Chrysostom’s Homily on Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2

November 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

“And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.”

The events which are past have greater force than those which are yet to come, and appear to be both more wonderful and more convincing. And hence accordingly Paul founds his exhortation upon the things which have already been done for us, inasmuch as they, on Christ’s account, have a greater force. For to say, “Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Matt. vi. 14.), and “if ye forgive not, ye shall in nowise be forgiven” (Matt. vi. 15.),—this addressed to men of understanding, and men who believe in the things to come, is of great weight; but Paul appeals to the conscience not by these arguments only, but also by things already done for us. In the former way we may escape punishment, whereas in this latter we may have our share of some positive good. Thou imitatest Christ. This alone is enough to recommend virtue, that it is “to imitate God.” This is a higher principle than the other, “for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.” (Matt. v. 45.) Because he does not merely say that we are “imitating God,” but that we do so in those things wherein we receive ourselves such benefits. He would have us cherish the tender heart of fathers towards each other. For by heart, here, is meant lovingkindness and compassion. For inasmuch as it cannot be that, being men, we shall avoid either giving pain or suffering it, he does the next thing, he devises a remedy,—that we should forgive one another. And yet there is no comparison. For if thou indeed shouldest at this moment forgive any one, he will forgive thee again in return; whereas to God thou hast neither given nor forgiven anything. And thou indeed art forgiving a fellow-servant; whereas God is forgiving a servant, and an enemy, and one that hates Him.

“Even as God,” saith he, “also in Christ forgave you.”

And this, moreover, contains a high allusion. Not simply, he would say, hath He forgiven us, and at no risk or cost, but at the sacrifice of His Son; for that He might forgive thee, He sacrificed the Son; whereas thou, oftentimes, even when thou seest pardon to be both without risk and without cost, yet dost not grant it.

“Be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children; and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us an offering and sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.”

That thou mayest not then think it an act of necessity, hear how He saith, that “He gave Himself up.” As thy Master loved thee, love thou thy friend. Nay, but neither wilt thou be able so to love; yet still do so as far as thou art able. Oh, what can be more blessed than a sound like this! Tell me of royalty or whatever else thou wilt, there is no comparison. Forgive another, and thou art “imitating God,” thou art made like unto God. It is more our duty to forgive trespasses than debts of money; for if thou forgive debts, thou hast not “imitated God”; whereas if thou shalt forgive trespasses, thou art “imitating God.” And yet how shalt thou be able to say, “I am poor, and am not able to forgive it,” that is, a debt, when thou forgivest not that which thou art able to forgive, that is, a trespass? And surely thou dost not deem that in this case there is any loss. Yea, is it not rather wealth, is it not abundance, is it not a plentiful store?

And behold yet another and a nobler incitement: —“as beloved children,” saith he. Ye have yet another cogent reason to imitate Him, not only in that ye have received such good at His hands, but also in that ye are called His children. And since not all children imitate their fathers, but those which are beloved, therefore he saith, “as beloved children.”

Ver. 2. “Walk in love.”

Behold, here, the groundwork of all! So then where this is, there is no “wrath, no anger, no clamor, no railing,” but all are done away. Accordingly he puts the chief point last. Whence wast thou made a child? Because thou wast forgiven. On the same ground on which thou hast had so vast a privilege vouch-safed thee, on that selfsame ground forgive thy neighbor. Tell me, I say, if thou wert in prison, and hadst ten thousand misdeeds to answer for, and some one were to bring thee into the palace; or rather to pass over this argument, suppose thou wert in a fever and in the agonies of death, and some one were to benefit thee by some medicine, wouldest thou not value him more than all, yea and the very name of the medicine? For if we thus regard occasions and places by which we are benefited, even as our own souls, much more shall we the things themselves. Be a lover then of love; for by this art thou saved, by this hast thou been made a son. And if thou shalt have it in thy power to save another, wilt thou not use the same remedy, and give the advice to all, “Forgive, that ye may be forgiven”? Thus to incite one another, were the part of grateful, of generous, and noble spirits.

“Even as Christ also,” he adds, “loved you.”

Thou art only sparing friends, He enemies. So then far greater is that boon which cometh from our Master. For how in our case is the “even as” preserved. Surely it is clear that it will be, by our doing good to our enemies.

“And gave Himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.”

Seest thou that to suffer for one’s enemies is “a sweet-smelling savor,” and an “acceptable sacrifice”? And if thou shalt die, then wilt thou be indeed a sacrifice. This it is to “imitate God.”

Ver. 3. “But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints.”

He has spoken of the bitter passion, of wrath; he now comes to the lesser evil: for that lust is the lesser evil, hear how Moses also in the law says, first, “Thou shalt do no murder” (Ex. xx. 13.), which is the work of wrath, and then, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex. xx. 14.), which is of lust. For as “bitterness,” and “clamor,” and “all malice,” and “railing,” and the like, are the works of the passionate man, so likewise are “fornication, uncleanness, covetousness,” those of the lustful; since avarice and sensuality spring from the same passion. But just as in the former case he took away “clamor” as being the vehicle of “anger,” so now does he “filthy talking” and “jesting” as being the vehicle of lust; for he proceeds,

Ver. 4. “Nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting; but rather giving of thanks.”

Have no witticisms, no obscenities, either in word or in deed, and thou wilt quench the flame—“let them not even be named,” saith he, “among you,” that is, let them not anywhere even make their appearance. This he says also in writing to the Corinthians. “It is actually reported that there is fornication among you” (1 Cor. v. 1.); as much as to say, Be ye all pure. For words are the way to acts. Then, that he may not appear a forbidding kind of person and austere, and a destroyer of playfulness, he goes on to add the reason, by saying, “which are not befitting,” which have nothing to do with us—“but rather giving of thanks.” What good is there in uttering a witticism? thou only raisest a laugh. Tell me, will the shoemaker ever busy himself about anything which does not belong to or befit his trade? or will he purchase any tool of that kind? No, never. Because the things we do not need, are nothing to us.

Moral. Let there not be one idle word; for from idle words we fall also into foul words. The present is no season of loose merriment, but of mourning, of tribulation, and lamentation: and dost thou play the jester? What wrestler on entering the ring neglects the struggle with his adversary, and utters witticisms? The devil stands hard at hand, “he is going about roaring” (1 Pet. v. 8.) to catch thee, he is moving everything, and turning everything against thy life, and is scheming to force thee from thy retreat, he is grinding his teeth and bellowing, he is breathing fire against thy salvation; and dost thou sit uttering witticisms, and “talking folly,” and uttering things “which are not befitting.” Full nobly then wilt thou be able to overcome him! We are in sport, beloved. Wouldest thou know the life of the saints? Listen to what Paul saith. “By the space of three years I ceased not to admonish every one night and day with tears.” (Acts xx. 31.) And if so great was the zeal he exerted in behalf of them of Miletus and Ephesus, not making pleasant speeches, but introducing his admonition with tears, what should one say of the rest? But hearken again to what he says to the Corinthians. “Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears.” (2 Cor. ii. 4.) And again, “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” “Who is made to stumble, and I burn not?” (2 Cor. xi. 29.) And hearken again to what he says elsewhere, desiring every day, as one might say, to depart out of the world. “For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan” (2 Cor. v. 4.); and dost thou laugh and play? It is war-time, and art thou handling the dancers’ instruments? Look at the countenances of men in battle, their dark and contracted mien, their brow terrible and full of awe. Mark the stern eye, the heart eager and beating and throbbing, their spirit collected, and trembling and intensely anxious. All is good order, all is good discipline, all is silence in the camps of those who are arrayed against each other. They speak not, I do not say, an impertinent word, but they utter not a single sound. Now if they who have visible enemies, and who are in nowise injured by words, yet observe so great silence, dost thou who hast thy warfare, and the chief of thy warfare in words, dost thou leave this part naked and exposed? Or art thou ignorant that it is here that we are most beset with snares? Art thou amusing and enjoying thyself, and uttering witticisms and raising a laugh, and regarding the matter as a mere nothing? How many perjuries, how many injuries, how many filthy speeches have arisen from witticisms! “But no,” ye will say, “pleasantries are not like this.” Yet hear how he excludes all kinds of jesting. It is a time now of war and fighting, of watch and guard, of arming and arraying ourselves. The time of laughter can have no place here; for that is of the world. Hear what Christ saith: “The world shall rejoice, but ye shall be sorrowful.” (John xvi. 20.) Christ was crucified for thy ills, and dost thou laugh? He was buffeted, and endured so great sufferings because of thy calamity, and the tempest that had overtaken thee; and dost thou play the reveler? And how wilt thou not then rather provoke Him?

But since the matter appears to some to be one of indifference, which moreover is difficult to be guarded against, let us discuss this point a little, to show you how vast an evil it is. For indeed this is a work of the devil, to make us disregard things indifferent. First of all then, even if it were indifferent, not even in that case were it right to disregard it, when one knows that the greatest evils are both produced and increased by it, and that it oftentimes terminates in fornication. However, that it is not even indifferent is evident from hence. Let us see then whence it is produced. Or rather, let us see what sort of a person a saint ought to be:—gentle, meek, sorrowful, mournful, contrite. The man then who deals in jests is no saint. Nay, were he even a Greek, such an one would be scorned. These are things allowed to those only who are on the stage. Where filthiness is, there also is jesting; where unseasonable laughter is, there also is jesting. Hearken to what the Prophet saith, “Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice with trembling.” (Ps. ii. 11.) Jesting renders the soul soft and indolent. It excites the soul unduly, and often it teems with acts of violence, and creates wars. But what more? In fine, hast thou not come to be among men? then “put away childish things.” (1 Cor. xiii. 11.) Why, thou wilt not allow thine own servant in the market place to speak an impertinent word: and dost thou then, who sayest thou art a servant of God, go uttering thy witticisms in the public square? It is well if the soul that is “sober” be not stolen away; but one that is relaxed and dissolute, who cannot carry off? It will be its own murderer, and will stand in no need of the crafts or assaults of the devil.

