Dear Student of the Word,
It's been two weeks since I sent you the last update from Ephesians, so it's time for the next one. This week we continue to look at Paul's comments to his readers that pertained to who Christ is and what he would expect from their behavior. As he began chapter four and his practical teaching in this letter, here are my comments on his remarks, with the entire week's study ready to download below:
4:1 – As mentioned earlier, you don’t have to be in prison to be a prisoner for the Lord. You can be a prisoner to God’s purpose and grace in your life, doing what it is that He created you to do. Here Paul shifted away from his theological teaching and emphasized more of the actions and attitudes that his theology should produce in the lives of the believers. We should live a life worthy of and consistent with the high calling he described in the first three chapters.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does (James 1:22-25).
You can know it is right to be generous yet not give. You may know it is right to serve, yet sit and watch television, not involved in the lives of those around you. You can know a lot of things that you should do, but unless you do them, they are no benefit to you or others.
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17).
4:2 – Paul urged his readers to be gentle and humble. It is always a decision to be humble and meek, but it requires the grace of God to actually be those things. You decide that’s what you want to be, admit to God that you cannot achieve them on your own, and then invite God’s presence to develop those attitudes and behaviors in your heart and life.
So then, it is safe to say that humility is part work and part grace. I can decide to humble myself, but true humility is God-given. Why would Paul urge you to be patient and to bear with one another unless he knew you were going to need that exhortation and that you could do something about it? People will always “step on your toes,” sometimes without realizing they have done so. Your response must always to be gracious and forgiving. Humility and meekness are greatly honored by the Lord, as seen in this story from the life of Moses:
"Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the Lord heard this. (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.
“But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them. When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy (Numbers 12:2-10).
4:3 – Unity with your fellow believers requires effort on your part. You must work at it; it is not a gift of God. And given the reality of verse two, the opportunities for disunity and offense are all too prevalent! The Church is the only entity in the world that encounters the level of spiritual warfare that it does. Why? Because the “gates of hell” are attacking it! Most people interpret Jesus’ promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church to mean that the gates of hell will not try to prevail. That is not correct. Hell will certainly attempt to prevail and that may lead to some very intense times where it is be hard to maintain unity.
How unified are you with other believers? What can you do to improve? Are there any attitudes that you need to change to enhance your unity with others? It is not a mark of spirituality that you are an independent thinker. It is a mark of carnality!
As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. For additional Bible studies, check out my website archive, which contains a complete collection of all my verse-by-verse New Testament studies, along with the unpublished volumes of The Faith Files.
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OPERATION CHICKEN COOP: Two weeks ago I announced my latest effort to help orphans in Kenya and it is Operation Chicken Coop. The goal is to help orphanages raise chickens for food and revenue. I outlined how we can do this in a blog post and have received about $300 of the $6000 needed toward the project. I just know that God is going to provide and He may use you to do so! You can give using the widget from Chipin on my Monday Memo or blog site. If I have the money by August 11, I can take it over with me and we can get started
THE SOPHIA FUND: While you are at it. don't forget that I need your ongoing help for The Sophia Fund, which I use to feed orphans and widows. I cannot set up chicken farms for every orphanage, and there are still plenty of children in Kenya who eat one meal a day, if that. I have a separate widget for that cause as well on the Monday Memo site. $10 came in for the Fund last week. Thank you again for your help.
RETURN TO KENYA: I will be back in Kenya from August 16-18 to conduct another Investment in Excellence seminar in conjunction with The Pacific Institute. This is a three-day seminar that changed my life when I attended it in 2004. Now I am a trained facilitator and want to share what I have with my friends in Kenya. The one I did in Nairobi last May was a tremendous success and this one promises to be bigger and better. It is not inexpensive, but the returns in your life and work are priceless. You can download the attached flier to find out more information and to read some of the testimonies of those who were present last May. Once you read, I urge you to register today so we can continue the work of changing Kenya one life at a time.
As always, you are dead on, brother John!!!
Blessings from Texas!
Alicia
Posted by: Alicia Formagsu | July 30, 2010 at 08:23 AM
Hi Bro John I will be more than willing to be there when you are back in nairobi , I dont know whether kengen is invited ,May meeting changed my life
Posted by: joseph mwangi | July 31, 2010 at 11:19 AM