A Higher Way of Life

Reading:  Ephesians 4:25-5:2
    
    Paul fleshes out what it means to “put off your old self” and “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”(Eph 4:22, 24).  God has expectations for how his people will live once they are redeemed and he has earned our allegiance by saving and forgiving us.  This higher way of life will mean that we must put away old, evil behaviors and replace them with new, holy behaviors.  “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another”(Eph 4:25).  We must stop lying.  But God does not want us to merely sit silently so that we do not lie; we replace our old habit with a new insistence on speaking truth at all times.  Stark honesty will be an adjustment.  We will still grow angry, but we do not let our anger to lead us to sin as we did before (Eph 4:26-27).  In place of our old habit of thieving and harming others, we “labor, doing honest work with (our) own hands”(Eph 4:28).  Instead of taking from others, we give.  Rather than using our speech to tear down and spread corruption, we speak encouraging words that bless those around us (Eph 4:29).  

    Paul then highlights our reaction when we are wounded by others.  “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”(Eph 4:31-32).  Each word here (bitterness, wrath, slander, malice) represents a response to harm that God has now deemed inappropriate.  It’s who we used to be.  But now that we have been forgiven, we forgive each other.  Allowing anger to reign in our hearts, poisoning our view of others, is destructive and evil.

    With just a few verses, Paul throws down the gauntlet.  Each one of these areas holds a deep challenge.  Many of these practices have been burned into us as deeply ingrained habits.  Some of them are now parts of our personalities:  we are crotchety or loose with the truth or swift to anger.  Paul does not say this change will be easy.  But God has forgiven and changed us by his grace and now renews our minds.  These changes are possible and the higher way of life God calls us to, by his power, we can reach.

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One Thing to Think About: In which of these areas do I need the most work?

One Thing to Pray For:  Courage to confront my bad habits and power to overcome them
 

We Live Like We Think

Reading:  Ephesians 4:17-24
    
    Paul grows increasingly practical in this part of the letter, emphasizing that what we believe about Jesus must begin to affect our behavior.  “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds”(Eph 4:17).  The Gentiles were notorious for low moral standards (see 1 Cor 5:1 and Matt 5:47), so Paul wants these Gentiles to make some changes from their former way of life.  But before they can learn to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do,” they must first see the mental world from which such actions spring:  “the futility of their minds.”  

    He goes on:  “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity”(Eph 4:18-19).  The descriptions here center around the mental world.  Pointless, darkened, ignorant, callous thinking leads somewhere.  When we give ourselves up to sensuality, it is no surprise when we live sensual lives.  When we are “greedy to practice every kind of impurity,” it is no surprise when we end up practicing every kind of impurity.  When our thoughts are dark, our lives inevitably become dark.  We live like we think.  So when Paul teaches Christians to “put off the old self” and “put on the new self,” he stresses that we need “to be renewed in the spirit of (our) minds”(Eph 4:22, 24, 23).  Without new patterns of thinking, we will find long-term behavior change impossible.  We live like we think.

    What we dwell on, desire, and aspire to affects our behavior.  We are misguided if we believe that our thoughts don’t matter as long as we don’t act on them.  Serious sin emerges from a bubbling inner cauldron of seriously dark thoughts and emotions.  The good news is that Jesus provides renewal for our thinking:  new thoughts, wholesome and good, producing new emotions and leading to a completely fresh, holy way of life.  When we ingest and delight in his words and goals, letting his word dwell in us richly, we can begin to live in higher ways.

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One Thing to Think About: What do I spend most of my time thinking about?

One Thing to Pray For:  The renewal of my mind
 

The Goal of Gifts

Reading:  Ephesians 4:7-16
    
    Paul has already spoken about God’s rich grace in saving us from our sins (Eph 1:6-8, 2:5-8) and the grace he received by being named an apostle to the Gentiles (Eph 3:2, 7-8).  Now he discusses how God has given all of us further gifts:  “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men’”(Eph 4:7-8).  As part of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, he also gave unique blessings to all Christians, to be used in his service and to further his will.

