that he is involved in his wife’s sanctification by seeking to lead them both before the Lord in prayer, scripture study (v.26) and serving in the church. Husbands are stewards of their wives; who ultimately are the bride of Christ. Husbands are part of Christ’s means of working through the Holy Spirit, so that He might present the church and wives to His father as holy and blameless (v.27).
• Another call against ill treatment, dictatorship or despising his wife is the saying that we are to nourish and cherish (v.29) our wives as we do our own bodies (v.28), for this is a very practical illustration to us to show us the very minimum of what our self-sacrificial loving authority is to be like
*A really helpful observation shared in the group was that this picture of marriage makes the temptation to go out with a non-Christian fade away, because this picture is only possible between two followers of Jesus.
*It was also remarked that given the seriousness of marriage and relationships, it is not something to worry about being single and not being in a relationship as that gives time for undivided service of the Lord
So these two pictures are reciprocal, the husband initiates the sacrificial love and the wife responds in love and submission.
2) The Gospel Shaped Family (v.1-4)
There is another reciprocal picture here: children have the duty to obey their parents (v.1), which means the parents have the right to expect obedience. But parents have the responsibility not to provoke their children to wrath (v.4), which gives the children a right to be well treated.
It is said bluntly and simply: “for this is right” (v.1), which then is expanded by saying it is one of the Ten Commandments (v.2-3)– since these are given by God as His intended order for life in this world then it can be simply stated as being right, for God is perfectly righteous and so is His law.
The gospel motivation here is that Jesus was entirely obedient to the will of His Father in going to the Cross, even when it was hardest in Gethsemane he said: “Not my will, but thine be done”. So we are to be obedient like Jesus. Also in His earthly life He was obedient and honoured His parents in all times – even when He ran off to the Temple at the age of 12 He honoured and respected His parents when they found Him and were annoyed at Him for scaring them. Even though He was right to be in His Father’s house, He did address His parents with respect and obeyed them by going home at that time. Likewise the gospel motivation for parents is the patient, forbearing love of the Father who overlooked the past sins in patience waiting to deal with them on the Cross – His grace is immense when we consider that we all deserved to perish with Adam and Eve without ever being born.
How this works out in a non-Christian context is more difficult, because this teaching is to Christians who are called to live according to the gospel. Do we have to always obey our parents if they command us not to attend church? Not to read our Bibles or pray? Again this is a situation where our allegiance is always to be to God first. However, how that allegiance works out depends on factors of age and circumstances we concluded. So as John Stott suggests a young child ordered not to go to church might need to obey that command until they reach the age of majority, but they cannot accept an order not to pray or read their Bible. *Although as stated this is not the final word and each situation must be approached individually.
Also we concluded that age does not change the fact that we are to always honour our parents, as the commandment says. This involves more than obedience, it involves including them in our decision processes, looking for their input, caring for them in old age, supporting them financially, giving them love and encouragement as they have given so much to us. Also in unbelieving families it means loving them so much that we battle through the difficulties to share with them the gospel so their souls may be saved.
3) The Gospel Shaped Workplace (v.5-9)
Finally another reciprocal relationship is to be found in the workplace: the worker (slave here or servant, although not the doulos, as here is pictured slaves who have limited rights and some pay, and also the hope of being released from their slavery) is under a duty to serve their master, but the master has the duty to treat their workers properly and kindly (v.5, 9)
The worker is not just to perform when being watched by their master or just to please people half-hearted. The master is not to be cruel imagining that their special position of authority and wealth gives them any right or power to do what they wish with their servants. The gospel motivation for both is that the worker is to remember they are under the watchful eye of Christ in their work, and that they are to remember they are rendering their services to Him. So they ought to seek to please Him from their hearts by doing their best. This also will potentially have the effect that people will see the hardwork and dedication of Christians in their work, and think well of Christ and the gospel as they think that there is more to faith than they imagined if we are just as conscientious in our studies and serving for the gospel. *Our workplaces are incredible places for living out the gospel.
The master also has to remember that while they are in control now, they ultimately must face the king of kings and answer for all they have done, and He will show no partiality.
So our whole working lives should not be seen as inferior to church or gospel ministry, rather our workplaces are a place for gospel ministry (not just in our conversations but in our very work itself, for we will be but hypocrites if the standard of our work does not measure up to our talk).
