Therefore....... Ephesians 2: 11-22

THEREFORE

Whenever a passage begins this way it takes twice as long to study. Because you first have to figure out what the author is following up. What was his first point, that leads to this additional conclusion?

Pauls first point, in verses 1-10, was something like this: God saved me from death totally out of his love and mercy, and now there are 'good works' that He wants me to do.

Okay, now for the therefore:

11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Well, I was all ready for a to-do list. But there wasn't one. The 'therefore' does not apply to good works, but to our identity as people saved by God's grace and mercy. There are implications of that idea for the Christians Paul was writing to in the culture of the time, in which there was apparantly hostility between Jewish and Gentile Christians. There was an idea that they needed to embrace and remember, an idea that followed from the fact that their salvation was by grace alone. Here are three main points Paul makes:

1. Remember that you as Gentiles were seperated from God and now have been brought near.
2. Gentiles and Jews are both reconciled to God in the same way, through Jesus Christ, and God has ordained peace, not hostility, between them.
3. Jews and gentiles together, on the the foundation of the apostles & prophets and the cornerstone Jesus Christ, are becoming a dwelling place for God's Spirit.

It is much easier for me to have a to-do list than a to-embody list. But, just like Pauls prayer in chapter 1, in which none of his prayers were practical day-to-day nitty-gritty requests but a prayer for the believers' relationship with their God, Paul is again concerned with relationships and attitudes and the fulfillment of the plan that God is in the process of bringing about in history -- creating a people for Himself, that will be for the praise of His glory.

Much bigger than a to-do list.

Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.

Who am I? Ephesians 2: 1-10

Well, I WAS dead...

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

But God made me alive...

4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.

And now I am God's workmanship, with work to do!

10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God is working on me. God is working in me. God made me alive with Christ -- I was dead at that point and couldn't do anything. But God raised me up! Why? To display his own grace and kindness, to the praise of his glory. When all things are brought together under God, I will be there praising him along with the rest of all creation. Hallelujah!

Hope, Riches, and Power

Wow, here are three things that everybody wants -- hope, riches, and power. And Paul says that we have inherited all three! However, we don't necessarily know it or remember it, and thus his prayer:

18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Paul wants us to know the hope God has called us to. He's already talked about this hope -- this sure hope of redemption for all who are included in Christ.

Paul wants us to know the riches of God's inheritance. I guess that inheritance is our part in God's future kingdom, in which all things are brought together in worship and praise of him 'to the praise of His glory'. But there are probably present aspects of this inheritance as well that should be manifesting themselves in our lives.

Paul wants us to know God's power, and he elaborates on this power at great length. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the power he wants us to know now.

But what about:

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

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Does Paul dare, by his prayer, to contradict these two sayings that I have agreed with many times? Are our hope, inheritance, and power so sure that we can ignore these tentative and cautious ideas that say we must have it IN HAND to be sure of it? I think Paul would say yes in this instance, and in this instance only. Our inheritance from God is sure, so sure that we SHOULD live as though it has 'hatched' and is 'in hand', despite the fact that there is much future fulfillment still to come. That is what Paul means when he prays that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened so that we might know the hope, etc.

There is nothing else so sure that we should depend on it in this way -- not our jobs, our bank accounts, our family or friends or spouse, our health, our abilities. And so these sayings may still be good for everyday life in this world. However, if we apply them to our hope in God, it makes us live in a lesser type of faith than God wants. It makes us hold back our confidence and boldness with a 'wait and see' attitude toward God.

Paul is not praying that we 'wait and see' -- he is praying that we 'know and act': know who we are and act accordingly.

Eph 1: 15-23 Paul's prayer

v. 17-19a I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe

.

Is this how I pray for people? No. I usually pray for the things they want: their health, a job, a family member's well-being or salvation, for some situation to work out to their advantage, etc. Not that I shouldn't be concerned or pray for these things, but Paul's concerns are of a totally different nature.

His prayer has to do with knowing God better. This involves the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, which I take to mean, at the least, being able to recognize, understand, and apply God's word. Of course they didn't have the New Testament as such when Paul was writing; in fact, God was speaking directly through Paul and others at that time so that we would eventually have this body of revelation that we can safely and surely consider to be God's word. Back then it may have meant discerning between the teaching of any several people claiming to speak for God. Today it also may mean discernment regarding the many preachers, authors, teachers that are around us. But more importantly, I think it means listening to God's word in scripture, by the power of the Spirit. And it also means measuring other teaching and interpretation of the scriptures by the yardstick of the Bible, also by the power of the Spirit.

Then he mentions three other things that he wants us to know: our hope, our riches, and His power.

Those things are for tomorrow's study.

On to Ephesians

I am so happy to have finished Jeremiah -- not that I just wanted to be done with it, but it is a marker for me to actually have stuck with the book all the way through, read it all, thought about parts of it over the course of a few months. My usual pattern is to stick with something for about 2 to 3 weeks, then it goes by the wayside. I am thanking God for helping me get all the way through Jeremiah, and taking it as evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in me. It so often doesn't feel as if God is at work changing me, so I need to take any concrete success and give God the credit. Credit where credit is due.

We've had preaching on Ephesians at church lately, so I am going to take that book as my next step. I will go section by section, according to the NIV headings, rather than by chapters. They call the first section "Blessings in Christ", and it is verses 1-14.

The first thing I noticed was the extravagent language used for what God has done for us:
-blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in christ
-in accordance with the RICHES of God's grace that he LAVISHED on us
-which he has FREELY given us

And his purpose is also extravagent and expressed in superlatives:
-to bring ALL things in heaven and on earth together...
-he works out EVERYTHING in conformity with the purpose of his will

And it is all 'to the praise of his glory'. All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea...