But, moreover, in order to understand this, look too at the very name. It means the versatile man, the man of all complexions, the unstable, the pliable, the man that can be anything and everything. But far is this from those who are servants to the Rock. Such a character quickly turns and changes; for he must needs mimic both gesture and speech, and laugh and gait, and everything, aye, and such an one is obliged to invent jokes: for he needs this also. But far be this from a Christian, to play the buffoon. Farther, the man who plays the jester must of necessity incur the signal hatred of the objects of his random ridicule, whether they be present, or being absent hear of it.

If the thing is creditable, why is it left to mountebanks? What, dost thou make thyself a mountebank, and yet art not ashamed? Why is it ye permit not your gentlewomen to do so? Is it not that ye set it down as a mark of an immodest, and not of a discreet character? Great are the evils that dwell in a soul given to jesting; great is the ruin and desolation. Its consistency is broken, the building is decayed, fear is banished, reverence is gone. A tongue thou hast, not that thou mayest ridicule another man, but that thou mayest give thanks unto God. Look at your merriment-makers, as they are called, those buffoons. These are your jesters. Banish from your souls, I entreat you, this graceless accomplishment. It is the business of parasites, of mountebanks, of dancers, of harlots; far be it from a generous, far be it from a highborn soul, aye, far too even from slaves. If there be any one who has lost respect, if there be any vile person, that man is also a jester. To many indeed the thing appears to be even a virtue, and this truly calls for our sorrow. Just as lust by little and little drives headlong into fornication, so also does a turn for jesting. It seems to have a grace about it, yet there is nothing more graceless than this. For hear the Scripture which says, “Before the thunder goeth lightning, and before a shamefaced man shall go favor.” Now there is nothing more shameless than the jester; so that his mouth is not full of favor, but of pain. Let us banish this custom from our tables. Yet are there some who teach it even to the poor! O monstrous! they make men in affliction play the jester. Why, where shall not this pest be found next? Already has it been brought into the Church itself. Already has it laid hold of the very Scriptures. Need I say anything to prove the enormity of the evil? I am ashamed indeed, but still nevertheless I will speak; for I am desirous to show to what a length the mischief has advanced, that I may not appear to be trifling, or to be discoursing to you on some trifling subject; that even thus I may be enabled to withdraw you from this delusion. And let no one think that I am fabricating, but I will tell you what I have really heard. A certain person happened to be in company with one of those who pride themselves highly on their knowledge (now I know I shall excite a smile, but still I will say it notwithstanding); and when the platter was set before him, he said, “Take and eat, children, lest your belly be angry!” And again, others say, “Woe unto thee, Mammon, and to him that hath thee not;” and many like enormities has jesting introduced; as when they say, “Now is there no nativity.” And this I say to show the enormity of this base temper; for these are the expressions of a soul destitute of all reverence. And are not these things enough to call down thunderbolts? And one might find many other such things which have been said by these men.

Wherefore, I entreat you, let us banish the custom universally, and speak those things which become us. Let not holy mouths utter the words of dishonorable and base men. “For what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity, or what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. vi. 14.) Happy will it be for us, if, having kept ourselves aloof from all such foul things, we be thus able to attain to the promised blessings; far indeed from dragging such a train after us, and sullying the purity of our minds by so many. For the man who will play the jester will soon go on to be a railer, and the railer will go on to heap ten thousand other mischiefs on himself. When then we shall have disciplined these two faculties of the soul, anger and desire (vid. Plat. Phædr. cc. 25, 34), and have put them like well-broken horses under the yoke of reason, then let us set over them the mind as charioteer, that we may “gain the prize of our high calling” (Philip. iii. 14.); which God grant that we may all attain, through Jesus Christ our Lord, with Whom, together with the Holy Ghost, be unto the Father, glory, might, and honor, now, and ever, and throughout all ages. Amen.

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The Darkness of Abortion and the Light of Truth

May 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 5:1-16

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not associate with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Well, here we are living as Christians in a country whose Supreme Court – not THE Supreme Court, which is Jesus Christ alone (2 Timothy 4:1) – decreed on January 22, 1973 that the taking of unborn human life is constitutionally protected up until the moment of birth. In 1982 the U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee concluded in an official report, “No significant legal barriers of any kind whatsoever exist today in the United States for a woman toobtain an abortion for any reason during any stage of her pregnancy.” (John Ensor, Answering The Call: Saving Innocent Lives, One Woman At A Time:[Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family, 2003], p. 141)

Since then about forty million abortions have been performed in America. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about 43% of all American women will have at least one abortion by the age 45 (pp. 18). 20% of these are performed on teenagers (pp.28). 50% are performed on women who have had at least one abortion already (pp. 31). Every third baby conceived and viable in this country is killed by abortion (pp. 35). The vast majority of abortions are performed between the seventh and tenth week when the baby is already sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking,responding to sound. All his organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells,the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. His genetic code is uniquely and unquestionably human. And, if we are willing, he can be seen by ultrasound.

In his new book from Focus on the Family, Answering The Call: Saving Innocent Lives, One Woman At A Time (2003), John Ensor points out that one in six abortions are done on women identifying themselves as “born again”Christians: and 31% are done on women who say they are Catholic.When he was a pastor in Boston in 1989 he was shocked, he said, to discover that 30% of the women in his church had had an abortion(pp. 21-22). Ensor concludes, “Indeed, the abortion industry couldnot survive financially without paying customers drawn from the  church (pp. 21).”

Which puts me, as always, in the position of needing, on the one hand, to declare forgiveness and hope to dozens of men and women in this church who have had and have approved abortions, and, on the other hand, to declare the outrage of abortion as something we should oppose with all the wisdom and courage and perseverance and sacrifice that God will give us.

Powerful Gospel Hope

So let me speak a word of powerful gospel hope into this congregation concerning the sin of abortion – even multiple abortions. Hear the great climactic words of the apostle Paul heralded to sinners in Antioch of Pisidia in Acts 13:38-39: “Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man [Jesus Christ] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and in him everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified in the law of Moses” (my translation).

There is forgiveness – all sins wiped away, even abortion,and there is justification, the declaration of righteousness, over against every kind of sin you have ever done. How can this be? The life and death of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, pardons all debtsand provides all righteousness for everyone who believes. Those who have been forgiven much, Jesus said, will love much (Luke 7:47).Oh, how sweetly the post-aborted women and men in this church should love Jesus Christ!

Moral Outrage

And now, to supplement that gospel declaration – and I pray with your heartfelt support – I want to go on record again, as I have each January for the last 17 years, that I believe abortion is morally outrageous:

fatal for children,
damaging to women,
corrupting to men,
debasing to culture,
mangling to human reason and language,
and an assault on Jesus Christ, through whom all things are made.

Judge Blackmun’s Supposed Suspension of Judgment

When the editors at the Minneapolis StarTribune this past Wednesday celebrated the abortion rights decreed by Roe v. Wade (January 22, 2003, p. A14) they raised the question when”incipient life becomes ‘protectably human,’” and said that no better answer has been given than Justice Harry Blackmun’s when he wrote:

We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate.

What’s the flaw here? The flaw is that, while claiming to withhold judgment, the judiciary not only speculated but authoritatively decreed on the issue: namely, it is not murder or manslaughter to destroy the unborn. That is not a suspension of judgment. That is a decisive judgment: namely, in the womb there is nothing worth protecting by law. To portray this as a sensitive suspension of judgment about the status of unborn life is false and deceptive.

How do you get from, “We do not know whether this is protectable human life,” to “Therefore, we will not protect it”? Wouldn’t the logic just as likely (some would say far more likely) be,”Since we do not know whether this is protectable human life,therefore we will protect it.” Why does the judicial uncertainty about the humanity of the unborn lead to unbridled license to destroy it?

The Dissenting Opinion: Convenience vs. Protection of Life

This is what stunned Justice White and Justice Rhenquist in the majority report of the Court. They gave the answer in their dissenting opinion in 1973:

The Court apparently values the convenience of the pregnant mother more than the continued existence and development of the life or potential life which she carries. . . . I [Justice White is writing] can in no event join the Court’s judgment because I find no constitutional warrant for imposing such an order of priorities on the people and legislature of the States. (Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113 [1973])

There it is. To say, “We don’t know if this is protectablehuman life, therefore we will not protect it and you may destroy it,” is the “imposing of an order of priorities on the people.” The convenience of the mother shall have priority over the existence of the unborn. This is not a thoughtful, delicate suspending of judgment. This is judgment against the unborn – call that life what you will, it has been condemned.

Obeying Ephesians 5

Now, I am a Christian pastor who wants to be Biblical, and gives not a rip for being Republican or Democrat. Such things mean almost nothing to me. But the glory and will and the rights of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Judge of all men, mean everything tome. Why then have I begun the way I have? Why start with the newspaper?

Answer: we didn’t start with the newspaper. We started by reading the word of God, Ephesians 5:1-16. And I have taken my cue from verses 10-11: “Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” That is what I have tried to do in quoting the StarTribune – expose the fruitless works of darkness. Abortion is one of most clearly fruitless works of darkness there is. And it is sustained and supported by the darkening of reason and language that runs though this editorial,and most pro-choice literature.

From verse 8 to verse 14 in Ephesians 5 the emphasis is on the important role of Christians as light in a dark world.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Christians Are Salt

This should remind us of something Jesus said about his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:13:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste,how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

The true followers of Jesus – not just those who are Christians in name only – are salt and light in their culture. We often puzzle over whether our saltiness is our the flavor or radical love or the preservative of moral stability. I suspect mainly radical love, because of the context, but not excluding the preserving influences. But do we as often ponder the function of light?

Christians Are Light

Jesus says, in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world.”And in Ephesians 5:8, “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” So both of them say, Christians are light.Not only that, they both agree that, “The fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” The shining of your light as a Christian is bearing practical fruit in “good deeds” –”what is good and right and true.” But Paul stresses a function of light that Jesus does not mention here – although he is really good at doing it in many other places: light exposes the dark. When light gets near a dark thing truth happens. Things are seen for what they are. The deceptions and half-truths are blown away.

Abortion is one of the darkest works of the human race –it is child sacrifice. And the only way it can survive is for darkness to survive. Wherever the light of truth and love comes, darkness flies away. Therefore it is one of the great callings of the followers of Jesus to let their light shine in both ways: to do good deeds and to expose darkness. The aim is partly negative:reveal the error hidden in the darkness, but mainly positive: to bring people to love the light and be made light in the Lord Jesus.

This gives us some clear guidance in the Christian church. Let there be both the light of good deeds – like all the manifold ministries of crisis pregnancy centers and adoption and sidewalk counseling and education and political engagement. And let there be the light of loving analysis and critique and exposure – in reading and thinking and conversing and writing. And of course the two cannot be separated. The doing of truth in loving acts of sacrifice for the sake of life will in the end expose the darkness as much as all talking and writing.

If there were time I would love to ponder with you at least three other parts of this text relevant for the prolife cause. Let  must mention them.

1. Ephesians 5:1. “Be imitators of God, as beloved children.” You are a child of God. God loves his children and cares for them. Now be imitators of God. One way: love your children the way he loves his children. God loves them before they exist. God loves them in the making – and even calls them in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians 1:15). God loves them on the earth. And he will love them eternally in the kingdom of God. Not one has ever been an inconvenience. So let us love children: the idea of children, children in the making, and children on the earth.

2. Ephesians 5:2. “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” The way God loved us as his children was through the sacrificial love of his Son. Christ died that we might live. This is the opposite of abortion. Abortion kills that someone might live differently. In Romans 5:6 Paul says, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” We were weak – like the unborn are weak. Oh, how we Christians should stand up for the weak! Since this was our plight when we were rescued. And Oh, how ready we should be to sacrifice, since the sacrifice paid for us was infinite.

3. Ephesians 5:3. “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” If sexual immorality and covetousness – these two massive powers in our culture – were conquered, abortion would almost entirely vanish. It isn’t sex by itself that makes abortion. It is sex plus covetousness: desiring things that God does not will for us to have because we are not willing to find our satisfaction in him. Illicit sex and unencumbered freedom without children: for these we covet, and abortion is the result.

How To Shine Your Life into the Darkness of Abortion

But I leave those three points for another time. I want to closeby making four or five suggestions for your action – the shining of your light into the darkness of abortion.

1. Consider adoption. God has overwhelmingly blessed our church in this regard. It is normal to adopt at Bethlehem. Two ministries have emerged in this regard. The MICAH Fund (Minority Infant Child Adoption Help) has helped fund the adoption of 211 children in its 12 years of existence. The much younger LYDIA Fund (Let Youths Be Delivered from Institutions by Adoption) has helped fund the adoption of 37 children internationally. Pray about this and get information. I spoke at afund-raising banquet of an adoption agency in Macon, Georgia lastfall, and that night they held up two brand new beautiful babies ready for adoption. If I were not 57 years old, I am almost sure Noel and I would have brought them home.

2. Be a regular giver of your money to Crisis Pregnancy Centers. One example of how crucial this can be: When John Ensor’s ministry, A Woman’s Concern, added an ultrasound unit to its crisis pregnancy counseling, the rate of women choosing life jumped from 35% to 76%. 329 women chose against abortion in the first 18 months. This cost the abortion industry$148,000. The point is: whoever funded that ultrasound unit is having a significant impact for life and against abortion. And there are many ways that these frontline ministries need our help.When you leave today give to the Helping Hand Offering which willgo to New Life Family Services U. of M. branch. And take a baby bottle bank and fill it and bring it back at the end of February.

3. Be involved in spreading truth with good literature. We are giving away samples today of a paper from the Human Life Alliance called The Silent Epidemic. It is not explicitly Christian, and so may have a pre-evangelism effect of awakening people to aspects of the truth with its remarkable variety of approaches to the issue. Noel and I both read it and found it very helpful. Take one and then my suggestion is: buy a bundle from the St. Paul address and distribute them in some systematic way. In other words, think and act about how the light of this much truthmight shine.

4. The other thing I would mention is more direct involvement: making your presence known at the abortion clinics in town; writing or phoning or visiting and talking, if you can, with those who work there, volunteering in a Crisis Pregnancy Center, participating in Bethlehem’s Sanctity of Life Task Force. Dream a new kind of ministry!

5. And always pray.And to keep you praying about abortion, keep abortion before you. Read. Read John Ensor’s new book from Focus on the Family, Answering The Call: Saving Innocent Lives, One Woman At A Time. It’s the only book I think that I read in one day. And look at the websites that we will list for you.

Remember: “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light . . . . Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

And remember also: “Through Jesus Christ forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and in him everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified in the law of Moses.

Websites of Interest

Baptists forLife

Birthright International

CareNet

Christian Life Resources

Focuson the Family – Crisis Pregnancy Ministry

Human LifeAlliance

International Life Services, Inc.

MinnesotaCitizens Concerned for Life

NationalInstitute of Family Life Advocates

National Life Center

National Rightto Life

New Life Family Services

North AmericanMission Board

Pregnancy Centers Online

Prolife Across America

Prolife Minnesota

Pro-Life ActionMinistries

Sav-A-Life

Stand to Reason

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

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The Depth of Christ’s Love: Its Cost

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:32-5:2

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Review

If love for one another is going to flourish and grow in our church, we must be rooted more deeply in love. That was the point of last week’s message. In other words becoming a loving person means living with the roots of your life sunk deep in the love of Christ for you. Being loved by Christ is the ground of becoming loving. And the root that you send into that ground is the faith that you are loved.

There’s a phrase in 1 John 4:16 that describes this root:

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.

We have come to know, and have believed the love which God has for us. The love that God has for us is the ground of our becoming loving people. And the root that we send down into that ground, to be nourished by it, is faith—”we have believed the love that God has for us.” Believing the depth of God’s love for me is the key to my growing into a loving person.

And the key to believing the love that God has for us is seeing it revealed in the word of Scripture. A few people were allowed to see Jesus in the flesh and touch him and watch him teach and heal and suffer and die and rise. We might feel jealous that our faith in the love of Christ can’t be based on that kind of first hand sight and touch. But that was not God’s plan. When Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17:20, he said, “[Father], I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” It was the plan of God that we come to faith, not by seeing the love of Christ in the flesh, but by seeing the love of Christ in the word of those who knew him.

Focusing on the Depth of Christ’s Love for Us

Because of all that, here’s the plan for the next four weeks. I hope this will help you prepare yourself in prayer and meditation for what’s coming. And I hope it will help you know when God is moving you to invite others to attend with you. My aim in this series is that our love for one another and for those outside would grow and deepen. But this will happen only as we are rooted—that is, as we believe—more and more deeply in the love of Christ for us. And that belief comes by seeing the depth of Christ’s love for us revealed in his Word. So for four weeks climaxing on Easter Sunday I want to direct our attention to the depth of Christ’s love for us.

As I have pondered the love of Christ for us, and the different ways that the Bible presents it to us, I have seen four ways that the depth of Christ’s love is revealed. We will spend a week on each of these.

  1. First, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by what it costs him: if he sacrifices his life for us, it assures us of deeper love than if he only sacrifices a few bruises. So we will see the depth of Christ’s love by the greatness of what it cost him.
  2. Second, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by how little we deserve it. If we have treated him well all our life, and have done all that he expects of us, then when he loves us, it will not prove as much love as it would if he loved us when we had offended him, and shunned him, and disdained him. The more undeserving we are, the more amazing and deep is his love for us. So we will see the depth of Christ’s love in relation to how undeserving are the objects of his love (Romans 5:5–8).
  3. Third, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by the greatness of the benefits we receive in being loved. If we are helped to pass an exam, we will feel loved in one way. If we are helped to get a job, we will feel loved another way. If we are helped to escape from an oppressive captivity and given freedom for the rest of our life, we will feel loved another way. And if we are rescued from eternal torment and given a place in the presence of God with fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, we will know a depth of love that surpasses all others (1 John 3:1–3). So we will see the depth of Christ’s love by the greatness of the benefits we receive in being loved by him.
  4. Fourth, we know the depth of someone’s love for us by the freedom with which they love us. If a person does good things for us because someone is making him, when he doesn’t really want to, then we don’t think the love is very deep. Love is deep in proportion to its liberty. So if an insurance company pays you $40,000 because you lose your spouse, you don’t usually marvel at how much this company loves you. There were legal constraints. But if your Sunday School class makes all your meals for a month after your spouse dies, and someone calls you every day, and visits you every week, then you call it love, because they don’t have to do this. It is free and willing. So we will see the depth of Christ’s love for us in his freedom: “No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18).

That’s what I see in the New Testament. There are specific texts that stress each of those four ways of seeing the depth of Christ’s love for us. We’ll take one a week. And if you pray earnestly, and the Fasting Forty seek the Lord, then perhaps God will answer the prayer of Ephesians 3:17–18, that we would be rooted and grounded in Christ’s love and have power to comprehend the height and depth and length and breadth of his love—and so become like him in his love.

The Depth of Christ’s Love Revealed in Its Costliness

Today I want us to see the depth of Christ’s love revealed in its costliness. Let’s look at Ephesians 5:1–2,

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Be sure to see four plain and wonderful things here.

  1. First, be sure you see that Paul is showing us the depth of Christ’s love for you. Verse 2: “Christ loved you, and gave himself.” The giving of himself is the demonstration of his love.
  2. Second, notice that the cost of his love was himself—his life. It was not just money or time or energy or inconvenience or even suffering; it was the full extent of sacrifice. He gave himself.
  3. Third, notice that this love and this self-giving was for you. “Christ loved you, and gave himself. Paul is talking about believers (Ephesians 2:8). He gave himself for you.
  4. Finally, notice that God the Father was pleased with this act of self-sacrificing love. Verse 2: “Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” When God bowed down over the love that his Son poured out for us on the cross, it was a fragrant aroma to him. God loves the Son’s love of us.

