What the Lord’s Prayer means

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Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

via Passage: Luke 11:1 (ESV Bible Online).

What are the disciples asking for here? Are John’s prayer’s deficient? Did they hear Jesus praying and decide that he was improving on John? But in that case, why not just imitate what they heard?

Other questions: Why did John teach a prayer only to his disciples? Why was this not simply part of his public ministry?

The only answer that seems reasonable to me is that the disciples thought that having a unique prayer was a mark of discipleship. Those who followed John did so in part by praying the prayer he gave them. Now Jesus had disciples and they wanted the same.

The payoff here is that when we pray the Lord’s prayer we are identifying ourselves as Jesus disciples. Jesus has given us the prayer.We are reminded that we belong to Jesus and that he is our leader.

This would indicate, by the way, that the Lord’s Prayer is actually a written prayer. It is not a guide for how to pray (though it could serve in that way too) but an actual rote liturgy.

The King who became to us wisdom from God

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Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

via Passage: 1 Cor 1 (ESV Bible Online).

How did Jesus become wisdom from God to us? One way to explain this would be to appeal to the truth of the incarnation. Jesus was, we could reason (and properly) wisdom become flesh and dwelling among us.

But I don’t think the incarnation is what Paul has in mind. If we  take the terms as related to one another–wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption–then we need to understand that more than the incarnation must be in view.

Do understand this, consider Solomon. He needed wisdom because God had made him king. He asked for it and God granted it to him. His wisdom wasn’t for himself alone. It was so that he could not only rule Israel, but represent Israel to others. Because Solomon was wise, Israel was considered wise. As he taught this wisdom to others it became more and more actually experience in the growth of faithful Israelites, but it was also reckoned as theirs by virtue of Solomon’s office as their covenant head.

And so Jesus, having learned obedience through the things that he suffered and accepting the Lord’s discipline so that he could grow wise, was granted kingship over all creation. With that office, he was granted the Spirit’s wisdom. He represents all humanity, especially those who believe (the rest end up opposing humanity, including their own), as their wisdom. With this representation as the elevated and enthroned king of the universe equipped with wisdom comes the actual gift of wisdom in the experience of his people. Thus Paul:

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.

To lack the wisdom to regulate our own affairs in the Church is an insult to Christ who is the wisdom of God to us, and to our own destiny.

Peter Leithart on how much authority matters and the politics that is salvation

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The fact that the NT uses a political term, “kingdom of God,” to describe the salvation that Jesus achieves is puzzling to moderns. Part of the resolution to that problem is to recognize, as I’ve argued elsewhere, that the Bible treats “salvation” as a political issue. The other part of the issue is to recognize the central importance of issues of authority, the question of “who’s in charge.” If we go with “reign of God” as a translation of BASILEIA TOU THEOU, the point is clearer: What brings salvation is a change of authority, an overthrow of a ruler whose reign brings nothing but destruction and pain and his replacement of a ruler whose rule is like green grass after rain. We are all democrats, and so we don’t recognize just how much our flourishing, health, and prosperity depends on who’s in charge. But democracy is a delusion. EVERYTHING depends on who’s in charge.

via Leithart.com | “Kingdom of God”.

To obey is better than to sacrifice

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The verse has a lot of applications, but one might be the way we sometimes get horrified and weepy over some sinful habits or, worse, habitual sins that we indulge in from time to time and then regret by agonizing.

Are we agonizing so we can convince ourselves that we’ve “paid” and then resume normal life without any new protections, accountability, or changes in place so that, when we get bored or restless, we can enjoy the indulgence all over again?

The way the book of Job doesn’t start

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Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? He is a depraved sinner that deserves eternal hell and even his best works are tainted with sin…

Do you want to add anything to what I’ve said?”

And Satan replied, “Are you trying to leave me without a job?”

via Passage: Job 1 (ESV Bible Online).

