FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity is Married to Maturity – Continued

Please read Ephesians 4:13-16 for the background to this section.

Yes, the local church is comprises His body. In that body every organ has its own unique place while being at the same time coordinated with every other organ. All the organs have something particular to contribute to the welfare of the whole. Where each part does its bit, the whole body grows and is strengthened, and Christ’s spirit of love pervades it all. The beauty of this is that it is them manifested to be seen by the surrounding community.

We should not be discouraged if we cannot master every single detail of Paul’s picture. His overall message is crystal clear. A church is a body where each member lives for the well-being of the whole. Nobody thinks of himself solely, but does what he can, however modest, to enrich the others. Love is the energy which activates every nerve.

Where this happens the body grows. It becomes more like its Head and operates in fuller submission to Him. As it grows, so does its co-ordination. The organs work better and better together. Unity and maturity are vitally linked to each other and can never be separated.

Today, spiritual maturity is often presented as an individual affair. To a great degree, this is a grave misunderstanding. Physical organs do not mature in isolation from each other. The only maturing that ever takes place is in the context of a growing body. Where organs do not work for each other’s good, growth is inevitably stunted. Where each one does its share the whole body grows, “for the edifying of itself in love.”

Nobody is serious about spiritual growth if they flit from church to church. The same is true of those who restrict themselves to those aspects of church life which only appeal to them, or who are irregular in their attendance (outside of health reasons), passive rather than participating, poor in offering hospitality, limited in their friendships, content to leave the tasks to others, or who manifest a “me first” attitude in other ways. The passage we have studied calls on such people to repent!

There is a final point we must make before closing. There is a lot of talk today about living the Christian life only at home, or in the world. These subjects are vital and Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians does cover them. But you might be asking as to why Paul not tackle them straight away? I personally believe it is because he knows we will never make much progress in those other areas until we have first learned to live the Christian life in the church among our fellow believers in unity. From experience, those who fail there seem to fail everywhere. A side note is that those who have an isolationist attitude, also hold back the spiritual development of others.

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity is Married to Maturity

Please read Ephesians 4:13-16 for the background to this section.

Up to this point we have been sharing about the responsibility that every member has in living for the welfare of the body and what happens as a result. Something else that happens is that the body comes to a common understanding of the faith. As we have seen in the previous section, the different spiritual gifts do not divide the body, but unite it. Each one of them contributes something to the body’s knowledge of the Son of God. Therefore, the church grows spiritually. It leaves behind childhood and presses forward towards maturity. The image on which it is modelling itself, and into which it is being shaped, is that of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The church never loses sight of this ideal, and should be constantly working towards it and feels it cannot be satisfied with anything less than perfection, “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Look how Paul expresses his desires that the Ephesians “should no longer be children.” With immaturity comes gullibility. Infants are easily taken in or tricked and, sadly, there are too many wicked people waiting to prey on them. If they were more mature they would not be so easily deceived. Paul has in mind the false teachers of whom we were speaking about a little earlier. For the most part, infantile minds believe whatever is told to them and most assuredly if it sounds like truth. Their opinions are decided by the external influences which surround them. Blown about in all directions, they have no settled convictions of their own. Wherever there is restlessness there is discord. There can be no unity where there is not a common mind. Unity is married to maturity.

No church needs to or even should remain in such a mess. There is a way out of this confusion and disarray. It starts by every person in the church speaking to every other person in the church. They are to speak the truth to each other. No doubt Paul has primarily the truth of the gospel in mind, but his words have a wider reference as well. Every word spoken is inspired by love; nobody is seeking his own interests, but the welfare of all those within the church family.

Where nothing but truth is spoken and only love reigns, spiritual growth takes place there. Out of concern for others, each person passes on what they themself knows of God’s Word and ways. In this way no area of spiritual life is left untouched. The process of conformity to Christ goes on progressively, step by step, and His headship over the body becomes an experienced fact.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity is Not Uniformity – Continued

Please read Ephesians 4:7-12 for the background to this section.

After apostles come “prophets.” These are people who receive revelation directly from God based upon His established word and faithfully transmit it to the church. There is no variation in the spirit of that word and based upon the Word, there is no new revelation, only a revealing of established truth. It was very important that there should be prophets in the New Testament churches. For many decades those churches had no Scriptures except the Old Testament. Many truths which the Christian church needs are not found in the Old Testament written out such as “the mystery” which Paul spoke about in chapter 3. These truths were revealed to the New Testament prophets just as God through His Holy Spirit revealed truths to Old Testament prophets and thus were written down in this new dispensation of grace. Apostles and prophets exercise very different gifts! Yet it is Christ who sends them both, for both are necessary.

After prophets come “evangelists.” “Evangel” means “gospel,” so we could translate evangelist as “gospel proclaimer.” As soon as local churches are founded, false teachers try to infiltrate them. These people have all the right vocabulary but they use it in a different sense. They twist the spirit of the Word. Because the gospel is so recent to new Christians, they can easily be taken in by them and very soon believe a “gospel” which is not the true gospel at all, but only someone’s invented and twisted version of it. So “gospel proclaimers” are needed to keep on defining the true gospel in the face of subtle enemies who would destroy it. Timothy was such an evangelist and Paul sent him to ward off false teachers in Ephesus, as well as in other churches he had founded. We read about this in 1 and 2 Timothy, and especially in 2 Timothy 4:5. Titus was another. Paul’s epistle to him reveals how he had sent him to resist false teachers who had come to Crete.

The word “pastor” means shepherd. Christ sends certain men to be His under-shepherds. Their responsibility is to tend His sheep. Their supreme task is to lead them into good pasture and to nourish them, all the time protecting them from what might harm them. Spiritual shepherds should be able to teach, but teaching isn’t all they do. They also serve the sheep in various ways. For an excellent insight into what pastors should truly be engaged in, read Psalm 23, and notice the diverse duties involved in pastoring/shepherding.

In a local church, because pastors also have other functions that require not just teaching, but leading the congregation by example, (again, actions), churches also need teachers to help clarify the Word of God and especially among young and new believers. But “pastors and teachers” are not sent that God’s people might remain passive. Christ has sent them “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” As these men teach and serve by example, those who listen to them should begin to realize and understand that they themselves have a task to perform. The teaching and examples they receive equips them spiritually. In this way each member of the church sets off to do his particular work. The gifts which are exercised are extremely diverse, but everyone works “for the profit of all” (1 Corinthians 12:7). In this way the whole body is edified, or built up. Unity is maintained but diversity is not destroyed.

Our different abilities and opportunities have been given by Christ Himself. The unity of the church and the diversity of its members should become more and more evident as we walk in our gifts, and we shall be unable to hold back our praise and admiration for the Head who has arranged things this way.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity is Not Uniformity

Please read Ephesians 4:7-12 for the background to this section.

The fact that we are all one does not mean that we are all the same! There is no uniform for Christians to wear. It would be wrong if there were. We are all very different and God wants it that way. We have already spoken at length about our differences of background, culture, education and temperament. These distinctions exist but, for the reasons we have seen, they are not to affect the unity of the church. Unity there most certainly is; uniformity should never will be.

But there are differences between us in an area which we have not spoken about yet. It is in the sphere of spiritual gifts. Without exception, every one of us has received a gracious gift from Christ. The gifts are different, as we shall see, but the source of them all is exactly the same.

What specifically is Paul saying to us in these next verses? The main points are that Christ distributes spiritual gifts according to His own will and plans, and that the giving of them flows from His ascension to the Father.

As Paul considers Christ’s bodily return to heaven, which he sees referred to in Psalm 68:18, he thinks of a well-known practice of his time. If Roman generals were immensely successful in war, a great parade was organized for them on their return to the capital. Trailing in the triumphal procession would be numbers of captives taken by that general in his engagements with the enemy. He would lead captivity captive. The general would then sit on an elevated chair and give out the plunder seized in war. This would go to those who had fought with him and for him. Very different gifts would go to very differing people.

Paul has to adapt this illustration when he talks of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has won an immense victory by His death and resurrection. In triumph He has “ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” There is nowhere that Christ does not reign, He who came to the very lowest place of all!

There are captives in Christ’s great triumphal procession. We are those captives and we are taken, not in chains, but to sit in heavenly places with Him. It is to those same captives that the Conqueror dispenses His widely varying gifts. Oh, the grace of God to those who surrender to Him!

To illustrate what an array of different gifts there are, Paul talks about only one aspect of Christian work, the founding of a local church. He is, after all, writing to local church members about their life as a church. What he says is also a short summary of how the church at Ephesus itself came into being.

First of all the ascended Christ sends an “apostle” into an area. An apostle is an authoritative teacher and interpreter of the Christian faith, appointed to this task by the risen Christ. Paul was such an apostle and he was the first person to bring the gospel to Ephesus. His point is that Christ gives differing gifts to people in order to meet differing needs. As it happens, Christ still raises up men who have the gift of announcing His gospel in pioneer situations. Remember this, in a world that is concerned with titles, the true believer should only be concerned about the message. Let the Holy Spirit sort out the titles if ones are necessary.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity is Logical – Continued

Please read Ephesians 4:4-6 for the background to this section.

What are these seven eternal realities? They are spelled out for us in the following verses: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

There is “one body.” Each local church is a microcosm, or miniature representation, of the whole church. And the church is a body. Its head is the Lord Jesus Christ, and each member is an organ, such as an ear, an eye or a foot. Those organs are members of one another. They belong to each other and depend on each other. What folly it would be to chop the body up into separate pieces! How illogical and stupid it would be to set eye against ear, and foot against hand! Only unity is logical.

There is “one Spirit.” If you believe the gospel at all, it is because the Spirit has opened your understanding to see the truth of it. If anyone else believes, the explanation is the same, despite what some would like to profess. There are not several spirits bringing people from unbelief to Christ. We are all animated by the one Spirit of God, and it is He who gives us the family-feeling we have towards fellow-Christians. Again, only unity is logical.

There is one calling, “just as you were called in one hope of your calling.” Paul has already talked about the hope God’s calling gives us in Ephesians 1:18. The same God calls us to the same privileges and the same destination. We cannot behave as if we were on different roads bound for different places. Only unity is logical.

There is “one Lord.” That Lord is Jesus Christ. All who believe were chosen in Him. They were are redeemed by Him. They follow Him. It is under His Lordship, and His alone, that they live. They are going to be with Him. On what basis, then, can they think of disowning each other? Once again, only unity is logical.

There is “one faith.” We have heard the same truths, we believe the same truths, and we rely upon the same truths for our salvation. The people who believe the gospel are very diverse indeed, but there is still only one gospel. Saving faith is found in widely differing hearts, but that faith is the same in them all. We came to faith from different starting-points, but the faith we arrived at is identical. True faith does not scatter people. It joins them together. Only unity is logical.

There is “one baptism.” Baptism in the Holy Spirit is what inaugurates you into the spiritual dimension and makes you a member of Christ’s body (see 1 Corinthians 12:13). That is the spiritual reality. Baptism in water is not something different. It is the outward and visible sign of what has happened to you inwardly and invisibly. How can people who have all declared their death to self and their allegiance to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, how can these people then live as if they were members of warring clans? Only unity is logical.

There is “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” We gather round the same throne and whisper the sweet name of “Father” to the One who sits there. He is our King and “above” us all. We are His temple, so He is “through” us all. The heart of each individual believer is His shrine, so by His Spirit he is “in” us all. In the light of all this, how can we keep apart from each other? To split from other believers is to say that all these truths are lies. But they are not! Only unity is logical.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity is Not Automatic – Continued

Please read Ephesians 4:1-3 for the background to this section.

Unity in the local church depends upon each person in it cultivating certain attitudes. They are “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” Lowliness is taking the lowest place with a view to being the servant of all. The Lord Jesus Christ was lowly, and so was Paul, as we saw in Ephesians 3:8. Disunity cannot survive where lowliness reigns.

With lowliness is to go “gentleness,” or “meekness,” as older translations put it. It means being spiritually and morally strong without being self-assertive, pushy or heavy-handed. Its strength is controlled.

An example of “longsuffering” is being hurt and hurt again, but not complaining, while those who are “bearing with one another in love” are refusing to strike back or be bitter. Such people do not consider that their own feelings matter. What counts is the welfare of others. All the qualities mentioned in these verses are found in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and His church is to be modelled on Him.

Those who are aiming to have such Christlike lives may truly be said to be “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” You have to work to maintain unity, but nobody has to create it. It exists already. All divisive barriers have been removed by the work of Christ. The members of the new nation and family are bound both to God and to each other. The Spirit-forged bonds exist. But they have to be preserved.

Sadly, many believers make no effort in this area, and I have witnessed it first hand in ministries I have worked at in the past and this is why Paul is writing about it here. It is sadly still a problem today. War is waged where Christ has already made peace. The God-given bonds are forgotten. Ungodly attitudes, words and actions raise the old divisions again. Many such people believe Ephesians chapters 1-3 in theory, but sadly, openly contradict it in practice. God’s sanctifying call is forgotten and the redeemed church disgraces itself by resembling the perishing world.

Paul therefore, pleads for different behavior. He calls for the execution of self and all else that smacks of “me first.” So, although unity is not automatic, steps must be taken to preserve it. Work is needed. As with all things spiritual, it takes actions for spiritual fruit to be manifested. Who among us will make the necessary effort?

Unity is Logical

Please read Ephesians 4:4-6 for the background to this section.

Do you sometimes look at other Christians and wonder how much you really have in common with them? We are such an assorted and diverse bunch of people! We come from different backgrounds and nations; we vary in intellect, achievement, social status and wealth; we represent a whole spectrum of characters, hang-ups and eccentricities, and express widely contrasting likes and dislikes! There are so many differences between us. What really do we have in common?

All the distinctions we have mentioned however, truly are temporary. But there are seven eternal realities which we possess in common with all believers everywhere. What we share is immeasurably greater than what differentiates us. It is not logical that we should live in any form of disunity.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16

The first three chapters of Ephesians were doctrinal: they were mostly about what we are to believe. Feel free to read them for some background. Chapter four begins the practical chapters. Because a Christian believes in a certain way, he or she is to behave in a certain way. Paul is going to build on the foundation he has laid and tell us how to live the Christian life, at church, in the world and at home. In later chapters he reminds us of our spiritual warfare before bringing his letter to a close.

The easiest place to live the Christian life is at church, and this is where Paul starts his practical instruction. His particular theme is the unity of the church. In his mind, of course, is the church at Ephesus, but because of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, his teaching applies to any local assembly of Christians.

We will remember that Paul had been showing us that the old distinctions are now finished in God’s sight. There are no longer Jews and Gentiles and it is a mistake to resurrect these differences. God does not have two peoples, but one. There are no longer two sorts of walls in the building; both are built on the same foundation, meet at the same cornerstone and fit into each other. “The mystery” takes on visible form in the local church. It would therefore be both wrong and tragic for there to be disunity there.

We are reading Ephesians almost two thousand years after it was written, but its teachings are as relevant as ever. Many local churches are riddled with tensions and suspicion. They are troubled with cliques and splinter groups. Some of them split and then split again. Those who think they are immune to such difficulties often prove to be most susceptible to them. With deep pastoral concern, Paul addresses this issue in the first sixteen verses of this chapter. He has four telling points to make. His teaching should be heeded by us all.

Unity is Not Automatic

Please read Ephesians 4:1-3 for the background to this section.

If it were automatic, this paragraph would not have needed to be written! Unity is not something that just happens; it has to be worked for. In verse 1 Paul reminds his readers that he is in prison. He has already told them that he is there for their sake. He doesn’t pull rank on them and say, “Look, I’m the apostle to the Gentiles, so you must do as I say.” Nor does he flatter them. His words are: “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”

From his prison cell he pleads with the men and women of a local church to remember that they have been called by God and that a certain sort of behavior is therefore expected of them. They are no longer like others, so they can no longer live like others. Called out of the world by God to be His chosen people, they must live in a way which is consistent with this fact.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Psalm 8

From Last Lesson: David is astonished how God could be mindful of human beings, who in comparison to the cosmos appear so insignificant.

Why would the Creator of the universe be interested in puny humanity? Why does the Lord attentively listen to them when they call out to Him and why does He personally intervene on their behalf?

What is even more astounding is what our God made humans to be. Verses 5-8 indicate God made human beings a “little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor.” It’s interesting to note that the word translated to “angels” is the Hebrew word, Elohim, which in some versions is translated, “heavenly beings,” and even in some, as “God.” This phrase refers back to the time when God first created human beings. First, God created them in His image, or better yet, “His likeness.” Second, God gave human beings the royal stewardship of ruling over His creation (Genesis 1:26-27). God’s having put “all things under his feet” means God has given humanity dominion over all His creation (Genesis 1:28). The Lord elevated human beings and commissioned them to rule His creation under submission to God’s rule. Hebrews 2:8 is a reminder that human sin has relinquished the fullness of this reality, but at the end of the age it will come to pass when all of creation submits to humanity’s dominion over it as followers of Christ share in His rule (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 5:13).