An Illustration of Costly Love

Sometimes we are so familiar with spectacular it doesn’t move us as it should. We have to look at something lesser, be amazed, and then look back to really feel the wonder of the original. Chuck Colson told the story of a group of American prisoners of war during the Second World War, who were made to do hard labor in a prison camp. Each had a shovel and would dig all day, then come in and give an account of his tool in the evening. One evening 20 prisoners were lined up by the guard and the shovels were counted. The guard counted nineteen shovels and turned in rage on the 20 prisoners demanding to know which one did not bring his shovel back. No one responded. The guard took out his gun and said that he would shoot five men if the guilty prisoner did not step forward. After a moment of tense silence, a 19-year-old soldier—the age of my Ben—stepped forward with his head bowed down. The guard grabbed him, took him to the side and shot him in the head, and turned to warn the others that they better be more careful than he was. When he left, the men counted the shovels and there were 20. The guard had miscounted. And the boy had given his life for his friends.

Can you imagine the emotions that must have filled their hearts as they knelt down over his body? In the five or ten seconds of silence, the boy had weighed his whole future in the balance—a future wife, an education, a new truck, children, a career, fishing with his dad—and he chose death so that others might live. Jesus said in John 15:13, “”Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” To love is to choose suffering for the sake of another.

An Infinitely More Costly Love

Jesus has loved you this way. Only, O so much more! Consider the life he laid down. One of the reasons that story hits us so hard is because the boy was 19 years old. If he had been 89 years old and the others 19, we might say it was a beautiful act of love, but with a full life behind him it would not feel like the same kind of sacrifice as when your whole life stretches in front of you. So consider the life that Jesus sacrificed for you.

1. Jesus Was Young

First of all, he was young too. He was about 33 years old. His ministry was three years old. He was cut off, as we say, before his prime.

2. He Was the Oldest Son of a Widowed Mother

Second, he was the oldest son of a widowed mother. One of the last acts of his life was to see that she be taken care of.

When Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” (John 19:26–27)

The life he was giving up for you was young and, from a human standpoint, it was a life needed by his mother.

3. He Was Sinless and Perfect, the Most Worthy of Living

Third, he was the most kind and caring and wise and courageous man who ever lived. Peter testified, “He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Even his enemies knew they could find no fault in him (Matthew 22:16) “I find no guilt in him,” Pilate said (John 19:6). So the life he gave for us was no ordinary life of human value—which would be great enough. It was a sinless life. A life of perfectly balanced joy and sorrow, tenderness and toughness, justice and mercy, grief and anger, speech and silence, prayer and action. This life, of all the lives that have ever lived, was the most valuable life. The most worthy of living, the least worthy of dying. This is the life he gave for you—that you might live.

4. He Was the Son of God

Fourth, he was the Son of God. Which means he was God as well as man. United to his human nature was a divine nature, in the mysterious unity of one person. The dignity and worth of this life was not just relatively superior to other human lives. This life was of infinite value—not the way other humans are of value, but the way God is of infinite value, namely, as the basis of all human value. Humans have value to the degree that we reflect the image of God. But that means that if the image has so much value because of the original, how much more value must belong to the original? With this life Jesus went to the cross for you. This is how much it cost to cover our sins against the holiness of God. And he paid it willingly so we could live.

5. He Was Supremely Loved by His Father

Fifth, as the Son of God Jesus was supremely loved by his Father in heaven. “This is My loved Son,” the Father said, “with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5). Suppose that 19-year-old prisoner of war was the son of the President of the United States—and he knew that there were powers available to him to escape not only the death he died but also the prison camp—and suppose that you find out that his father, the President, not only had a massive love for the boy, but also approved of his dying for you, and wanted to meet those of you for whom he died, and give you some of the boy’s inheritance. Would not the worth of that life be so unspeakably precious as to make you feel absolutely overwhelmed with love?

Consider Also What the Sacrifice Involved

And consider now not only the life that Jesus sacrificed for us, but consider also what the sacrifice involved. To get to the point where he could die, Jesus had to plan for it. He left the glory of heaven and took on human nature so that he could hunger and get weary and in the end suffer and die. The incarnation was the preparation of nerve endings for the nails of the cross. Jesus needed a broad human back for a place to be scourged. He needed a brow and skull as a place for the thorns. He needed cheeks for Judas’ kiss and soldiers’ spit. He needed hands and feet for spikes. He needed a side as a place for the sword to pierce. And he needed a brain and a spinal cord, with no vinegar and no gall, so that he could feel the entire excruciating death—for you.

The 19-year-old boy was a wonderful picture of love. But compared to Jesus he was only a picture. His death was quick and relatively painless. Jesus’ death was one of the worst kinds of torture devised for human pain. So when Ephesians 5:2 says, “Christ loved you and gave himself up for us,” don’t breeze over the words: “gave himself up.” His love is great in proportion to the costliness of his sacrifice. And his sacrifice was horrendous.

How Personally Should We Take This Love?

We should ask in closing, how personally should we take this demonstration of love? Should you feel personally loved this way this morning and later on today and tomorrow morning? Or should it remain a kind of general, great, historic wonder that you look at from a distance with admiration—like the depths of the Grand Canyon? The answer is given by the testimony of the same writer, Paul, in Galatians 2:20b,

The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

This is what the apostle and the Lord himself are calling you to this morning. To see the depths of the love of Christ for you. To believe the love that he has for you. And to send the roots of your life down, down, down into this bottomless love. And say with Paul,

The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me [me, personally], and gave himself for me.

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

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Forgive Just as God in Christ Also Has Forgiven You

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:32-5:2

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Last week I talked about what forgiveness is—what it looks like and what it’s not. I quoted Thomas Watson’s definition which included

  1. resisting revenge,
  2. not returning evil for evil,
  3. wishing them well,
  4. grieving at their calamities,
  5. praying for their welfare,
  6. seeking reconciliation so far as it depends on you,
  7. and coming to their aid in distress.

How Do We Truly Forgive? Gospel-Flying

This week I’m asking, how can we do that? What gives us the freedom and the ability and the incentive and the power to forgive those who sin against us? Some of you have been wronged so deeply and hurt so badly that forgiving would be as great a miracle as flying.

But recall the little poem of John Bunyan:

Run, John, run, the law commands
But gives us neither feet nor hands,
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids us fly and gives us wings.

Two wings, six feathers.

And that includes the “flying” of forgiveness. So I want God to show us our gospel wings this morning. Forgiving is a flying you can do in the power of the gospel. In fact six feathers are enough for this flight—three on one side and three on the other make two strong wings for gospel-flying—or gospel forgiving.

Two Wings, Six Feathers

I find all six feathers in these three verses (Ephesians 4:32–5:2),

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

There are two wings in this text for gospel-flying—just like a bird has two wings. Each wing has three feathers. All six feathers are things God the Father and God the Son have done for us without our help. They are all works of his sovereign grace. I am talking to Christian believers now. If you are not one yet, I hope you will listen and be drawn in. What I am describing here about gospel-flying (forgiving) is yours freely if you will lay down the weights of unbelief and trust Christ.

There are two wings. One wing with its three feathers is what Christ did for us before we even existed. And the other wing with its three feathers is what God did for us in our own lifetime. So if you are drawing the sermon today, you need to draw a bird with two big wings each having three feathers, and then write on each feather one of the things God has done so that we can fly with forgiveness to each other.

Wing #1: What God Did for Us Before We Existed

The first feather in this wing is this:

1. God Loved Us with a Special Saving Love

Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God, as beloved children.” And verse 2: “Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you.”

The first feather in the wing of gospel-flying—gospel forgiving—is the unspeakable reality of being loved by God. But to feel the force of this, you need to know that this is not merely the general love that God has for all the world—the love that gives life and breath and food and rain and protection and family and job and many evidences of his truth and power and greatness. It is an amazing thing to be loved like that, and should cause us to turn to him in gratitude.

But if that is all you know of the love of God, your gospel wings will be weak. This text speaks of love like a Father has for a child and love that moves Christ to take our place in death. Now that is something more than the general love of God for the world. That is a saving love—a love that goes beyond the offer of the gospel and actually undertakes to save us effectively, infallibly. It does what needs to be done to get us forgiven and saved.

Here is the evidence for this: in Ephesians 1:4–5 Paul says that this love of God chose us for adoption as children of God.

[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 he predestined us to adoption as sons.

So God has loved you with a love that is precious beyond words because it is a love that he gave you before you were born and that moved him to predestine you to be a child of God in holiness.

So the first feather in the wing of gospel forgiving is the feather of God’s special saving love—call it covenant love. It is not mere general love. It is love that fixed personally, particularly on you as an individual and chose you and pursued you and brought you to himself, because he means to have you. If you get gripped by being loved like that, you might only need one feather to fly.

The second feather is

2. Christ Gave Himself for Us as a Sacrifice

Ephesians 5:2b, “[Christ] gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God.”

According to Ephesians 2:3 we were all by nature children of wrath. We all deserve to perish and be punished in hell for the sins of our thoughts and imaginations and attitudes and tongues and hands and whole bodies. But the covenant love of God for us moved him not only to choose us but to give his Son as a sacrifice in our place: “Christ gave himself up for us”—that is, in our place, so that we don’t have to perish. “He became a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

To feel the full force of this and to make the feather really strong for flying, we need to realize again that this is not merely a general thing Christ did the same for everybody. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” In other words Christ’s giving himself up to die as a substitute for the church is part of a covenant love that he has for his bride.

In love he chose you to be his bride and in love he lays down his life for you. You, individually, particularly, were in view as the goal of his loving and his dying.

Chuck Colson told the story (at the 1994 Ligonier Conference in Dallas, Texas) of a prison camp where 20 men came in from digging and lined their shovels up on the wall as they always did for the counting. When they were counted, the officer found only 19. He demanded that the one who didn’t bring his shovel step forward. None did. Then he threatened that if no one stepped forward, he would choose ten men at random and shoot them. A young man of about 19 stepped forward and was immediately taken a few paces away and shot as an example to the others.

But then as they were dismissing, the shovels were counted again and there were 20 after all. The officer had miscounted.

