Ephesians Chapter 3:14 to 4:16
Another lesson on praying is found in this week’s text.
Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I kneel before the Father,
“For this reason” is like “therefore” in that you need to see what it is there for before you continue. The Holy Spirit, through Paul, it trying to communicate something to you so this is just part of paying attention when He is speaking.
Ephesians 3:10-13 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
So the “for this reason” connects us back to 1) the mission of the Church in submission to God, 2) the freedom and confidence we have before God because of His work, and 3) to encourage them that his (Paul’s) sufferings are actually their glory as God displays His love for them as Paul is spent for their good. To me, this last aspect seems most closely to be linked in Paul’s mind as we read on.
For this reason I kneel before the Father,
Ephesians 3:15-19 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Paul knows he is being spent for the gentile believers and gives us another great list of things to pray for. We need to pray that from God’s glorious riches we would have
1) inner strength from the Holy Spirit,
2) deep roots in God’s love and a revelation of His love that transforms us and fills us.
Stott calls it a strength, love, knowledge, and fullness ladder that the Apostle prays for us to climb. There is a natural Trinitarian root in all this. Notice that the Father strengthens through His Spirit so that Christ may dwell in your heart.
I love that Paul uses 4 dimensions for God’s love and then says it surpasses knowledge. When we meditate on the immense love of God it is transforming. I have said before and will repeat it here that, reflecting on the magnitude of Creation, it would take a God with love beyond anything we could imagine to simply be aware of our existence. It would make more sense for me to number and name the fire ants in my backyard. But God’s love is obviously infinite. He loved us when we were unlovable and loved us personally. He does know us better than we know ourselves and the God of the universe shows patience with us and doesn’t destroy us for our sins of omission and commission and apathy.
I like what Stott does with the 4 dimensional Love of God. Broad enough to cover Jew and Gentile; long enough to last forever; deep enough to reach to the worst sinner; and high enough to lift us up and seat us in heavenly places in Christ.
The need for fellowship is addressed in the verse stating that we may have power, “together with all the saints” to grasp the love of God. We do it in fellowship not isolated.
Ephesians 3:20-21 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Paul once again starts to worship Him. How could you not when you thing of God’s love. Rather than stagger at our inability to grasp the infinite, Paul praises God who is able to do more than we can ask or imagine and it is by His power in us not our power. His will His glory. Over and over throughout all generations His will His glory.
Unity in the Body of Christ
Ephesians 4:1-6 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
As a prisoner being spent for you in the Lord, Paul urges us to live worthy. We are to be humble, gentle, patient, all expressed in love. We work for unity since we are one family and we make an effort to keep unity. Stott uses the family analogy to illustrate how we can’t break the family relationship we have but we can allow family relationships to deteriorate.
Ephesians 4:7-10 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
Paul quotes Psalm 68:18. As we discuss this scripture please keep in mind, “a text without a context is a pretext”. The context is the one body we are called to be a part of. We are being told that Christ has blessed each of differently. We are not a bland monotony of people. Then He encourages us that He is able to bless us abundantly we are told that He has ascended on high, He is Jesus, and He is higher than the heavens and filling the whole universe. This scripture doesn’t teach that Jesus descended to hell. He descended to earth. Some of the early church thought maybe this meant that Jesus went to hell but that isn’t implied in the verse and the context from Psalm 68 was a prayer for God to come down and help Israel. So … earth was the descent and the Cross was what Christ humbled Himself to. I think this verse is a good place to remind ourselves of two things; first, context is important (Psalm 68 included) and second, that Scripture interprets Scripture (this verse must fit into the whole Gospel).
Ephesians 4:11-13 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
He gave – His will, His glory – various ministries to prepare us for works of service, to build the Church, to build a unity in understanding the Faith and knowledge of Christ. The human gifts, like Paul, are to be spent to develop maturity in the Church. No Apostles since the canon of Scripture has been complete. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers all work with what God has given us in Scripture through the Apostles. The purpose of our gifting is to work. Whatever you have at some point you must use to be obedient. I’m not saying sabbaticals are bad. On the contrary, they are good. But the parable of the talents wasn’t given to us to ignore.
Ephesians 4:14-16 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
The end result of maturity is that meat is a regular part of your diet rather than a weekly dose of milk. This means that when someone teaches something false you’ll recognize it as false. People do scheme to have a “successful” factions while at best distorting a truth and at worst becoming a cult by teaching a falsehood about God. Attacking the incarnation and divinity of Jesus is a common false teaching. I’ve had neighbors who were Mormons who claimed to have been Baptists. Well, they were tossed here and there by every wind of teaching.
Coram Deo:
The vision for the Church is to show love, unity, diversity, and spiritual growth. That takes balance. Love is sacrificial, unity takes forbearance but you can’t do it by eliminating diversity, and spiritual growth takes right doctrine and belief which can strain unity and must correct diversity if false teaching is present.
We clearly need to learn to live in the right way to keep balance and obey God in all things.
No comments:
Post a Comment