In application, we concluded that most of us are not in Christian workplaces, but even though we cannot control others or make them live up to these ideals we can do our bit, according to the purpose and plan of God trusting He will bless it, and it will make some difference and bring in the gospel’s salt and light.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Room65 Podcast Available
Just a little update to say that the official Room65 Podcast with interviews, features and information on our upcoming month of mission in Carrubbers is now available for free subscription on Itunes HERE
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Summer Index #8 Eph 5:1-21
Ephesians 5:1-21 “The Motivation for the Gospel New Life”
This was a hard study this week, but by God’s grace may He still bless this to us all.1) What we are called to be:
We noticed that there is a big focus on how we are to be active in seeking to live out the new people that we have been made in Christ, rather than sitting back expecting it to happen magically.
- imitators of God (v.1a)
- beloved children (v.1b)
- walking in love like Christ loved us in dying for us (v.2)
- thankful (v.4b)
- children of light, producing the fruit of light (v.8-9)
2) What we are called not to do:
- defiling ourselves in sexual immorality, which includes all sorts of impurity or lust (v.3) – why this great focus? Probably because as Jesus says when we are made a new man, when we are sexually impure it is like we are joining Christ to what is sexually impure.
- defiling our speech with foolish or filthy talk (v.4)
- not to be partners with the “sons of disobedience” who incur God’s wrath in their rebellion against Him (v.6)
- taking no part whatsoever in the unfruitful works of darkness (v.11)
3) The Motivations to live this new life:
We read of four motivations to practically live out the new life in our Christian experience:
a) We are recipients of God’s love, as demonstrated through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (v.2), so want to live in a way that is pleasing to Him in thanksgiving (v.10)
b) We have been made God’s light in a dark world (v.7-14): Jesus said that we are the light of the world and we should let that light shine. We are called not to take part in the acts of darkness instead we are to expose and bring to light sin with God’s truth through our lives in that truth (v.11). The sin of people can be made visible by the contrast of our lives in God. But that is not the only function of our light, because Paul also says that “anything that becomes visible is light”. John Stott suggests this: ‘this may mean that Christians who lead a righteous life thereby restrain and reform evildoers, yes, and even convert them…for it may bring people as they see the ugliness of evil to conviction of their sin and so to penitent faith in Jesus.’ (J. Stott, The Message of Ephesians pp.200-201) => the quote introduced as “therefore” in v.14 while appearing close to Isaiah 60v1 is suggested to be an early church hymn sung at baptisms (which is a picture of the death of the old self with Christ on the Cross, and the new self raised into new life with Christ in His resurrection) which is fitting if it is the culmination of this idea of our light also leading to people being saved.
c) We have God’s wisdom so should make the most of our time to make a difference for the gospel in a dark age (v.15-17). Walking in wisdom means conducting ourselves as the new creation in Christ Jesus in a proper way before the world, because if we act unwisely in sin then we will only be seen as hypocrites and will never lead the lost to Christ. But wisdom also involves understanding “what the will of the Lord is”, which comes from our relationship with God, for as we grow closer to Him and are changed more into the likeness of Christ (with the renewing of our minds) we will better know and live out wisely the will of God.
d) We are filled with the Spirit (v.17-21). God doesn’t expect us to do the new life on our own, He offers us His Holy Spirit in incredible measure. We read: “be filled with the Holy Spirit”, which should literally be read: “continually let yourself be filled with the Holy Spirit”. All what comes after that (the thanksgiving, singing, encouraging one another in psalms) filling is simply the overflow of what happens when we live a life that is constantly letting God fill us to overflowing with Himself. The new life is in Christ and having Christ in us and having Christ overspill out of us into this world. Rather than being drunk with wine (which Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones says is a depressive substance that reduces our higher mental functions of man reducing us to animalistic functions), we are to be filled with the Spirit (which creates and conforms us more into the likeness of the true and perfect man, Jesus Christ).
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Summer Index #7: Eph.4:17-32
Ephesians 4:17-32 – “The Gospel Brings New Life"
Last week we looked the unity of the new gospel community, this week the focus is purity.
1) The Old Life
- v.17 “this I testify in the Lord” => Paul speaks and issues commands in the name and authority of Jesus the King
- .17-19 => unbelievers have a hardness of heart due to their sin nature, which as they choose to ignore God and rebel against Him then they grow in darkness of their minds, ignorance, futility and are alienated from the life of God => this also hard heart and mind against God then translates into sinful acts of them choosing to give themselves over as slaves to all kinds of sin and impurity.
=> parallel text to see this development of hardness and rebellion in the old sinful nature self is Romans 1:18-28.
