February 22, 2024

“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity. Additionally, they are full of greed.” (Ephesians 4.18, 19)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

In verse 4.20, Paul will remind the Ephesian community of faith in Christ of the life which was first revealed to them. By the remembrance they are drawn to the moment when they experienced the “first love of God in Jesus Christ.” As Paul spoke to them it is with less the sense of backsliding than it is more with the encouragement which Adam himself should have been committed to with Eve. Those who have followed my reflections will recognize the counter-cultural approach I use to turn the light of truth away from Eve and on to Adam. In the Book of Beginnings, we will read that as the Serpent revealed in its tempting message to draw Eve’s attention to itself, Adam was present. Through the ages, it has been the practice of blaming Eve for the presence and participation in a sinful journey. The term “the weaker sex (i.e. gender)” may well be derived in part or in whole from that moment in time. Yet, even that assertion is, for me, a part of the Temptation Story to draw our attention away from the truth. What was that truth? It is espoused in the words of God, as we read the second Genesis story found in chapter 2, “It is not good for man to be alone; let us make for him a companion.” We then have that surgical revelation of how God took from Adam the very elements needed to create “wo-man.” The language used in Hebrew speaks of Eve as one drawn from Adam. There is a reflection in that moment which serves as a reminder that on the sixth day when “man and woman were created” their image was drawn from God. All that was needed existed before. With that I would ask you to consider that just as it was not good for Adam to be alone, it is revealed that it is equally vital to know that it is not good “for woman to be alone.” The honus was always on Adam as the “head of the family” of God on earth to draw near to Eve as he should draw near to God. Equally important that Eve should draw near to Adam as she should to God. Before there was ever a “marriage pronouncement,” the truth existed that the two should be as one just as “the two who become as one” are thus one element in the spiritual “two who become as one” with God as the OTHER one. This is exactly what sin does. It causes a separation of the two so that the seeminly ultimate reality is that there is no longer one but two: equal, independent, powerful and self-sufficient. Is this not what Paul has already laid out in the verses before this?

Forty to fifty years later, it would be the Bishop of Ephesus [and thus of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor] who would remind the Ephesian community of faith in Christ of what Paul had already seen was possible. It was John the Apostle to whom the Resurrected and Glorified Christ Jesus revealed a warning to all seven churches of the “signs of the times.” And it was to the Church in Ephesus that the words were heard “you have forsaken your first love.” We might hear it this way: “You have forgotten when you were first truly and authentically loved…by ME!” It was the transformative love of Christ exposed through the gospel of Jesus preached by Paul to them, both Jew and Gentile in Ephesus which made them “followers of Christ.” They were inspired by the Holy Spirit to see the errors of unrighteous living and all its pretenses to set such practices to the side and take on the journey of faith. That journey would take them on the Davidic path through the Valley of the Shadow of Death in the presence of all their enemies to the place where they would finally dwell in green pastures, by still waters and in the place where the House of the Lord dwells forever. The promise of God seemed real enough to them and so counter-cultural to the world of despair around them that they believed, confessed their sin, professed Jesus to be Christ and Lord, were baptized and joined together as “one people with the One God.” Separated out to be in the world but not of it, they had faith, hope and love. They may look like other Ephesians on the outside but internally they were being shaped into the image of the eternal. The light of life and truth glowed within them. They should never allow themselves to be “separated from it.” They should commit themselves to, as Paul described for the Corinthians, “the breaking of bread, the sharing of the gospel, the teachings of the apostles and a worship inspired by the singing of hymns, psalms, songs and spiritual songs.

We would do well to remember that first love ourselves. For many it was when we were children and we know what Jesus said about them, “You would do well to have the faith of a child…truly dependent on the Father and mother for their very lives: heart, mind, body and soul.”

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.