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.
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