Being strong in the Lord

10 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-11)

Although the realms of evil and darkness may be of some mild fascination for us, Ephesians 6 urges us to prepare for and enter into the battle. Indeed we probably don't realize the seriousness of the battle as much as we should. 

If for example I knew of some plot to rob my home of it's possessions, or bring harm to my family, I'd be moved to act and protect those things that are important to me. I'd want to be aware of such plans so as to act to stop such things happening. God's enemy wishes to steal away and bring harm to Christ's loving supremacy over our lives - something more precious than anything. Should we not heed words such as these that call upon us to be aware of such schemes and to be drawn ever closer to the Lord Jesus who overcomes all that the Devil will throw at us?

Paul's metaphor of the Roman soldier is a call to be standing on the promises of the Gospel. This is the very heart of spiritual warfare and the book of Ephesians as a whole brilliantly demonstrates the power and wonder of such promises. 

So, to be  wisee for the battle, I'd recommend reading 6:10-20 and then reading through the entire letter again to see the many rich links between this passage and the letter as a whole. This is no mere theological exercise to stimulate your thinking, but is highly practical to engage your whole being. 

Also I'd do some thinking through when you find yourself most vulnerable to sin and temptation. What factors are at play? What are you being tempted to think? How are you feeling about yourself and others at the time? Why has Christ and his promises and goodness been shifted? 

To do some further thinking about how the Bible deals with many of these issues I'd recommend Living with the Underworld by Peter Bolt (picture above). Not only does he help you get a handle on the whole evil spiritual world (he does this very well), but he also explains how the Gospel is to inform the way we approach and deal with this whole arena. Demons and other evil forces are not at the heart of the Bible's message, they are, as Peter describes, more on the periphery. But the book very wisely allows what is at the heart of the Bible's message, to inform us and help us understand the reality of evil.  

Paul does the same as he grounds all of reality in the Gospel, in Christ. If you are in Christ, clothed with his good promises...the devil will not be able to mess with you....though he may try.

Without Christ, we are not just vulnerable to evil, but are captivated by it. With Christ, we are wise to the Evil One's schemes and free from such tyranny and power. For faith in Christ, expressing itself in love cannot be overcome.

Why not pray the following? 

Father please keep reminding me and showing me how awesome Jesus really is. Keep reminding me of the riches that I have in the Gospel. Keep reminding me that I belong to you because of Christ and show me the good deeds you have planned for me to walk in each day. Keep showing me in the time of temptation that this world belongs to Jesus and that in Christ I’ve got something I can never lose, which outshines and outlasts all of this life’s momentary treasures. Fill me with your Spirit so that my strength and energy for life come from my saviour and victor, the one who has overcome all evil for me already. Amen.

"Living with the Underworld" is currently available on the church bookstall.

Marriage and the cultural cringe

When Paul addresses husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 our cultural senstitivites begin to rise. I can't think of many more controversial parts of the Bible and as it's read you can almost feel the collective cringe. Although this is a hard part of Scripture for us to come to terms with, it seems to me that we must give such a passage a fair and humble reading. Is it possible that we potentially de-canonize and 'right off' parts of the Bible by putting them in the too hard basket? Is Ephesians lurking in the bottom of the basket somewhere?

    What a shame this would be because what is said on marriage here is the most important not only in the Bible, but (of course) anywhere else as well. No passage honours marriage so highly, nor effectively protects marriage from destructive and ungodly habits. This is so because Paul grounds and frames mariage in the truth of the Gospel itself. Indeed he is actually using marriage to talk again about the wonder of Christ and our relationship and blessing in him.

Lots of great questions came out from Sunday's talk and a loving church will engage with these honestly and lovingly. Perople were keen to explore issues like:

How can a single person really be an encouragement to someone who is married?

How does Ephesians 5 work out when the marriage relationship has been so poorly modeled to you?

Are you meant to 'practice' sacrificial leadership and humble submission before you get married?

How can someone submit to another if they really, really disagree with the other person?

    I'm keen that we explore these issues together...hopefully without the cultural cringe. Indeed feel free to explore them in this forum.

    Also, for those of us who are married, those of us planning to get married some day, or those of us who know anyone who might be married... "Married for God" pictured above, is a very helpful book. The author really nails it on some key issues on what marriage is really for and how it is grounded in the reality of Christian faith. So you'll learn as much about God as you will abou marriage from this book....and it's very challenging, whether you're married or not.

    Finally, I was really pleased that people were seeking to think through how we care for each other as a congregation. Whether single or married we are all Christ's body and Ephesians 4 & 5 gives us a great model for how to be caring for one another. Christ focussed and other person centered. Let's keep praying for each other and considering how we can best glorify God in our midst.

Married for God by Christopher Ash: Available at the bookstall after church.

Building with the right heart

     I'm still amazed how careful Paul is to ensure people are grounded in Christ before he tells them what they are to do. Several of Paul's letters follow this same pattern, but I am struck by the way Paul does it so prayerfully and earnestly in Ephesians. 

    Of course he longs for Christians to walk worthily before the Lord, but we are simply unable to do this unless we truly know that he is Lord. He longs for Christians to get off the sidelines and into the action of building the church. But he's careful to show the blueprint plans first and ensure they are known and loved.

     Getting to our hearts  

    This is why Paul's prayers is Eph.1:15-23 & 3:14-21 are so helpful for us. He wants us to know the wonder of Christ to our very core or our hearts.   As mentioned on Sunday night, the word 'heart' (1:17 & 3:17) is not used the way we naturally read it. We read heart and think of either a blood pump or of our emotions. But the word is far richer than that. The heart is the seat not only of your emotions, but also of you will and your thinking. So the classic head/heart distinction people often make is actually quite unhelpful.

 Jonathan Edwards (18th century theologian and philosopher) has a really helpful honey illustration on this. He said you can know rationally that honey is sweet and you can have many of your friends testify to its sweetness. But you don't really truly know it until you taste it. Having tasted honey, your rationality and your senses bring you to truer knowledge as to what honey is. In this sense you really know.

  Edwards argued that you might rationally consider that God is glorious, but to truly apprehend the wonder and excellency of God it has to go deeper...to the heart. We've got to move from having an opinion that eg God is gracious and holy, to the point where we truly know and experience the beauty and joy of his grace and holiness.

     The power of the Gospel

    How does this happen? Well you guessed it, the Gospel has the power to move us from knowing something about God, to experiencing his blessing as our God. Forgiveness moves from being something we intellectually 

agree with, to being something we rejoice in.

     Paul longs for us to truly know and experience the wonder of Christ which is why he so often starts by reveling in the wonderful Gospel story. He knows the Spirit of God is at work when the Gospel Word of God is proclaimed and so you will not easily find Paul urging people to do anything in the Christian life unless he has already inspired and affirmed people in the Gospel. His reason? Again, you can't walk worthily of the Lord unless you know him as Lord and have confidence in who he is. 

     

      The idols of our hearts

  Let's think some more on idolatry for a moment. The thing that is fundamentally motivating us in life, the key centre of our identity, is what our hearts truly want to trust. Paul prays and longs for Christ to dwell there and shake away the idolatry (God substitutes) which naturally drive and capture us. The reason we often find we have little traction in the Christian life is because deep down we have failed to grasp the implications of the Gospel. We must centre our life and identity on Jesus because he is the only master who will never abuse us and the only Lord who when we fail - will give us forgiveness. 

No idol, no matter how good they may seem (money, career etc) can or will treat you like that.

     Tim Keller in his awesome new book "The Reason for God" (copies coming soon) runs through some of the more common god-substitutes and suggests, quite controversially  the following: (think these through are see which "idol/s" resonate with you)

• If you centre you life and identity on your work and career, you will be a driven workaholic and a boring, shallow person. At worst you will lose your family and friends and, if your career goes poorly, develop deep depression.
• If you centre you life and identity on money and possessions, you'll be eaten up by worry or jealousy about money. You'll be willing to do unethical things to maintain your lifestyle, which will eventually blow up in you life.
• If you centre your life and identity on pleasure, gratification, and comfort, you will find yourself getting addicted to something. You will become chained to the "escape strategies" by which you avoid the harndess of life.
• If you centre your life and identity on relationships and approval, you will be constantly overtly hurt by criticism and thus always losing friends. You will fear confronting others and therefore will be a useless friend.
• If you centre you life and identity on a 'noble cause" you will divide the world into "good" and "bad" and demonize your opponents. Ironically, you will be controlled by your enemies. Without them, you have no purpose.
• If you centre you life and identity on your spouse or partner, you will be emotionally dependent, jealous, and controlling. The other person's problems will be overwhelming to you.
• If you centre your life and identity on you family and children, you will try to live your life through your children until they resent you or have no self of their own. At worst, you may abuse them when they displease you.
• If you centre your life and identity on religion and morality, you will, if you are living up to your moral standards, be proud, self-righteous, and cruel. If you don't live up to your standards, your guilt will be utterly devastating. 

     Building the church

    Now that is quite a list! But it helps us see how and why Jesus should be at the heart of who we are. And in order to genuinely build the church, with the right motivations and blueprint, we need more than just a list of instructions and expectations. Instructions and expectations won't change me nor do damage to the god-substitutes that are actually running my life. And I'm highly likely to do damage in the church - because at best I'll be there for me, (and ironically, my idols), but I certainly won't be there for you and for Jesus.

    

     

Ephesians 1...let's give it a go!

The last three weeks I've been struck by the fact that Ephesians 1 is not for the light hearted. If you're keen to avoid challenge, wonder, grace and a Jesus bigger and better than you can imagine....then you need to stick well clear of this passage.

But of course who'd want to settle for that? Rather, I've been struck by how much Paul wishes to embrace it and see others benefit as a result. So here's a couple of thoughts I've had as to how we all can practically benefit from this passage.

Firstly, why not join with Paul in the praise. That is, consciously spend time praising God, particularly for our brothers and sisters in Christ. They are the object of God's interest and love and one of the implicit challenges of this chapter (and the rest of the letter) is for us to share God's passion and love for his people. It strikes me that it's far easier for criticism to come from my heart and lips regarding God's people than praise. I want to have Paul's attitude and practice and I should anyway. Crossroads in the City is an awesome group of people to be with...a rich gathering indeed.

Secondly, why not use vv.15-23 as a basis for writing out your own prayer for yourself and for others. This will help you consider more seriously those three key areas of hope, riches and power that we looked into on Sunday night. How many of our difficulties relate to these areas not being transformed by the Gospel reality? I can't therefore think of many more important things to be praying for. Why not pray on the basis of these verses for your Gospel group this week. Why not share with others that you've been praying for them these very things? How about even writing it down and sharing your prayer with others. Seems to me if it was good enough for Paul in regards to the Ephesians, then it's good enough for us in regards to the Crossroadians.

How awesome to be in a church where this kind of thing is happening. Where we genuinely praise God for one another and pray to God for one another for the things that really matter. 

Let's give it a go!