February 19, 2024

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“So, I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” (Ephesians 4.17)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As we are the body of Christ together, that is- we are the Church, and individually members of it, we know that our entire being is created to be in the world but not of it. To better understand Paul’s urging to “not live as the Gentiles do,” we can reflect back on the life which existed before Adam and Eve were sent out into the world. In the Garden of Eden, they lived without sin; that is, before the succumbed to Satan’s distraction of “surely God did not mean you will die, did He?” In the time before they entertained life apart from God’s providentiary protection, there was a harmony of living together with God. All that was necessary to live with God in the Garden was provided. In the Garden they lived with the freedom of meeting their purpose and mission. They represented the fullness of God in their relationship with each other. They were blessed with the opportunity to use their gifts, talents and abilities to accomplish the work they were given. Seemingly, there were only three rules (two of which were stated and one assumed): do not eat of the Tree of Knowledge which reveals good and evil; honor the Sabbath day on which the only work was to worship God and the (assumed) rule of “love one another, the two being as one as the two (man and wife) being one with God. It was not until Satan inserted himself into the “revelation” that they found they themselves could be an “evil” apart from God. Disobedience is the key to this understanding.

Dualist thinking is always a challenge to the understanding of ourselves and of God. It is in the setting up of polar opposites as equals which renders the chasm that has become “fixed between us.” I use that terminology from the story Jesus told of “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” In that story, the rich man upon his death finds himself in torment and suffering while Lazarus finds himself after death in a place of peace and comfort. The places in life which they experienced before death were just the opposite. In his struggle, the rich man cried out to Father Abraham, “Send Lazarus to bring me water.” Abraham replied that it was impossible to do because there was a “chasm fixed between us that cannot be overcome.” This is an expression of the impact sin has upon those whose lives are meant for righteousness. Sin creates the trench and the consequence is the absence of God’s providential care. It is not the signal that God has no authority over death. The realm of sin and death as opposed to righteousness and life are all under the authority of God. While they are opposites, they are not equals. Life always is meant to triumph over death and resurrection is the evidence of it. Righteousness always triumphs over sin and the cross of Christ is intended to be the evidence of it. Over it all is God and all else remains obedient to Him.

So, where is the problem as Paul say it for the faith in Christ community in Ephesus? It was to live as Gentiles who abided in the futility of their thinking. In the verses that follow, Paul lists the elements that showed the futility. What is that futility? All the ways of the Gentiles lead to sin and death. Why? Because none of the thinking of the Gentiles included righteousness which can only come from believing in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here is the caveat, mighty ones, which Paul will make specifically in the Letters to the Romans and to the Hebrews. Those who called themselves “sons of Abraham” but did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah were making of themselves no better than Gentiles who lived without faith. The same can be said of us in this world who seek to live without faith in Christ and those who claim Jesus as the Christ but do not live by His commands. What are those commands which remain in effect even today? We know them well (love God, love neighbor, love self, love enemy and ultimately to love one another), but do we know them well enough that we are in obedience to them and thus overcome the world?

That, my friends, is living worthily the life we are called to live. We are called to live in obedience to the will and way of God. It is to see that God is the Lord of all and sovereign in His authority over life and death. In God we find our perfect harmony. Only by His mercy and grace which is ours in Christ Jesus are we able to be “at peace” with ourselves and one another.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.