Every day we are faced with a multitude of choices, some small and some great. We often live a binary existence, having to make choices between two alternatives. Should I marry him or not? Should I take the new job and the risks involved?
Keeping in mind that tomorrow is Sanctity of Life Sunday, the most important choice we can make is a choice for life and not for death.
But when faced with the choice of living or dying, St. Paul is surprisingly conflicted. What a strange position to be in! But for St. Paul, it was not really living or dying in the body that was most important but living in Christ or not. That is the real choice in life, and everything else depends upon this one choice. The choice each lifetime, each day, each moment to live in Jesus Christ or not is always the most important thing because it will determine the goodness and holiness and joyfulness of each moment.
St. Paul makes a lot of odd statements in his letters, odd to those of us who are trying hard to follow him in a life of complete sacrifice to him. Paul says, “For me to live is Christ” (verse 21.) What a strange thing to say. It’s kind of like saying, “For me to live is Jackie” or “For me to live is Denny Roland” (a good friend of mine.) For me to live is the name of a person? How bizarre!
But Paul really means it. For him, life is really all about Jesus Christ living in him. Paul really believes what he teaches about Jesus Christ living in him through the Spirit, and he really believes that Jesus Christ dwells in him, and he in Christ.
For this reason, since life to Paul is all about living in and through Jesus Christ, whether Paul continues to live on earth or goes to live in heaven doesn’t make that much difference because in either case for him to live is Jesus Christ.
But then we’re faced with another strange statement of Paul’s. Not strange because it’s hard to figure out what he means but strange to think he could really believe and act on such a thing. And what Paul says is that he has made the choice to continue living on earth. Paul says this, knowing full well that he has a desire to depart this earth and to be with Christ in a closer way (verse 23.) And yet he still chooses to remain on earth.
What on earth could possess a man to choose this life instead of heaven?!
“Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith” (verses 24 and 25.) Paul makes his counterintuitive choice to remain here on the earth, in prison and chains we should remember, for the sake of the Philippians.
Paul doesn’t mention love here in this passage but this is still one of the greatest teachings on love in the Bible. For surely this is love: that a man lays down his life for another. People cling to life in this world for many reasons: to retire to the golf course; to enjoy the home and life they have created for themselves; because of fear; or because it’s all they have. But Paul chose to remain in this life because it is better for the Philippians. He chose to give up his life in heaven for a life of suffering and prison in this life – all so that he could further serve the Philippians and others.
For Paul himself, it meant more cold, damp prisons and more chains. It meant still having the thorn in his flesh, and it meant being weighed down by the cares of pastoring many churches.
But Paul made that choice because it was more needful for the Philippians. He traded the good life for a more painful one so that the Philippians would have progress and joy in faith.
This is the definition of courage that I give to my children: “doing what is right when you don’t feel like doing it.” Strange, but courage is actually a lot like love. And courage is what St. Paul had in abundance.
Where else could Paul have possibly learned such courage and love and have received the grace to make such an extraordinary choice than from Jesus Christ Himself? Paul learned this courage and love from Jesus, who gave up His glory in heaven to be born of Mary, and Jesus, who gave up His life on the Cross for each of us, who taught Paul so to love.
Because for Paul to live is Christ and because through Christ he has made the choice to live a painful life for the good of the Philippians, he is able to make another extraordinary statement: “the things which have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (verse 12.)
Wow! Do you really grasp the profundity of that statement? “The things which have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.” Brothers and sisters, Paul is talking about being in prison, and he says that this has turned out to further the gospel. Even here on earth, even in prison, when God’s people live in courage, love, faithfulness, and joy through Christ, then the gospel, God’s Great Mystery, will be furthered.
Putting this all together, Paul has given us a picture of the kind of life in Christ to which every Christian is called. You don’t have to be a super-apostle to be able to say that, “For me to live is Christ.” You don’t have to be thrown in prison to be able to live the love and courage of Christ in your life.
In whatever circumstances God has given you in this life, God is calling you to be like St. Paul. God is calling you to make a choice to live your life for Jesus Christ and in him. If you are living your life for Christ and making a choice to live in Him every day, then the startling news is that, whether you recognize it or not, the things which have happened to you have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.
Whether you “win” or “lose” according to human standards is of little relevance. If the choices you make today are made for the sake of Jesus Christ and out of love for Him and for others, then the things that happen to you will give glory to God and in some small way contribute to the spread of His kingdom. Nothing is wasted in Christ’s kingdom: every moment of your life is redeemable. He means every event and moment in your life to be lived in Him and for Him, and if it is, you will be blessed by His presence. The good, the bad, and the ugly, the joy and the suffering, every bit of your life is an opportunity to live for Christ and to be able to say that it happened for the furtherance of the gospel and for the glory of God.
This is why we and Paul can take such joy in this life, even in suffering, because when we can say that “to live is Christ” and when we can say that we will live our life in Christ because it is needful for others, then we have the joy of Jesus Christ because we have the presence of Jesus Christ (see verses 18 and 19.)
In all sorts of human pursuits – sports, business, games, acting - some people achieve what is called “flow.” They are “in the zone,” and for a period of time have a joyful, almost timeless, existence in the task at hand. True flow is having a never-ending supply of God’s grace and being vivified by the Holy Spirit because of your labors on behalf of Christ.
St. Paul was constantly “in the zone” because he constantly lived for Christ because Christ was his life. The amazing thing is that if you live as if to live is Christ you can be in this same zone. And if you understand that everything that has happened to you, and everything that will happen, happens for your edification and the edification of others, for the spread of God’s kingdom and the glory of God, then you too will be blessed, because you too will have the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (verse 19.)
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I ask that You would be magnified in me today and that I might learn to say that for me to live is You. Grant me Your courage and love that was manifest in St. Paul that I might choose to live my life for the progress and joy of faith in others. Help me to realize that everything that You have given me today is my daily bread that you have given for the nourishment of my soul, the good of others, and the glory of Your Name. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Practice reminding yourself throughout the day that the things which happen to you today are meant to draw you closer to Jesus that you might live in and for Him.
2. Pray throughout the day today for a supply of the Spirit of Christ to be able to live in Him.
Resolution: I resolve to find one way today to choose to do what is needful for another person.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Friday Epiphany 2 - Philippians 1:1-11
Among all of the other wonderful elements in The Lord of the Rings, it is perhaps a story more about fellowship than anything else. In fact, the second volume of the trilogy is called The Fellowship of the Ring. In that story, great fellowship takes place among many different kinds of creatures. If you know the story, you know that good wizards, men of old, elves, dwarves - and of course, the stay-at-home Hobbits – are all drawn together into one great fellowship to save Middle Earth.
Even the most unlikely of creatures find friendship and fellowship because this one common good has bound them together forever, and that common good transcends all of their differences.
But there is an even greater fellowship that takes place in God’s kingdom, one which could therefore be called not the “Fellowship of the Ring,” but “The Fellowship of the King.”
It’s this fellowship that St. Paul shows us this morning in Philippians 1.
As Christians, we’re supposed to have fellowship in the unity of the Spirit and a bond of peace that is so strong that others might say as they said of the early Christians, “How they love one another!” Sometimes we are creatures as different from one another as dwarves and elves, and yet the world should marvel at our unity, in spite of our differences in personality and experiences.
Our fellowship comes not from ourselves but flows from the fellowship we have with God our King, a fellowship we have in 3 ways: with His Person, in His purpose, and in His power. We have fellowship with God’s person, of course, through Jesus Christ. He is the King of kings, and if you’ve ever thought it might be a grand adventure to fight in Gandalf’s army then you might be glad to know that you are a part of Jesus Christ’s army (remember Ephesians 6 yesterday?)
This fellowship is much greater than in any other army, because we are saints in Jesus Christ (verse 1), whose affection we share (verse 8), and we are filled with the nourishing fruits of righteousness by Him (verse 11.)
Our fellowship in Jesus Christ extends to fellowship in His divine purpose, for we have fellowship with Jesus and one another in His gospel (verse 5) and strive together for the gospel in a cosmic battle that makes The Lord of the Rings look like child’s play. If you want to know more about the cosmic battle we are engaged in, you might want to re-read Ephesians.
The ultimate purpose of this cosmic battle is for the glory and praise of God (verse 11) – the highest goal a warrior could ever seek.
To fully participate in this fellowship with God’s person and purpose, we also need His power. For this reason, God has made us partakers of His grace (verse 7). We must never forget that it is God’s person and His power alone that will enable us to participate in His purpose – which is actually to participate in His person and power!
From our love of God and from our fellowship with God Himself comes our love for and fellowship with one another: in serving God, we are made one. As we each have fellowship with God in His person, He unites us together into one body, the Body of Christ. As we have fellowship with God in His purpose and by His power of grace, we labor together, and this creates a deep fellowship. This fellowship is like the fellowship soldiers in combat find together and like the fellowship that is only found in a family. It’s like the fellowship that Frodo the Hobbit found with Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf.
St. Paul is keenly aware of the oneness, the fellowship, he has with the individuals and churches committed to his care. All throughout his letters there is a sense that he considers that he and the recipients of his letters are laboring together for one glorious end – for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The remarkable thing is that he sees the Philippians as partaking in his work, even when he is miles away and in chains, and he sees himself as being with them in spirit. They are so obviously in his thoughts and prayers, and it is certain that the people he oversaw made constant prayer for him.
There are so many things to love about St. Paul and his letters: the Faulknerian sentences that go on for a page, the in your face theology that tells it like it is . . . . But what I love most is his amazing love, the love of Jesus Christ that so clearly goes through Paul to the Philippians.
Paul loves the Philippians by praying for them, remembering them, and thanking God for them (verse 3.) He has them in his heart and sees them as fellow partakers of the same grace Jesus showed to him (verse 7.) Paul sees the Philippians as a part of himself and himself as a part of them, just as Christ is in him, and he in Christ. What better way to fulfill the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself than to see your neighbor as part of yourself, as part of the Body of Christ.
Paul longs greatly for them, with the affection of Christ. Because God Himself is the one who first loved Paul, Paul knows that God sees his love for the Philippians (verse 8.) This “affection” with which Paul loves the Philippians is interpreted “bowels” in the King James Version. “Bowels” might not quite capture it for us today! – after all, it wouldn’t be very endearing today for a lover to say to his loved one: “I yearn for you with all my bowels!” And yet in that day the “bowels,” basically the internal organs, were considered to be the center of a person’s emotions, desire, and affection.
What Paul is essentially saying is that he has a visceral desire to be with the Philippians. It’s the same word (my favorite Greek word!) used of Jesus when he has “bowels” of compassion on the 5000 who have had nothing to eat for 3 days. This isn’t the kind of love you can manufacture: it’s one that comes from a life that genuinely loves with the love of God.
The Philippians have their part to play as well. Though the Philippians are mute to us – there is no record of what they might have said to Paul – their actions and lives still speak to us today. Their actions speak of a love for God and a love for Paul, their pastor. The Philippians, though not perfect, embody every pastor’s dream, for they made Paul rejoice for the progress they had made in becoming more like Jesus Christ in all things.
Paul is able to thank God for the Philippians because of their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now (verses 3ff), and he has confidence in them because he sees Jesus in them (verse 5.)
Paul, and presumably the Philippians too, will not rest until the Philippians are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which is the common goal of both Paul and the Philippians. This goal, which is the divine purpose of God, can only be accomplished by the human fellowship that comes from fellowship with God’s person and His power.
It’s exciting to me that Paul’s letter to the Philippians could describe so well the fellowship I hope to have at St. Andrew’s and that every Church would have. It’s exciting that in the 21st century at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas or fill in your church name and city we are re-enacting the very things St. Paul and the Philippians did: their fellowship; their laboring together for the sake of Jesus Christ their Lord; and their common goal of living in love until the day of Christ.
In Henry V Shakespeare wrote of the fellowship around the King of England, on the eve of the historic battle of Agincourt in 1415:
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so lowly,
This day shall enoble his rank.
And gentlemen in England, now abed,
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here;
And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Shakespeare had Henry V say these stirring words to represent the kind of fellowship that war can create.
But how much greater fellowship can we expect from the Prince of Peace, in the Kingdom of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? And ours is to be a fellowship not of mere human blood but of communion through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Ours is to be a royal fellowship of love, for all of us here this morning (wherever you are reading this) are bound together by the love of God, in fellowship with Him and with one another in the Body of Christ. For we are chained together by love, in the Fellowship of the King
Prayer: Thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, for the fellowship You allow me and other Christians to have in You. I thank You especially for those who share this godly fellowship of participating in Your person, purpose, and power, especially ______ (take some time to mention people in your life by name.) In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Spend some time in prayer, remembering and giving thanks for those who God has made a part of His godly fellowship throughout your life.
2. In what way is God calling you to greater fellowship in His Church, especially in your local church?
Resolution: I resolve to meditate today on the Fellowship of the King that we have as Christians in Jesus Christ. I further resolve to find one way to actively contribute to this fellowship today (this might be a resolution or discipline the King has already been calling you to.)
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Even the most unlikely of creatures find friendship and fellowship because this one common good has bound them together forever, and that common good transcends all of their differences.
But there is an even greater fellowship that takes place in God’s kingdom, one which could therefore be called not the “Fellowship of the Ring,” but “The Fellowship of the King.”
It’s this fellowship that St. Paul shows us this morning in Philippians 1.
As Christians, we’re supposed to have fellowship in the unity of the Spirit and a bond of peace that is so strong that others might say as they said of the early Christians, “How they love one another!” Sometimes we are creatures as different from one another as dwarves and elves, and yet the world should marvel at our unity, in spite of our differences in personality and experiences.
Our fellowship comes not from ourselves but flows from the fellowship we have with God our King, a fellowship we have in 3 ways: with His Person, in His purpose, and in His power. We have fellowship with God’s person, of course, through Jesus Christ. He is the King of kings, and if you’ve ever thought it might be a grand adventure to fight in Gandalf’s army then you might be glad to know that you are a part of Jesus Christ’s army (remember Ephesians 6 yesterday?)
This fellowship is much greater than in any other army, because we are saints in Jesus Christ (verse 1), whose affection we share (verse 8), and we are filled with the nourishing fruits of righteousness by Him (verse 11.)
Our fellowship in Jesus Christ extends to fellowship in His divine purpose, for we have fellowship with Jesus and one another in His gospel (verse 5) and strive together for the gospel in a cosmic battle that makes The Lord of the Rings look like child’s play. If you want to know more about the cosmic battle we are engaged in, you might want to re-read Ephesians.
The ultimate purpose of this cosmic battle is for the glory and praise of God (verse 11) – the highest goal a warrior could ever seek.
To fully participate in this fellowship with God’s person and purpose, we also need His power. For this reason, God has made us partakers of His grace (verse 7). We must never forget that it is God’s person and His power alone that will enable us to participate in His purpose – which is actually to participate in His person and power!
From our love of God and from our fellowship with God Himself comes our love for and fellowship with one another: in serving God, we are made one. As we each have fellowship with God in His person, He unites us together into one body, the Body of Christ. As we have fellowship with God in His purpose and by His power of grace, we labor together, and this creates a deep fellowship. This fellowship is like the fellowship soldiers in combat find together and like the fellowship that is only found in a family. It’s like the fellowship that Frodo the Hobbit found with Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf.
St. Paul is keenly aware of the oneness, the fellowship, he has with the individuals and churches committed to his care. All throughout his letters there is a sense that he considers that he and the recipients of his letters are laboring together for one glorious end – for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The remarkable thing is that he sees the Philippians as partaking in his work, even when he is miles away and in chains, and he sees himself as being with them in spirit. They are so obviously in his thoughts and prayers, and it is certain that the people he oversaw made constant prayer for him.
There are so many things to love about St. Paul and his letters: the Faulknerian sentences that go on for a page, the in your face theology that tells it like it is . . . . But what I love most is his amazing love, the love of Jesus Christ that so clearly goes through Paul to the Philippians.
Paul loves the Philippians by praying for them, remembering them, and thanking God for them (verse 3.) He has them in his heart and sees them as fellow partakers of the same grace Jesus showed to him (verse 7.) Paul sees the Philippians as a part of himself and himself as a part of them, just as Christ is in him, and he in Christ. What better way to fulfill the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself than to see your neighbor as part of yourself, as part of the Body of Christ.
Paul longs greatly for them, with the affection of Christ. Because God Himself is the one who first loved Paul, Paul knows that God sees his love for the Philippians (verse 8.) This “affection” with which Paul loves the Philippians is interpreted “bowels” in the King James Version. “Bowels” might not quite capture it for us today! – after all, it wouldn’t be very endearing today for a lover to say to his loved one: “I yearn for you with all my bowels!” And yet in that day the “bowels,” basically the internal organs, were considered to be the center of a person’s emotions, desire, and affection.
What Paul is essentially saying is that he has a visceral desire to be with the Philippians. It’s the same word (my favorite Greek word!) used of Jesus when he has “bowels” of compassion on the 5000 who have had nothing to eat for 3 days. This isn’t the kind of love you can manufacture: it’s one that comes from a life that genuinely loves with the love of God.
The Philippians have their part to play as well. Though the Philippians are mute to us – there is no record of what they might have said to Paul – their actions and lives still speak to us today. Their actions speak of a love for God and a love for Paul, their pastor. The Philippians, though not perfect, embody every pastor’s dream, for they made Paul rejoice for the progress they had made in becoming more like Jesus Christ in all things.
Paul is able to thank God for the Philippians because of their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now (verses 3ff), and he has confidence in them because he sees Jesus in them (verse 5.)
Paul, and presumably the Philippians too, will not rest until the Philippians are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which is the common goal of both Paul and the Philippians. This goal, which is the divine purpose of God, can only be accomplished by the human fellowship that comes from fellowship with God’s person and His power.
It’s exciting to me that Paul’s letter to the Philippians could describe so well the fellowship I hope to have at St. Andrew’s and that every Church would have. It’s exciting that in the 21st century at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas or fill in your church name and city we are re-enacting the very things St. Paul and the Philippians did: their fellowship; their laboring together for the sake of Jesus Christ their Lord; and their common goal of living in love until the day of Christ.
In Henry V Shakespeare wrote of the fellowship around the King of England, on the eve of the historic battle of Agincourt in 1415:
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so lowly,
This day shall enoble his rank.
And gentlemen in England, now abed,
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here;
And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Shakespeare had Henry V say these stirring words to represent the kind of fellowship that war can create.
But how much greater fellowship can we expect from the Prince of Peace, in the Kingdom of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? And ours is to be a fellowship not of mere human blood but of communion through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Ours is to be a royal fellowship of love, for all of us here this morning (wherever you are reading this) are bound together by the love of God, in fellowship with Him and with one another in the Body of Christ. For we are chained together by love, in the Fellowship of the King
Prayer: Thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, for the fellowship You allow me and other Christians to have in You. I thank You especially for those who share this godly fellowship of participating in Your person, purpose, and power, especially ______ (take some time to mention people in your life by name.) In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Spend some time in prayer, remembering and giving thanks for those who God has made a part of His godly fellowship throughout your life.
2. In what way is God calling you to greater fellowship in His Church, especially in your local church?
Resolution: I resolve to meditate today on the Fellowship of the King that we have as Christians in Jesus Christ. I further resolve to find one way to actively contribute to this fellowship today (this might be a resolution or discipline the King has already been calling you to.)
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday of Epiphany 2 - Ephesians 5:15-33
We’ve come this morning to a difficult passage of Scripture – not difficult because it’s hard to understand, but difficult because it’s hard for us to accept what God wants to teach us. The passage is Ephesians 5:21-33, and in it St. Paul gives us clear commands about the relationship between husbands and wives.
Our passage this morning is part of a larger passage all about submission – and this will help us to see clearly what Paul teaches. Though many of us may choke on the command of wives to submit to their husbands, Paul clearly has real submission in mind. He tells us to be subject to one another (verse 21), wives to be subject to husband (22), children to obey parents (6:1), and slaves to obey their masters (6:5).
This morning’s passage, then, and the beginning of Chapter 6, is about submission alright. But primarily it is about submission to God and His will, for we all, husbands and wives alike, are to be submitted primarily to the Lord, as we walk in His ways and in His commandments.
Think of Paul’s teachings, then, as a challenge, a test. How willing am I to submit to God, by obeying His commandments? How willing am I to do His will, and not my own?
Paul’s teaching on the submission of a wife and on the headship of the husband is very clear. Wives are to submit to their husbands, as to the Lord. The Greek verb means to submit or make subordinate. It is a word used in Bible of following relationships: angels to Christ, the Church to Christ, Christians to God’s law, women to men, wives to husbands, children to parents, young to old, slaves and servants to masters. No wiggle room there.
“As to the Lord.” No wiggle room there either.
In 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2 Paul argues from creation – from before the Fall – that man is the head of woman and that the woman’s submission to her husband was part of God’s plan from the beginning, because He chose to create Adam, man, first, and to make Eve, woman, the man’s helper.
In Ephesians 5, Paul makes the headship of the man clear, arguing not from creation but from redemption. As Christ is the head of he Church, so is the husband the head of the wife. Again, no wiggle room.
Modern women find submission to their husbands increasingly difficult to accept because most of us have bought into the cultural assumptions about radical egalitarianism. Other times women may have difficulty because the person in authority may be wrong. This raises an issue for all of us who are under authority: What do you do if you think the person in authority is wrong? It would be tempting to fly to some sort of theory of civil disobedience: when I know my husband is wrong, I don’t have to submit. But is this really what God teaches?
Suppose we look at the authority of parents over children. Do we expect them to obey only when they feel like it, only when they think we are right? If so, then it is really the children who are in charge, because they are calling the shots. They are the ones determining the rules and when to obey and when not to obey. In a similar way, the wife is not to simply decide she disagrees with her husband and then go her own way.
Another problem is that somehow people assume that if you really believe in the submission of the wife to her husband that you must mean a “caveman”, unthinking, submission and a wife who totally submerges and sublimates her unique talents and wisdom. But good grief! Who wants a wife like that?! In fact, I’d feel insulted and cheated if Jackie were nothing but a Yes Woman, mindlessly rubber-stamping everything I said. How would that cause me to see more and to grow more wise? How would that manifest our one-fleshedness?
But there is a problem with the recent decades of feminism. Women insist on exercising the headship God has given to men, and this has caused many problems. There is a Great Pendulum of History that swings back and forth. For decades - no centuries - husbands mistakenly took these verses, and others like them, as a license to be petty tyrants. In the 60s and 70s the pendulum swung quickly past the middle to an extreme on the other side where these verses mean nothing. God didn’t say them or mean them and we don’t have to obey them. Women are like men in every way: there is no divine difference.
I find that women are often more competent, and in a wider variety of contexts, than men. But should we then argue based on human abilities? Precisely because women are capable and fully human and yet are called to submit (as are all of us in various relationships), they have a special opportunity to display the humility of Christ by submitting themselves to their husbands.
Watch out, men – you knew this moment was coming! St. Paul has even more to say to the husbands! The husband is to be the head, the authority. This is assumed and taught all throughout the Bible. Though there are different models of leadership he may legitimately use, he must take the authority God has given him and lead. In the house, husbands, especially, are to govern the household, to rule it. They should provide the vision and leadership and shape and protect the family.
In addition to women trying to usurp the authority of men, husbands’ abuse of their headship is a chief reason wives don’t submit to them. In the past, Jews considered a woman not a person, but property: in their morning prayer service, men gave thanks that God had not made them a Gentile or a woman. The Greeks were just as bad. The “enlightened” philosopher Demosthenes once said, “we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure; we have concubines for daily cohabitation; and we have wives to bear children and manage the household.”
Even Christian husbands have not always remembered that God’s commandment to them is not only to be the head but to do so by loving, which means serving.
But today, probably even more often than men have abused their authority over their wives, men have abdicated their headship. We see the consequences in young men adrift, who were not fathered except in a biological way and who have no good model of husbandly leadership.
Men commonly make three mistakes in avoiding God’s command to be heads. They confuse real courage and masculinity with machismo. Others become milquetoasts and in a cowardly way just give in to the world and people around them.
But the most common kind of abdication of godly headship that I see in men is being childish and cowardly. How many guys care more about their latest toys than anything else, whether it is technological gadgets or cars? It bothers me when I witness a wife working hard all day (and the husband may have too), yet when the husband comes home he assumes that somehow he’s “Off Duty” regarding the household and the kids, while the wife is “On Duty” 24-7.
To me, the real courage in being a godly man is in serving my wife and others. That cuts against the grain of my own selfishness, as well as against the grain of our culture. It takes no guts whatsoever to sit in the easy chair and let the wife serve you and the kids incessantly. What takes courage is to drag your butt off the chair and go help for a change and command your submissive wife to take a break!
Instead of being tyrants, instead of abdicating their headship, husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loved the Church. You guys thought you got off easy? Hah! You’ve got the harder task!
Husbands, yes God commands you to be the head of your wife, but you will search in vain to hear Him command you to by tyrannical or domineering or cruel. Your specific commandment from God is to love. You lead by your love, and if you want to lead as a Christian man, then you cannot lead without love. Love is doing what is best for another person. It requires sacrifice. You have been given headship for a reason – so that you can love and sanctify your wife – not so that you can satisfy your ego or become a little Napoleon or Stalin.
The real problem is that often we think of husbands and wives as 2 separate things, and therefore they are in competition and conflict. The solution is to think of marriage as a sacrament, an outward sign of an inward grace. Marriage is to be a means of grace, and a husband and wife are one flesh, even if they refuse to acknowledge this. There is a mystical union, just as there is between Christ and His Church. Paul’s point here is that marriage mirrors an even deeper mystery: how we live as husbands and wives teaches about and reflects the marriage of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.
Wives and husbands, if you want a simple guideline to keep in front of you all the days of your life, you can do no better than the example of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.
Wives, how does the Church submit to her Master? Use that as your example.
Husbands, how does Jesus Christ love and serve His Bride?
Prayer: O God, who has so consecrated marriage that it represents the spiritual marriage between Christ and Church, bless all Christians who are in marriage that they may so love, honor, and cherish each other and live together in godly love and unity that their homes and lives may be a haven and blessing of peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
Wives: Examine your attitude toward your marriage in light of Paul’s teachings. In what ways are you rejecting the Lord’s Word to you and do you need to learn submission? Meditate on the relationship of the Church to Christ.
Husbands: Examine your attitude toward your marriage in light of Paul’s teachings. In what ways are you rejecting the Lord’s Word to you and do you need to learn love? Meditate on the relationship of Christ to the Church.
Single People: Consider Ephesians 5:21-33 in light of either your call to be a godly leader or to serve in love.
Resolution: I resolve to meditate on how I can be a husband or wife as the Lord has commanded me to be. I resolve to find one practical way I can show my submission (wife) or love (husband) to my spouse today.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Our passage this morning is part of a larger passage all about submission – and this will help us to see clearly what Paul teaches. Though many of us may choke on the command of wives to submit to their husbands, Paul clearly has real submission in mind. He tells us to be subject to one another (verse 21), wives to be subject to husband (22), children to obey parents (6:1), and slaves to obey their masters (6:5).
This morning’s passage, then, and the beginning of Chapter 6, is about submission alright. But primarily it is about submission to God and His will, for we all, husbands and wives alike, are to be submitted primarily to the Lord, as we walk in His ways and in His commandments.
Think of Paul’s teachings, then, as a challenge, a test. How willing am I to submit to God, by obeying His commandments? How willing am I to do His will, and not my own?
Paul’s teaching on the submission of a wife and on the headship of the husband is very clear. Wives are to submit to their husbands, as to the Lord. The Greek verb means to submit or make subordinate. It is a word used in Bible of following relationships: angels to Christ, the Church to Christ, Christians to God’s law, women to men, wives to husbands, children to parents, young to old, slaves and servants to masters. No wiggle room there.
“As to the Lord.” No wiggle room there either.
In 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2 Paul argues from creation – from before the Fall – that man is the head of woman and that the woman’s submission to her husband was part of God’s plan from the beginning, because He chose to create Adam, man, first, and to make Eve, woman, the man’s helper.
In Ephesians 5, Paul makes the headship of the man clear, arguing not from creation but from redemption. As Christ is the head of he Church, so is the husband the head of the wife. Again, no wiggle room.
Modern women find submission to their husbands increasingly difficult to accept because most of us have bought into the cultural assumptions about radical egalitarianism. Other times women may have difficulty because the person in authority may be wrong. This raises an issue for all of us who are under authority: What do you do if you think the person in authority is wrong? It would be tempting to fly to some sort of theory of civil disobedience: when I know my husband is wrong, I don’t have to submit. But is this really what God teaches?
Suppose we look at the authority of parents over children. Do we expect them to obey only when they feel like it, only when they think we are right? If so, then it is really the children who are in charge, because they are calling the shots. They are the ones determining the rules and when to obey and when not to obey. In a similar way, the wife is not to simply decide she disagrees with her husband and then go her own way.
Another problem is that somehow people assume that if you really believe in the submission of the wife to her husband that you must mean a “caveman”, unthinking, submission and a wife who totally submerges and sublimates her unique talents and wisdom. But good grief! Who wants a wife like that?! In fact, I’d feel insulted and cheated if Jackie were nothing but a Yes Woman, mindlessly rubber-stamping everything I said. How would that cause me to see more and to grow more wise? How would that manifest our one-fleshedness?
But there is a problem with the recent decades of feminism. Women insist on exercising the headship God has given to men, and this has caused many problems. There is a Great Pendulum of History that swings back and forth. For decades - no centuries - husbands mistakenly took these verses, and others like them, as a license to be petty tyrants. In the 60s and 70s the pendulum swung quickly past the middle to an extreme on the other side where these verses mean nothing. God didn’t say them or mean them and we don’t have to obey them. Women are like men in every way: there is no divine difference.
I find that women are often more competent, and in a wider variety of contexts, than men. But should we then argue based on human abilities? Precisely because women are capable and fully human and yet are called to submit (as are all of us in various relationships), they have a special opportunity to display the humility of Christ by submitting themselves to their husbands.