While no one may boast before God, every believer ought to be thankful that he boasts in us, considers us his inheritance as if he needed us to be rich, and delights in our good deeds. As Paul says in Romans 2, our praise is supposed to be from God–which is impossible unless he praises us. Yes God is gracious to us and yes our acceptance is only on the basis of Christ as our representative and elder brother, but God truly delights in us and what we become.

I realize I usually publish these deconstructions without comment. The point is that even something that is true should not be used to evade what the Bible actually states.

004 The Victory According to Mark

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The Call (Mark 1:1-15)

The New Moses and the New Joshua (1:4 & 5)

Having recited the prophecy of the messenger or angel of the Lord who will prepare the way for Jesus, Mark now presents the messenger.

The Victory According to Mark: An Exposition of the Second GospelThe Jordan was the boundary that marked the transition of the Israelites from the wilderness to the Promised Land.  Indeed, when the Israelites miraculously crossed the Jordan on dry ground, they also circumcised all their males since they had not practiced circumcision for the forty years in the wilderness (Joshua 3-5).  This was not the only transition point in Israel’s exodus that involved passage through a body of water.  Earlier, the crossing of the brook Zered marked the point at which the older generation of Israelite warriors died in the wilderness so that the new generation could make a second attempt at entering the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 2:13-15).  The text specifically says that the men died because “the hand of the Lord was against them.”  The first such crossing, of course, did not involve the death of unfaithful Israelites, but rather of the Egyptian army.  The crossing of the Red Sea marked the leaving of Egypt forever, just as crossing the Jordan marked the leaving of the wilderness.

Baptism

What is the reason for John’s baptizing in the Jordan River?  The Greek word “baptism” was used to refer to ceremonial cleansings and washings.  Mark himself, for example, uses the word to refer to washing dishes (7:4) just as the author of Hebrews uses it to refer to the ceremonial sprinklings of the Mosaic law (Hebrews 9:10).  However, if only cleansing was involved in John’s baptism, then John’s geographic location makes no sense.  If all that mattered to John’s “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” was the application of water, then there would have been no reason for him to stay in the wilderness in the region of the Jordan.  He would have reached many more people by simply going to Jerusalem and preaching there.  But for some reason, he felt compelled to baptize in the Jordan an make people go out to him in order to be baptized.  We need to ask ourselves “Why the Jordan?”

The Apostle Paul later refers to the crossing of the Red Sea as a “baptism” (First Corinthians 10:1 & 2).  Perhaps thinking about why Paul associated crossing a body of water on dry ground with baptism will help us understand why John began baptizing at the Jordan River.  If we do that, there is no reason to only consider the Red Sea as if it was the only analogy Paul could have used.  If the miraculous crossing at the Red Sea was a baptism, why not also the miraculous crossing at the Jordan River?  After all, the Israelites were actually circumcised when they crossed the Jordan River, which Paul elsewhere associates with baptism (Colossians 2:11-13).  And then we have the water crossing between those two points, the brook Zered which marked the transition between the condemned generation and the new generation promised the Land.

The common factor in these three instances is that the water marks a boundary between the old and the new, the cursed-for-sin and the blessed-with-forgiveness.  It is interesting that this corresponds to the layout of the Tabernacle and Temple:  One could not enter God’s presence without first going by a laver of cleansing (Exodus 30:17ff) or a “bronze ocean” (First Kings 7:23ff).  The Israelites passed through the Red Sea and then met with God on Mount Sinai.  Once the Tabernacle was built, God’s presence dwelt in it, which the priests could only approach through the laver of cleansing.  It isn’t too hard to see here a common theme: passing through water means moving closer to where God is, and typically involves repentance and abandonment of or deliverance from the old in order to receive the new. In all likelihood, the primal foundation for the significance of passing through water comes from the “waters above” which God placed under His throne in the heavens (Genesis 1:6-8; c.f. Rev. 4:6).  Passing through the waters represents going to God’s throne from the earth.

