Last week I asked, “Who, if they walked in the front door, would you say didn’t belong?” The answers we give speak volumes about where we are in our spiritual walk, what we claim as the evidence of belonging in this community, and how we perceive the grace of God at work. I asked:What is your community trying to exclude?
This week let’s ask the inverse:What community is trying to exclude you?
Who is your community trying to include?
How do we embrace others, especially those who seem far away from God?What community is trying to include you?
Ephesians 3
CommentaryA God-Sized Job
It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
v1 See that dash at the end of the verse? Everything in between v1 & v13 is an aside, a digression from Paul’s point:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles … I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.For what reason? Back up to the last chapter & the last sermon (“Gifts of Grace: Belonging”). The Jews and non-Jews are being brought together in Christ.
v2 The word translated as “administration” here and in v9 can also be translated as “economy.” What is God’s economy? Grace. Nothing but grace. In a world that wants to operate via capitalism (wealth controlled by individuals & corporations) or socialism (wealth controlled by the state) grace is totally off the radar. Grace is the wealth of Christ.
v3 A mystery in the Bible is always something hidden by God until the proper time. Check the emphasis. God’s grace (v2) is a mystery (v3, v4) unknown to men (v5) until revealed by God (v5).
v6 The mystery unveiled at last: Gentiles are co-heirs with Israel of God’s promise.
v7 “I became a servant …” Paul used to be a big-shot, a zealous Pharisee (Phil. 3:4-11).
v8 What do you think Paul means by calling himself “less than the least …”? Is he being modest, or is he making a point? If so, what?
v9 Paul’s life is going to make plain the economy of grace. How does that happen from prison?
v10 Likewise, the life of the church is supposed to make plain the economy of grace. Now guess—what will that likely mean for the church?
Application
We have grown up and lived in an age when the church saw itself as conquering the world in the name of God. At various times, European nations justified their colonization of the New World and the Far East by claiming that they were taking Christ to the heathens. Later, from the 19th Century on,[1] the modern missionary movement had purer, less political motives, but the metaphors of a conquering church still colored the thinking. Even now, evangelical churches tend to see themselves in opposition to the communities in which they live. We talk about winning souls to Christ and taking back our communities. Subconsciously, we have adopted a combative mindset, and we need to ask, “Is this really what Jesus had in mind when he sent us into the world?”The End Does Not Justify the Means
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.
It wasn’t always this way, nor is it always this way today. Don’t get me wrong—God does call us to be a part of changing the world—but our adoption of the conquering church metaphor is usually not the metaphor of choice.[2] Instead of a conqueror, we are usually called to be the subversives, the infiltrators, the ones under cover, working in opposition to the powers that have taken over.
We live in an age where subversives tend to blow up themselves and others with IEDs. We live in an age where subversives leverage worldly power in insidious ways to intimidate ruling powers. Although some alleged Christians may blow up abortion clinics in the name of God, terrorism in the name of Jesus seems as much of an oxymoron as jumbo shrimp or a thunderous silence.
Christian subversives are called to live as children of the light (Eph. 5:8-11). We’ll see this phrase a couple of times later in Ephesians. For now the point for us as subversives is this: we are called to live by a different standard and submit in love to the world when the world defends itself by attacking us. For Jesus, this is the way of the cross. For Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, this is nonviolent resistance, which frequently leads to persecution, arrest, prison, and death. For Paul, this is being the midwife of the church—a church of outsiders—that is being birthed by the Spirit.
It would be easy for Paul to avoid persecution, arrest, and prison. All he has to do is stick to the status quo—preach to the Jews, build a church of messianic Jews just like in Jerusalem. Outside of Judea, Jews were a protected, but generally ignored, minor religion. But for Paul, ministering in safety to the Jews alone would be living in darkness, not living as a child of the light. Paul’s arrests all stem from his subversive attempts to change the world order and bring the non-Jews to Jesus—and both the civil authorities and the Jews plot against him. Paul refers to himself as a prisoner of Christ six times,[3] and one must see in this title that Paul takes for himself a submission to God’s sovereignty at a time when worldly victory seemed impossible.
Points to Ponder
It would have been safe (wrong, but safe) for Paul to minister only to Jews. What would be an analogous “safe, but wrong” way for us to do church?
At church, at school, at work, or in your family, who are the outsiders? If you were to start loving them, what would happen?
If Paul was willing to be a prisoner for Christ, what are you willing to be? A black sheep for Christ? A geek for Christ? A fool for Christ? A heretic for Christ? (Check out Matthew 12:31 and decide—does God want you to play it safe or take a risk and trust in his Spirit?)
End Notes
1 - Let’s start with Adoniram Judson, the first Protestant missionary sent from North America. Judson was not the first missionary to Burma (now called Myanmar) but he and his wife stayed for decades and set the tenor for many future missionaries.
2 - Before one argues that Paul says we are “more than conquerors” in Romans 8:37, let me point out that what we are conquering in that verse is Satan, the accuser, who would use his lies to keep us apart from the love of God. Check the context: Romans 8:31-39.
3 - Ephesians 3:1; Ephesians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:8; Philemon 1:1; Philemon 1:9; Philemon 1:23.
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