EPHESIANS # 6
We go back to the letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus and that the Spirit has inspired for us!
TEXT - Ephesians 4: 1-16 PB 1821
In the first half of his letter Paul tells us who we are. The key phrase is ‘in Christ.’
Through Him we’re blessed, chosen, made holy, adopted into God’s family, accepted, redeemed from slavery to sin, forgiven, empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are brought into the Church, through which God plans to make His love, wisdom, and victory known in the visible and invisible world!
Now that we know these things, in chapter 4 we are challenged to do something with them.
Too often, as we emphasize the amazing grace gifts of God and our inability to save ourselves from sin,
we preachers accidentally create the impression that Christianity requires nothing of us. “God’s love is free and complete,” we happily and truthfully proclaim, without finishing the thought. A genuine experience of Christ changes you and me into new people - and there is much for us to do in owning our faith.
The last half of this letter is concerned with ethics.
What are ethics?
They are, the dictionary says, “the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc. as in - medical ethics; Christian ethics.”
A shorter definition is “moral principles.”
If there is one area of contemporary America over which we ought to weep it is our abandonment of ethics. It is as if we are afraid of saying, “this is right, that is wrong” for fear of hurting someone, alienating another, or hindering self-expression. So, millions of people are morally adrift, ignorant of principles that would enhance their lives.
The paradox is that with the decline of teaching ethics, we have increased our spending on law enforcement. We rely on the police and the courts to protect us from our neighbors who no longer seem to know how to live, or who have no desire for self-restraint.
This failure is broad - touching church, government, industry, and family.
Did no one tell priests and pastors that using their position to abuse children and women is wrong?
Did no one tell those elected to office that taking bribes is wrong, that using the office for self-promotion is wrong?
Did no one tell young financial wizards that taking obscene profits by exploiting people with fraudulent schemes is wrong?
Did no one tell that beautiful young woman that using her sexuality promiscuously is wrong and would ultimately hurt her?
Did no tell that young man that he must learn to master the strong desires of his sex, that to
use his strength to gain sexual pleasure is wrong?
Without being overly simplistic, our abandonment of ethics parallels our abandonment of God. Two generations ago, even those who had no personal relationship with God, knew something of theology and from those bedrock convictions knew the difference between right and wrong.
It is fundamentally true that rules cannot make a person act ethically. Only an awareness of God and good, working from inside to outside, will cause a person to make better choices than to merely serve today’s whim.
Our text is the first part of the 2nd half of Paul’s letter that addresses ethical behavior for Christians.
READ - 4: 1
The opening line says “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
That serves as the basic command from which the rest of this letter flows.
Some translations say, “walk worthy,” and that phrase more closely follow Paul’s intent. He is not instructing us about some momentary decision made just for today. We are to ‘walk it out,’ to keep on keeping on, to focus on making steady forward progress.
∙ Is that a description of your Christianity?
∙ Are you still dealing with the same issues that you dealt with at your conversion or are you growing?
∙ Are you discovering God’s Person, living in the Spirit, and becoming a person of depth.
The NIV translation adds the heading to this passage - Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ
READ - 4: 2- 16
re-read v. 3
The first call is to unity! The great commandments from which all the rest of God’s commands flow are “Love God with your whole person” and “Love others as you love yourself.” And yet, we who bear the Name of the Lord of Love surely know how to have a fight. Few things bring more contempt on the Church that her fights, and yet we continue to split and divide, to feud and to fight - among ourselves, among our congregations, and among our denominations.
The Scripture does not tell us to create unity. We read “keep the unity of the Spirit.” Unity exists like love. It is ours through Christ. But, we have to make the choice, continually, to live in a way that makes unity part of our lives.
Why is it that we have so little fear of tearing apart the Body of Christ?
Why do we so readily separate from one another?
We do not value unity. We value our independence, our opinions. We are quick to sacrifice unity.
So, how do we keep unity in place? How do we make what God creates, a visible part of our lives?
Paul says that we need to cultivate three Christian qualities - each one a way to defeat the PRIDE that divides us.
First, we are told to be ‘completely humble and gentle.’ The choice to consider the needs of others before our own, to listen carefully, to seek common ground - is not a natural one, but it is a possible one... for those who are filled with God’s Spirit. Our culture worships Self. Will we?
Second, we are told to be ‘patient.’