As the place where God would dwell enthroned among His people, the Promised Land resembled the Heavens where God ruled among the angels.  Thus Joshua and the Israelites entered the Land by miraculously passing through water and leaving the flesh of the old creation behind in circumcision, just as before Moses and the Israelites had passed through water on their way to God’s presence at Sinai, leaving the Egyptians and the plagues of Egypt behind (Exodus 15:26).  Following this tradition, those many Judeans, who left their homes and traveled the long road to John the Baptist in order to be baptized at the Jordan River, were re-entering the Promised Land.  They were confessing for themselves and their children that, even though they were geographically located in Israel, covenantally they were still in the wilderness.  Something had gone horribly wrong and they once again needed God’s presence to come and lead them out of exile to a place of rest.  Like Isaiah surprised by the presence of the Lord in His Temple, who confessed both that he was a man of unclean lips and a part of a people of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5), those coming to John for baptism were confessing both that theirs was a sinful, adulterous, and unbelieving generation (Mark 8:38; 9:19), and that they personally had participated in it’s sin, adultery, and unbelief.  They were admitting that they were still under bondage in Egypt, though Moses had led them out of it so many centuries ago.

Forgiveness

It is very important to realize that, though individual concerns were real in John’s ministry, his public proclamation of “the forgiveness of sins” had immense public consequences.  It is quite easy for a person today to assume that his sins are his personal property which are no one’s business but his own and God’s.  However, the Bible also acknowledges corporate sin both in the sense of institutionalized evil and in the sense of the punishment of society rather than only individual wrongdoers.  Mark himself has reminded us of this by using Isaiah 40 verse 3 as a prophecy of the ministry of John the Baptist.  For in the context of that quote, Isaiah promises blessings for Jerusalem as a city, saying

Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
“Speak kindly to Jerusalem;
And call out to her, that her warfare has ended,
That her iniquity has been removed,

When we read that John was baptizing for “the forgiveness of sins,” we will be misunderstanding the text if don’t immediately think of national liberation as well as personal pardon.  The Israelites journeying to the Jordan would have heard that idea in John’s proclamation, as would John himself.  Mark makes the connection clear by using prophecies of Israel’s salvation from Egypt and exile to explain John’s vocation.  Israel was under God’s judgment and John was telling them how it could be removed.  Israel needed to be renewed and to repent.

Of course, everyone new that not everyone would repent.  What was hoped was that God would come to Israel and renew her by removing the wicked from her.  Mark’s citation of Malachi 3:1 underscores this because Malachi goes on to say

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien, and do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts.

By making the pilgrimage to the Jordan, those who believed John’s message showed that they wanted to be visibly separated from those under judgment when the Lord came.  They wanted to be members of the future purified Israel.  Undergoing John’s baptism helped them anticipate that they were not only God’s covenant people, but that they would remain in that covenant after God cast others out.  In order to be assured that they would be included in the future forgiven Israel whose iniquity would be removed, they needed to repent and ask for personal forgiveness now.

What Mark implies by invoking Isaiah 40 in the context of John’s ministry, Luke later made explicit by recording some of John’s interaction with those who came to him.

He therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.  And also the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”  And he would answer and say to them, “Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.”  And some tax-gatherers also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”  And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.”  And some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?”  And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages” (3:7-14).

Notice here that John is quoted as warning of “the wrath to come.”  Mark’s use of Malachi 3 gives us the same understanding of John’s ministry.  When God comes to His Temple, who can withstand the day of his coming?  Notice also that issue is whether or not one is a member of the true Israel.  It is not enough to be a descendant of Abraham because every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down.  Thus, different groups of people ask John what they must do to be identifiable as the true Israel, the true children of Abraham.

