Honest prayer lifts us to the one who can help.
There was a time when people turned to God in disasters. “How can God allow this?” they asked, sometimes in anger. Now technology lets us recognize the wave before it hits, so people place their trust in medicine and governments to save us. Technology is useful, but it isn’t our security.
Let’s encourage each other to look higher: Continue reading “Lament and hope: when life feels patchy”
The gospel calls us into an alternative world.
Some of my friends struggle with “Submit to each other” (Ephesians 5:21). So many people have been subjected to abuse, humiliation, and injustice that subjecting them to anything further feels like more grief.
Other friends find submission natural. God is the authority, with all authorities under him, so of course Christians must be submissive.
How do you feel about this command? Continue reading “Kingdom lifestyle: submitting to each other (Ephesians 5:21)”
Is he scary?
Fear of Christ is a phrase found just once (Ephesians 5:21). It’s the generic word for fear (phobos). Many translations render it as “reverence” or “respect”, but that isn’t strong enough. In a kingdom perspective, fear of Christ displaces every fear.
Staying afloat?
You might be sick of hearing about a tiny virus threatening our way of life: health, economy, sport, travel, theatres, cafes, pubs, even churches.
How do you find peace in troubled times? Continue reading “Peace in troubled times”
When do you feel alive? I can understand people wanting to use substances to drown their sorrows, but sorrows turn out to be good swimmers.
If you’re looking for an alternative way to come alive, how about this:
Do not get drunk on wine … Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
This isn’t random advice. It’s part of a bigger story of how people who feel like the walking dead can come alive in our resurrected king (Ephesians 2:1-5).
The one thing that overpowers our pain is the life-generating work of the Holy Spirit bringing us to life in Christ. He’s establishing a whole new society where our feelings of alienation are replaced with the music of life — Spirit-inspired songs of gratitude for the rescue that’s underway, the restoration of humanity in the leader God has given us.
So, c’mon: God is calling us to let go of the brokenness and participate in being truly human together:
Ephesians 5:15–20 (NIV)
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why raise this contrast at this point of the book? Why wine specifically? Is there anything in the Bible’s larger narrative that would suggest this contrast.
Continue reading “Happiness without harm (Ephesians 5:15-20)”
Interesting question.
Recently I was asked this in a text message:
Q: Why did God sacrifice his only Son to save us instead of killing Satan directly?
Love this question! It accumulates so many misunderstandings of the gospel. Truth is, God’s goal wasn’t to kill Satan. God didn’t need a blood sacrifice before he would save us. And God didn’t kill his Son. Continue reading “Why didn’t God kill the devil instead of his Son?”
Our previous post stirred up some discussion when I suggested that it is God who issues the gospel call, so we don’t need to devise mechanisms to get people to respond. Let’s clarify. Continue reading “God’s couriers”
How do we issue the gospel invitation? We agree the gospel is important, but we have different ways to get people to respond. Should we follow Billy Graham’s approach, inviting people to respond to an altar call to be saved?
What’s niggling me is that the New Testament letters tell us nothing of how to issue this important call. They seem to think the call comes from God. Continue reading “The gospel call (Ephesians 5:14-20)”
Hint: it’s more than an individual.
What does this mean?
Ephesians 5 14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (NIV)
It’s not an Old Testament quotation. Was it a baptismal formula, something early churches said as they laid someone back in the water and raised them up in the Lord? That’s an attractive idea but it doesn’t really work: you is plural, even though sleeper is singular. It seems the sleeper is a corporate entity, not a baptismal candidate.
While not a direct quote, it could be a distillation of Isaiah’s extensive imagery of light and dark (Isaiah 54–62).
No, this isn’t just a call for ethical behaviour. It’s a call to embody the brilliance of Christ’s reign.
For a clear vision of what we’re called to be, turn up the contrast:
Making sense of this unique phrase.
Do you read this as a warning that you might not go to heaven?
