007 Altogether now

Part of a series of studies in Ephesians. See Articles

The mystery has been revealed the blessings poured out and the news is wonderful!

There is such a deep and precious relationship between a Christian and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Each of us has been so brilliantly blessed and in ways that are heavenly, eternal and spiritual!

That is what we are shown in the first three chapters of Ephesians, and so glad we are to learn it. That is the news to each and all of us.

But we don’t live just each of us. Each of us lives with others so what also becomes important is how each of us lives with us, with the mob, with the church.

So Paul turns our attention to being a group, community, the body of Christ.

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. (Ephesians 4:1-6)

In his prison cell Paul doesn’t have many options.  The soldiers, the guards will tell him what to do and he will have no choice but to do as he’s told. 

What about us? We aren’t locked in a prison but we have a calling that has expectations. We have been called by God almighty himself and a calling from God surely requires a response.

We have been raised from spiritual death to life.  We have been given every spiritual gift that comes from heaven. We have been predestined to become adopted children of the one Father and as his child we have been adopted in order that we might be to the praise of his glorious grace. This has happened because we have been bought back to God, brothers of Christ, at the cost of his blood, his crucifixion.

With this in mind we should take it seriously when we read I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. What kind of person should you be when you have been called in this way?

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:1)

In his letter to the Galatian Christians Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

This is what a Christian is like, this is what it is to live a life worthy of the calling we have received, living as a child of God would, living as one would who had been won by the blood of Jesus himself. As representatives of Jesus this is what people will see in us as we live in our community — others will see that this is what Jesus is like!

One of the features of our life will be seen as we bear with each other, support, encourage each other, love each other, will be evidence to the world that we are Christians.

There will be unity in our Christian community, unity that comes from the common relationship with the Spirit of God binding us together at peace with each other.

This kind of peaceful unity makes us one body, one unit in unity, with the Spirit of the resurrected Jesus working God’s purposes in and through us.

Sadly, as we think about this we can’t help but acknowledge that this is not what we always see in practice because we miss the part where we are urged to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit, keep the bond of peace, to recognise there is only one body of Christ.

Sadly, also, if we do not make every effort the lack of unity, the disagreements, divisions, differences, the reality of our blessings and our position with the Lord get lost in the chaos and we fail our Lord Jesus and lose sight of how much he has done for us and how muc

h he has given us.

It is so much easier to presume that all we need to is acknowledge at least inwardly that Jesus is our saviour and attend church services at least sometimes and cruise along with our life rather than make every effort to play our part of the body of Christ but Paul warns:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, (Philippians 2:12)

There is so much we have in common! One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

We were called to one hope and that is a precious gift to enjoy, a gift that blesses continually.  The gift of assurance and comfort in knowing our relationship to Jesus and knowing how he forgives and cleanses us, how he will accept us as righteous when we face his judgement, how we can look forward with joy and anticipation of his return with great victory!

This is a sure and certain hope, not wishful thinking but an expectation which will be fulfilled and for which there will be no disappointment. We have the word of God that reassures us, the promise of Jesus who never fails us.

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 took many captives and gave gifts to his people.’

(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.) (Ephesians 4:7-10)

There are mysteries that are hard to understand, gifts so great we are left wondering how they work. Paul understood these things, tells us about them and leaves us mulling them over.

We need to ask God for the grace, his help, to absorb these mysteries as best we can.

One thing we are in no doubt about: our God, our Lord Jesus took on human form and was crucified to give us cleansing and forgiveness, was buried and placed in a grave, just like all of us when we die, but then was raised to life in his heavenly, eternal body, never to die again. He was then seen to ascend back to the heaven where he now sits  at the right hand of the Father as King, Lord and judge.

That gospel has won many of us into his kingdom, committed to serving and loving him, captives to Jesus as Lord, free from the power of sin.

Jesus descended to earth, died and was entombed, rose again and ascended to rule the universe as its creator, king and judge.  Such is the Lord we know and serve and worship.

But he did not leave us on earth helpless or alone.  He sent his Holy Spirit to live in and with each of us and also to lead the group, the gathering of Christians and enabled some to special responsibilities.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his 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. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Some of us are empowered by the Holy Spirit to act as God’s initial, gifted messengers. The first 12 apostles were especially inspired to give the Gospels and letters of the new testament with teaching against which truth is measured. Prophets proclaim what God wants his people to know. Teachers help them to understand the guidance people need, especially the teaching of the apostles.

In 1 Corinthians 12 and in other places there is more detail about the way Jesus gives gifts to each of us so we can all play our part in the body of Christian believers.

There is a purpose in this, of course. As we each play our part then together we are built up, encouraged, unity is strengthened, faith is shared and awakens the gifts Jesus gives us , we know more about Jesus and grow from beginners to maturity. We each find out what it is that Jesus wants us to do as we live for him and the group of us together begins to present Jesus to the whole world and give to it what Jesus the King wants it to have.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed to and fro by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of 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. (Ephesians 4:14-16)

When we pull together like this then chaos goes and stability, calm, order and growth becomes the norm. Unity is achieved. No longer stressed wildly as if being lost at sea in a storm we pull together in the direction Jesus sets for us.

But there is danger still. The teaching Jesus gives us through the apostles, prophets and teachers can easily be overwhelmed by alternatives that are presented as attractive, reasonable, improved, modern, updated.  These alternatives are cunningly presented but are deceitful.  They are schemes set up to delude because they come as lies from the father of lies. Unless we take action to embed the truth Jesus gives in our thinking and lives we will be blown and drift away from truth.

We are to watch out for such falsehoods, weighing up the trustworthiness of our leaders.

When we take seriously the message given to us through the Bible then we can start encouraging each other by talking to each other about what we have learned from Jesus. We share this with brothers and sisters in the Lord as acts of love so that together we grow more like a representative of Jesus. Make a point of talking about Jesus with your fellow Christians: speak the truth in love.

He is the head of the body of believers and each of us is a vital part of the whole. We work together as parts of the body vital to the working of the whole, coordinated as a unit by the head, Christ. Every part is so vital, even down to those usually invisible parts, ligaments. When one of us ceases to play our part there is more than disability.  There is the inability to move at all in unity.

But as we hold together we support each other, we enable,, support, grow, move. Each of us doing our work and love grows - we recognise the significance of each other, the mutual dependance. Then Jesus Christ is recognised and then glorified.