The difference between what that boy did for his friends and what Jesus did for you is that Jesus knew which ten men he was dying for and he knew that we were all unworthy. But he did it anyway, because he had a very special covenant love for you that is far above human love.

The first feather is that you have been loved with a special saving love. And the second feather is that Christ gave himself as a sacrifice to take your place so that you will never perish.

The third feather for gospel-flying (forgiving) is

3. God Was Satisfied with Christ’s Sacrifice

Ephesians 5:2b, “[Christ] gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”

When Paul calls the death of Jesus for us a “fragrant aroma” to God he means that God was satisfied with what Christ did. He did not look down and say, “You can’t do that. You can’t die for others. Every person has to bear their own guilt. Don’t be so foolish to think you can take the curse and condemnation of another.” On the contrary, the Father looked down and (with tears in his eyes, I think) took tremendous pleasure in the honor that the Son gave to the Father in obeying his commission—the Father had sent him (John 3:16).

So Christ did not die in vain. God received his offering. It satisfied the Father’s justice. It removed God’s wrath and judgment.

Be ye glad, O be ye glad!
Every debt that you ever had,
Has been paid up in full by the blood of the Lamb,
Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad.

Words and Music by Michael Kelly Blanchard
1980 Paragon Music Corp.
(ASCAP)/Gotz Music (ASCAP) ICS. ARR. UBP.
Of The Benson Company, Inc., Nashville, TN.

God was satisfied with the blood of Christ. That’s the third feather in the first wing of gospel-flying and forgiveness.

That’s the wing of God’s work before you were born:

  1. God loved you with special saving love;
  2. Christ gave himself for you as a sacrifice; and
  3. God was satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice. Your debt is paid.

Wing #2: What God Did for Us During Our Lifetime

The other wing for gospel-flying has three feathers in it also.

1. God Put Us in a Saving Relationship with Christ

God put you into a saving relationship with Christ, so that you are united to Christ like a vine is united to the branch.

Ephesians 4:32b, “Forgive each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

We are “in Christ.” That means we are in a relationship with Christ—we are united to Christ—in a way that makes us acceptable to God because he is acceptable to God. How did we get into this relationship? 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “By [God's] doing you are in Christ Jesus.” God awakened faith in our hearts and put us into a saving relationship with Jesus (cf. Ephesians 2:10, 13; Romans 16:17).

If he hadn’t done that, all his other work (loving us, giving his Son to die for us, being satisfied with the Son’s sacrifice) would have been in vain. But he did it. He is doing it all. His love will not be frustrated in pursuing you for himself. His personal, individual, particular love is moving him all the way. Nothing will stop him from saving you.

So the first feather in wing #2 for gospel-flying is God’s putting you into a relationship with Christ like a vine in a branch.

2. God Adopted Us and Made Us Rightful Children

The second feather for gospel-forgiving is that God adopted you into his family and made you a rightful child of God.

Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

In other words realize that when God united you to Christ, you became with Christ a child of God. And heir. This is what God had been aiming at all along. Ephesians 1:5 says that “God predestined us unto adoption.”

Some parents have children accidentally. And if they are cruel and heartless parents, they might even tell their children they didn’t want them. But God has no unwanted children. They are all planned—from eternity, with great expectation and joy. They are all pursued. Christ’s death is like an unspeakably high payment through heaven’s Micah Fund.1

The second wing of gospel-flying in wing #2 is the truth that you are loved not just in some random, general, impersonal way, but as a child of God that he sought out and adopted at great cost.

3. God Forgave Us for Our Sins

Finally the third feather in wing #2 for gospel-flying (forgiving) is that God forgave you for your sins.

Ephesians 4:32, “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

Review

Before you were born (wing #1):

  1. God has loved you with a special, personal, saving love from all eternity.
  2. His Son gave his life for you to take the place of your judgment.
  3. God was satisfied by the substitute and sacrifice of the Son. The debt was paid.

Then after you were born (wing #2):

  1. God brought you to faith and put you in a saving relationship with Christ.
  2. God adopted you into his family as a child of his own.
  3. And God forgave all your sins and there is no condemnation.

These are the wings John Bunyan had in mind:

Run, John, run, the law commands
But gives us neither feet nor hands,
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids us fly and gives us wings.

It bids us forgive—and give us gospel wings. If you believe in your heart that God has done all of this for you and in you, you will fly. You will forgive.

Closing Remarks from Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon tells how his heart was set on wing by the pardon of God:

My life was full of sorrow and wretchedness, believing that I was lost. But, oh, the blessed gospel of the God of grace came to me, and with it a sovereign word, “Deliver him!” And I who was but a minute before as wretched as a soul could be, could have danced for the very merriment of heart. And as the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake talked with me and told of the pardon I had found, for I was white as the driven snow through the grace of God.2

But years later he added this:

To be forgiven is such sweetness that honey is tasteless in comparison with it. But yet there is one thing sweeter still, and that is to forgive. As it is more blessed to give than to receive, so to forgive rises a stage higher in experience than to be forgiven.3

It rises higher because it is gospel-flying. Spread your wings with me in these days at Bethlehem and let’s fly together.

1 The Micah Fund is an adoption ministry at Bethlehem that helps covers the cost of adopting minority infants who might otherwise have been sacrificed in abortion.

2 Volume 15, p. 156, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

3 Volume 31, pp. 287f., Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

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Be Kind to One Another

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:31-5:2

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

This text is so rich that we could take almost any of its phrases and dwell on it for hours. But I have decided to gather our thoughts around the simple commandment in verse 32, “Be kind to one another.”

Five Aspects of Christian Kindness

As I have pondered these verses it seems to me that they tell us five things about Christian kindness:

  1. the extent of Christian kindness,
  2. the depth of Christian kindness,
  3. the pattern of Christian kindness,
  4. the instrument of Christian kindness, and
  5. the source of Christian kindness.

Let’s look at these one at a time. And as we do let’s pray that the Spirit of God would honor his Word by causing us to be changed by it.

1. The Extent of Christian Kindness

How much kindness should we show? This is addressed in verse 31. Christian kindness is so extensive that it replaces, “All bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander . . . with all malice.” The word “all” is used twice: at the beginning, “all bitterness,” and at the end, “all malice.” These are part of the old corrupt self that must be put off. And kindness is the opposite new self that must be put on. Paul is still giving specific illustrations of the principle in verses 22–24.

Anger and Kindness

But the question rises whether all wrath and anger should be replaced by kindness. Bitterness, yes. Outbreaks of clamoring belligerence, yes. Rumor-mongering and evil speaking behind backs, yes. Malice, yes. All these, no exceptions, all these must go. But what about wrath and anger?

We spent the whole evening together two weeks ago trying to sort this out. Verse 26 says, “Be angry but do not sin.” And James 1:19 says, “Be slow to anger.” And Mark 3:5 says that Jesus looked on the Pharisees with anger. Does the kindness of Jesus always extend to the Pharisees? Is it kind to say to them, as Jesus does in Matthew 23:27, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs”? Is it kindness when he says in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cross sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves”? Was it kindness when Jesus made a whip of cords and drove out the money changers from the temple and turned over their tables (John 2:15, Matthew 21:12)?

If you walked up to Jesus after he had done these things and said, “Jesus, that was unkind of you to say that to the Pharisees,” what would he have said? There are two possible things he could have said. He could have said, “Sometimes a heart of love and a passion for the truth don’t express themselves in the form of kindness.” Or he could have said, “There is a sort of kindness that can be hard as nails and tough as leather.” Which do you think he would have said: “Kindness is big enough to include whipping and woes”? Or: “Kindness is one form of righteousness, but not always the best one”?

As I have looked over all the uses of the word “kindness” in the New Testament, I think we would honor the the special tenderness of the word more by saying that Jesus was not being kind to the Pharisees. He was being severe with them. And Romans 11:22 separates the kindness of God and the severity of God. So kindness is not an absolute virtue. It is not always the most loving thing to do. It may involve a compromise with evil so serious that in the long run it hurts more people than it helps.

The Imprecise Extent of Christian Kindness

So when Paul says in Ephesians 4:26 that we should be angry but not sin, and then says in verses 31–32, get rid of anger and be kind, what I take him to mean is this very thing: All inner bitterness and malice must go. Their eruptions in slander and brawling must go. But when it comes to emotional indignation and you perceive that the teaching of Christ is disobeyed and the glory of God is diminished and the good of the church is in jeopardy, then, under the sway of the Holy Spirit, you must choose: shall I give vent to my anger in severity because the cause of truth and holiness is at stake, or shall I mortify my anger with kindness because there is too much of self in it?

Both are possible in the path of righteousness. And so the extent of Christian kindness is not precise. It may be wider or narrower than we think. This is a call for deep self-examination in the light of Holy Scripture and the deceptiveness of our own heart.

2. The Depth of Christian Kindness

The point here is that Christian kindness is not merely an external change of manners; it is an internal change of heart. Verse 32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted. . .” Christian kindness is tenderhearted. If the heart is hard on the inside and the manners are meek and polite and helpful on the outside, it is not Christian kindness.

The idea behind “tenderhearted” is that our insides are easily touched. When your skin is tender, it doesn’t take a very hard touch to make it feel pain. When your heart is tender, it is easily affected. It feels easily and quickly.

When you stop and think about it, it is remarkable that this is commanded by the apostle. You can’t just decide to be tenderhearted and turn it on like a faucet. It is a deep character quality. Where does it come from? How can we obey this command to make our kindness to each other deep and heart-felt, not superficial and cool? We will see as we move on.

3. The Pattern of Christian Kindness

Two patterns of Christian kindness are given for us in the text. First is the forgiveness of God. Second is the love of Christ.

The first we see in verse 32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” So when kindness calls for forgiveness, the pattern is the forgiveness of God in Christ.

The second pattern is seen in 5:2, “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” So when love expresses itself in kindness, the pattern is the love of Christ giving himself up for us.