Ephesians 5 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a person is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (NIV)
It didn’t mention heaven. Readers substitute heaven because that’s how kingdom of God has been understood. But the Bible’s narrative isn’t about us going to heaven; it’s about God’s kingship being restored to earth.
We’ll take it phrase by phrase, but first the backstory: the Bible’s narrative of the kingdom of God. Continue reading “The kingdom of Christ and God (Ephesians 5:5-7)”
How you love tells us how you use power.
Language expresses culture. Abusive language rises in a culture of abuse. “F. you” is so common that we no longer hear it as a curse, wishing sexual abuse on someone.
Four-letter words are the language of power and humiliation — a graphic verbal image of the powerful forcing themselves on the humiliated. It’s a snapshot of what’s wrong with the world, the culture of injustice.
There’s a world of difference between genuine love and screwing people over. Continue reading “Sex and power (Ephesians 5:1–5)”
What we say reveals who we’re speaking for.
Want peace on earth? There’s a message that can deliver it. No, it’s not “Everybody try harder!” It’s the announcement that the hostilities are over because God has rescued humanity from the warring factions of evil, into the reign of his anointed. That’s the good news of salvation.
Words matter. Continue reading “The scent of your words (Ephesians 4:29 – 5:2)”
Game’s on. Who’ll win?
Ever been robbed? You come home to a broken window and the realization that someone has been in your space. They’ve taken your stuff — some of it irreplaceable, like that ring that belonged to your Mum.
The thief doesn’t care about you, or your Mum, or how your children will sleep after the intrusion. For the thief, you’re not human; you’re just your stuff. Continue reading “Thieves vs philanthropists (Ephesians 4:28)”
Let the right one in.
Do not give the devil a place (Ephesians 4:27).
Three questions, but first a clarification. One translation says not to give the devil a “foothold.” That’s a very odd image, as if the devil is climbing up a rock face. The word is topos, a generic word for place.
So:
Growing up, I was never angry. Anger was sinful, so I could never be angry.
One day I discovered this in Ephesians 4:26: In your anger, do not sin. God knew I would feel angry, and he asked me to manage my response.
I can’t tell you how liberating that was. For the first time, I could ask myself the question God asked Cain, “Why are you angry?” (Genesis 4:6). Owning the emotion was the first step to processing it. My anger often came from frustration, sometimes from injustice, occasionally I’d transferred it from another issue. Identifying and owning these emotions (affect labelling) was a stepping-stone to a healthy response. Continue reading “Processing offence (Ephesians 4:26)”
Lies gain a competitive edge, but truth unifies us.
Read Ephesians 4:25.
Lying gives me a competitive advantage. With a lie, I manipulate people for the outcomes I want. “I didn’t do it” avoids punishment. “It’s a wonderful old car” rewards the seller. You show an idealized image on social media, where romantic relations begin.
But lies are murder for relationships. The first lie was a brother saying, “Let’s go out into the field” (Genesis 4:8). It wasn’t an outright lie; more a deception to destroy the competition. Cain felt unaccepted. He believed his lie: he’d be more acceptable if his brother wasn’t in the way.
Words open worlds.
Lies fabricate a world where no one lives. To enter a lie is to choose a wasteland of isolation, to become “a restless wanderer on the earth” (Genesis 4:12).
Truth opens the door to authentic worlds, worlds we can share. But truth feels vulnerable. Truth risks rejection.
Radical inclusivity is the good news of Ephesians. The Jewish writer rejects the use of labels like “uncircumcised” to marginalize people of other nations (2:11). Gentiles are no longer excluded from the covenant people: “no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens” (2:19).
Equality flows out of the gospel: “through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel” (3:6). King Jesus commissioned the writer “to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ” (3:8).
So, this comes as quite a shock:
Ephesians 4 17 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. (NIV)
What’s the problem? Many gentile practices were repulsive to Jews. Which ones does our author have in mind?
Are some of those just cultural stereotypes? What does the writer mean by insisting that people of other nations must change their lifestyle?
Let’s be clear. The writer is not saying that gentiles must behave like Jews. He views his own people as just self-absorbed and disobedient as the nations (2:3).
