Year 2, Week 48, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 48, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ephesians 3-5.

Today’s reading covers additional chapters from Ephesians. The Book of Ephesians, which is also one of the four letters that Paul wrote during his time in Rome, is a letter to the church in Ephesus explaining the glorious purposes of God for the church. Ephesians 3 focuses on the implications that flow out of Paul’s explanation of the church being a community of Jews and Gentiles, which he had expressed from the previous chapter. Paul highlights two implications concerning the church: “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles…this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:1,8). Paul was commissioned to reach the Gentiles with the Gospel and see them added to the church. The second implication is expressed in prayer: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14-15). Paul’s prayer is for the church to realize the special presence of Christ, who by the Spirit, indwells the church. Ephesians 4 begins a new segment concerning the practical dimensions of life together as the church: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). Ephesians 5 continues the segment of practical considerations of life togethers as the church: “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:18b-21).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is Paul’s outline for how a follower of Christ is to experience change in their lives: “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do…But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:17,20-21). As Paul began the chapter, believers are to live in a different trajectory—they must abandon the life and its accompanying lifestyle that comprised their former life: “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Ephesians 4:18-19). But such a life is incompatible with following Christ. Such a like contradicts, “as the truth is in Jesus.” Followers of Christ are to have “learned,” “heard,” and “taught,” the way to live a new life in Christ.

The new life in Christ, that believers are to live consists of a method involving three facets: “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). I would suggest that this method involving three facets is, in fact, the truth as it is in Jesus that they have “learned,” “heard,” and been “taught.” The first facet of walking “as the truth is in Jesus,” entails a renunciation of former ways of living: “to put off your old self, which belongs for your former manner of life.” The “old self” refers to the believer's former, unregenerate nature. Believers are not to be ruled by the person they once were, and therefore must always be putting off or laying aside sin. The second facet of walking “as the truth is in Jesus,” entails experiencing a radical revitalization concerning the way the mind, or heart, thinks, feels, and chooses: “and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” Interestingly, this second facet is a command that is framed in the passive voice, meaning that believers are obligated to to pursue this state of renewal, but it is ultimately God, by the Spirit, who does the renewing. As believers seek God’s Word, God’s Spirit does a work of renewal. The third facet of walking “as the truth is in Jesus,” entails a cultivation of new characteristics and virtues: “and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Such a new way of life is a life that is commensurate with the new regenerate life that is experienced in Christ. Thus, living as a follower of Christ involves the ongoing process of putting off, followed by putting on, as the mind is renewed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. This is walking “as the truth is in Jesus.”

Paul concludes this process of change by providing concrete examples through a series of negative commands (prohibitions), as to what not to do is immediately followed by corresponding positive commands (obligations) as to what to do. For example, believers are to put away lying but speaking the truth (Ephesians 4:25); refrain from stealing but working hard and giving (Ephesians 4:28), desist any corrupt talk, speaking what is good for edification of others (Ephesians 4:29); and refusing to hateful and angry, being kind to others (Ephesians 4:31-32). In Christ Jesus, believers are “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” With the image of God restored, believers are to, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). The practice of imitation comes through the process of putting off, followed by putting on, as the mind is renewed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe