Unity

I was caught off guard when this month the Lord gave one of our connect group leaders a dream which it turned out provided me with the material for the word that I want to share with you this month.

The material that I will share is taken from the 6th chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. I’ve read that book countless times but this time I was looking at it from a different perspective. I was of course very familiar with the passage at the end of the chapter that talks about putting on the armour of God but I had not bothered to ask the question why. What we were being the armour for. Was there a particular issue that the apostle was wanting to address and so I went looking to see if I could figure out Paul’s motive in writing the letter the way he did.

What I found was as always hidden in plain sight but for whatever reason I hadn’t paid attention to it before. In verse 10 of the first chapter Paul declares that God has made know a mystery to us which is that his purpose is to bring unity to all things under Christ.

In Bible colleges and seminaries, students are often reminded that when they study a passage of scripture they must be careful to take into account the context of the scripture. Sometimes that refers to the verse(s) in front as well as the verse(s) after the scripture but on many occasions that also refers to the overall context of the passage they are studying and this is particularly important as it relates to this imagery that Paul is describing in chapter 6. In this closing chapter Paul chooses to talk about relationships. He talks about the Relationship between Jews and Gentiles, Parents and children, Masters and slaves and husbands and wives and mustn’t miss the fact that it’s in this context that he lays out the teaching about the spiritual armour.

I want to say it again, Paul declares that one of the mysteries that God wanted to share by sending his son as salvation for us was that His desire is to see all things united in Christ. Unity, oneness, togetherness. It has been God’s purpose from the outset of creation. He wanted to created one family united under Christ to live with him to enjoy all of eternity together.

To underscore the point that he was making Paul added more detail. He said that Satan has from outset of creation opposed God’s plan. He was not happy that God wanted to create a family made in his own image. Wasn’t Lucifer after all named the angel of light. Wasn’t he God’s favourite shouldn’t he be God’s family. Feeling set to one side, replaced for another Satan set about doing all he could to make sure that such a plan could never come to fruition.

He tells the church that they need to understand that their struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6 :12) where Satan is described as being the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Eph 2:2.

Paul is painting a picture of the spiritual battle that is taking place behind the scenes and that we need to be aware of it.

Jesus had told his followers that tells one of the purposes that he had come to earth was to defeat the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8). In Eph2:2 we read the Satan is the prince of this world and in the passage in Ephesians chapter 6 Paul talks about putting on the full armour of God so that we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes.

Are you beginning to get the picture. Paul was saying that one of the prinicipal strategies of the devil is to attack relationship at every level aimed at finally destroying the relationship between God and man so that God would abandon his plan to usurp Satan’s position and replace him with a family made up of those created to be in his own image.

Lets look at what humanity is made up. It is comprised of men and women and children, who live in family groups, that make up larger social groups which then make uptowns and cities and even countries. What we see is people learning to live together with one and other.

Turns out that God had always planned it that way. He had planned to bring everything on earth together in unity finally ending up with a family that God would dwell in heaven with.

In this book Paul gives instructions as to what unity looks like because it turns out that unity is not our first go to position.

Too ofter we could care less about being our relationship with others. What we want is to satisfy tour own needs. That is the way of fallen sinful man but Paul tells the Ephesians that when we are made alive with Christ being in good and strong relationship first with Christ and to others ought to become our foremost purpose. But beware he tells his friends, because destroying these relationships will be the primary means that your enemy the devil will use to ensure that.

In his letter Paul expounds on the principal by referring to the relationship between Jew and Gentile and then between one another as the body of Christ. He further amplifies the concept by referring to the way that we conduct ourselves as married couples pointing to the way that we work out our parenting skills and he goes so far as to point to the relationship between masters and their slaves.

He speaks of Pastors and leaders equipping the body of Christ so that they can go and equip others in the same way. Eph 4:12 He is setting the stage. Creation was about creating a people who live in eternity as the family of God. Satan was jealous and from the first moment his desire was to break the relationship between God and those created in his image. From that moment on Satan’s great purpose was to destroy mankind to ensure that no such special relationship be allowed to prosper and Paul wants the believers to understand that in life every battle we face will be an extension of Satan’s ongoing purpose to destroy mankind. It was Satan’s purpose in the garden and after man had sinned his purpose was to ensure that no possibility existed for God to reconcile himself to mankind. Jesus became the target. When that failed Satan focused once more on humanity and that is why Paul says that the struggle is not against flesh and blood.

The battle has always been against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

It is for that reason that Paul points the believers toward the Armor of God. So that we can be protected against the devils schemes to destroy relationships at every level.

Its at this point that we are encouraged to recognize that the bonds created by marriage form the central bond from which healthy families are born. The family becomes the cornerstone of society upon which everything else will be built. If the marriage fails inevitably everything else will be at risk.

And so we begin to understand that the destruction relationships is the single largest agenda of the devil in his desire to separate God from his people.

None of the relationships provide the enemy with a more attractive target than the marriage relationship. The marriage relationship is the bulwark of every society.

In the home children are raised up according to the model the parents provide for them and so if the enemy can destroy the bond between husband and wife the outcome is likely to be destructive in the lives of the children too which is also likely to affect future generations.

If Satan can destroy the bond of marriage as a sacred institution, then health of our society is likely to be severely impacted. We have seen this take place over the last 75 years as nation after nation has embraced the right to quickly and easily be able to terminate this sacred covenant through divorce. For so long, marriage has been protected by the church as an unassailable covenant before God but unfortunately over the last five decades in particular this is no longer the case.

It was to protect against the attacks of the devil that Paul spoke so directly to the need to be able to protect our marriages and Paul was trying to show us that this is truly a spiritual battle that we are in.

We are all so aware of our own shortcomings and our past challenges in managing our marital relationships that holding up God’s model can be a very difficult thing to do. That is why it is so good when we honour those who have been able to stand together as one, in spite of life’s difficulties , people such as John and Ruth. They deserve to be honoured … for this journey called marriage is never an easy one.

It was for this reason that Paul said if your able to stay single it would be a good thing ….but if in order to satisfy your sexual appetite you decide to marry then good ….. but, if you do, recognize you are going to be living your life with a very a spiritual large target on your back. This whole teaching about the armour of God was fashioned in such a way as to show us that when relationships are set up as being valuable to society, that’s where Satan is going to try to come in kill and destroy.

Paul had been teaching his friends to walk in the way of love. He used to Jesus as a model when he said love as Christ loved. He and gave himself up as an offering for the church and when you get married that’s what your going to have to do. Are you willing to die for your partner. That is what’s being asked of you here.

To be married will require that we give up thinking of ourselves first but think of the other even to the point of laying our own lives down. How many of us find ourselves unwilling to follow Jesus example. At the first sign of trouble our instinct is to shout out “how dare you treat me like that”. We are so concerned about ourselves that the partner is quickly pushed aside so that we can enjoy the place we feel we deserve. Jesus said that we ought to love the other as ourselves because for most of us we don’t love anything more than we love ourselves. That’s a hard truth to accept but Jesus was showing us that this is the same way the we are to show love to our partners. We are to love the just the way we love ourselves. Are you ready for that kind of selfless commitment to your husband or wife? Are you willing to give yourself up as a fragrant offering, even a sacrifice for your partner. That is what Jesus is calling us to …. when we marry and if we fail Satan will be at the ready to take full advantage of any chink on your armour to come and kill and destroy wheat you two have been building.

Submit to one another Paul wrote. (Eph 5:21) How ready are you to submit? Is that what you thought marriage was about. It needs to be and that’s not where you are you need to ask the Lord to help you get there quickly. God is providing this now to open our eyes because the Lord is about to pour out His spirit and if we are going to be effective ministers of the word we had better be sure that we have put a shield around our families because you can be sure the enemy will be looking to take us out at every turn Men and women had been created very differently and Paul showed that he understood this. Have you noticed that to the men he said love your wives BUT to the wives he said respect your husbands. Women know how to love. Men not so much! So Paul was calling them to account. He was telling them that they had to learn to love their wives. Men crave identity. They want to find their purpose they want to discover how best to be of value and to be successful. They want to be respected for who there are. But if that is to happen, then first they will have to learn how to properly carry out the responsibilities of their role which must begin with learning to love start practicing that and you begin to move to the head of the class. Love her as you love yourself. You’d never hurt yourself willingly. You always want the best for yourself. You always stay clean by washing yourself. You want her to meet your sexual needs. You protect yourself. You care for yourself every way you can. Now put your wife before yourself in all those ways and you will be beginning to learn what it means to love her.

Husband carry the weight for the spiritual wellbeing of their wives. In Ephesians 5:26 Paul shares about the way that a husband is be able to wash her with the word of God. The husband is to ensure that she is being continually cleansed spiritually by being washed by the word as he shares God’s word with her. This is such un underdeveloped subject. How often have you heard a teaching on the responsibility of the husbands to see that their wives are being cleansed. Some spiritual disciplines need to be clearly relayed to our people. As pastors we need to learn how to instruct others by means of our own experiences. By sharing about the ways in which we manage our relationships if we are teaching is to impact the lives of others in meaningful ways.

I love to share the things that the Lord shows me with my wife and I find that she loves to hear what the Lord is showing me. I am not speaking down to her or lecturing her as I do this. I just share what the Lord is showing me and as I do I have begun to see. That she is being washed by the word. This does not have to be done in an awkward and difficult way. It needs to be real and personal and interactive. And as you do you will be discovering just one more way to love her.

It was for that reason Paul told the wives respect your husband but notice this. He identified the husband as the head of the home. As the one who carries the spiritual covering it is interesting to note that first they were called to love their wives. That may well be because it will be very hard for the wife to respect her husband if he has not first expressed his love to her. Not just sexual love but emotional love. Love that builds up and reassures and encourages and exhorts his wife. When he does that, it becomes so much easier for the wife to respect the husband but first and foremost as the covering he must step forward to take up his position as care giver who loves his partner even unto death.

Wives know this. Your husband craves your respect. He would go to the moon and back to get. Help his to earn it. Feed him the respect he desires as he learns how to love you. Encourage him by feeding him with the love he needs tht comes in the form of respect and help him to learn to love you the way you want him to love you. Love and respect is a two way bond building exercise. Each of you gets what you need way giving the other what they need first. It’s called dying to self. It does require discussion and education and experience but once you start to get it, you will discover a treasure more valuable than gold and one that passed down and needs to get passed down through the generations.

The enemy knows our weaknesses. The enemy is so willing to exploit our weaknesses and so if a husband and wife have not examined the nature of their relationship including the fact that they will be a constant target for the enemy, then they will not be equipped to fight the battle that lies ahead.

In chapter 4 of the letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul says you should learn to be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. What a model. Think about what is being asked of married couples. They were being asked to put on the new self. They had been used to thinking about themselves first …. but this new life called for a new way. They were to think of the other first. To do that they we going to have to be fully fitted with the armour of God. They were to pray…. for as they do the holy spirit will become for them the 3 rd chord of the marriage with which they could take strength for a chord of 3 strands is not easily broken (Eccl 4:12).

Paul speak of the sword of the spirit going ahead of them fighting the invisible enemy who is continually seeking to destroy them. If we will understand that our enemy the devil is indeed prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to destroy (1Pet 5:8) and that Jesus said that in this life we will have trouble BUT take heart I have come to overcome the world. With these words we begin to see the bigness of the picture that is the battle being waged all around us.