Paul has said what he needs to say to the church at Ephesus. He's told them the amazing spiritual truths of chapters 1-3. He's told them in chapters 4-6 the expectations placed upon them by the God who has blessed them so largely.
Now he says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." He prayed for that strength and power in both of his prayers recorded in this book. He summarized the first section of the book by saying a Doxology (!) "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us...."
I think in this summary illustration of the armor Paul wants to communicate integrity of thought and action. The truth affects the way we live our lives. We looked at this idea earlier using the words, "Indicative" which refers to who we are, and "Imperative" which refers to who we are called to be.
This picture of the Roman soldiers' armor unites the indicative and the imperative. In this illustration the truth of who we are in Christ makes us who God wants us to be. Righteousness protects us. The gospel, our faith, our salvation changes us. The word of God is a real and living transforming power. These spiritual truths don't exist in some spiritual vacuum somewhere.... they exist in the hear and now. They empower us to live the lives we're commanded to live.
Kristen is going to teach through this passage tomorrow so I won't steal any of her hard work by going into the details of the passage. I just want to remind you again this very familiar passage does not stand alone. It's part of the letter to the church, a letter that challenges us to live our lives in a manner that is worthy of all God has done for us.
One other key idea for you to think about as we finish our time together is the concept of spiritual warfare. Who is the battle against? Who are the warriors? Where does the battle take place? We need to read the program and know who the players are.
Paul is not talking about culture wars. Paul is not talking about political wars. The enemies are not Democrats or Republicans, lgbt men and women, illegal aliens, even Russians or North Koreans. The enemy is not flesh and blood at all, Paul says in verse 12. People are not the enemies.
We collectively are the people of God. "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." [2:3] There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father....... and one mission which we cannot fulfill as long as we view any people, [especially other believers!] as our enemy. The enemy is a spiritual one, one against which we are fully equipped to stand firm.
Be strong, sisters. The battle honestly is the Lord's, and He has already won.
Monday, November 27, 2017
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Submitting to Authority
I have a note scribbled in the margin of my notebook that says, "Surely when this was written it was the men who were shocked by it. Women, children and slaves addressed as equals? Husbands, fathers and masters instructed to value them, even love them as Christ loved the church? Absolutely unheard of in the culture of that era."
Yet in our culture, women are shocked to think they should be under someones authority. We can even deal with the universal command submit to one another much easier than we can think of submission in terms of authority within the family.
I still love the umbrella illustration best of all. God is the top umbrella, protecting all that is under him. Christ is under God. Why? I certainly don't know. He is in every way equal to God. He actually IS God. Yet he chooses to submit in everything to God, his father. He is our example in all things. He is the person we are most trying to be like. Submission was the way he lived his life. Not to Religion. Not to culture. Not to worldly ideas about how he should run his ministry. Submission to God and his will.
So when we see our husband's taking their place under the authority of God and Christ, we can see, even if we can't see why, that our place is in submission to those three protectors. It is not in any way an inferior position or an unequal role. But it is the order God has chosen.
As well as benefiting from their protection, those under the authority of another also have the opportunity to benefit from the vision of their leader. Once again Jesus was the example; everything he did was to accomplish God's purpose with his life. Blessed are we if we have husbands submitting in that same way to Christ's leading in their life. And blessed are they if they can see that Christ-likeness in us.
We as 21st century women are of course the most fortunate of all who have come before us in the freedom we have and the opportunities open to us. It makes us feel like we should be able to do whatever we want. But who really gets to live that way? Nobody.
I love hearing many of you talking about being a team with your husbands. Two heads are better than one, (and a cord of three strands, which braids in God, can't be broken!) Yet even the team that works like a charm together surely sometimes runs up against a difference of opinion. Then finally we will have to come to terms with submitting to authority.
Remember, no Bible Study next week. I've gotten my schedule together and Tuesday I will be baking pumpkin bread and rolled out gingerbread turkey cookies, and of course cleaning floors after that.... Hope you have a blessed holiday, with too much food, just enough family, and the opportunity to reflect on the amazing gift of life God has given us. We have so much more than we need. Thanks be to God.
Yet in our culture, women are shocked to think they should be under someones authority. We can even deal with the universal command submit to one another much easier than we can think of submission in terms of authority within the family.
I still love the umbrella illustration best of all. God is the top umbrella, protecting all that is under him. Christ is under God. Why? I certainly don't know. He is in every way equal to God. He actually IS God. Yet he chooses to submit in everything to God, his father. He is our example in all things. He is the person we are most trying to be like. Submission was the way he lived his life. Not to Religion. Not to culture. Not to worldly ideas about how he should run his ministry. Submission to God and his will.
So when we see our husband's taking their place under the authority of God and Christ, we can see, even if we can't see why, that our place is in submission to those three protectors. It is not in any way an inferior position or an unequal role. But it is the order God has chosen.
As well as benefiting from their protection, those under the authority of another also have the opportunity to benefit from the vision of their leader. Once again Jesus was the example; everything he did was to accomplish God's purpose with his life. Blessed are we if we have husbands submitting in that same way to Christ's leading in their life. And blessed are they if they can see that Christ-likeness in us.
We as 21st century women are of course the most fortunate of all who have come before us in the freedom we have and the opportunities open to us. It makes us feel like we should be able to do whatever we want. But who really gets to live that way? Nobody.
I love hearing many of you talking about being a team with your husbands. Two heads are better than one, (and a cord of three strands, which braids in God, can't be broken!) Yet even the team that works like a charm together surely sometimes runs up against a difference of opinion. Then finally we will have to come to terms with submitting to authority.