By the way, just because John proclaims repentance, doesn’t mean he was excluding faith or preaching “legalism.”  The issue is not whether one can be good enough to earn salvation.  Rather, the issue for John and his hearers (and for us in our own situation) is whether or not we can rightfully identify ourselves as the people whom God will mercifully vindicate when He comes to judge the world.  If we may behave in a way that God allows us to anticipate that we, to quote the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment” (question 38), then our activity is not an attempt to earn anything from God or to save ourselves by our own efforts.  Rather it is a demonstration that we trust God and thus can hope in him.  As Paul told the Galatians, “we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.”  Such a hope has nothing to do with our own merit; the only thing our merits can bring is fear.  But that doesn’t mean that such a hope may be held by all apart from any conditions.  We are required to believe or trust God as he has revealed Himself.  Thus, the author of Hebrews writes about Moses

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward (11:24-26).

This is the kind of faith being demonstrated by those who respond to John’s proclamation.  They believe what he says is true, that God is about to visit His people.  They then act on their belief, knowing that God is going to both judge and save.  May we do the same because we too trust God and believe His message.

Repost: Called by the Gospel to Unity

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A sermon on Ephesians 4.1-7

I may have told you all before about a friend of mine who was a ruling elder in a Presbyterian Church. They received as new members a mother and adult son who had recently come to affirm the Reformed Faith as the proper expression of the Gospel according to the Scriptures.

It turned out that the young man had actually had the opportunity to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. He was a student in a Bible college and he started to listen to a radio program on Reformed Theology. As he became convinced of what he was hearing, his brothers in Christ who taught and ran the college expelled him from school and refused to give him his transcripts. His years of studying and the money he paid to do so were all stolen from him, all in the name of Jesus.

So like Paul, this young man had suffered for the Gospel.

But all did not go well with this young man and his mother as time went by at their new Presbyterian Church. My friend noticed that they hadn’t been in Church for a while. After some visitation, the elders discovered that the young man had decided that this Church was too compromised for him to attend. What made him think so? Well, real Gospel preaching means that the pastor always presents sermons that first present the Law and its requirements. Then, after showing how the Law condemns and we can never be good enough, the preacher presents the Gospel of how Jesus died in our place.

Now, I know the pastor did in fact preach the Bible and did preach the Gospel. But because he did not follow that precise pattern in every sermon, this young man viewed the Church as unworthy of his attendance, and he simply stopped going on Sunday orany other day. Not only did he cease attending that particular church, but also in the name of faithfulness to the Gospel, he stopped worshiping at any church because one couldn’t be found that was faithful enough for him.

That’s one story. Here is another.

I’m at a conference for people from Reformed and Presbyterian Churches. I meet a man who lives in the same state that I do. He tells me he’d like to get me to visit his and a few other families to lead in some sort of worship. They have been praying for some help in planting a Reformed Church in their area.

Oh, I’m sorry that there’s not one there yet, I say. Where do you go to Church now?

Well, it turns out, they don’t go to Church at all. They are not members of any church in the area because there are no Reformed or Presbyterian Churches. That is this man’s application of the Gospel as he understands it–that he and his wife and children “worship” in their home without being members of a local congregation or gathering every Lord’s Day to worship at one.

So the practical result of these families allegiance to the Gospel in all its purity is a refusal to attend public worship in Church.

It was only a few months later that our congregation was visited by a family I had never met before. They introduced themselves as Christians and ones who embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. I discovered later that they had visited many times but also dropped out of sight for months or years at a time.

Where did they go to Church, I asked? Well, normally they don’t. They just worship in their living room with Daddy giving a message to his wife and children.

So again we have a man refusing to associate and lead his family in membership of another church. We have a man refusing to worship with the Church in the name of a correct understanding of the Gospel.

You and I were called by the Gospel. In Baptism, in our hearing of the Gospel preached by one another and by representatives, in our regular participation in public worship, in our regular partaking of the Lord’s Supper, we are being drawn by the good news, the Gospel, that Jesus is Lord.

And the Gospel does not entail the kind of behavior that is often perpertrated in the name of the Gospel. In fact, the Gospel is often opposed to the kind of behavior that is displayed in the name of the Gospel.

