40 Days Blog - Day 10
Ephesians 5:1-20 - More Instructions for Christian Living
According to current scientific thinking, there are four fundamental forces at work in the universe: gravity, electromagnetism and the ‘weak force’ and the ‘strong force’. Gravity and electromagnetism are readily observed in daily life. The ‘weak force’ and the ‘strong force’ work at the sub-atomic level.
The Bible bears witness to two fundamental forces that govern human interactions: fear and love. Fear could be thought of as a ‘weak force’ and love a ‘strong force’. Fear is not a strong motivator for obedience: not long after the fear of God was struck into the hearts of the Israelites at Mount Sinai and the giving of the Law, they were breaking the First Commandment by casting and worshipping a golden calf. Law relies on fear as motivation for obedience, whereas the Gospel relies on love; Jesus says, “
If you love me, keep my commandments.”
We are saved by faith because it is through the channel of faith that the love of God flows. Faith is like the branch wood of a vine, worthless of itself; vines are grown for grapes, not wood, which is the point the prophet is making in
Ezekiel 15:1-5.
Love is not only the strongest motivator for doing God’s will, it is God’s will: Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus to walk in Love (
v2). But the very power of love means it must come with warnings. Not for nothing does Paul, in the next verse, warn about sexual immorality, and greed. Both are distortions of love.
In our everyday language, love has a broad range of meaning. In the language original language of the New Testament there were four words for love, which could be translated; sexual love (
eros), unselfish/sacrificial love (
agapé), friendship love (
philia) and familial love (
storgé, this word is not used in the New Testament). The second and third words were somewhat interchangeable (see
John 15:13). When Paul writes about sexual immorality, he’s referring to the full range of illicit sexual acts, detailed in the Law of Moses, but widely practised in Greek society of the time. In progressive western society, much of what Paul would label as sexual immorality, is seen as acceptable and even desirable, and an expression of love.
If that’s not problematic enough, there’s worse to come. The word Paul uses for greed could be literally translated as ‘having greater’, having more than we need to live off. How many pairs of shoes, coats, cars, homes do we need? Here we encounter another perversion of love; the love of wealth and possessions, actively encouraged in western society, and indeed one of its pillars.
The question is then, how should Christians navigate a world awash with eros and greed? The answer is with extreme care (
v15). God is pure light and Christians should walk in the light; God is pure love (
agapé) and Christians should walk in pure love, as imitators of God. If we truly love God, we will naturally gravitate towards Him, and the gravitational pull of the world will lose its grip on us.
A Prayer
Loving God, You made all things and sustain all things, and it is in Your hand to give strength to all. You have drawn me close by the power of Your love, but I still feel the draw of this present world with all its temptations; I am weak but You are strong, help me in my struggle against sin.
Amen.
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