Remember, no Bible Study next week. I've gotten my schedule together and Tuesday I will be baking pumpkin bread and rolled out gingerbread turkey cookies, and of course cleaning floors after that.... Hope you have a blessed holiday, with too much food, just enough family, and the opportunity to reflect on the amazing gift of life God has given us. We have so much more than we need. Thanks be to God.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Thinking Rightly as the Basis for Change
We had an awesome study on Tuesday, and dug into the idea of being proactive in changing the way we think about things before the big test comes. If you're a thief you have a certain mindset. You think your needs are more important than others, that there's no way to get the things you want without stealing them. God certainly isn't in the picture; He isn't doing anything for you.
As a former thief who has become a believer, that mindset has to be different before you can move into obedience to Paul's command: work with your hands so you have to share with those who are in need. You now need to put others above yourself. You now need to believe God will provide. You need to see the value of work.
What we didn't talk about, and I believe I was shortsighted to not talk about it, is how to change our thinking.
In a general sense, Paul has been teaching about changing our thinking the entire book. As Gentiles before Christ, our thinking was futile. [4:17-19] We were darkened in our understanding, which is not surprising since we were separated from God, the source of all wisdom and understanding. But we are no longer separated from Him. In fact through the Spirit we are united with Him: He is in us.
Paul has twice encouraged us to be like Christ. He described us in 1:23 as the church, his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. His prayer in 3:19 also concludes that we should be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
So how do we get to the place that we are thinking like Christ? The transforming work of the Spirit takes place in cooperation with the transforming Word of God. Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Paul writes to remind Timothy that from childhood he has known the "sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom..."The writer of Hebrews calls the Word is alive: it's active and effective and produces results. It's a two-edged sword, "it judges [evaluates] the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." [4:12]
And here in Ephesians 4 Paul writes that instead of living as we used to live we are to be "made new in the attitude of your minds, to put on the new self, created to be like God..." That renewing of our minds takes place as the Word of God soaks into us, as the Spirit enlightens us and even as we try to live it out with various degrees of success. The renewing of our mind starts with reading... What does God thinks? How does He view things? What are His ideas and goals? How would we know except for what is revealed in His word?
We recently studied Isaiah 55: 8-11 for growth group. As part of that study we were to think about specifics times the word changed us. I have often shared from my own life that during a time when I was considering throwing in the towel on the Christian life I spent months in Hebrews 10:19-12:13; the call to persevere [10] the hall of faith [11] and right thinking about discipline. [12] I didn't understand it. I read it as a pep talk. I would read it and say, "Ok, I won't quit today." ["To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68]
But now as I read that passage, the amazing and unlimited access to God, the commitment to the church, the faith.. not in having the life you thought you would have but in having a God who gives you His life, the promise.....which you might not even see fulfilled in your lifetime..... All those things define who I am! That's the way I think! And I didn't even know it was happening... the Word transformed my thinking what it said.
I hope all of you can focus again on the changes you have seen in your own life and believe in the power of the transforming Word of God to touch every corner of your heart and thought and life. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." The Word dwelling in our hearts and minds, living there, taking up residence there, making it's home within us.... That Word changes how we think and ultimately how we live.
As a former thief who has become a believer, that mindset has to be different before you can move into obedience to Paul's command: work with your hands so you have to share with those who are in need. You now need to put others above yourself. You now need to believe God will provide. You need to see the value of work.
What we didn't talk about, and I believe I was shortsighted to not talk about it, is how to change our thinking.
In a general sense, Paul has been teaching about changing our thinking the entire book. As Gentiles before Christ, our thinking was futile. [4:17-19] We were darkened in our understanding, which is not surprising since we were separated from God, the source of all wisdom and understanding. But we are no longer separated from Him. In fact through the Spirit we are united with Him: He is in us.
Paul has twice encouraged us to be like Christ. He described us in 1:23 as the church, his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. His prayer in 3:19 also concludes that we should be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
So how do we get to the place that we are thinking like Christ? The transforming work of the Spirit takes place in cooperation with the transforming Word of God. Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Paul writes to remind Timothy that from childhood he has known the "sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom..."The writer of Hebrews calls the Word is alive: it's active and effective and produces results. It's a two-edged sword, "it judges [evaluates] the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." [4:12]
And here in Ephesians 4 Paul writes that instead of living as we used to live we are to be "made new in the attitude of your minds, to put on the new self, created to be like God..." That renewing of our minds takes place as the Word of God soaks into us, as the Spirit enlightens us and even as we try to live it out with various degrees of success. The renewing of our mind starts with reading... What does God thinks? How does He view things? What are His ideas and goals? How would we know except for what is revealed in His word?
We recently studied Isaiah 55: 8-11 for growth group. As part of that study we were to think about specifics times the word changed us. I have often shared from my own life that during a time when I was considering throwing in the towel on the Christian life I spent months in Hebrews 10:19-12:13; the call to persevere [10] the hall of faith [11] and right thinking about discipline. [12] I didn't understand it. I read it as a pep talk. I would read it and say, "Ok, I won't quit today." ["To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68]
But now as I read that passage, the amazing and unlimited access to God, the commitment to the church, the faith.. not in having the life you thought you would have but in having a God who gives you His life, the promise.....which you might not even see fulfilled in your lifetime..... All those things define who I am! That's the way I think! And I didn't even know it was happening... the Word transformed my thinking what it said.
I hope all of you can focus again on the changes you have seen in your own life and believe in the power of the transforming Word of God to touch every corner of your heart and thought and life. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." The Word dwelling in our hearts and minds, living there, taking up residence there, making it's home within us.... That Word changes how we think and ultimately how we live.
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