The Messenger 2
Introduction
It is a temptation when studying the New Testament letters to want to skip through the introduction and get into the actual contents of the letter itself. After all, the opening verses of Paul’s letters appear to be fairly standard and repetitive introductions anyway.
It is, however, a great pity when we do this. Not only do we miss out on some wonderful theological insights that those introductions provide but, even more importantly, the introduction to each letter is a doorway into an understanding of the letter. For anyone who is serious about applying the contents of Ephesians to his or her life the place to start our study is with those opening verses of the first chapter.
Let me invite you now to spend a while thinking about Paul’s introduction to this letter to the Ephesians. It is, as we will discover, time well spent as we uncover some compelling challenges that lie behind what appear to be some very ordinary words. To begin, let’s underline two important words in that first verse:
“To the saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus.”
The truths that we shall uncover in this great letter are intended for and apply specifically to those whom Paul calls “the saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus.” But what exactly was in Paul’s mind when he used those words and what did the early Church understand by them? This becomes a very important starting-point in our search for understanding
A Saint
When Paul used religious terms and phrases in presenting the Gospel to his readers he would have drawn on words and phrases that were common in the pagan Greek religions of that time. Why? So that his readers could understand the terms he used in his letters. Remember many of his readers had come into the Christian Faith from a pagan background. What Paul did when using words that were common in pagan religions was to impart a specifically Christian content to them. Take, for example, the English words ‘saint,’ ‘sanctify’ and ‘holy’. They are all translations taken from a common Greek root that in the pagan religions meant “set apart for the gods.”
In accepting the good news of the Gospel of Christ the believer is set apart for God – the one and only true God. This is what Paul is implying when he addresses his letter “to the saints.” Literally, to those set apart for God in Christ.
Kenneth Wuest writes in his Vocabulary of New Testament Words: “The word hagios is used as the name of the Christian believer (Romans 1:7). As such it refers to him as one set apart for God, partaking of a holy standing before God in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30) with the obligation of living a holy life (1 Peter 1:14-16).”
I am not sure that I totally agree with Wuest when he says “with the obligation of living a holy life.” I think it sends a wrong message. Perhaps he could have put it this way – “partaking of a holy standing before God in Christ resulting in the living of a holy life.”
Let me qualify that. The phrase “with the obligation of living a holy life” suggests to me, as I am sure to others, that holiness is all about following certain rules and regulations – about living under the constant pressure of a list of things that one should or should not do as a Christian. Such an attitude is not only unhelpful – it is unhealthy. If that is how we perceive holiness then either we end up living with a spirit of judgementalism against others who don’t live up to our standards of holiness, or we end up trapped in a spirit of self-condemnation because we cannot live up to this self-imposed list of do’s and don’ts.
Let us put the emphasis where God’s Word puts it – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…..” (John 3:16). God so loved the world – God so loved you – that He gave His one and only Son.
That’s positive. That’s liberating. The more we learn of just what God has done for us in Christ the more we love Him for His incredible love He has for us. The more we appreciate just how undeserving we are of His great love the more we are motivated to love and forgive others. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
As we live in the positive light of His love our life begins to change for the better. Love inspires us to want for our life and for others what God wants because we know that what He wants is good and lovely and freeing and wholesome. When God in His Word shows us what He wants us to be and to do He is not seeking to impose on us an external list of do’s and don’ts for us to follow. He is saying “I want to love you so much, and I want you to know just how much I do love you, then you will do what pleases me – not because you have to, but because you will want to” (cf. John 14:15).
If we are going to discover what it really means to be a saint, set apart for God, then we need the Holy Spirit to breathe into us a revelation of the Father’s love for us. In the words of a hymn by Stuart Townsend: “How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.”
That’s it, isn’t it? That’s where our focus is or should be as God’s saints. True holiness flows out of a deep inner awareness of our own unworthiness and God’s incredible and passionate love for us. It doesn’t come from our trying harder. It doesn’t arise from our striving to live up to something. It is not about earning merits from God.
What is needed in the Church today is a fresh revelation of holiness, our set-apartness for God, that captures and incorporates the thought of God’s love for us – a love that sets us free to do those things that please Him. Being a saint in the biblical meaning of that word is a joyous release into the freedom of one who has had his or her inner being awakened to a knowledge of God’s redeeming grace.
Let me close with the words of a hymn by Joseph Hart that appear in the Methodist hymn book. They seem to capture the message of this reflection:
This, this is the God we adore, our faithful, unchangeable Friend; whose love is as great as His power, and neither knows measure nor end.
Click on next page below to continue