If we think that means we learn to take a deep breath before we speak or to restrain our urge to get even, we need to take another look. The directive is about a way of life that endures, that is steady, that refuses to give up on people. Unity demands this kind of long-suffering!
Third, we are told to ‘bear with one another in love.’
The NLT is closer to what Paul desires us to know here. It asks us to ‘make allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.’ In reality, it’s not a sweet romantic picture of people enthralled with each other, so much that they can’t see each other’s faults. Paul urges us to make a hard choice to put up with one another. Yes, instead of demanding the other meet our expectations, change to make us happy, we put up with them... bearing with them in love.
Our unity also rests on a solid foundation theologically.
Re-read v. 4-6
Christians serve the same God, the same Church, the same hope.
Let’s not make the leap to universalism in our quest for unity. What unifies us is not the lowest common denominator but the high calling of Christ. We must not sacrifice the core Truths of Christianity in a mistaken attempt at unity. But, let’s be clear about those core doctrines. They are Christ, as God, as Savior; they are our hope of salvation through His sacrifice, and our promise of eternal life because of the Resurrection.
We can differ without dividing over our doctrines of things like the End of the Ages, the mode of Baptism, even the meaning of Communion. We can and we should be tolerant of those who hold differing views about the role of women in the Church, about which translation of the Bible is the ‘right one,’ about the baptism in the Spirit or the practice of spiritual gifts today.
In v. 7 there is a pause in the thought. Re-read v. 7
There is a place for diversity! We are called together in Christ and gifted VERY DIFFERENTLY by the Holy Spirit! That word, ‘grace,’ is the word ‘charis’ which means a spiritual trait, calling, or ability- a gift. Christ makes us individually, and even as local congregations, unique.
Oh, that we would have the confident ability to be exactly who Christ equips us to be in our home, our church, our world - without needing to make everyone else just like us!
There is a parenthesis in v. 8-10 about Christ ascending, given glorious predominance over His church because He obediently left His glory in the will of the Father. The exalted Servant now has the kingly right to give gifts at His pleasure to His church.
One of those areas of gifts is spoken to in v. 11-13. Christ gave leadership to the Church.
This is not a popular thought in the 21st century Western church. The contempt for leadership is wide and broad - some of it is deserved, much of it is carried in from our culture’s contempt for leaders. And yet, take a look at what the Word says about those who are called to lead.
READ v. 11-13
The idea that some are called to lead and are worthy of respect is discounted deeply in our anti-authoritarian culture. This makes leading the Church even more difficult, and in many places, contributes to the break-down of unity.
Let’s not make the old clergy/laity mistake. There is no distinct class of priests in the Church that have some kind of special access to God. We are ALL priests and have the responsibility of representing Christ to the wider world. But, some are called to lead the Church.
The modern office of the teaching pastor is little like that of a first century pastor. With the structure of organizations many pastors, including yours truly, spend as much managing the ‘business’ of the organization as we do sharing God’s gifts with His body. That is tragic and should be corrected. Hopefully recognizing it will help move us in the right direction.
So what should these leaders be doing?
Re-read v. 12
Leaders in the church are not the only doers of all ministry. They are trainers. Like the ancient rabbis they are to teach God’s Word with words as well as with their lives. They continually show others how to serve God.
Re-read v. 13
Interestingly, the goal is not effectiveness. Rather it is maturity.
I am captivated by the result of this maturity - ‘attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’
The KJV says ‘unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.’
Boys particularly remember looking up at their Dad and wondering - “will I ever be as tall as he is?” And, they keep measuring, surreptitiously walking alongside of Dad and glancing over to see, how many more inches? Then one day, they are all grown up, sometimes even taller than Dad.
That’s the image Paul invites us to get in mind. Pastors don’t try to keep people dependent, they want to see them grow up and become just as tall as Jesus, in a manner of speaking. Of course, it’s not physical stature that matters here. It’s the likeness of Christ we desire.
We want to grow into wisdom, able to see past the deception of evil, quick to discern the lies of culture and of the world in which we live. "Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church." (Ephesians 4:14-15, NLT)
Our maturity, however, does not produce independence! It produces interdependence. We don’t outgrow Christ or His Church, we grow into it, gracefully participating.
Paul summarizes how we can live worthy lives as we close this passage ....
"God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love." (Ephesians 4:15-16, The Message)