    What gifts?  “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”(Eph 4:11-12).  Jesus has given far more gifts than just these (see, for example, Rom 12:4-8), but Paul wants to focus on the gifts that directly benefit the growth of the body.  Each of these (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds) speaks to a unique role in communicating God’s will and drawing disciples closer to Jesus.  These gifts “equip the saints for the work of ministry,” preparing and inspiring us to serve others.  We continue to grow “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine”(Eph 4:13-14).  Steady teaching and consistent progress protect us from false ideas and immaturity.  Every part of the body contributes to the whole.  Every part grows stronger.  Every part builds up the others.  All of us together reflect the greatness of the Lord we serve.  

    When Jesus gives us gifts, they have a purpose.  My gifts are not intended to give me power over others, to benefit my ego, or to enrich me.  Jesus has given us special talents and roles so that we can help our brothers.  We can “equip the saints for the work of ministry” and “(build) up the body of Christ.”  As we grow to recognize our unique set of skills, relationships, and influences, we must begin to ask the question:  how can I use this to bless my brothers and strengthen Christ’s body?

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One Thing to Think About: What are my gifts?  How am I tempted to use them only for myself?

One Thing to Pray For:  The building up of the body of Christ 
 

The Unity of the Spirit

Reading:  Ephesians 4:1-6
    
    This section marks a transition in the letter.  Paul urges the Ephesians to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called”(Eph 4:1), taking the great blessing of grace into practical living.  Walking worthy involves “all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”(Eph 4:2-3).  Paul has spoken at length about the unity God has created by bringing Jews and Gentiles together into one body (Eph 2:14-16, 3:6).  Now our duty is to maintain the unity of that body by being humble, patient, and forgiving.  We must work to overcome the difficulties we have with one another, lest they fracture the body and ruin what God has built.  What sounds like lofty theology is actually quite practical:  my stubbornness, anger, and selfishness can ruin God’s eternal project.

    The unity of the body is just one aspect of the unique oneness of the gospel.  “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”(Eph 4:4-6).  The emphasis on oneness here is about how God has done things in an exclusive way.  There are not many bodies, spirits, lords, or faiths because God wants us to subscribe to his one way.  The unity of the one body is a priority because this is the way God has chosen to call people to himself.  The fact that this is the unity of the Spirit (Eph 4:3) emphasizes that God is its author—and that when we break it, we undo his work.

    Behind Paul’s words is the implication that our pride, harshness, and implacability will lead to division in the one body.  Will I allow my stubbornness to tear down what Christ has built?  Will my frustrations with other Christians boil over?  Will I grow jaded because others are imperfect?  Will Christ’s body be plagued by my bitterness and hatred?  In my eagerness to do right, I must be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

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One Thing to Think About: Is my inability to get along with others a threat to Christ’s one body?

One Thing to Pray For:  Humility, gentleness, and patience
 

What God Can Do

Reading:  Ephesians 3:14-21
    
    Paul is so stirred up by his vision for God’s grand plan to unite mankind in Christ that he has interrupted himself (Eph 3:1, 14) and now describes how this motivates his prayers for them.  “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being”(Eph 3:14-16).  If God wants Gentiles included, then Paul wants them to be strong!  They will need strength to endure despite opposition, but they will also need “strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ”(Eph 3:18).  There are some thoughts that are so grand, powerful, and staggering that we need strength just to process them.  The grandeur of God and the dimensions of his love max out our capabilities; Paul prays for strength.

    To all this “inner being” focus, Paul adds more requests.  “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you being rooted and grounded in love”(Eph 3:17).  Paul wants Jesus alive in their hearts so that their lives are shot through with this words and example.  He wants heart change rather than behavior modification.  He also prays that they “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”(Eph 3:19).  How can we know something that surpasses knowledge?  This tickles the brain.  Paul is confident that there is more to the love of Christ than we can grasp.  True growth is not found in moving past Christ’s love, but growing deeper into it.  “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.  Amen”(Eph 3:20-21).  God can do all this and more.

    This prayer leaves me breathless.  God can transform us from the inside out.  He can do all that we ask.  He can do all that we think.  He can do more than we ask or think.  He can do more abundantly than all that we ask or think.  But this is not enough:  he is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”  This is the God at work in us.  God can do all this and more.

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One Thing to Think About: How often do I contemplate the “breadth and length and height and depth” of Christ’s love?

One Thing to Pray For:  The strength I need to serve Jesus and comprehend his love