Here’s the issue. Radical inclusivity demands change. We can’t go on treating each other badly, and then congratulate ourselves on how inclusive we’re being. The gospel is the good news of Jesus restorative kingship, so responding to the gospel is a change of allegiance. My allegiance can no longer be to myself and my mob; it is to Jesus, as Lord of all people.
I cannot smuggle my existing culture into the life of Jesus’ kingdom. The Jewish Messiah extended citizenship to the nations, and requires us to live as citizens of his kingdom. On the Jewish side, Galatians explains that God’s people are no longer defined by the boundary markers that separated Jews from gentiles (kosher food laws, Sabbath observance, circumcision, and ethnicity). On the gentile side, Ephesians insists that this is a complete change of culture.
When someone follows Jesus, you can see the radical reversal. We’re accustomed to living for the self, pursuing what we want (our lusts), as if consuming could satisfy us. That’s not how God’s anointed lived: he lived not for self-gratification, but to benefit us. He gave his life for the restoration of humanity. That’s the culture of his kingdom: a people who give their lives for each other, so humanity is growing towards the mature way of life revealed in him, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of the Messiah” (4:13).
That radical reversal of life direction is the contrast in these two paragraphs:
Ephesians 4:17-24 (paraphrased, compare NIV)
17 In light of what we’ve been saying (the restoration of humanity that God is achieving in his anointed), I insist that you can no longer live as if it were business-as-usual for the nations. 18 They’d gone to the dark side in their thoughts, alienated from God’s life through the ignorance within them, through the callousness of their heart. 19 Having desensitized themselves, they gave themselves up to sensuality, expressed in unclean actions, constantly consuming.
20 That’s not the Christ you learned, 21 assuming you heard him and were taught the truth in Jesus. 22 His truth sets you apart as a different culture to the old humanity that was corrupted by desires and deception, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 to dress in the new humanity from God, created in his true righteousness, holiness, and truth.
Self-orientation demeans others, and so dehumanizes us. It’s the culture of consumption, fighting each other to get more. That’s the history of the world. It’s the dark lie that’s destroying us.
We realize that when we see Jesus. No self-seeking in him. He didn’t live to fulfil his own desires; he lived for our sakes. In the culture of our King, we learn to be human. We discard our self-oriented culture like worn out rags, garments that no longer fit us. We put on a new culture, reflecting God’s character, giving each other justice, pure devotion, the authentic life revealed in Jesus.
The reason we can’t keep living like the nations is that we’re under a new king, and he’s creating a new culture for humanity. His radical inclusivity transforms us. In the name of the king, Scripture insists we exchange our previous posturing and positioning for his kingdom culture.
What kind of “spiritual formation” does God desire for us?
Read Ephesians 4:1-6.
Here’s a confession. I’ve always been drawn to those parts of the Bible that spell out how I should live as a Christian. Ephesians 4–6 is so practical. I grew up in a church that emphasized personal piety and spiritual formation.
But obsessing about my spiritual development can be counter-productive if it makes me more focused on myself. In the end, I feel more convicted of my failings, more aware of my inadequacies, more critical of myself for falling short of God’s expectations. I end up critical of others too: “They’re no better, but at least I’m trying.”
It’s not easy to escape the cycle of the self. I can’t, until I engage with something beyond me. Continue reading “Spiritual formation (Ephesians 4:1–6)”
Read Ephesians 4:1-16
It’s easy to spend thousands on books and courses to help you become a better human. We’re preoccupied with how I can reach my potential and have the best life I can.
There’s a fatal flaw in that approach. What if my boss is a tyrant, or my spouse is a control freak? I can learn to disassociate, to isolate myself for my own sanity, but human flourishing is something we can only do together. Who can show us how to develop a better life together?
Let me recommend a book. It’s called Ephesians. It’s the good news that God is working to restore not just me but all of us together to become all he intended. Continue reading “Becoming human: life in Christ (Ephesians 4:1-16)”
Seeking the kingdom 