From Here

From Here

Here is all that we really have. We covered this extensively in our study of Ecclesiastes. The here and now is all that we can act with. The past is subject to the haze of memory and the future is an impenetrable fog, unknown and unknowable. Only God has dominion over all of these (and more besides). As pointed out in the opening chapters of Ephesians, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.” (Ephesians 1:4-5) The complete mastery and ownership of God is made evident in these verses. And out of all of creation what did He choose? Us. The first half of Ephesians explains and celebrates this fact. “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all god’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” (Ephesians 1:15-16) “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10) “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17b-19)

But the second half of Ephesians answers the question, ‘What now?’ God is powerful, omnipresent, and He has chosen you. An act with such significance merits response. What is yours? “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” (Ephesians 4:1) There was a challenge given to us young election volunteers as part of a seminar I attended once, to create a hypothetical election campaign without using words that start with ‘re’. Immediately words came to mind, re-elect, restore, renew, return, restart, refresh, results, rebuild, etc. The thought experiment was dedicated to fixing one’s mind, not on the status-quo or even an imagined past, but a brighter future. But the strong tendency toward reflection always stuck with me. People are intrigued with the notion of beginning again. Or righting a past wrong, fixing a mistake, or even paying a penance. What the Spirit through Paul establishes in the first three chapters of Ephesians is that this restart has already occurred. The infinite mercy and enduring grace of God has wiped our past away. No preconditions nor preconceived notions. It is forgotten and gone. But the back half of Ephesians is more than ‘happily ever after’, it is instruction, guidance, and encouragement.

The first admonition is towards unity in the church. With the typical clarity of the Pauline epistles, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6) If we are to be ‘the Church’ we must be unified, and unwilling to let our petty differences stand in the way. (Spoiler alert: We failed. Pretty decisively) Never forget the incredibly faithful outlook of young Joseph in Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” Never forget that the United States of America was founded due to religious persecution amongst the Christian faith! Our faulted foolish and fallen humanity may have allowed our adversary to divide and separate us. But that has only created legions of Christians spread through all the corners of the globe. (**Sidenote Tangent** This isn’t tacit approval for religious bigotry! For this we can learn from Soviet dissident Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, “Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even flourish. But not through me.”**) For us to do our job we must be unified.

We are also given instruction as to how best to conduct ourselves. And because Ephesians 4:17-6:9 is better expressed than what I can convey, it’d be best for you to read it for yourselves. But we are instructed as to how to live, individually, as a church, as a household, and as members within that household. But it is the why that is critically important here. Why must our faith be informed? Why must the church cohere? Why must we walk blamelessly and build up our family units for the Lord? Because we are at war. “For our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) What are we to be? Light. What informs our outlook? The grace and mercy of the Lord. Why is this important? We are at war. Against what? The darkness of this world, from whence we came. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,” (Ephesians 2:1) “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5) Our one duty, and the purest expression of our gratitude for this undeserved gift, is to become a light in the darkness.

A pastor I greatly admire once shared his favorite person written about in Scripture. It was Shammah. One of King David’s mighty warriors. All that is written about him is found in 2 Samuel 23:11-12, “Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the Lord brought about a great victory.” The man stood to fight when his brothers in arms ran away, he stayed to defend a pea patch. But he didn’t fight to save the peas. Instead is was because he knew His Lord was with him, and that his duty was to stand. We are at war. Will you stand, like Shammah, or flee like the Israelite army? Some would view the pea patch as beneath them, they’d question its tactical importance or its strategic significance. They’d raise up their nose and proclaim that their life is certainly worth more than a literal hill of beans. But here’s a helpful little hint. It ain’t about the lentils. Shammah stood because it was his job to stand for the Lord. He had enough humility not to demand the terms of his service, and enough faith to perform when the time came. Because our lives aren’t worth a hill of beans, the perfidy of our own sin has seen to that. But we are made valuable through the sacrificial spilled blood of a Savior, and the inexplicable love of a righteous God. The philistines are on the march, just read a headline. Will you stand? Will you fight? The ruins of Ephesus testify to their failure, what will we leave behind? God chose you before the foundations of the world, what will you choose?

Jordan Williamson