Today we are continuing our exploration of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We have heard, through Paul, all that God has done for us and how, through grace we are invited to be part of his plan. Now we look at how this should make a difference to our lives and the way that we live.
Paul exhorts us to change our ways – but first let us remind ourselves of what he has already written, pcking out some of the words brought to our attention by Mark, Ian and Rowena. In Chapter 2 we saw that we have not been saved by good works but for good works – we heard how once we were spiritually dead and living apart from God – we had no connection with God and no relationship with him – but now we have a new life we are reconciled in the body of Christ. Indeed as Rowena explored we are chosen and adopted into his family. How? Chapter 3 tells us that Christ has come to be a light to lighten the gentiles and Ian looking at the beginning of today’s chapter finished with Paul’s hope for the Ephesians that they, Roman and Greek, Jew and Gentile might be united in Christ’s body have the strength and understanding to fulfil their calling.
It is thus assured of our place in God’s family and knowing the availability of his strength that we come to today’s passage and look at what this means for our everyday lives. How we are to live in the world.
Paul has spent 3 chapters spelling out what God has done for the Ephesians, given to them, freely by his grace. Now he calls them to live rightly.
First he points out the fallen state of those around them John Stott says that the word used for hardening in v18 is also used of bony calluses – tissue that has lost all flexibility and ability to react. Whether we see the Gentiles actions as willful or not, the fact remains that there is a loss of feeling and with that a loss of control leading to a lack of moral behaviour. Barclay elaborates on the Greek word aselgeia, translated licentiousness: “The great characteristic of aselgeia is this - the bad man usually tries to hide his sin; but the man who has aselgeia in his soul does not care how much he shocks public opinion so long as he can gratify his desires.
But for those who know Christ, who are in Christ and have received his teaching the old life needs to be put away and the new life put on. The old and the new are incompatible in Christ. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to be like God in holiness and righteousness, but this isn’t just a letter about theology, he goes on to give very practical examples of what this means. The new person has new actions; new belief leads to changes in behaviour. Paul contrasts actions which will destroy relationships and those which will build relationships, falsehoods are contrasted with truth, unwholesome talk with talk that will build others up, bitterness, rage and anger are contrasted with kindness and compassion along with forgiving one another.
The man who steals is not only to stop stealing and find honest work with his hands, he is to do this so that he will have something to give to those in need. Anger is allowed but it mustn’t lead into sin, we need to know how to let go of anger so that nothing is there to fester inside us overnight and the devil, whom we have already talked about as a lion prowling round seeking whom he may devour, has no foothold inside us.
In chapter 1 Paul spoke of the Holy Spirit as a down payment and Paul reminds us again here that the Spirit’s presence is our promise of eternal life, but when we go back to our old ways we grieve the spirit. It is as if we are rejecting God’s love for us and this causes the Spirit to grieve for what we could be. Instead he wants us to turn from lust to love and from self gratification to self sacrifice, just as Christ sacrificed himself for us. Now, the season of Lent is a good time to think on this. Many people give things up for Lent and it is a traditional doctrine of Christian spirituality that turning away from sin and back to God, includes some form of penance, fasting can also be our way of identifying with Christ in the wilderness and joining him in rejecting temptations.
Lent is an opportunity for us to focus on our relationship with God, for me to give up control and build my relationship with God. It isn’t the giving things up or fasting that pleases God but the change in direction it brings, and as our OT reading Jeremiah also says, God wants not just an absence of our self will etc but he delights if we exchange our negatives for positives. The message God sends through Jeremiah is “Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow” Isaiah 58 says “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own"
Paul exhorts us to live in the light and to seek to please God so this Lent can we look to turn from our ways and embrace God’s ways, Make this Lent about turning our lives more completely over to Christ. Our goal being not just to abstain from sin and temptation for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives forever and ask Christ to send his spirit to fill us and strengthen us to work for good.
So I wonder if you have already chosen something to give up for Lent, perhaps you used to give up chocolates or other food but haven’t chosen anything to give up yet this year. Can I challenge you to look for something that will help you to live in the light of Christ. For some people it could be committing to give up judging others, or to give up a bad habit. Can we then move further and not only not judge others but find something positive and encouraging to say to them or to find a good habit to replace the bad one! As we seek to repent it may be good to not give anything up but to add something, it might be to set aside extra time to listen to God and pray or to commit our self to service or giving. We can even combine both by using money saved from giving one thing up to support good works. But throughout can we seek not just to change the outside but to know ourselves, to know our desires and to turn them towards the light.
Paul exhorts us to live as children of light, he lists many ways in which the Ephesians could think or do the wrong things and asks the church to have no hint of immorality or association with the darkness, so this Lent can we set aside time to imitate Jesus, as he spent 40 days in the wilderness .... to build our relationship with God. He wants to purify us, to fill us up, he wants to bless us. Paul sees the transformation which takes place as one in which we are not just moving from a darkened state to an enlightened one, but that we have become light. Just as in the creation of the universe God’s word brought light into darkness, so also His Word transforms us. Paul draws this parallel in 2 Corinthians 4:6 when he quotes Genesis 1:3 by saying: Our salvation is moving from darkness to light, from chaos to order.
The light of the Gospel transforms, it changes. Paul reminds us in verse 9 of the fruit that will then show in our lives. Goodness: thinking of others; Righteousness: thinking of God; Truth: Building the body The light of Christ in our lives will also transform our minds so that we will know what it means to please God. The light which reveals the sin within each of us, likewise affects the way in which we respond to others. The light which transforms us can transform our culture, we are not to withdraw from the world, avoiding contact, but rather shine light on the fruitless deeds. We are called to be light in our communities challenging the darkness. Lent can also be an opportunity to talk of our faith to others – not to boast of how we are fasting but to talk of how we are seeking to turn from our old ways and to become forces for good.
This is the positive change that the Gospel brings. In Matthew Jesus says we are salt, we are light. This is not something we try to be, but in Christ this is what we are. If we withdraw, defining ourselves by what we are not, then how will others see the light in our lives and be drawn to God through us? That which encounters the light takes on the quality of light. We expose sin for what it is not just by labelling it as sin, but by showing the freedom we have from its power. As we do that, we have the privilege to call others to change. We can be used of God to shine the light of Christ, the transforming power of the Gospel in the lives of those, who like us, are in darkness except for the grace of God. As the light shines, we take on the properties of that light and we shine, too. We finish on a note of harmony, as we are filled with the light we sing songs in our hearts and here at St Mary’s we know how to join together to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as we raise our worship together and give thanks to God.
Paul’s letter continues and we will hear more the week after next, but let us join Christians around the world in a Lenten fast which mourns for the darkness in our hearts and rejoices in the light of God who came into the world to save us