Four Qualities of God’s Forgiveness

What do these two patterns of kindness teach us about being kind to each other? Let’s take them one at a time. What does the pattern of God’s forgiveness teach us about our own? Four things come to mind:

  1. God’s forgiveness takes sin seriously and so should ours. Forgiveness is not flippancy toward sin. It sees it and names it—and then covers it. God forgives what he hates. When I called a man recently to apologize for something I had said and seek his forgiveness, he didn’t say, “It makes no difference.” Or: “I didn’t hear it.” He said earnestly and warmly, “Forgiven, and forgotten.” And I got the deep impression he really meant it.
  2. God’s forgiveness reckons with a real settling of accounts and so should ours. Every sin that has ever been committed will be justly punished—either in hell or on the cross. God never sweeps one little lie under the rug. Someone always pays. So when kindness calls us to forgive a wrong that has been done against us, we are sustained by the truth of God’s holiness. That wrong is going to be dealt with: either the person who committed it against us will trust Christ in the end, in which case the wrong they committed is punished in the wrath that was poured on Christ when the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4–6); or the person who committed the wrong against us is not going to trust Christ in the end, in which case the wrong that they committed will be punished in the sufferings of hell. And in neither case should we fear to forgive as though there were no settling of accounts in the universe.
  3. God’s forgiveness was costly and so is ours. It cost God his Son. And it will cost us the sweet taste of revenge and the pleasure of savoring a grudge and the pride of superiority.
  4. God’s forgiveness is real and ours should be too. There is no sham in it. When he forgives, we are really restored. Nothing is held over our heads for later blackmail. It is gone: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). And so we fall short of our divine pattern if we forgive a wrong but secretly plan to keep it in the back of our minds for a later touché. When we forgive, let us really forgive one another, as God in Christ forgave us.

Three Qualities of Christ’s Love

That is the pattern of God’s forgiveness and four things we can learn from it in pursuing the path of kindness. The second pattern for our kindness is the love of Christ in 5:2, “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” What does the pattern of Christ’s love teach us about our own? Out of all the things we could say let me just mention three.

  1. The love of Christ for us is undeserved, and so we shouldn’t insist that people earn our love and our kindness either. Jesus said in Luke 6:35, “Love your enemies, and do good . . . and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.” None of us has ever qualified to be loved by Jesus Christ. Freely we have received it; freely we should give it (Matthew 10:8).
  2. The love of Christ for us is holy and ours should be holy. The aim of the love of Christ is the holiness of his church: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her . . . and present her to himself in glory . . . that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25–27). And therefore we should put away all notions of love that are driven by mere sentiment and emotion. Love aims at the holiness of a man and a woman, not at their approval or their worldly happiness. Christian kindness is not a strategy to avoid conflict. It’s patterned on the love of Christ and aims to promote holiness.
  3. The love of Christ for us was sacrificial and self-denying, and ours should be too. This is basically the same thing we said earlier, namely, that the love of God was costly. But it is good to say it again. Because every one of us knows that the hardest thing about Christian kindness is to show it when it hurts. I have never forgotten the kindness shown to me by Frau Dora Goppelt in 1974 during the weeks following the unexpected death of her husband, my Doktorvater in Germany. It is a miracle of grace when the pain of loss is so great that you don’t know if you can last another day, and yet you reach out in kindness to a foreign student and reassure him that three years of labor will not be lost with the death of his mentor.

A miracle of grace! That brings us to the fourth thing that this text teaches us about Christian kindness. We have seen the extent of Christian kindness in replacing all bitterness and malice and slander. We have seen the depth of Christian kindness in tenderness of heart. We have seen the pattern of Christian kindness in the forgiveness of God and the love of Christ. Now we look at:

4. The Instrument of Christian Kindness

What do I mean by the “instrument” of Christian kindness? I mean to ask, What is it that we must employ or exert in order to become kind and tenderhearted?

A Passive Verb

The answer is hinted at in the form of the verb in verse 31. Literally it says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be taken away from you.” The verb is passive. This is a hint that the instrument of our kindness is not simply ourselves. If left to ourselves, we will no more be able to get the bitterness and malice out of our heart than we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps. It doesn’t lie within us.

They must BE TAKEN from us. “Let all bitterness . . . BE taken away from you.” Someone else is at work here besides us. It is the same thing we saw in verse 23: “BE renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Another passive verb!) There must be a renewing power or person. There must be a power that takes bitterness and malice from my heart and makes me tenderhearted and kind.

The Holy Spirit and Faith

And we know what that power is (who that person is!) because Galatians 5:22 says very plainly, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness . . . ” If the Spirit of God does not come into our lives to do a supernatural work, we may be able to spruce up the outward manners of kindness, but the poison within will remain. Of that Paul says, “Let it BE taken away.” This is a cry for the work of the Spirit to conquer the old self and clothe us with the new.

But the question is not fully answered. We must still ask, What is the instrument with which I appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit? And the answer is faith. The Spirit flows in the channels of faith. Paul cries out in Galatians 3:2–3, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?”

And our answer should be a resounding, NO! I am not trying to overcome my bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice in the power of the flesh! I am looking to the Holy Spirit to bear his fruit in my life. How am I looking? What am I doing? I am doing what I did to receive him in the first place: I am believing. I am trusting.

Which leaves one last question: What must I believe, in order to see the Holy Spirit conquer the bitterness and anger and malice of my heart and make me tenderhearted and kind? That is the fifth thing that our text teaches us about Christian kindness.

5. The Source of Christian Kindness

The text tells us what we must believe if the Spirit of God is to conquer unkindness in our hearts. Three things:

  1. We must believe that Christ died in our place. Verse 2: “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” That is simply an awful sentence—that the slaughter of his Son smelled good to God!!! There are in this sentence realities so great and so awful and so wonderful and so devastating that when we believe them, they are the power of God unto sanctification and a great uprooting of unkindness.
  2. We must believe that God has forgiven all our sins. Verse 32: ” . . . forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.” In order to be kind, you must be forgiven. In order to be kind, you must believe that you are forgiven for all the sins you have ever committed and will ever commit. To know and believe that every slap in God’s face has been forgiven freely in Jesus Christ breaks a Christian’s heart and makes it lowly and tender and kind.
  3. Finally, we must believe that we are loved by God. Verse 1: “Be imitators of God, as loved children.” As LOVED children! Child of God, you are loved by God! Believe this with all your heart, and you will behold a miracle in your own life—the fruit of the Spirit, the gift of God!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us believe these things, and be kind to one another! Amen.

__________

Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

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John Wesley’s Notes On Ephesians 5

December 18, 2008 By admin Leave a Comment

Ephesians 5
Verse 1. Be ye therefore followers – Imitators. Of God – In forgiving and loving. O how much more honourable and more happy, to be an imitator of God, than of Homer, Virgil, or Alexander the Great!

Verse 3. But let not any impure love be even named or heard of among you – Keep at the utmost distance from it, as becometh saints.

Verse 4. Nor foolish talking – Tittle tattle, talking of nothing, the weather, fashions, meat and drink. Or jesting – The word properly means, wittiness, facetiousness, esteemed by the heathens an half- virtue. But how frequently even this quenches the Spirit, those who are tender of conscience know. Which are not convenient – For a Christian; as [Read more...]

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John Darby’s Commentary on Ephesians 5

December 11, 2008 By admin Leave a Comment

Ephesians 5

Moreover, let us remark here, and it is an important feature in this picture of the fruits of grace and of the new man, that when the grace and love, which come down from God, act in man, they always go up again to God in devotedness. Walk, he says, in love, even as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. We see it in Christ. He is this love which comes down in grace, but this grace, acting in man, makes Him devote Himself to God, although it is on behalf of others. So it is in us; it is the touchstone of the christian heart’s activity.

The apostle then speaks plainly as to sin, in order that no one may deceive himself; nor be occupied with deep truths, using them intellectually, to the neglect of ordinary morality-one of the signs of heresy, properly so called. He has connected the profoundest doctrines in his teaching with daily practice. If Christ be glorified, the Head of the assembly, He is the model of the new man, the last Adam; the assembly being one with Him on high, and the habitation of God on earth by the Spirit, with whom every Christian is sealed. Every Christian, if indeed he has learned the truth as it is in Jesus, has learned that it consists in having put off the old man, and having put on the new man, created after God in righteousness and holiness (of which Christ is the model, according to the counsels of God in glory); and he is to grow up unto the measure of the stature of Christ, who is the Head, and not grieve the Holy Spirit wherewith he is sealed. The fullest revelation of grace does not weaken the immutable truth that God had a character proper to Himself; it unfolds that character to us by means of the most precious revelations of the gospel, and of the closest relationships with God, which were formed by these revelations: but this character could not alter, nor could the kingdom of God allow of, any characters contrary to it. The wrath of God therefore against evil, and against those who commit it, is plainly set forth.

Now we were that which is contrary to His character, we were darkness; not only in the dark, but darkness in our nature, the opposite of God who is light. Not one ray of that which He is was found in our will, our desires, our understanding. We were morally destitute of it. There was the corruptness of the first Adam, but no share in any feature of the divine character. We are now partakers of the divine nature, we have the same desires, we know what it is that He loves, and we love what He loves, we enjoy that which He enjoys, we are light (poor and weak indeed, yet such by nature) in the Lord-looked at as in Christ. They are the fruits of light [24] that are developed in the Christian; he is to avoid all association with the unfruitful works of darkness.

But, in speaking of motives, the apostle returns to the great subjects that pre-occupied him, and he returns to them, not only that we should put on the character set forth by that of which he speaks, but that we should realise all its extent, that we should experience all its force. He had told us that the truth in Christ was the having put on the new man, in contrast with the old man, and that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Now he exhorts those that sleep to awake, and Christ should be their light. Light makes all things manifest; but he who sleeps, although not dead, does not profit by it. For hearing, seeing, and all mental reception and communication, he is in the state of a dead man. Alas, how apt this sleep is to overtake us! But in awaking, it was not that they should see the light dimly, but Christ Himself should be the light of the soul; they should have all the full revelation of that which is well-pleasing to God, that which He loves; they should have divine wisdom in Christ; they should be able to profit by opportunities, should find them, being thus enlightened, in the difficulties of a world governed by the enemy, and should act according to spiritual understanding in every case that presented itself. Further, if they were not to lose their senses through means of excitement used in the world, they were to be filled with the Spirit, that is, that He should take such possession of our affections, our thoughts, our understanding, that He should be their only source according to His proper and mighty energy to the exclusion of all else. Thus, full of joy, we should praise, we should sing for joy; and we should give thanks for all that might happen, because a God of love is the true source of all. We should be full of joy in the spiritual realisation of the objects of faith, and the heart continuing to be filled with the Spirit and sustained by this grace, the experience of the hand of God in everything here below will give rise only to thanksgiving. It comes from His hand whom we trust and whose love we know. But giving thanks in all things is a test of the state of the soul; because the consciousness that all things are from God’s hand, full trust in His love, and deadness as to any will of our own, must exist in order to give thanks in everything-a single eye which delights in His will.

In entering into the details of relationships and particular duties, the apostle cannot give up the subject that is so dear to him. The command which he addresses to wives, that they are to submit themselves to their husbands, immediately suggests the relationship between Christ and the assembly, not now as a subject for knowledge, but to unfold His affection and tender care. We have seen that the apostle, having established the great principles displayed in the revelation of our relationship with God-our vocation-then deduces their practical consequences with regard to the life and conduct of Christians: they were to walk as having put on the new man, to have Christ for their light, not to grieve the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit. Now all this, while the fruit of grace, was either knowledge or practical responsibility.

But here the subject is viewed in another aspect. It is the grace that acts in Christ Himself, His affections, His guardian care, His devotedness to the assembly. Nothing can be more precious, more tender, more intimate. He loved the assembly-that is the source of all. And there are three steps in the work of this love. He gave Himself for it, He washes it, He presents it all glorious to Himself. This is not precisely the sovereign election of the individual by God; but the affection that displays itself in the relationship which Christ maintains with the assembly.[25] See also the extent of the gift, and how marvellous the ground of confidence that it contains. He gives Himself; it is not only His life, true as that is, but Himself.[26]

All that Christ was has been given, and given by Himself; it is the entire devotedness and giving of Himself. And now all that is in Him-His grace, His righteousness, His acceptance with the Father, the excellent glory of His Person, His wisdom, the energy of divine love that can give itself-all is consecrated to the welfare of the assembly. There are no qualities, no excellencies in Christ, which are not ours in their exercise consequent on the gift of Himself. He has already given them, and consecrated them to the blessing of the assembly which He has given Himself to have. Not only are they given, but He has given them; His love has accomplished it . We know well that it is on the cross that this giving of Himself was accomplished, it is there that the consecration of Himself to the good of the assembly was complete. But here that glorious work is not exactly viewed on the side of its atoning and redeeming efficacy, but on that of the devotedness and love to the assembly which Christ manifested in it. Now we can always reckon upon this love which was perfectly displayed in it. It is not altered. Jesus-blessed and praised be His name for it!-is for me according to the energy of His love in all that He is, in all circumstances and for ever, and in the activity of that love according to which He gave Himself. He loved the assembly and gave Himself for it. This is the source of all our blessings, as members of the assembly.

But this love of Christ is inexhaustible and unchangeable. It effects the blessing of its cherished object, by preparing it for a happiness of which His heart is alike the measure and the source, [27] to happiness of perfect purity, the excellence of which He knows in heaven-purity suited to the presence of God, and to her who should be in that presence for ever, the bride of the Lamb-purity which renders it capable of enjoying perfect love and glory; even as that love tends to purify the soul by making itself known to it, and attracting it, divesting it of self, and filling it with God as the centre of blessing and joy.

It is important to remark that Christ does not here sanctify the assembly to make it His own, but makes it His own to sanctify it. It is first His, then He suits it to Himself. Christ, who loves the church as being His own, and who has already made it His own by giving Himself for it, and who chooses to have it such as His heart desires, occupies Himself with it, when He has won it, to render it such. He gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it by the washing of water by the word. Here we find that moral effect produced by the care of Christ, the object which He proposes to Himself in His work accomplished in time, and the means He uses to attain it. He appropriates the assembly morally, sets it morally apart for Himself, when He has made it His; for He can only desire holy things-holy according to the knowledge He has of purity-by virtue of His eternal and natural abode in heaven. He then puts the assembly in connection with heaven, from whence He is, and into which He will introduce it. He gave Himself in order to sanctify it. For this purpose He uses the word, which is the divine expression of the mind of God, of heavenly order and holiness, of truth itself (that is to say, of the true relation of all things with God; and that according to His love in Christ), and which consequently judges all that deviates from it as to purity or love.

He forms the assembly for His bride, a help-meet for Him, in which all is according to the glory and the love of God, by the revelation (through the word, which comes from thence) of these things as they exist in heaven. Now Christ Himself is the full expression of these things, the image of the invisible God. Thus, in communicating them to the assembly, He prepares it for Himself. When speaking therefore in this sense of His own testimony, He says, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.”

But it is this which the word is, as we have received it from Jesus; and more especially as speaking from heaven, with the character of the new commandment, the darkness passing away, and the true light now shining; and consequently, the thing being true, not only in Him, but in us. The ministry of chapter 1 is occupied with this, forming the hearts of the saints on earth in fellowship with the Head from which the grace and the light descended. In this manner then Christ sanctifies the assembly for which He gave Himself. He has formed it for heavenly things by the communication of heavenly things, of which He is Himself the fulness and the glory. But this word finds the assembly mixed up with things that are contrary to this heavenly purity and love. Alas! its affections-as to the old man at least-mixed up with these earthly things, which are contrary to the will of God and to His nature. Thus in sanctifying the assembly He must needs cleanse it. This is therefore the work of the love of Christ during the present time, but for the eternal and essential happiness of the assembly.

He sanctifies the assembly, but He does it by the word, communicating heavenly things-all that belongs to the nature, to the majesty, and to the glory of God-in love, but at the same time applying them to judge everything in her present affections, which is at variance with that which He communicates. Precious work of love, which not only loves us but labours to make us fit to enjoy that love; fit to be with Christ Himself in the Father’s house!

How deeply is He interested in us! He not only accomplished the glorious work of our redemption by giving Himself for us, but He acts continually with perfect love and patience to make us such as He would have us to be in His own presence-fit for the heavenly places and heavenly things.

What a character this shews to belong also to the word, and what grace in His use of it! It is the communication of divine things according to their own perfection, and now as God Himself is in the light. It is the revelation of God Himself, as we know Him in a glorified Christ, in a perfect love to form us also according to that perfection for the enjoyment of Him; and yet it is addressed to us, yea is suited in its very nature to us down here (compare John 1:4) to impart these things to us by bringing in light amid the darkness, thus necessarily judging all that is in the darkness, but in order to purify us in love.

Observe, also, the order in which this work of Christ is presented to us, beginning with love. He loved the assembly; this, as we have already said, is the source of all. All that follows is the result of that love and cannot gainsay it. The perfect proof of it is then stated: He gave Himself for the assembly. He could not give more. It was to the glory of the Father, no doubt, but it was for the assembly. Had he reserved anything, the love in giving Himself would not have been perfect, not absolute; it would not have been a devotedness that left nothing for the awakened heart to desire. It would not have been Christ, for He could not but be perfect. We know love and perfection in knowing Him. But He has won the heart of the assembly by giving Himself for it. He has won her thus. She is His according to that love. Yea; it is there that we have learnt what love is. Hereby know we love in that He gave Himself for us. All was for the glory of the Father: without that it wouldnot have been perfection; and the revelation of the heavenly things would not have taken place, for that depended on the Father’s being perfectly glorified. In this the things to be revealed were manifested and verified, so to speak, in spite of evil; but all is entirely for us.

If we have learnt to know love, we have learnt to know Jesus, such as He is for us; and He is wholly for us.

Thus the entire work of cleansing and of sanctification is the result of perfect love. It is not the means of obtaining the love, or of being its object. It is indeed the means of enabling us to enjoy it; but it is the love itself which, in its exercise, works this sanctification. Christ wins the assembly first. He then in His perfect love makes it such as He would have it to be-a truth that is precious to us in every way, and first, in order to free the soul from all servile fear, to give sanctification its true character of grace and its true extent here. It is joy of heart to know that Christ Himself will make us all He desires us to be.

We have considered two effects of the love of Christ for the assembly. The first was the gift of Himself, which in a certain sense comprises the whole; it is love perfect in itself. He gave Himself. The second is the moral formation of the object of His love, that it may be with Him; according, we may add, to the perfections of God Himself, for that indeed is what the word is-the expression of the nature, the ways, and the thoughts of God.

There is yet a third effect of this love of Christ’s which completes it. He presents it to Himself a glorious assembly without spot or wrinkle. If He gave Himself for the assembly, it was in order to have it with Him; but if He would have it with Him, He must render it fit to be in His glorious presence; and He has sanctified it by cleansing it according to the revelation of God Himself, and the heavenly things of which He is in Himself the centre in glory. The Holy Ghost has taken the things of Christ, and has revealed them to the assembly; and all that the Father has is Christ’s. Thus perfected according to the perfection of heaven, He presents it to Himself a glorious assembly. Morally, the work was done; the elements of heavenly glory had been communicated to her who was to stand in that glory, had entered into her moral being, and thus formed her to participate in it. The power of the Lord is needed to make her participate in it in fact, to make her glorious, to destroy every trace of her earthly abode, save the excellent fruit that results from it. He presents her glorious to Himself-this is the result of all. He took her for Himself, He presents her to Himself, the fruit and the proof of His perfect love; and for her it is the perfect enjoyment of that same love. But there is yet more. That sentence discloses to us all the import of this admirable display of grace. The Spirit carries us back to the case of Adam and Eve, in which God, having formed Eve, presents her to Adam all complete according to His own divine thoughts and at the same time suited to be the delight of Adam, as a help-meet adapted to his nature and condition. Now Christ is God. He has formed the assembly, but with this additional right over her heart that He has given Himself for her; but He is also the last Adam in glory; and He presents her glorified to Himself, such as He had formed her for himself. What a sphere for the development of spiritual affections is this revelation! What infinite grace is that which has given place for such an exercise of these affections!

We cannot fail to notice the connection between the cleansing and the glory, that is, that the cleansing is according to the glory and by it; and that the glory is the completeness of, and completely answers to, the cleansing. For the cleansing is by the word, which reveals the whole glory and mind of God. Presented in glory she has neither spot not wrinkle; she is holy and unblamable. This is a most important truth, and recurs elsewhere. Compare 2 Corinthians 3:18, and Philippians 3:11 to the end. So in 1 Thessalonians3:13. What is complete in glory there, is wrought into the soul now by the Spirit operating with the word.

This then is the purpose, the mind of the Lord, with regard to the assembly, and this the sanctifying work which prepares her for Himself and for heaven. But these are not all the effects of His love. He watches tenderly over her during all the time of her sojourn here below.

The apostle, who did not lose sight of the thesis which gave rise to this digression that is so instructive to us, says that the husband ought to love his wife as his own body-that it was loving himself. He was naturally led to this by the allusion to Genesis; but he immediately returns to the subject that occupies him. No one, he says, ever hated his own flesh; he nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the assembly. This is the precious aspect, during time, of Christ’s love, which the apostle here presents. Not only has Christ a heavenly aim, but His love performs the work which, so to speak, is natural to it. He tenderly cares for the assembly here below; He nourishes it, He cherishes it. The wants, the weaknesses, the difficulties, the anxieties of the assembly are only opportunities to Christ for the exercise of His love. The assembly needs to be nourished, as do our bodies; and He nourishes her. She is the object of His tender affections; He cherishes her. If the end is heaven, the assembly is not left desolate here. She learns His love where her heart needs it. She will enjoy it fully when need has passed away for ever. Moreover it is precious to know that Christ cares for the assembly, as a man cares for his own flesh. For we are members of His own body. We are of His flesh, and of His bones. Eve is here alluded to. We are, as it were, a part of Himself, having our existence and our being from Him, as Eve from Adam. He can say, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” Our position is, on the one hand, to be members of His body; on the other hand, we have our existence as Christians from Him. Therefore it is that a man is to leave his natural relations, in order to be united to his wife. It is a great mystery. Now it was just this that Christ did as man, in a certain sense, divinely. Nevertheless every one ought thus to love his own wife, and the wife to reverence her husband.

There remain yet certain relationships in life, with which the doctrine of the Spirit of God is connected: those of children and parents, of fathers and children, and of servants and master. It is interesting to see the children of believers introduced as objects of the Holy Spirit’s care, and even slaves (for servants were such), raised by Christianity to a position which the circumstances of their social degradation could not affect.

All the children of Christians are viewed as subjects of the exhortations in the Lord, which belong to those who are within, who are no longer in this world, of which Satan is the prince. Sweet and precious comfort to the parent, that he may look upon them as having a right to this position, and a part in those tender cares which the Holy Ghost lavishes on all who are in the house of God! The apostle marks the importance which God attached, under the law, to this duty. It is the first command with which He linked a promise. Verse 3 is only the quotation of that which he alludes to in verse 2.

The exhortation to fathers is also remarkable-that they should not provoke their children; that their hearts should be turned towards them; that they should not repel them, nor destroy that influence which is the strongest guard against the evil of the world. God forms the heart of children around this happy centre: the father should watch over this. But there is more. The christian father (for it is always those within to whom he speaks) ought to recognise the position in which, as we have seen, the children are placed, and to bring them up under the yoke of Christ in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. Christian position is to be the measure and the form of the influences which the father exercises, and of the education which he gives his children. He treats them as brought up for the Lord, and as the Lord would bring them up.

It will be remarked, that in the two relationships we are considering, as well as in that of wives with their husbands, it is on the side from which submission is due that the exhortations begin. This is the genius of Christianity in our evil world, in which man’s will is the source of all the evil, expressing his departure from God to whom all submission is due. The principle of submission and of obedience is the healing principle of humanity: only God must be brought into it, in order that the will of man be not the guide after all. But the principle that governs the heart of man in good, is always and everywhere obedience. I may have to say that God must be obeyed rather than man; but to depart from obedience is to enter into sin. A man may have, as a father, to command and direct; but he does it ill if he do it not in obedience to God and to His word. This was the essence of the life of Christ: “I come to do thy will, O my God.” Accordingly the apostle begins his exhortations with regard to relationships by giving the general precept: “Submit yourselves one to another.” This renders order easy, even when the order of institutions and of authority may fail. Submission, moral obedience, can never in principle be wanting to the true Christian. It is the starting-point of his whole life. He is sanctified unto the obedience of Christ (1 Pet. 1:2).

In the case which has led to these remarks, it is striking to see how this principle elevates the slave in his condition: he obeys by an inward divine principle, as though it were Christ Himself whom he obeyed. However wicked his master may be, he obeys as if he obeyed Christ Himself. Three times the apostle repeats this principle of obedience to Christ or the service of Christ, adding, “doing the will of God from the heart.” What a difference this made in the poor slave’s condition! Moreover, whether bond or free, each should receive his reward from the Lord. The master himself had the same Master in heaven, with whom there is no respect of persons. Still it is to masters that he says this, not to the slave; for Christianity is delicate in its propriety, and never falsifies its principles. The master was also to treat the slave with perfect equity-even as he expected it from the slave-and was not to threaten.

It is beautiful to see the way in which divine doctrine enters into the details of life, and throws the fragrance of its perfection into every duty and every relationship; how it acknowledges existing things, as far as they can be owned and directed by its principles, but exalts and enhances the value of everything according to the perfection of those principles; by touching not the relationships but the man’s heart who walks in them; taking the moral side, and that of submission, in love and in the exercise of authority which the divine doctrine can regulate, bringing in the grace which governs the use of the authority of God.

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[24] We should read “fruit of the light,” not “fruit of the Spirit.”

[25] It is well to notice here this character of love-love in an established relationship. The word of God is more exact than is generally thought in its expressions; because the expression has its origin in the thing itself. It is not said that Christ loved the world-He has no relationship with the world as it is. It is said that God so loved the world; this is what He is towards it in His own goodness. It is not said that God loved the assembly. The proper relationship of the assembly as such is with Christ, her heavenly Bridegroom. The Father loves us, we are His dear children. God, in this character, loves us. Thus Jehovah loves Israel. On the other hand, all the tenderness and faithfulness that belong to the relationship in which Christ stands are our portion in Him, as well as all that the name of Father means on its side also.

[26] It is specially the devotedness of His love; He gives and gives Himself.

[27] When I say (here and above) that the love of Christ is its source, it is not as if the love of the Father and the counsels of God had not their place in it. I speak of the blessing applied and carried out in the relationship presented in this passage; and this relationship exists with Christ. Nevertheless it is the same divine love.

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Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Ephesians 5:1-2

December 9, 2008 By admin Leave a Comment

We had several important exhortations in the close of the foregoing chapter, and they are continued in this: particularly, I. We have here an exhortation to mutual love and charity (v. 1, 2). II. Against all manner of uncleanness, with proper arguments and remedies proposed against such sins: and some further cautions are added, and other duties recommended (v. 3-20). III. The apostle directs to the conscientious discharge of relative duties, from v. 21, throughout this, and in the beginning of the next chapter.

Here we have the exhortation to mutual love, or to Christian charity. The apostle had been insisting on this in the former chapter, and particularly in the last verses of it, to which the particle therefore refers, and connects what he had said there with what is contained in these verses, thus: “Because God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you, therefore be you followers of God, or imitators of him;” for so the word signifies. Pious persons should imitate the God whom they worship, as far as he has revealed himself as imitable by them. They must conform themselves to his example, and have his image renewed upon them. This puts a great honour upon practical religion, that it is the imitating of God. We must be holy as God is holy, merciful as he is merciful, perfect as he is perfect. But there is no one attribute of God more recommended to our imitation than that of his goodness. Be you imitators of God, or resemble him, in every grace, and especially in his love, and in his pardoning goodness. God is love; and those that dwell in love dwell in God and God in them. Thus he has proclaimed his name, Gracious and merciful, and abundant in goodness. As dear children, as children (who are wont to be greatly beloved by their parents) usually resemble them in the lineaments and features of their faces, and in the dispositions and qualities of their minds; or as becomes the children of God, who are beloved and cherished by their heavenly Father. Children are obliged to imitate their parents in what is good, especially when dearly beloved by them. The character that we bear of God’s children obliges us to resemble him, especially in his love and goodness, in his mercy and readiness to forgive. And those only are God’s dear children who imitate him in these. It follows, And walk in love, v. 2. This godlike grace should conduct and influence our whole conversation, which is meant by walking in it. It should be the principle from which we act; it should direct the ends at which we aim. We should be more careful to give proof of the sincerity of our love one to another. As Christ also hath loved us. Here the apostle directs us to the example of Christ, whom Christians are obliged to imitate, and in whom we have an instance of the most free and generous love that ever was, that great love wherewith he hath loved us. We are all joint sharers in that love, and partakers of the comfort of it, and therefore should love one another, Christ having loved us all and given such proof of his love to us; for he hath given himself for us. The apostle designedly enlarges on the subject; for what can yield us more delightful matter for contemplation than this? Christ gave himself to die for us; and the death of Christ was the great sacrifice of atonement: An offering and a sacrifice to God; or an offering, even a sacrifice—a propitiatory sacrifice, to expiate our guilt, which had been prefigured in the legal oblations and sacrifices; and this for a sweet-smelling savour. Some observe that the sin-offerings were never said to be of a sweet-smelling savour; but this is said of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. As he offered himself with a design to be accepted of God, so God did accept, was pleased with, and appeased by, that sacrifice. Note, As the sacrifice of Christ was efficacious with God, so his example should be prevailing with us, and we should carefully copy after it.

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