February 26, 2024

“You were taught…to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness; to be made new in the attitude of your minds.” (Ephesians 4.24, 23)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

How many times have you heard “Well, that is true from your perspective.”? We all do have a way of perceiving reality and defining truth. Generally, we will do this in a manner that favors us. We are looking for any advantage we can gain in order to promote or support our way of living, thinking and becoming. I think we do it mostly in order to mask the lie so many of us continue to tell ourselves about ourselves. We will go so far as to manifest a lie about someone else in order to divert attention away from us. We will do it even with just the slightest breeze of inuendo. The challenge comes when others seek to invoke in us the need to see it from their perspective and then adopt it as our own. And there is something to be said for being objective. Our greatest opportunity for compassion is to see the world as it is seen through the eyes of others. It is especially true when we are seeking to minister to them. How can we appropriately show love if we are not speaking in a language that is more familiar to them? Paul confesses this when he wrote his letter to the community of faith in Christ existing in Rome particularly or in general to Christ followers throughout the Roman Empire. To the Jews he speaks out of his knowledge of Judaism. To the Gentiles he speaks out of his knowledge of Gentiles and in particular to each community. To sinners, he speaks out of his own history of sinfulness even admonishing himself as “the chief of all sinners.” it was important to not speak that “spiritual” language, and I am not talking about glossolalia or the “speaking in tongues but the language of repentance and conversion leading to reconciliation, as if it were a foreign tongue. Taking his cue from the Letter to the Corinthians “If I have the abiity to speak with the tongues of men or of angels but have not love, then I am no better than a banging gong or a clanging cymbal.” It behooves us to speak to one another in “the language of love” from the perspective of God Himself who is perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ.

This is what Paul is urging the Ephesians to remember to do. In their status as children of God and joint heirs of the Kingdom alongside Jesus the Christ, they are imbued with the opportunity and ability to share the defining perspective of the gospel of love. The gospel longs to find its place in our lives where we can connect to it and it to us. In so doing, we gain a new perspective on life which I believe is called righteousness. “Righteousness” is the way that God sees the life being lived perfectively in harmony with all creation. Righteousness is the way we ought to see ourselves. It can be a stern standard by which we find ourselves not fully measuring up. It is, however, the standard by which are called to see ourselves “perfectly.” Not that we are or can be perfect even if Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mountainside “Be perfect as Your Father in Heaven is Himself perfect.” But, it is the standard of life measure by which we are able to see strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, rights and wrong as well as good and evil with an objective perspective. That perspective is nothing less, and can be nothing more, than the Word of God made known perfectly in Jesus Christ. The light of true shows us completely. In that light, there are no places to hide where we might find comfort in deluding ourselves into believing “it doesn’t matter.” It most certainly matters to God. God cares so much that He sent His only begotten Son to live, die and live again in order that we might not only believe in the truth but make it the benchmark for our daily walk of faith, hope and love: the greatest of these being love.” So, in putting on our new selves, being born again in spirit and in truth, we must find that new perspective by which we see the world around and in us. We are taught, called and challenged to see it all as God sees it. It must become our default perspective by which we will be able to give glory to God and hope to the world around us.

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.