Submit Yourselves

Ephesians Study

Chapter 5:19 and 20

When you think of submission or being subject to one another think of it in terms of the mutual submission that is modeled by the Godhead.  Each one has a role to fill and each one is mutually submissive and respectful of the roles of the others.  This is an example for the body of Christ…the ecclesia (the collective body or congregation).  It is an example, too, for husband and wives.  

This submission would be easier if we tried to live in the energy of Ephesians 5:19, 20:   “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”  

One day, the Lord said to me: Linda, if you can get over yourself, no one else will bother you.  This was years ago, and the older I get, the more I see the truth of this.  I recently heard a pastor say it this way:  I cannot love you, if I do not love myself.  I cannot love myself if I do not know my value (identity) to the Lord.  If I love myself, you cannot “eat my lunch” emotionally because my self-esteem is not dependent on you or any other external.  The cross is about my value; not my sin.  It was not a second thought.  God did not get in a bind of some sort.  God so loved that He gave.

Paul has spent so much of Ephesians trying to help us see our value to God.  If you think about it, our value is equal to the blood of the Lamb.  Why?  Because we were created in His image.  What would be the worth of your children?

I used to not like the idea of submission because of childhood experiences and the modeling of bully-type adults.  I am so glad that Ephesians 5:19 and 20 precedes the submission verses.  You see, praise and thanksgiving to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ is really the core of submission and subjecting ourselves.  We tend to think it is about us.  It’s not!  Submission is our relationship witness for God and the Son.  Everything in the Christian’s life is about that relationship…and the relationship with our fellow men.  The scripture tells us how to be with those in the church and those outside the church.  Both need the witness of love…they will know we are christians by our love.  

Jesus modeled this in His relationships with all. Those in the church may need the truth spoken in love.  Those outside the church really need a witness.

I would like to suggest that living in subjection to one another and the the Word is practice for Kingdom living.  It is practice for living with God and Christ.  Subjection or submission means to choose a higher way over our selves or our emotions.  This is the struggle of flesh and spirit.  We are cautioned not to live by flesh (fleshly lusts/wants/preferences/desires).  The reason we have this caution is because we cannot serve two masters.  As much as we would and can dress up our emotions and feelings, they are self-driven (ego - edging God out).  

The peace that we were created to have in God is an internal call from Spirit.  That peace is in conflict with emotions.  Submission to one another is a type of crucifying self.  Everything that we would defend is a place of submission.  Unless we let our emotions suffer, we will not regain peace and joy.  

Humanity and Divinity were united in Christ.  His mission from the foundation of the world was reconciliation…God to man and man to God.  It takes a Spirit-controlled will (freedom of choice) that is constantly laying down self to embrace this exquisite calling and work of God.  It all starts with submission / subjection. 

A submissive will pleases God.  It gives Him permission to hold sway over the entire man.  What a delightful way to end Chapter 5 of Ephesians…submission; it makes it possible to live out God’s goal of peace on earth, good will to men.

All Things Are New

The Ephesians Study

Ephesians 5:8 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whosever believed in Him has everlasting life”  John 3:16. This thought is the golden thread that runs through every message in the Bible.  The Son was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  Even when mankind was choosing a way the seemed right to them in the garden, the Lamb had them/us covered.   Paul has spent the better part of Ephesians telling us who we are in Christ.  We are a new creation.  We are called to the Light.  Because of Christ, we can walk in the fullness of being a new creation.  We have been restored to God’s original intent for us.  The real question that needs consideration is: Do I believe it and what application am I making of this truth?

2 Corinthians 5:17:  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he IS a new creation; old things HAVE PASSED AWAY; behold, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW.  Notice the past tense of old things.  In Christ, we are a new creation…present tense. The truth needs to be shouted from the mountain top!  Ephesians 5:8: “For you were once darkness, but NOW you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light.”  At one time, we were CALLED darkness.  Now, we are light in the Lord.  What does it mean to walk as children of light, NOW.  I think it means to BE in the light and, therefore, walk in what is already true of us.  Our challenges are God’s opportunities.  Listen to the Lord’s own experience.

John 16:32-33:  “Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

• Have you ever been alone and felt forsaken by friend and family and God?
• The Father is always with us…even when we are all over the place in feeling abandoned.  Faith is when we move based on Him; not our feelings.
• “That you might have peace.”  Praise the Lord!  We need this kind of peace.  It is not of this world.  It lives out the “be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Paul contrasts what the new creation is and what it is not.  Light and dark have no fellowship with each other.  2 Corinthians 6:14:  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?  Hear what is being said.  It is impossible to be in the Light and walk in the Light and be in darkness at the same time.  Another way of understanding Light and darkness is by contrasting FAITH versus feeling.  To rely on feeling is to walk in the darkness.  In some ways, I think it might be harder to rely on feelings than it is to trust and have faith.  Feelings leave us up and down.  Feelings are dependent on others.  Feeling good about something often depends on getting our way…usually staying within our comfort zone.  

Paul says in Philippians 3:7-12 ESV:

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 

11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Proverbs 14:12 says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.  Ever since our birth, we have been educated by the world.  Even in the best attempts of our fathers and mothers to give us a spiritual upbringing, we have received much in the way of the traditions of men.  This experience is mirrored in Paul’s story.  He was raised in the religious traditions of that time.  He was so strong and set in his ways that he could justify killing others who believed differently than he believed.

At some point, he met the Savior.  He says that whatever gain he had, he counts as loss.  Have we encountered this loss?  Has what we thought we believed let us down…disappointed us…discouraged us…betrayed us?  That is really a good thing.  It does not feel so good at the present…and maybe for  a while…while we regroup.  Remember Paul’s encounter with truth and his resulting blindness.  Some truth encounters are so powerful that they cause physical symptoms.  Remember, we are not only physical creatures but emotional  and spiritual beings.  The whole is affected by the parts.  

Can we look back on this transformation caused by truth and count the past as rubbish?  Paul gave up what he thought he believed for a person…Jesus Christ (love, light, and life).  It changed who and how he was in life. 

Ephesians is talking about relationships.  The light and dark is the stuff of relationships.  It is about love that compels us to love others as ourselves.  When we have that in our hearts, the stuff identified as darkness (his lists) will be seen as relationship issues which lead to DOING things on the dark side.  He is talking to Christians.  There is a greater calling on us than on those who do not know Christ.  How will they know unless we display Him in our lives?

Remember, everything in the past is over.  Start as the new creation.  We have died to the old and been resurrected to the new.  This process does not allow for the extra baggage of life and the rubbish that Paul speaks of.   The traditions of man and “the way that seems right” can be buried with the old man.  Give up what you think you believe for the person of Jesus Christ. 

Prayer:  Psalm 141

Lord, Thank you for making haste when I cry out to you, and for hearing me when I call.  Thank you for receiving my prayer as incense set before you and as the evening sacrifice.  Thank you for setting a guard over my mouth and for keeping watch over the door to my lips.  Thank you for keeping my heart from that which is hurtful to  me.  

Psalm 139 23, 24

Thank you for searching me and knowing my heart, O God.  Thank you for trying me so I can know my anxieties and see if there is any hurtful, dysfunctional, and disobedient ways in me.  Thank you for leading me in the way everlasting. 

In Jesus name, Amen.