Letters to a friend (Part 1)

Between somewhere in the region of November 07 and January 08, I sent out
a number of emails to a few friends. In particular, most of them where aimed at one friend, who was at the time going through a destinct decline in her faith. She's since turned her back on Christ entirely. While a lot of the emails where either personal or of little interest, there's some stuff here that I felt was worth sharing. It should be pointed out that most of these where off-the-cuff and not properly planned out. Also that they where all originally sent to the same three or four people.
So here's the first of a few copies. Enjoy.


Date: 17/11/2007
Subject: A Few Thoughts on Ephesians

    So I met my dad on the landing jsut now as he was getting ready to
start writing his sermon for tommorow, and I asked what he was doing it
on. Ephesians 4:1-16, aparently, on the subject of unity in the church.
So anywho, I went and looked it up, and here it is;


       Ephesians 4

1I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

2With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love;

3Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope
of your calling;

5One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all.

7But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of
the gift of Christ.

8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men.

9(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth?

10He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens, that he might fill all things.)

11And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ:

13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ:

14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

15But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ:

16From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of
itself in love.


So two thoughts suddenly strike me. The first one's "yaknow, I think we
did a study on this at the youth assembly". I don't think we did,
actually. I think it's jsut that verse 11 happens to be similar to the
passage we did read, which if I had to guess I'd say was from
Corinthians. The second point was "I think I'll cross-reference the
first three verses with my NIV and see what comes up." So, lessee what
does come up.


       Ephesians 4


         Unity in the Body of Christ

1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of
the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be
patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep
the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.


Something tells me most of us could do with keeping that one in mind
more often, and I'm not even gonna bother pretending I'm not included
there. "Longsuffering,  forebearing one another in love"'s the bit I
like. Y'have to admit, longsuffering sounds much better than patient.
It's got a certain something to it. Much stronger word. Kinda sticks
with you, in its way, no? I think longsufferingness is something we
could all do with. I admit I find it a lot easier with some things than
others...

Then I noticed 25-32 (at this point I'm gonna stick to the NIV, because
I'm well aware you don't share my love of King James!);


     Ephesians 4:25-32 (New International Version)

25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to
his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26"In your anger do
not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do
not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no
longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that
he may have something to share with those in need.

29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only
what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it
may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of
all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every
form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving
each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.


Sure the NIV puts it down as being on a different subject to unity, but
I'm seeing a definite link here that needs explored. For the record, the
start of verse 26 is from Psalm 4. Verse 15 interests me more, tho.
Interesting one there. You ever find you sorta expect others to follow
that one, but at the same time you don't neccesarily feel the need to do
it yourself? Maybe that's just me. It's an unfortunate habbit I'd say.
Falsehood and unwholesome talk: do they neccesarily go together? If the
truth might be unwholesome, how do we deal with that? I guess 31-33
kinda cover that one!  :-)   "Only what is helpful for building others up
according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen", seems
to be a rather odd one. I'm curious what your thoughts are on it,
actually. Is Paul maybe referring specifically when talking to the
unsaved? It doesn't really seem that way to me, but otoh, hmms. I dunno.
I suppose you said it yourself tho, what you say can have the right
effect without you even realising you've said it. Ksh.

I'm aware you've not really got huge amounts of free time, so I assure
you I'm almost finished here. Just a couple comments on Ephesians 5.
I've highlighted a couple of points in the next passage, basically
ebcause they're the ones I want to draw attention to.

3But among you *there must not be even a hint* of sexual immorality, or
of *any kind of impurity*, or of greed, because these are *improper* for
*God's holy people*. 4*Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or
coarse joking*, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5For of
this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is
an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.^[a
]
6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things
*God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient*. 7Therefore do not be
partners with them.

It's interesting, at least to me, that Paul decided that sexual
immorality and greed needed singled out and everything else got bundled
down as "any kind of impurity". In a way it kinda makes a loss of focus
on said impurity, don't you think? Well it shouldn't! "Obscenity,
foolish talk or course joking" are out of place, and I guess come under
impurity. They're also unwholesome talk, which Paul warned against
earlier. He later in chapter 5 warns "Do not get drunk on wine, which
leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." Debauchery.
Love that word. It's interesting, the meaning we'd tend to use now would
refer to excess. Heavy drinking, indulging in pleasures of the flesh,
and the like. A more archaic meaning, and the one which I think's
intended in this case, would be "seduction from morality, allegiance, or
duty".  Wow. I'll refrain from making a joke about how surely spirits
are more likely to lead to debauchary than wine, but if you really think
about what he's saying here, and compare with the events in the old
testament it's quite interesting. The number of times folk ended up
sinning against God after getting exceedingly drunk is pretty
impressive. Suddenly it starts making sense. A lot of "impurities" can
lead to sexual immorality and greed, sorta like coveting is the first
step to breaking the other nine commandments. And God's wrath comes on
those who are disobediance. Oh yes! For some reason I can never say
something like that without simoultaenously being filled with fear and
just a bit gleeful. It's terrible really. But God's wrath's pretty
awesome, no?

The rest of the chapter's about wives and husbands, and that's a new
subject entirely, so I'll end here. So anyway, there's jsut a few
thoughts that kinda hit me just now whilst reading through Ephesians.
I'd be pretty interested to see if you'd disagree on any points there.
Fantastic how I managed to go bypass the whole unity thing too, eh?
Guess the bits about how we're supposed to conduct or lives at
christians tend to be a bigger draw for me.

Anywho, thanks for reading this. Send me a reply when ya have the time
will ya? God bless.

-Stephen


   Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

               ~Ephesians 5:17~