The Gospel is our calling with which we have been called. It is the voice of the Lord. And it calls us to one hope, as Paul says in verse 4. What is that hope? Paul stated it early on in his letter to the Ephesians, back in chapter 1 he wrote that God made “known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” That’s the purpose, that’s the plan, and that’s our hope. And the fact that God is accomplishing this plan in what Jesus has done–that’s the Gospel.

So when Paul talks about what Jesus has done in coming among us incarnate as a Human and suffering and dying and rising again and ascending into heaven, he continues to present us with the fact that God has brought us together in unity. Ephesians 2.13 and following:

now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

And so with that description of what Christ has done for us and in us by the Spirit inhabiting us as one dwelling place, Paul then speaks of the Gospel that he has been called to proclaim to the nations. Ephesians 3.6-10:

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

That’s the Gospel that calls us. Paul says he’s been given the mystery and he says that he has been given the Gospel. Plainly the mystery is the Gospel. The Gospel calls us to reconciliation in Christ by the Spirit. Thus, to walk in a manner worthy of that call–to live the way the Gospel deserves–entails that we walk “with 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”

Last week I pointed out that to be delivered from sin is to be graciously placed on a new path, a new walk. Paul has begun here to list the specific route we must take. He told us earlier, back in chapter 2 about this walk in vague terms.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Well, good works can mean anything. And depending on our circumstances, we need to be open-minded about what those good works might entail. But Paul has some more specific ideas in mind, ideas based on the content of his Gospel.

The Gospel entails reconciliation between God and man and between man in man and the end to the divisions that were put in place in the Law of Moses. Before Christ came, only the Israelites could take part in Passover, only the Levites could approach the furnishing of the Tabernacle, only the priests could bring offerings to the alter and enter the Holy Place, and only the high priest could go beyond the holy place to enter the Holy of Holies. There were barriers between God and man that were simultaneously also divisions between different groups of people.

But now the dividing wall has been broken down. When Christ died on the cross the veil in the Temple was ripped in two from top to bottom. Reconciliation was declared. And that reconciliation, that bond of Peace, which is Jesus through the Spirit, demands specific sorts of good works.

Jesus Christ has made us one so we must adopt a manner of living that allows us to live as one. Look at verse 2. Living as one with sinners means we’re going to have to be humble. Living as one with sinners means we need to learn to be gentle. Living as one with sinners entails a need for patience. Living as one with sinners demands that we be willing to bear other’s weaknesses out of love.

The Call of the Gospel demands that we eagerly pursue these things—that we are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

Why should we pursue these things? Notice that the idea is not that we’re trying to attain to a unity and bond of peace but that we already have them and we want to grow in them rather than try to weaken in them. Because we are one we need to live as one. That’s called going from the indicative to the imperative—from statements about who you are and what you have to statements about what you now must do and how you now must live.

We have this bond of unity we have because we are all under one Lord—as Paul states in verse 5—which makes us one kingdom united by his rule and under his protection. Paul has stressed the Lordship of Christ already. For example, in chapter 1, verse 20 and following, he states that God not only raised him from the dead but also enthroned him at his right hand in heaven and put all things under his feet. In chapter 2, he states that all of us who believe—irrespective of where we’re from, or what color we are, or anything else—are enthroned with Christ. Our exaltation is through faith and nothing else.

Now, if we remember that Christ is a title designating Jesus as God’s promised King in the line of David, it makes sense that the rule of Jesus entails the unity of his people no matter what nation or culture they are from. Thus, Paul writes the Romans in Chapter 10, verse 12: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call upon Him.”

The one faith we share is trust and allegiance to one king. We have more in common with Iraqi Christians than we have with our own nonchristian family members. That’s what Paul is saying here. If Jesus is God’s king, then all other dominions and rulers and other sources of identity must take, at most, second place.

