Dear friends who sit around this breakfast table, partaking of the Holy Spirit’s offering for this day, understand that Paul encourages you to be light in the communities where you live. In today’s focus he calls you to action, saying, I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. He affirms that you have the goodness of the Spirit in you and are filled with enough knowledge to teach each other. How often do we seek more information from the Bible or from others such as our ministers merely to survive in this world. This behavior is not necessarily bad, for we do gather together in our communities of worship to encourage each other, to hear more of the biblical account of God and his grace, but we also are competent in our daily walk to instruct one another. Jesus said that He had to go away so He could send the Holy Spirit to the world; to abide in each believer; to make him or her a light in a dark and desperate world. Jesus’ going away through his death and resurrection was for our redemption, but the coming of the Holy Spirit to us is for our renewal, our empowerment, to reveal Christ in our daily walk. Paul tells the Roman Christians that they have plenty of knowledge, the capability to spread the light of God’s image to everyone inside and outside of the church. He tells them they have sufficient knowledge of God and his grace to be ambassadors of God’s will on Earth. They may live in a foreign land, a spiritually sparse land, but the Spirit of God abides in this land within them with manna to help make them competent servants of the Most High. After consuming manna in this wilderness, Christians should not go back to rest in their tents; they are to move on, following the Spirit’s cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night. God has a daily mission for us Christians. Each day, the Spirit talks to us about how to live our lives. 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) As prisoners of the Lord, filled with the Spirit of God, we are to live according to his calling. He died for the world because of his great love for all people. Jesus died for others because of his desire to fulfill the will of the Father. We are to die to this world because of Jesus, our Lord’s desire, not for the sake of death, but to rescue a world that is on the path of eternal death. Jesus came that all who believe in him should live with the Father forever. We who are alive IN CHRIST, ambassadors to his purposes, should so live that the people around us will come to the knowledge of knowing Christ and his eternal life.
Follow God’s example as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2) We who are alive IN CHRIST are to walk in the way of love, proclaiming the gospel of God. We are more than able to do that through the power of the resurrected Christ. Paul says that we are competent to be ministers. Not only should our words reveal Christ, but our actions also. We are to leave behind the thinking and actions of this world: immorality, impurity, and greediness. Every day, we are to step into the kingdom of love, grace, mercy and sacrifice. Our lives should be filled with attempts to satisfy the needs of others more than our own. Paul accentuates the sin of greed in his message to the Ephesians: For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. (Ephesians 5:5) The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines greed as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed.” This idolatrous behavior of desiring more of everything has infected our modern world; more always seems to be better, even if it is not needed. But Christ has called believers to a higher standard than focusing on just more of everything. He has called us to be servants of our loving Father, to serve the world as servants even as slaves for the purposes of revealing his love. We should imitate our Father for we are his children. As we read in Paul’s writing, So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. (Ephesians 5:10) Paul was given the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God. He revealed God through his actions and words. He exhibited grace and mercy. He was beaten often, threatened by others, not assured of whether he would live another day. Yet, he continued to serve God in his daily walk. We, too, should serve God openly in our daily journey. We are not anemic Christians, needing another sermon, another encouragement. As Paul said, we are competent to do the will of the Father. We have enough knowledge, enough understanding of God’s purposes to be his lights on this earth. Even in the body of Christ, we often see inactivity rather than actions. Sometimes, even the sinful attitude of self creeps into the demeanor and the behavior of the community of Christ. Words that should not have been said, actions that should not have been displayed are sometimes present within the body of Christ. But Paul says that God has given us his goodness, the ability to understand, and the competence to teach each other. We should behave accordingly in and out of the church
We can best understand the body of Christ by looking at the behaviors and actions of a well-founded marriage for Jesus calls the church his bride. The Bible says, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:25) Christ gave his life for the church. Husbands are to be willing to give up their lives for their wives. We see that a husband will leave his world for the benefit of his wife. He will unite with his wife unreservedly. A Christian will leave his old world and unite with the body of Christ with a fervency to protect everyone in the church. By doing so, the man becomes one with the body. He becomes one with the church, buried IN THE CHRIST. We see in the Bible that the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:33) The wife must come along side her husband, keeping in step, in harmony. They will live side-by-side, for the wife honors her husband by living in a state of closeness. In the church, we not only become part of the body of Christ, we live in this world side-by-side with Christ. We do not let anything come in between that intimate relationship. If we do let some outside influence affect our love for God, such as loving the world more than Christ, we become adulterers. Our intimate side-by-side relationship is no longer there for something or someone else becomes the love of our hearts. This adulterous relationship will destroy our covenant relationship with God, a relationship based on faithfulness and intimacy and a commitment to sharing the gospel of God. Consequently, we who are sitting around this breakfast table must never allow anything else to come between us and God, the Creator of all things. He has made us to live with him eternally. Eve was made out of Adam’s side. We have been made in God’s image, out of his Being. We are to live side-by-side with him forever. We are to RESPECT his authority. As Paul says we are filled with his goodness. Let us live that way, let us cleave to his side. Let us flee from our old lives, and live actively the life of a NEW CREATURE, made in God’s image. Jesus prayed for his disciples and for those who would believe in the message, My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. (John 17:20-21)
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