The sweeping comprehensiveness of God's purpose rather takes my breath away. But in the tumble of this huge wave of God's purpose for creation that is relentlessly moving toward its destination, we also see that he is aware of each individual person as part of the whole:

Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

So, rather than just feeling like 'one of the crowd' and an inconsequential cog in the wheel, I know that I am a special individual who God purposefully chose to 'include in Christ'. I am marked with the Holy Spirit and, as I said above, I need to recognize that my three months of Bible study are an indication of that, and give thanks to God for it. I've proven over and over that I can't keep going on my own. Lord, help me to keep depending on your Spirit to guide me and engage me in your word.

A Scary Statement

Jeremiah 44:27 For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed. 28 Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.

This is what God says to the Jews who ran away to Egypt expressly against the word of the Lord after they had sworn they would obey the word of the Lord. They then out-and-out said that they were going to continue to worship other gods, because when they had been worshipping other gods they had been prosperous and when they had stopped, all their troubles had begun.

The Lord's response is justified, and terrifying. I cannot imagine what it would be like to know that God is after me for harm, rather than delighting in me and wooing me for good. These people have given up any chance for hope.

Yet we still see mercy, along with vindication, in the next verse. There will be a remnant, although it will be 'very few'. God never gives up totally; he is still teaching those few that He IS the one true God, and that His word WILL stand. I guess that, without a remnant, there's no one to know the whole story and to see the story as the working of his hand and to bow before Him in response. The other nations may look at the situation and say that the God of Israel failed -- but the remnant knows better.

Here we go again: Jeremiah 42-43

The same pattern we saw during Zedekiah's reign (who started to free the slaves, then enslaved them again) and Jehoikim (who burned up the scroll upon which God's word was written) emerges again in these chapters. Now we hear it from the army officers and the people left in Judah (Jeremiah 42):

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God...

And their real response to God's word?(Jeremiah 43)
1 When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything the LORD had sent him to tell them- 2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, "You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'You must not go to Egypt to settle there.' 3 But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, [a] so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon."
4 So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the LORD's command to stay in the land of Judah.


These people continue to behave in the same pattern as their culture and role models. They seem to know nothing about trusting and obeying God -- but they know plenty about giving lip service to obedience, and then deciding on their own what God is or isn't telling them.

Why would they not behave that way? After all, they have been chasing false gods. And this behavior is fine if your god's are false -- if they are made up by you, then you CAN decide what they are saying. And the god can't do anything about it.

What they don't realize is that, when you're dealing with the Lord -- the one true God -- it is totally different. HE is REAL. He really has a will, and expresses it, and has the power to carry it out. And, when you disobey or ignore it, HE really does follow through with consequences.

False gods are so easy. So easy, and so powerless. So pleasant, and so worthless. So easy to get along with, and so impotent.

Once again, we see that it all comes down to this: Am I going to follow the Lord, the One True God, or not? Woe to the one who does not. But, Lord, I need help.

To quote the words of our Good Friday prelude:
Oh Savior of the world,
Who by thy cross and passion hast redeemed us,
Save us and help us we humbly beseech thee.
Save us and help us, oh Savior of the world.

Lord, have mercy on me. Save me and help me, oh savior of the world.

Jeremiah 40-41

Don't really get any great significance out of these two chapters. Nebuchadnezzar appointed someone to oversee Judah, but someone else kills him and then flees to Egypt for fear of Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah doesn't really play any role. The people left in Judah are joined by other Jews from surrounding country, who presumably hear that they can join in getting a great harvest from all the lands that have been vacated by those brought into exile.

God's will marches on.

Jeremiah 39: It finally happens

In Chapter 38, Jeremiah is thrown into a cistern by people who hate him for what he is saying, then rescued by the King. King Zedekiah again hears all of Jeremiah's prophecies, but he ignores them and swears Jeremiah to secrecy about their conversation. The king then keeps Jeremiah safe but imprisoned in his courtyard, and that is where Jeremiah is when the events he has been prophesying finally come about.

King Z was governed by fear. He was afraid to obey Jeremiah because of the possibility of being handed over to the Jews who had already gone over to the Babylonians. And when Nebuchadnezzar broke through the wall, his reaction was to try to run away. He was not only a coward, but it seems he was concerned only with himself.

I cannot imagine the horror King Z must have felt when Nebuchadnezzar broke through the city wall; when he and his officials were captured; when his children were put to death before him; when he was blinded and shackled; when he learned of the destruction of the palace, the houses, the walls of Jerusalem. All that Jeremiah said came to pass. After all that selfish fear, did King Zedekiah finally feel remorse for disobeying God, I wonder? It was said clearly, King Z heard it clearly, he rejected it, and now he has the misfortune of being left alive to know of his responsibility in the whole thing, and that he could have saved many people and much property if he had obeyed God.

Look at this piece of mercy found in Jeremiah 39:
10 But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

And look at the compassion the Lord shows to Jeremiah:
11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard: 12 "Take him and look after him; don't harm him but do for him whatever he asks." 13 So Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard, Nebushazban a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officers of the king of Babylon 14 sent and had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard. They turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him back to his home. So he remained among his own people.

How did Nebuchadnezzar know about Jeremiah, I wonder? Was it from Jews who had gone over to the Babylonians, or from spies he had in Jerusalem, or some other source? In any case, I am glad to see the Jeremiah is rewarded in this way for his dificult obedience to the Lord. May I be so faithful to God's word and will as was Jeremiah.