2) The New Life
-v.20 “BUT this is not the way you learned Christ!” => there has been a break with this former way of sin, ignorance, hardness of heart and impurity by Christ having liberated us from our slavery under the dominion of sin.
- v.21-24 the way that we have learned Christ in the past is altogether different (Paul is not telling non-believers these things, rather they are Christians who need a reminder and call to purity, so this applies to all of us today. Paul is calling the Christians to have behaviour consistent with the new life and identity they have Christ – he is not being moralistic, rather is calling us to live holy lives because we have been and are being made holy by God)
=> in contrast to the unbelievers futility of mind, Christians are renewed through their minds to see and know God and worship Him; our conduct then in daily life needs to be examined with this new mind from Christ so we live consistently with who we are
=> we are to be involved in co-operation with the Holy Spirit in “putting off” the old self and “putting on” the new self.
v.24 the new self is in true righteousness and holiness => so essentially the new life is not just about the things we do differently from when we were unsaved, the new life is about putting on Christ, abiding in Christ, growing in Christ, being made more like Christ through sanctification as He alone is true righteousness and holiness and He alone can bring that to be a reality in our lives. The fact He gives us this new life and all these new things in true righteousness and holiness is all of grace!
-v.25-32 Paul then goes from the lofty theology of how we have been made a new person in Christ to practically show us 5 examples of what that looks like (all of this is application of the theology – see next section).
- v.30 the Holy Spirit can be “grieved” – He is a person (not just a force, energy or thing) with emotions and a gentle character. He can be grieved by our sin and living inconsistently with our new life in Christ, as a Temple of the Holy Spirit (which means are lives are called to be set apart from sin and all that defiles that holy place).
=> remarked how when Jesus was baptised the Holy Spirit came and “rested upon Him” like a dove. The Spirit rested on Jesus who lived a perfect life, never grieving Him. However, we don’t! The Spirit is promised never to leave us, but we still can hinder His work and grieve Him.
3) Application
Based on our understanding of God has saved us through the Cross of Christ and the grace we have received, being made new people in His new holy community we are to live changed lives. We will never be able to perfectly achieve these things and this is not about us trying to live in such a way to impress God or make Him love us more (nor does He loves us less when we fail), because we live by grace and not by law – but that grace we have received and our new identity should spur us on to want to live pleasing obedient lives to His honour, praise and glory:
a) speak the truth (put on) and do not lie (put off)
Why don’t we tell the truth? Sometimes because we want to protect ourselves, sometimes to protect others…but the real heart of the matter is (as Tim Keller says) that we love something or ourselves more than we love Jesus! *Our new life in Jesus as His bride means we need to battle our tendency to spiritual adultery and loving other things more than we love Him! His grace for our evil idol-factory hearts is no license to continue with our sin!
b) be angry and do not sin
There are things which it is good to have righteous anger (false teaching, sin, injustice, etc.) but we are not to judge, for that alone is for God. Often our anger is sinful because we judge and condemn the person, forgetting that we ourselves are no better and are only recipients of God’s grace and have received pardon of our sins, which God offers for this life to that other person too. Sometimes we have totally selfish reasons for our anger (simply people have inconvenienced our agenda), which shows that something is not right with our anger.
c) no longer steal (put off), rather work to give (put on)
Our new life in Christ means we must have integrity in all parts of our lives and do honestly to receive earthly blessings, and the focus of those earthly blessings must always not be to accumulate treasures for ourselves, but to bless others and take care of the needy as part of the compassionate work of Christ.
d) no more evil talk (put off) only that which builds up and gives grace (put on)
This is a very hard and challenging calling, but if we are to be ambassadors of Christ and the reality of this transformed new life in the gospel, then it is crucial that we speak only in a way that reflects His perfections and beauty; rather than speaking sinfully and corruptly. Our tongues are dangerous, as James 3 warns us!
e) no more bitter and divisive attitudes (put off) but rather be kind and forgiving (put on)
Paul’s words cover a lot of attitudes here: quarrelling, sour spirit, passionate rage, speaking evil of people, and wishing ill on people. We need God’s help to deal with these wicked heart attitudes of the former self. But we are called to strive as much as we can to be kind (the Greek word is Chrestos, which is a worldplay on Christ – so we are to be kind like Christ was kind even to His enemies) and forgiving (literally in the Greek: giving grace to one another) since we have already been forgiven infinitely more by Christ in His giving grace to us!
Last week we looked the unity of the new gospel community, this week the focus is purity.
1) The Old Life
- v.17 “this I testify in the Lord” => Paul speaks and issues commands in the name and authority of Jesus the King
- .17-19 => unbelievers have a hardness of heart due to their sin nature, which as they choose to ignore God and rebel against Him then they grow in darkness of their minds, ignorance, futility and are alienated from the life of God => this also hard heart and mind against God then translates into sinful acts of them choosing to give themselves over as slaves to all kinds of sin and impurity.
=> parallel text to see this development of hardness and rebellion in the old sinful nature self is Romans 1:18-28.
2) The New Life
-v.20 “BUT this is not the way you learned Christ!” => there has been a break with this former way of sin, ignorance, hardness of heart and impurity by Christ having liberated us from our slavery under the dominion of sin.
- v.21-24 the way that we have learned Christ in the past is altogether different (Paul is not telling non-believers these things, rather they are Christians who need a reminder and call to purity, so this applies to all of us today. Paul is calling the Christians to have behaviour consistent with the new life and identity they have Christ – he is not being moralistic, rather is calling us to live holy lives because we have been and are being made holy by God)
=> in contrast to the unbelievers futility of mind, Christians are renewed through their minds to see and know God and worship Him; our conduct then in daily life needs to be examined with this new mind from Christ so we live consistently with who we are
=> we are to be involved in co-operation with the Holy Spirit in “putting off” the old self and “putting on” the new self.
v.24 the new self is in true righteousness and holiness => so essentially the new life is not just about the things we do differently from when we were unsaved, the new life is about putting on Christ, abiding in Christ, growing in Christ, being made more like Christ through sanctification as He alone is true righteousness and holiness and He alone can bring that to be a reality in our lives. The fact He gives us this new life and all these new things in true righteousness and holiness is all of grace!
-v.25-32 Paul then goes from the lofty theology of how we have been made a new person in Christ to practically show us 5 examples of what that looks like (all of this is application of the theology – see next section).
- v.30 the Holy Spirit can be “grieved” – He is a person (not just a force, energy or thing) with emotions and a gentle character. He can be grieved by our sin and living inconsistently with our new life in Christ, as a Temple of the Holy Spirit (which means are lives are called to be set apart from sin and all that defiles that holy place).
=> remarked how when Jesus was baptised the Holy Spirit came and “rested upon Him” like a dove. The Spirit rested on Jesus who lived a perfect life, never grieving Him. However, we don’t! The Spirit is promised never to leave us, but we still can hinder His work and grieve Him.
3) Application
Based on our understanding of God has saved us through the Cross of Christ and the grace we have received, being made new people in His new holy community we are to live changed lives. We will never be able to perfectly achieve these things and this is not about us trying to live in such a way to impress God or make Him love us more (nor does He loves us less when we fail), because we live by grace and not by law – but that grace we have received and our new identity should spur us on to want to live pleasing obedient lives to His honour, praise and glory:
a) speak the truth (put on) and do not lie (put off)
Why don’t we tell the truth? Sometimes because we want to protect ourselves, sometimes to protect others…but the real heart of the matter is (as Tim Keller says) that we love something or ourselves more than we love Jesus! *Our new life in Jesus as His bride means we need to battle our tendency to spiritual adultery and loving other things more than we love Him! His grace for our evil idol-factory hearts is no license to continue with our sin!
b) be angry and do not sin
There are things which it is good to have righteous anger (false teaching, sin, injustice, etc.) but we are not to judge, for that alone is for God. Often our anger is sinful because we judge and condemn the person, forgetting that we ourselves are no better and are only recipients of God’s grace and have received pardon of our sins, which God offers for this life to that other person too. Sometimes we have totally selfish reasons for our anger (simply people have inconvenienced our agenda), which shows that something is not right with our anger.
c) no longer steal (put off), rather work to give (put on)
Our new life in Christ means we must have integrity in all parts of our lives and do honestly to receive earthly blessings, and the focus of those earthly blessings must always not be to accumulate treasures for ourselves, but to bless others and take care of the needy as part of the compassionate work of Christ.
d) no more evil talk (put off) only that which builds up and gives grace (put on)
This is a very hard and challenging calling, but if we are to be ambassadors of Christ and the reality of this transformed new life in the gospel, then it is crucial that we speak only in a way that reflects His perfections and beauty; rather than speaking sinfully and corruptly. Our tongues are dangerous, as James 3 warns us!
e) no more bitter and divisive attitudes (put off) but rather be kind and forgiving (put on)
Paul’s words cover a lot of attitudes here: quarrelling, sour spirit, passionate rage, speaking evil of people, and wishing ill on people. We need God’s help to deal with these wicked heart attitudes of the former self. But we are called to strive as much as we can to be kind (the Greek word is Chrestos, which is a worldplay on Christ – so we are to be kind like Christ was kind even to His enemies) and forgiving (literally in the Greek: giving grace to one another) since we have already been forgiven infinitely more by Christ in His giving grace to us!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
CHALLENGE: What If His People Prayed?