When David reflects on all that God has done for humanity, he returns to the refrain he utters at the beginning of the psalm. Human beings may enjoy a lofty position in creation, but it is the Creator, Jehovah, God Almighty, our sovereign Lord, Who alone deserves all honor and glory. The high value human beings enjoy is based only on the truth that God values us and has undeservedly blessed us beyond measure. Consequently, the only right and appropriate response is to praise His name throughout the earth!

We should yearn to consider the heavens like David did with this knowledge available to us. With present-day technology, we understand there are about 10 billion galaxies in the observable universe containing about 1 billion trillion stars. That number is beyond normal comprehension and understanding. Nevertheless, as impressive and amazing as the universe God created is, nothing is more impressive than the kindness He has shown and continues to show toward all humanity. He is mindful and attentive to our needs, taking delight in protecting and helping the weak. God created us in His image and likeness and gave us a position just below Himself and the heavenly beings, crowning us with honor and glory, enabling us to eventually share in His rule over creation. He created us with the ability to be like Him. For this reason it is essential for us to look to Jesus Christ. He, alone, personifies what we were created to be and in Him and through Him, will ultimately be. The day is coming when we will see Jesus face to face and be made like Him. Considering these truths, wouldn’t it be reasonable to join in David’s song of praise to our sovereign Lord and King?

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Psalm 8

Unlike so many of the other Psalms, this specific psalm doesn’t seem to refer to a particular situation in David’s, the writer’s life. This psalm, instead, seems to be the outpouring of David’s thoughts as he gazed into the night sky. As a shepherd, he surely had many occasions when he witnessed, with awe, the majesty and glory of God in the heavens. The placement of this psalm is undoubtedly no accident as the Holy Spirit inspired its inclusion following the outpourings of anguish we have seen in the psalms directly proceeding this one. This psalm most certainly conveys the truth that no matter how difficult our circumstances may be and how awesome God is, the majestic Creator of the universe is attentively mindful of us. Such truth calls us to praise and worship the magnificent God.

Psalm 8 begins with the writer directly praising the Lord. It is the only psalm to address God alone in its entirety, and it begins and ends with the same refrain praising the Lord. David asserts that Jehovah, Israel’s personal, promise-keeping God, is “our Lord,” and not just the Lord of Israel, but indeed, the Lord over all humanity. Jehovah, the self-existing One, is our sovereign master and king, and His supremacy and dignity manifests itself throughout the entire earth. Enveloped between this refrain are two wondrous observations of Jehovah’s dominion over all creation and His consideration of humanity above the rest of all creation.

In the last line of verse 1 and into verse 2, David proclaims Jehovah’s dominion over all creation. The word glory at the end of verse 1 refers to Jehovah’s regal majesty, His royal splendor. It extols Jehovah’s complete sovereignty and breathtaking omnipotence above and over all His creation. It recognizes who the Lord is and what He has done on a scale grander than we can comprehend. But in particular, what is just as amazing is how God uses the weak, “the mouth of babes and nursing infants,” to demonstrate His strength and to silence His enemies (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). In fact, in Matthew 21:15-16, Jesus quoted this phrase to rebuke His naysayers. The Lord Jesus Christ said that unless one becomes like a child one will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:4). The Lord Himself is a stronghold for the needy and weak who cry out to Him. God’s display of His majestic splendor on behalf of His children terrifies His children’s enemies (Isaiah 30:30-33). The cries of those who trust in the Lord will be answered by a loving Father, resulting in the demise of the wicked and victory for every one of His children.

Psalm 8 focuses most attention particularly on Jehovah’s consideration of humanity over the rest of His creation. In verses 3 and 4, when David considers the vastness and wonders of the heavens and their starry hosts, and the fact that God beautifully crafted them with His own “fingers” and attentively set each one in its place, David is astonished how God could be mindful of human beings, who in comparison to the cosmos appear so insignificant.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved