Ephesians 5:3-10

Wednesday, October 16, 2013             Ephesians 5:3-10

When I think of the world Paul lived in, I marvel at his courage. For Paul, the life in Christ was as different from the normal cultural life of his times, as is light from darkness. Yet he was unafraid to take head-on the cultural norms, as he urges the followers of Christ to raise high their standards for life. Paul was ridiculed, not only by those in the world he opposed, but also from some within the Christian communities he loved so dearly. Not much has changed as Paul continues to irritate many, within and without the Christian church.

The irritation is caused by the sharp contrast between the norms of the prevailing world culture and the ways of Christ. With the wonderful benediction in verses 1 and 2 guiding us, we can see that Paul is not just listing the sins of the cultural norms that the Christian should avoid. Rather, he is pointing to the source of the Christian’s new life: “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:8-9).

One of Paul’s teaching techniques is to identify appropriate attitudes or behavior for the followers of Jesus, then point to the source of our ability to rise to the standards of God. He used this technique here when he pointed to the light within us. Another prominent example of this technique is in the letter to the Philippians. Paul follows his exhortation to “value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others,” with the source of our capacity to value others above ourselves: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2: 3b-4 (NIV) and 13 NLT).

I never cease praising God for using Paul so powerfully to communicate the Gospel of Grace and to make it so abundantly clear that our transformation to become like Christ is first, last and always a work of Christ within us.

Sē’lah 

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.