Watch out, men – you knew this moment was coming! St. Paul has even more to say to the husbands! The husband is to be the head, the authority. This is assumed and taught all throughout the Bible. Though there are different models of leadership he may legitimately use, he must take the authority God has given him and lead. In the house, husbands, especially, are to govern the household, to rule it. They should provide the vision and leadership and shape and protect the family.
In addition to women trying to usurp the authority of men, husbands’ abuse of their headship is a chief reason wives don’t submit to them. In the past, Jews considered a woman not a person, but property: in their morning prayer service, men gave thanks that God had not made them a Gentile or a woman. The Greeks were just as bad. The “enlightened” philosopher Demosthenes once said, “we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure; we have concubines for daily cohabitation; and we have wives to bear children and manage the household.”
Even Christian husbands have not always remembered that God’s commandment to them is not only to be the head but to do so by loving, which means serving.
But today, probably even more often than men have abused their authority over their wives, men have abdicated their headship. We see the consequences in young men adrift, who were not fathered except in a biological way and who have no good model of husbandly leadership.
Men commonly make three mistakes in avoiding God’s command to be heads. They confuse real courage and masculinity with machismo. Others become milquetoasts and in a cowardly way just give in to the world and people around them.
But the most common kind of abdication of godly headship that I see in men is being childish and cowardly. How many guys care more about their latest toys than anything else, whether it is technological gadgets or cars? It bothers me when I witness a wife working hard all day (and the husband may have too), yet when the husband comes home he assumes that somehow he’s “Off Duty” regarding the household and the kids, while the wife is “On Duty” 24-7.
To me, the real courage in being a godly man is in serving my wife and others. That cuts against the grain of my own selfishness, as well as against the grain of our culture. It takes no guts whatsoever to sit in the easy chair and let the wife serve you and the kids incessantly. What takes courage is to drag your butt off the chair and go help for a change and command your submissive wife to take a break!
Instead of being tyrants, instead of abdicating their headship, husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loved the Church. You guys thought you got off easy? Hah! You’ve got the harder task!
Husbands, yes God commands you to be the head of your wife, but you will search in vain to hear Him command you to by tyrannical or domineering or cruel. Your specific commandment from God is to love. You lead by your love, and if you want to lead as a Christian man, then you cannot lead without love. Love is doing what is best for another person. It requires sacrifice. You have been given headship for a reason – so that you can love and sanctify your wife – not so that you can satisfy your ego or become a little Napoleon or Stalin.
The real problem is that often we think of husbands and wives as 2 separate things, and therefore they are in competition and conflict. The solution is to think of marriage as a sacrament, an outward sign of an inward grace. Marriage is to be a means of grace, and a husband and wife are one flesh, even if they refuse to acknowledge this. There is a mystical union, just as there is between Christ and His Church. Paul’s point here is that marriage mirrors an even deeper mystery: how we live as husbands and wives teaches about and reflects the marriage of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.
Wives and husbands, if you want a simple guideline to keep in front of you all the days of your life, you can do no better than the example of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.
Wives, how does the Church submit to her Master? Use that as your example.
Husbands, how does Jesus Christ love and serve His Bride?
Prayer: O God, who has so consecrated marriage that it represents the spiritual marriage between Christ and Church, bless all Christians who are in marriage that they may so love, honor, and cherish each other and live together in godly love and unity that their homes and lives may be a haven and blessing of peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
Wives: Examine your attitude toward your marriage in light of Paul’s teachings. In what ways are you rejecting the Lord’s Word to you and do you need to learn submission? Meditate on the relationship of the Church to Christ.
Husbands: Examine your attitude toward your marriage in light of Paul’s teachings. In what ways are you rejecting the Lord’s Word to you and do you need to learn love? Meditate on the relationship of Christ to the Church.
Single People: Consider Ephesians 5:21-33 in light of either your call to be a godly leader or to serve in love.
Resolution: I resolve to meditate on how I can be a husband or wife as the Lord has commanded me to be. I resolve to find one practical way I can show my submission (wife) or love (husband) to my spouse today.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday of Epiphany 2 - Ephesians 5:1-14
Have you ever been on a walk that was more than just a walk?
Perhaps it was a romantic walk; or maybe an important business matter was discussed during a walk; or a life-changing decision was made during a walk.
I remember going on many walks with Jackie during which we discussed my many attempts to understand God’s call on our lives together. We have walked and talked about having children and what we will name them; we have walked and talked about my becoming a deacon and about my becoming a priest, and (during a month of uncertainty and confusion) we talked about the possibility of my studying to become a rare book librarian.
Sometimes a walk is more than mere walking.
The Bible is filled with admonitions for Christians to “walk” in a certain way. In Ephesians, the word “walk” occurs in 7 separate places.
For example in Ephesians 2:10 Paul informs us that God has ordained that we should walk in good works. In 4:1 we hear that we are to walk worthy of our calling, and in 4:17 Paul teaches that we should not walk as the Gentiles walk.
But what does it mean to “walk,” in biblical terms? It means “to live” or the manner of conducting one’s self.
Any time you walk, you have to have a destination and know where you’re going, and you have to know how to get there, the direction. But when you walk with someone, you also have to have a desire to walk with that person.
Our life with God, our walk with God, is the same way. Walking with God, involves 3 things:
1. a desire to walk with God – to Walk in Love (verses 1-7)
2. a direction as to how to walk with God – Walk in Light (verses 8-14)
3. a destination for where we are walking with God – Walk in Wisdom and Obedience (verses 15-21, even though they are technically outside of today’s lesson)
To walk with God, we must first have a desire to walk with God; we must walk in love as He first loved us (verses 1-2.) When walking with someone, and not just by yourself, or not just happening to be going the same direction, you have to have a desire to walk – to be – with that person. This was certainly true of Jackie and me when we were courting. Yes, we had places we were walking to, but the most important part of the walk was the being with Jackie. There was a great desire to walk with her. Just recently, on a Monday when I was not doing church work and the kids were in school, I had the best time just running (or should I say walking) errands with Jackie because I got to be with her. For me, being with Jackie, is something like being in heaven.
In the same way, we must walk with God – we must walk in love, desiring to be in the presence of God. Though Paul is primarily speaking of walking in love toward one another, this love begins by loving God. To walk with God, to live with Him and experience Him, we must be willing to imitate Him (verse 1.)
Children are born imitators. Whenever I do something silly at the dinner table, you can bet that child by child, wildly mutating as each takes a turn, my children will imitate what I have just done (and Jackie just shakes her head.) We even have a saying at my house: “Children See, Children Do.”
To imitate God means to walk in love, as He is love. Jesus Christ loved us and gave Himself as an offering for us (verse 2), and if we want to walk with God we must offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God by giving up ourselves for others. In verses 3-6 Paul shows us that lust is opposed to love. Unfortunately, our culture confuses the two, especially when it comes to sex. Lust is about pleasing oneself, but love is about doing what is best for others.
In every walk, you must not only have a desire but you must have a direction: you must know the way. Therefore, in walking with God, we are to walk in light, His light (verse 8.) Light gives us the direction to see where we should walk.
Once you were darkness, but now you are light (verse 8.) The fact is that as a child of God, you are light – not simply will be. Since you are light, walk as children of light.
One of the mistakes that Christians make, especially young Christians, is in walking with those who are in darkness. Paul says, however, that we are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. This doesn’t mean we have no contact with those who are still in
darkness, but it does mean that we do not do what they do and that we don’t put ourselves in a position where those in darkness are determining the shape and behavior of our life.
Darkness is often seductive. The world tries hard to make it look sexy and glamorous. It’s cool to get drunk; it sophisticated to commit adultery; and everybody sleeps around. I’ve know too many Christian young people who keep making poor choices in friends and poor choice in entertainments, and in their lives the darkness overcomes the light.
Walking in the light means that we must expose their works of darkness. For those who are more mature Christians, we must stand beside those flirting with darkness and expose the darkness. An interesting thing happens when light meets dark, even when the dark is menacing and intimidating: the light drives away the darkness.
Too often we find ourselves drifting into the darkness, and the reason we do is because we have stopped walking with God and are walking with someone else. I remember one time when I was young we were in New York City walking together as a family. I followed my Mom so I wouldn’t get lost, and since she was wearing a beige skirt I kept my eyes focused on the beige skirt. When I finally looked up, my real family was 100 yards away, and I had been following the wrong beige skirt!
To walk with God we need one more thing: we need a destination. Where are we going on this walk with God? In verses 15-21, Paul reminds us to walk in wisdom.
I think a lot of us are like someone who was put in the middle of a desert and told to start walking, and so we walk because we’re supposed to. But we haven’t sought and found the map, the direction, for where we are to go. Even if someone gave us a map, we still wouldn’t know where to go because we wouldn’t know what our destination was supposed to be.
Our destination, our map, is to walk in wisdom, which means doing the will of God, for this is the destination, the goal of our walk. St. Paul gives us 3 ways to walk in wisdom: we should redeem the time (verse 16), discern the will of God (verse 17), and be filled not with spirits but with the Holy Spirit (verse 18.) There is so much that could be said about each one of these, but it’s up to you to learn, in wisdom, how to apply each.
In the early chapters of Genesis, it appears as if it were the custom for God to walk in the cool of the day with Adam, before he fell. In Genesis Chapter 5, we read of righteous Enoch, who “walked with God” and walked so faithfully that he was translated into heaven and did not even see death!
This is the way I want to walk in my life: to walk so closely with God in His love, in His light, and in His wisdom, that I am translated into heaven because heaven is being in His presence.
Prayer: Father, teach me to walk with You by walking with You in love. Give me a desire to be with You and to love as You have loved me. Keep me in Your light and fill me with Your wisdom that in all things I may dwell in Your presence all the days of my life. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
Meditate on and apply Paul’s command to walk in wisdom in one of the 3 ways which Paul discusses.
1. How can you “redeem the time” in your life? What are the time-wasters in your life? Are there opportunities to walk with God by serving Him that You have not been taking?
2. Have you spent adequate time discerning the will of the Lord? In what area or areas of your life should you be seeking God’s will more actively?
3. How can you be more filled with the Spirit by engaging in speaking to others with spiritual songs, by making a melody in your heart to the Lord, or by giving thanks?
Resolution: I resolve to seek to walk with God today. In particular, I resolve to find one way to practice walking in love, light, or wisdom. You might want to relate this resolution to the specific things God has been asking You to do lately.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Perhaps it was a romantic walk; or maybe an important business matter was discussed during a walk; or a life-changing decision was made during a walk.
I remember going on many walks with Jackie during which we discussed my many attempts to understand God’s call on our lives together. We have walked and talked about having children and what we will name them; we have walked and talked about my becoming a deacon and about my becoming a priest, and (during a month of uncertainty and confusion) we talked about the possibility of my studying to become a rare book librarian.
Sometimes a walk is more than mere walking.
The Bible is filled with admonitions for Christians to “walk” in a certain way. In Ephesians, the word “walk” occurs in 7 separate places.
For example in Ephesians 2:10 Paul informs us that God has ordained that we should walk in good works. In 4:1 we hear that we are to walk worthy of our calling, and in 4:17 Paul teaches that we should not walk as the Gentiles walk.
But what does it mean to “walk,” in biblical terms? It means “to live” or the manner of conducting one’s self.
Any time you walk, you have to have a destination and know where you’re going, and you have to know how to get there, the direction. But when you walk with someone, you also have to have a desire to walk with that person.
Our life with God, our walk with God, is the same way. Walking with God, involves 3 things:
1. a desire to walk with God – to Walk in Love (verses 1-7)
2. a direction as to how to walk with God – Walk in Light (verses 8-14)
3. a destination for where we are walking with God – Walk in Wisdom and Obedience (verses 15-21, even though they are technically outside of today’s lesson)
To walk with God, we must first have a desire to walk with God; we must walk in love as He first loved us (verses 1-2.) When walking with someone, and not just by yourself, or not just happening to be going the same direction, you have to have a desire to walk – to be – with that person. This was certainly true of Jackie and me when we were courting. Yes, we had places we were walking to, but the most important part of the walk was the being with Jackie. There was a great desire to walk with her. Just recently, on a Monday when I was not doing church work and the kids were in school, I had the best time just running (or should I say walking) errands with Jackie because I got to be with her. For me, being with Jackie, is something like being in heaven.
In the same way, we must walk with God – we must walk in love, desiring to be in the presence of God. Though Paul is primarily speaking of walking in love toward one another, this love begins by loving God. To walk with God, to live with Him and experience Him, we must be willing to imitate Him (verse 1.)
Children are born imitators. Whenever I do something silly at the dinner table, you can bet that child by child, wildly mutating as each takes a turn, my children will imitate what I have just done (and Jackie just shakes her head.) We even have a saying at my house: “Children See, Children Do.”
To imitate God means to walk in love, as He is love. Jesus Christ loved us and gave Himself as an offering for us (verse 2), and if we want to walk with God we must offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God by giving up ourselves for others. In verses 3-6 Paul shows us that lust is opposed to love. Unfortunately, our culture confuses the two, especially when it comes to sex. Lust is about pleasing oneself, but love is about doing what is best for others.
In every walk, you must not only have a desire but you must have a direction: you must know the way. Therefore, in walking with God, we are to walk in light, His light (verse 8.) Light gives us the direction to see where we should walk.
Once you were darkness, but now you are light (verse 8.) The fact is that as a child of God, you are light – not simply will be. Since you are light, walk as children of light.
One of the mistakes that Christians make, especially young Christians, is in walking with those who are in darkness. Paul says, however, that we are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. This doesn’t mean we have no contact with those who are still in
darkness, but it does mean that we do not do what they do and that we don’t put ourselves in a position where those in darkness are determining the shape and behavior of our life.
Darkness is often seductive. The world tries hard to make it look sexy and glamorous. It’s cool to get drunk; it sophisticated to commit adultery; and everybody sleeps around. I’ve know too many Christian young people who keep making poor choices in friends and poor choice in entertainments, and in their lives the darkness overcomes the light.
Walking in the light means that we must expose their works of darkness. For those who are more mature Christians, we must stand beside those flirting with darkness and expose the darkness. An interesting thing happens when light meets dark, even when the dark is menacing and intimidating: the light drives away the darkness.
Too often we find ourselves drifting into the darkness, and the reason we do is because we have stopped walking with God and are walking with someone else. I remember one time when I was young we were in New York City walking together as a family. I followed my Mom so I wouldn’t get lost, and since she was wearing a beige skirt I kept my eyes focused on the beige skirt. When I finally looked up, my real family was 100 yards away, and I had been following the wrong beige skirt!
To walk with God we need one more thing: we need a destination. Where are we going on this walk with God? In verses 15-21, Paul reminds us to walk in wisdom.
I think a lot of us are like someone who was put in the middle of a desert and told to start walking, and so we walk because we’re supposed to. But we haven’t sought and found the map, the direction, for where we are to go. Even if someone gave us a map, we still wouldn’t know where to go because we wouldn’t know what our destination was supposed to be.
Our destination, our map, is to walk in wisdom, which means doing the will of God, for this is the destination, the goal of our walk. St. Paul gives us 3 ways to walk in wisdom: we should redeem the time (verse 16), discern the will of God (verse 17), and be filled not with spirits but with the Holy Spirit (verse 18.) There is so much that could be said about each one of these, but it’s up to you to learn, in wisdom, how to apply each.
In the early chapters of Genesis, it appears as if it were the custom for God to walk in the cool of the day with Adam, before he fell. In Genesis Chapter 5, we read of righteous Enoch, who “walked with God” and walked so faithfully that he was translated into heaven and did not even see death!
This is the way I want to walk in my life: to walk so closely with God in His love, in His light, and in His wisdom, that I am translated into heaven because heaven is being in His presence.
Prayer: Father, teach me to walk with You by walking with You in love. Give me a desire to be with You and to love as You have loved me. Keep me in Your light and fill me with Your wisdom that in all things I may dwell in Your presence all the days of my life. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
Meditate on and apply Paul’s command to walk in wisdom in one of the 3 ways which Paul discusses.
1. How can you “redeem the time” in your life? What are the time-wasters in your life? Are there opportunities to walk with God by serving Him that You have not been taking?
2. Have you spent adequate time discerning the will of the Lord? In what area or areas of your life should you be seeking God’s will more actively?
3. How can you be more filled with the Spirit by engaging in speaking to others with spiritual songs, by making a melody in your heart to the Lord, or by giving thanks?
Resolution: I resolve to seek to walk with God today. In particular, I resolve to find one way to practice walking in love, light, or wisdom. You might want to relate this resolution to the specific things God has been asking You to do lately.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Monday of 2nd Sunday after Epiphany - Ephesians 4:17-32
The drama of good vs. evil grips us because it hits so close to home. Some of the most compelling myths today – things like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings – grab us precisely because they dramatize the battle between good and evil.
But the most dramatic version of the battle between good and evil is not lived out in a galaxy far, far away or in an age that is long, long ago: it is lived out in each of us every day. It is a battle to which God has called you this day and of which St. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:17-32.
“This I say, therefore,” Paul says in verse 17. Did I miss something? What did he just say? What he just said was Ephesians 1:1 – 4:16. He said that God has adopted us and made us His children; that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places; that we have a high calling to be like Christ as stewards of His mysteries; and that we are to walk worthy of our high calling, the calling of salvation.
Therefore, because of all that Paul has just said, we are to do 2 things. There are 2 steps in participating in God’s mystery:
First, put off the old man, the sin nature, and defeat evil in your life (verse 22.)
Second, put on the new man, Jesus Christ and His righteousness, and multiply good in your life (verse 24.)
There is true evil and real sin in the world. Often, we see it most in ourselves. This evil is related to what Paul calls the Old Man, the sinful nature and sinful deeds that we do. This Old Man that Paul talks about is the way that the Gentiles without Christ lived in Paul’s time, and it is the way all of us live without God in our lives. The Old Man lives in the futility of his mind (verse 17), has its understanding darkened and has blindness of heart (verse 18), is alienated from the life of God (verse 18), and is given over to lasciviousness, uncleanness, and greediness (verse 19.)
This is what we were and would continue to be without the righteousness of Jesus Christ in our lives. And it is this – a life apart from God, a life lived our own way – that we must get rid of and put off.
The evil of sin and the Old Man requires courageous and vigorous action to slay it, though. And it is not possible to simply put off the Old Man, to get rid of sin: you must also put on the New Man. In fact they must happen together, for the good displaces the evil. Trying to take off the Old Man without putting on the New Man is a little like downing a bottle of antibiotic pills all at one time without ever eating any yogurt or probiotics. You might temporarily get rid of the bad bacteria, but there are no good ones to replace the bad ones. If taken this way, the bad bacteria will be back and all you’d have to show for it would be a massive case of diarrhea.
If you think Christianity is another 12-step program to help yourself get over sin, or if you think the Bible is another self-help book – the do-it-yourself way to get right with God – then you’re in for the shock of your life!
It is only by putting on Christ and His righteousness and His Spirit and His life that we can hope to put off sin and put on righteousness. When you put on the New Man, you become one with the New Man, and He lives in and through you. Behold, you are a new creature! God expects to radically transform each of us so that we look more and more like His Son. Our transformation may not be as rapid or as dramatic as that from Saul of Tarsus to St. Paul – and God doesn’t intend it to be so. But God does expect and has equipped each of you, over the course of your life, to experience a transformation of your character as great as Paul’s. In terms of spiritual development, St. Paul may have been a hare, and most of us are tortoises. But the truth is that even St. Paul knew the Law and something of the Messiah before his conversion, and he spent many years learning the new life in Christ from the apostles.
Sometimes we have a casual attitude toward this process of sanctification, of putting on Jesus Christ the New Man. Suppose you had been invited to an evening dinner with the President, but earlier that day you decided to catch up on some chores. You planted your garden and mowed the lawn and changed the oil in your car. Wouldn’t you take off your dirty, smelly clothes and put on your best suit or dress?
In the same way, you are to put off the Old Man of sin and put on the New Man, which is Jesus Christ and His righteousness – before you can go and meet with God.
To me, it’s exciting that by doing something as simple as turning from my sin and doing what is right, by doing the very thing that I deeply desire to do, that I can: be holy as God is holy; participate in His eternal plan; become a new creature and become like my Lord and Savior; and can actually please my God.
In each of you, the most gripping and incredible drama is being played out. Your body, mind, and soul are the places where the cosmic battle between good and evil is being fought. The battle is not out there in a galaxy far, far away or back in Middle Earth. And you are not permitted to be a spectator: you are the actor, or, more accurately, Christ in you.
But how can you practically put on the New Man? Of course, we all know the traditional and good answers of worshiping in the Church, reading the Bible, and praying. But Paul’s remedy is to practice acting righteously. The other things are all necessary, but when it comes down to it, we must go out and act righteously, like Jesus Christ.
Paul gives 3 examples, though the specific prescription for you may be different. In each example, Paul gives us one sin we must put off and one righteous action we must put on.
In verses 25 and 29-30 Paul says, in essence: “Don’t use your mouth for evil, but use it for good.” The tongue, James says, is a restless evil: be on your guard against it. It might seem as if lies, or a little gossip, or the complaining about life that we all do is no big deal. But God puts the sins of the tongue right up there with all of the other ones we tend to think about more.
There’s a simple test for use of your mouth: does it glorify God and does it edify your neighbor? If your mouth is grumbling or lying or hurting, then maybe it’s time to shut your mouth.
A second example of putting on the New Man, Paul says, is to not lose your temper, but to ensure that your anger is righteous (verses 26-27.) The truth is that most anger is selfish, and most of it is over small things. Most anger, by far, does not work the righteousness of God.
Paul’s third example of how to put on the New Man is that you should not steal but should instead work and give to others (verse 28.) It goes without saying that we shouldn’t steal, and I’m willing to bet that not a single one of you snatched a purse or bumped off a 7-11 this past week. (Of course, there are a lot of you I don’t know very well!)
So maybe we can all safely skip over this commandment. But, how many of us have worked and saved, not just for ourselves, but so that we may give to those who are more needy? How many of us see our wealth as all belonging to God and actively think about how He might want us to use His money? (And by the way – it’s not just money that can be stolen.)
In Malachi 3:8, Malachi asks: “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.”
Much more could be said about all of these ways of taking off the Old Man, but these are meant to remind us of how prevalent sin is and how many opportunities we have each day to obey and to grow. The point of each is that we seek to take off ourselves and our way of doing things and put on Jesus Christ who is the New Man.