That’s one reason why Paul speaks of baptism as something that breaks you off from your old identity in your nation and family and culture of your birth and puts you in a new family—the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 12.12-13:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks—slaves or free.

And Galatians 3.27-29:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Now that sounds real mysterious but it can at least partially be understood in a commonsense way: Baptism is a ritual that officially entrusts us to the governance and royal protection of King Jesus. It enrolls us in his entourage. It therefore at least relativizes all our other relationships. Our primary loyalty must be to our King Jesus and our identity must be found in our relationship to him.

We belong to Jesus. Let nothing else obscure that most basic fact. We are a congregation that belongs to God through Christ Jesus. We are his. He is ours. God loves us. God saved us. God sent his son to die and live for us. God’s son now reigns in the heavens and we are his royal court.

We belong to King Jesus. That is the Gospel. That’s a dangerous thing to teach and proclaim. Paul has again reminded the Ephesians that he is a prisoner of the Lord. Both Caesar and the synagogue rulers have a problem with Paul’s declaration that Jesus is Lord and Christ and that nothing else can matter. They want Caesar-worship or circumcision to matter more.

And we face that trial in ways that are just as important, even if the consequences we suffer are rather trivial in comparison to what Paul faced in his day.

I think of our school children. If you compare the time they spend gathered corporately with the body of Christ in worship or discipleship to the time they spend through out the week as members of classes and teams I think it must be very easy to forget that their identity comes first from Christ and not from their peers and teachers. It is very easy to make Christianity simply a support for another group identity, whether that of the member of the class of some year, or a band member, or a member of the football team, or anything else. Paul reminds us to zealously pursue a corporate identity as a church—a unity that requires love and suffering on behalf of one another.

We face that trial in other ways. It is very easy to forget about the members of one’s congregation and allow one’s relatives to be the only people you spend time with. You’re not doing anything spiteful by doing so. It comes naturally to all of us. But you know there may be people in town or in this church who are new and have little family around and Paul is telling you that you need to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. If you’re not proactive in hospitality and in befriending new people, that unity will be weakened rather than maintained.

Zeal for the Gospel should not result in schism and infighting and holier-than-thou attitudes, nor should it result in apathy for others in the congregation while you get most of your affirmation from other relationships. We need to pray for strength to eagerly work toward maintaining the unity of the Spirit in Christ.

We all serve one Master. For his sake let us love one another.

RePost: How to be Spiritual according to the Bible

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I don’t trust myself to order or prioritize these, so put no weight on what item comes before another.

  • Drink and eat a lot with family and friends (Deuteronomy 14.22-27; Ecclesiastes 9.7).
  • Include strangers, people below your socio-economic status, and characters of ill-repute in these parties–if you notice they aren’t being treated in a really welcoming manner, you may need to invite fewer of your friends in order to produce the right environment (Deuteronomy 16.10-15; Luke 14.12-14; Luke 15.1, 2).
  • Have frequent sex with your spouse (Ecclesiastes 9.9; First Corinthians 7.2-5).
  • Enjoy your work (Ecclesiastes 9.10).
  • Work hard (Ecclesiastes 11.6).
  • Worship God in public with other people (Psalm 100, ad infinitum).
  • Sing really violent songs as prayers (The Psalms).
  • Loan money without expecting payment in return (Luke 6.35).
  • Pursue profit in business–otherwise you are never going to be able to afford to be open handed (Luke 19.20-26; Ephesians 4.28).
  • Enjoy the luxuries you have (Ecclesiastes 9.8).
  • If it is an especially holy day, and you hear the Law of God and are feeling especially convicted for your many sins, make sure you don’t weep but rather go party and share food and fellowship with others (Nehemiah 8).
  • Gently restore people you catch in wrongdoing and don’t demand payback when you are the victim (Galatians 6.1, 2).
  • Teach your children to be spiritual(Deuteronomy 6.1-9).
  • Don’t care if anyone else judges you or your children as unspiritual; care what God thinks (Romans 2.28, 29).