This summer Carrubbers is running 27 days + nights of prayer in preparation for our Summer Festival Outreach: Room65.
As our Students and Young Workers, we would appreciate your prayers for this mission work for the Lord's glory. You can sign-up on the Carrubbers website to receive the daily prayer points e-mail "Praying Together - R65 'What If His People Prayed?' " or you can follow along on the Carrubbers blog each day.
But also you can benefit because we are also taking the whole month of July to GROW and MATURE in our understanding and practice of prayer. Also this coming year we will have a look at the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer with Wayne Sutton. We would really commend to you the daily prayer e-mails and reading/listening along in the daily devotion book: "With Christ in the School of Prayer" by Andrew Murray!
What if INDEX prayed?...Let's Find Out!
INDEX
As our Students and Young Workers, we would appreciate your prayers for this mission work for the Lord's glory. You can sign-up on the Carrubbers website to receive the daily prayer points e-mail "Praying Together - R65 'What If His People Prayed?' " or you can follow along on the Carrubbers blog each day.
But also you can benefit because we are also taking the whole month of July to GROW and MATURE in our understanding and practice of prayer. Also this coming year we will have a look at the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer with Wayne Sutton. We would really commend to you the daily prayer e-mails and reading/listening along in the daily devotion book: "With Christ in the School of Prayer" by Andrew Murray!
What if INDEX prayed?...Let's Find Out!
INDEX
Monday, July 5, 2010
Summer Index #6: Eph 4:1-16
Ephesians 4:1-16 – “The Unity and Diversity of Gospel Community Gifts"
We noticed that the passage has a circle, it begins talking a lot about unity with a focus on what we are to do in order to maitain a spirit of unity within the gospel community. It then deals with how there is unity in our diversity of giftings. Finally, it describes how we are all growing up into Christian maturity and Christ-likeness as part of His body which He holds together and causes to be unified.
1) Community Unity (v.1-6)
- "walk in a manner worthy of the calling"(v.1): based on all the previous studies unpacking the gospel's meaning, Paul says therefore this is to be our great aim. What an exhortation, but what does that look like? Paul helps us unpack it with some directional instructions in how we should walk:
2) Community Diversity (v.7-11)
Having emphasised unity so far, Paul introduces this new idea with "But" in v.7 to say that God's grace (charis) gifts (charismata) have been given to each believer in a different way, according to the measure of Christ's generosity.
-v.8 => we had a long discussion about the use of the OT quotation from Psalm 68:18 in the NT. Paul appears to quote out of context (a Psalm about Israel's victory over her enemies and receiving the gifts of spoil and tribute from them) and changing the meaning as he says that there was a giving of gifts instead.
=> God's Word is infallible (it will not lead us astray) and inerrant (it is authoritative and accurate in all it reports)
=> far from having tampered with the Word or quoted out of context (making it up), Paul here has been faithful to be meaning in the Psalm which widely was speaking of having brought a spoil from victory - which meant that the victor both received the spoil from enemies and gave it to their people. The receiving and giving in the Psalm are indissolubly linked, so Paul is being faithful to the original text in rendering it merely giving.
=> So Paul is not saying Psalm 68 was prophetically looking forward to Christ's ascension, giving of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. No he is using an analogy of the triumphany Israel as an illustration to show that Christ having triumphed through His Cross has stormed Satan's dominion, freed captives and given them gifts from His spoil of victory.
v.9 "...he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" => we had another long discussion about what this meant and concluded it meant that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is Christ having come incarnate into this world. This is not teaching that Jesus descended into Hell, which is an erroneous doctrine arising in the 2nd century and should not have been added later in the Apostles Creed (nor appear in Robin Mark's hymn: The Lion of Judah)
v.11 lists some of the gifts God has given to His community to bless and help them:
3) The Purpose or Outcome of Community Gifts (v.12-16)
The purposes of these gifts to His church is our spiritual growth in Godliness and maturity in Christ. If we do not keep our focus on these things then we will lose sight of why we are doing anything and what these gifts are for.