Put on Jesus Christ – every bit of Him on every bit of who you are. He wants you heart, mouth, and hand. The right use of your anger is representative of your heart; not lying but speaking truth is representative of your mouth; and not stealing but working and giving is representative of your hands.
Put on the New Man: put on Jesus Christ every morning.
Prayer: I humbly ask you, Lord, that being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness, and being buried with Christ in His death, that You may crucify the Old Man in me and utterly destroy the whole body of sin. As You have made me a partaker of the death of Your Son, may You also make me a partaker of His resurrection and the New Man; so that finally, with Your holy Church, I may be an inheritor of Your everlasting kingdom. Amen.
Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to practice taking off the Old Man and putting on the New Man Jesus Christ by choosing one thing God is asking me to do. I resolve to pick one behavior God is asking me to give up and to choose one thing He is asking me to do instead. In doing this, I will seek to remember that this is one way that I can put on Jesus Christ every day.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
But the most dramatic version of the battle between good and evil is not lived out in a galaxy far, far away or in an age that is long, long ago: it is lived out in each of us every day. It is a battle to which God has called you this day and of which St. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:17-32.
“This I say, therefore,” Paul says in verse 17. Did I miss something? What did he just say? What he just said was Ephesians 1:1 – 4:16. He said that God has adopted us and made us His children; that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places; that we have a high calling to be like Christ as stewards of His mysteries; and that we are to walk worthy of our high calling, the calling of salvation.
Therefore, because of all that Paul has just said, we are to do 2 things. There are 2 steps in participating in God’s mystery:
First, put off the old man, the sin nature, and defeat evil in your life (verse 22.)
Second, put on the new man, Jesus Christ and His righteousness, and multiply good in your life (verse 24.)
There is true evil and real sin in the world. Often, we see it most in ourselves. This evil is related to what Paul calls the Old Man, the sinful nature and sinful deeds that we do. This Old Man that Paul talks about is the way that the Gentiles without Christ lived in Paul’s time, and it is the way all of us live without God in our lives. The Old Man lives in the futility of his mind (verse 17), has its understanding darkened and has blindness of heart (verse 18), is alienated from the life of God (verse 18), and is given over to lasciviousness, uncleanness, and greediness (verse 19.)
This is what we were and would continue to be without the righteousness of Jesus Christ in our lives. And it is this – a life apart from God, a life lived our own way – that we must get rid of and put off.
The evil of sin and the Old Man requires courageous and vigorous action to slay it, though. And it is not possible to simply put off the Old Man, to get rid of sin: you must also put on the New Man. In fact they must happen together, for the good displaces the evil. Trying to take off the Old Man without putting on the New Man is a little like downing a bottle of antibiotic pills all at one time without ever eating any yogurt or probiotics. You might temporarily get rid of the bad bacteria, but there are no good ones to replace the bad ones. If taken this way, the bad bacteria will be back and all you’d have to show for it would be a massive case of diarrhea.
If you think Christianity is another 12-step program to help yourself get over sin, or if you think the Bible is another self-help book – the do-it-yourself way to get right with God – then you’re in for the shock of your life!
It is only by putting on Christ and His righteousness and His Spirit and His life that we can hope to put off sin and put on righteousness. When you put on the New Man, you become one with the New Man, and He lives in and through you. Behold, you are a new creature! God expects to radically transform each of us so that we look more and more like His Son. Our transformation may not be as rapid or as dramatic as that from Saul of Tarsus to St. Paul – and God doesn’t intend it to be so. But God does expect and has equipped each of you, over the course of your life, to experience a transformation of your character as great as Paul’s. In terms of spiritual development, St. Paul may have been a hare, and most of us are tortoises. But the truth is that even St. Paul knew the Law and something of the Messiah before his conversion, and he spent many years learning the new life in Christ from the apostles.
Sometimes we have a casual attitude toward this process of sanctification, of putting on Jesus Christ the New Man. Suppose you had been invited to an evening dinner with the President, but earlier that day you decided to catch up on some chores. You planted your garden and mowed the lawn and changed the oil in your car. Wouldn’t you take off your dirty, smelly clothes and put on your best suit or dress?
In the same way, you are to put off the Old Man of sin and put on the New Man, which is Jesus Christ and His righteousness – before you can go and meet with God.
To me, it’s exciting that by doing something as simple as turning from my sin and doing what is right, by doing the very thing that I deeply desire to do, that I can: be holy as God is holy; participate in His eternal plan; become a new creature and become like my Lord and Savior; and can actually please my God.
In each of you, the most gripping and incredible drama is being played out. Your body, mind, and soul are the places where the cosmic battle between good and evil is being fought. The battle is not out there in a galaxy far, far away or back in Middle Earth. And you are not permitted to be a spectator: you are the actor, or, more accurately, Christ in you.
But how can you practically put on the New Man? Of course, we all know the traditional and good answers of worshiping in the Church, reading the Bible, and praying. But Paul’s remedy is to practice acting righteously. The other things are all necessary, but when it comes down to it, we must go out and act righteously, like Jesus Christ.
Paul gives 3 examples, though the specific prescription for you may be different. In each example, Paul gives us one sin we must put off and one righteous action we must put on.
In verses 25 and 29-30 Paul says, in essence: “Don’t use your mouth for evil, but use it for good.” The tongue, James says, is a restless evil: be on your guard against it. It might seem as if lies, or a little gossip, or the complaining about life that we all do is no big deal. But God puts the sins of the tongue right up there with all of the other ones we tend to think about more.
There’s a simple test for use of your mouth: does it glorify God and does it edify your neighbor? If your mouth is grumbling or lying or hurting, then maybe it’s time to shut your mouth.
A second example of putting on the New Man, Paul says, is to not lose your temper, but to ensure that your anger is righteous (verses 26-27.) The truth is that most anger is selfish, and most of it is over small things. Most anger, by far, does not work the righteousness of God.
Paul’s third example of how to put on the New Man is that you should not steal but should instead work and give to others (verse 28.) It goes without saying that we shouldn’t steal, and I’m willing to bet that not a single one of you snatched a purse or bumped off a 7-11 this past week. (Of course, there are a lot of you I don’t know very well!)
So maybe we can all safely skip over this commandment. But, how many of us have worked and saved, not just for ourselves, but so that we may give to those who are more needy? How many of us see our wealth as all belonging to God and actively think about how He might want us to use His money? (And by the way – it’s not just money that can be stolen.)
In Malachi 3:8, Malachi asks: “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.”
Much more could be said about all of these ways of taking off the Old Man, but these are meant to remind us of how prevalent sin is and how many opportunities we have each day to obey and to grow. The point of each is that we seek to take off ourselves and our way of doing things and put on Jesus Christ who is the New Man.
Put on Jesus Christ – every bit of Him on every bit of who you are. He wants you heart, mouth, and hand. The right use of your anger is representative of your heart; not lying but speaking truth is representative of your mouth; and not stealing but working and giving is representative of your hands.
Put on the New Man: put on Jesus Christ every morning.
Prayer: I humbly ask you, Lord, that being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness, and being buried with Christ in His death, that You may crucify the Old Man in me and utterly destroy the whole body of sin. As You have made me a partaker of the death of Your Son, may You also make me a partaker of His resurrection and the New Man; so that finally, with Your holy Church, I may be an inheritor of Your everlasting kingdom. Amen.
Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to practice taking off the Old Man and putting on the New Man Jesus Christ by choosing one thing God is asking me to do. I resolve to pick one behavior God is asking me to give up and to choose one thing He is asking me to do instead. In doing this, I will seek to remember that this is one way that I can put on Jesus Christ every day.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
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