We noticed that the passage has a circle, it begins talking a lot about unity with a focus on what we are to do in order to maitain a spirit of unity within the gospel community. It then deals with how there is unity in our diversity of giftings. Finally, it describes how we are all growing up into Christian maturity and Christ-likeness as part of His body which He holds together and causes to be unified.
1) Community Unity (v.1-6)
- "walk in a manner worthy of the calling"(v.1): based on all the previous studies unpacking the gospel's meaning, Paul says therefore this is to be our great aim. What an exhortation, but what does that look like? Paul helps us unpack it with some directional instructions in how we should walk:
- in humility
- in gentleness
- with patience
- bearing with one another in love
- eagering seeking unity
- there is one hope
- one Lord
- one faith
- one baptism
- one God and Father of all
2) Community Diversity (v.7-11)
Having emphasised unity so far, Paul introduces this new idea with "But" in v.7 to say that God's grace (charis) gifts (charismata) have been given to each believer in a different way, according to the measure of Christ's generosity.
-v.8 => we had a long discussion about the use of the OT quotation from Psalm 68:18 in the NT. Paul appears to quote out of context (a Psalm about Israel's victory over her enemies and receiving the gifts of spoil and tribute from them) and changing the meaning as he says that there was a giving of gifts instead.
=> God's Word is infallible (it will not lead us astray) and inerrant (it is authoritative and accurate in all it reports)
=> far from having tampered with the Word or quoted out of context (making it up), Paul here has been faithful to be meaning in the Psalm which widely was speaking of having brought a spoil from victory - which meant that the victor both received the spoil from enemies and gave it to their people. The receiving and giving in the Psalm are indissolubly linked, so Paul is being faithful to the original text in rendering it merely giving.
=> So Paul is not saying Psalm 68 was prophetically looking forward to Christ's ascension, giving of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. No he is using an analogy of the triumphany Israel as an illustration to show that Christ having triumphed through His Cross has stormed Satan's dominion, freed captives and given them gifts from His spoil of victory.
v.9 "...he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" => we had another long discussion about what this meant and concluded it meant that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is Christ having come incarnate into this world. This is not teaching that Jesus descended into Hell, which is an erroneous doctrine arising in the 2nd century and should not have been added later in the Apostles Creed (nor appear in Robin Mark's hymn: The Lion of Judah)
v.11 lists some of the gifts God has given to His community to bless and help them:
- Apostles => the foundational period of the church had these men who were called by the risen Jesus
- Prophets => again the foundational period had prophets who wrote inspired scripture. We agreed any gift of prophecy still continuing is something a bit different, because it is not on-par with scripture and is always having to submit to its higher authority for testing.
- Evangelists => interesting that this is an office, but we are all called to in some part do the work of an evangelist (so we can't use this as an escape clause from evangelising!)
- Shepherds and Teachers
3) The Purpose or Outcome of Community Gifts (v.12-16)
The purposes of these gifts to His church is our spiritual growth in Godliness and maturity in Christ. If we do not keep our focus on these things then we will lose sight of why we are doing anything and what these gifts are for.
- "equip the saints for the work of ministry" => the ministry in focus here is the widest possible one (not just restricted to a clerical class or institutional church) we are all ministers as believers, we all have a work of ministry towards one another, to serving in the church community, to witnessing to others about the gospel. We are a priesthood of all believers.
- "the knowledge of the Son of God" => how important it is that our gifts are not meant to be the focus themselves, but rather are meant to be there to cause us to grow in our knowledge and relationship with the Lord Jesus
- "to mature manhood" => the standard for Christian maturity is not other Christians, instead it is the "stature of the fullness of Christ" => so we've all got a long way to go. But thanks be to God, that it is His work and not our own!
- "no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" => we need to be equipped with the truth so we know what is right and wrong about the CHristian faith and the world in which we live.
- in contrast to the "crafty and deceitful schemes" of the world; we are to "speak the truth in love". We cannot just tell people the truth (we will only be a clashing gong as in 1 Cor.13) but we must always speak that truth in love. Truth is a person (not an abstract concept), the Lord Jesus and His Spirit and His Word (He is the Word incarnate); and that person is full of love. So if we are to speak of Him we must speak of His whole person of truth and love!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)