Friday: Further Thought ~ The Unified Body of Christ
Further Thought: Two notes help to expand our study of Ephesians 4:7-10:
1. Translating Ephesians 4:9. Some translations indicate that the descent occurs before the ascent (e.g., NKJV, “He also first descended”; KJV, RSV, ESV, NASB). Other translations follow the Greek text more closely, leaving the issue of the timing of the ascent and descent open (e.g., NIV, “What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?” ASV, HCSB, LEB, NLT), which allows for the view, expressed in Tuesday’s study, that the narrative order of Psalm 68:18 should be followed, with Christ’s exaltation to heaven (the “ascent”) occurring first, followed by His “descent” in the Spirit.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
2. Leading captivity captive. In quoting Psalm 68:18 from the Greek Old Testament, called the Septuagint (an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament), Paul uses a phrase in Ephesians 4:8 that reads literally, “he took captive captivity” (reflected in some translations, e.g., KJV, NKJV, NRSV), but which is widely affirmed to mean, “he took as prisoners a group of captives” (reflected in the ESV, NASB, NIV, etc.). Seventh-day Adventists have often understood the phrase to refer to Christ’s act of taking back with Him to heaven, at His ascension, those raised in a special resurrection at the time of His own resurrection (Matthew 27:51-53). These constitute a “wave sheaf,” firstfruits of the redeemed, that He presents to the Father on His return to the courts of heaven (see The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1022; The Desire of Ages, p. 834, compare The Desire of Ages, Pages 785, 786). Alternatively, in line with Colossians 2:15, the passage could be taken, as a picture of Christ’s conquest over His foes — Satan and his evil angels — who are portrayed as defeated captives.
Discussion Questions:
|
(5)
"The unified body of Christ", "Christ living within us", "The Holy Spirit living through us" and so on are great phrases to throw into a blog conversation. But after all the people have said "Amen", what happens next? Well, typically we go to a church board meeting and have a ding-dong stoush over the colour of the new carpet for the church! Or, to keep it theological, we have an argument with a grumpy fellow church member about whether Jesus was pre- or post- lapsian in nature. I am not joking - I have seen both.
The Holy Spirit is not a magic wand that takes away all the things that we argue over. And to be sure, its useless to pray that the other side will yield to the Holy Spirt and agree with you.
I remember an argument we got into in the old email list of Sabbath School Net. I won't tell you what the issue was, but since you know that I am an Australian you can probably guess (No, don't try to guess in the comments) The issue came up and I was on the "wrong" side. One respondent told me to lay the issue on the altar of Christ's sacrifice and the Holy Spirit would convince me how wrong I was. I responded that the problem I had was that I did not know which Holy Spirit to listen to; The Sabbath School Net's respondent, or the South Pacific Division!
Living in Christ and being guided by the Holy Spirit is not about who is right or wrong, but it is about living with one another and making tough decisions sometimes. Perhaps the hardest lesson I have had to learn is to be tolerant of people who do not see it my way. Learning to get on with people with whom you disagree is something that happens when you let the Holy Spirit control your life. One practical outcome of that is learning that you do not need to have the last word in an argument.
Unity does not come at the price of diversity. and to achieve that we need a fair bit of Spirit-inspired tolerance; yes even on some doctrinal and lifestyle issues.
This week's lesson should inspire us to leave our comfortable armchair discussion on our computers and face the real world of church member interaction with love, understanding and tolerance.
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love one to another." John 13:35
That’s right. Let’s focus on God’s love and how we can live it out through unity. 1 John 4:19, John 3:16
Unity is a matter of (individual) choices, as any collective behavior. Unfortunately, because today's trend is to worship individuality without an honest evaluation of others, individuals lose self-assurance.
How decadent and needy we are of real love!!!
How poor of Grace we became, to the point of exchanging likes for money!
The more I learn about the unified Body of Christ, the more convicting it is for me.
I grew up in an actively-churched Adventist home and an Adventist school, and yet I experienced and saw modeled a decidedly independent lifeview....competitive for grades, for example, and the all-too-common struggle for supremacy amongst family members. Then, when I for a period of time was into New Age thought and so-called spirituality, that was also about self-growth and one's own journey, even though there was a good deal of love and kindness talk. Here, from one of those websites, is a quote showing that sort of vision, "It is up to each of us to embody the state of aware presence and thus rise above the egoic mind and its dysfunction." You can see how close it is to the truth...we DO need to abandon the egoic mind. However, on our own we don't RISE ABOVE selfishness, and also, whom or what should we embody an aware presence of? John 10:9 tells us that focusing on Jesus is the only door into this kind of freedom from self, anyone who offers another way is a thief and robber (John 10:1).
Whether peacefully (thief) or aggressively and even violently (robber), what would this false teacher be taking from us? I think one answer would be our true identity. Now I'm seeing that to be made in the image of God is more than I used think...yes it's having a large intelligent mind that can see past present future, yes it's having freedom of choice over moral decisions and being able to display agape love, yes it's like the unity of male and female - so close that one is taken out of the other .... and now we're getting nearer the mystery of the Godhead....
Paul and the NT epistles are showing us over and over that the highest expression of being in God's image is being a member of the spiritual Body of Jesus in the church. Jesus' final prayer as recorded by John, a long red-letter section in our Bibles, is all about this and ends with His dream:
If God did not send a Savior for fallen angels (2 Pet. 2:4) why did He send a Savior for humans...."My people" (Is. 53:8)? Does God love us more than the angels? I don't believe so, just as God did not love the Israelites more than other nations. It's just about the role God created us for. He created humans to reflect His image of mercy and grace in a unique way, and that has to mean functioning in multiplicity as One, under our Head Jesus....just as the Three function as One in the Godhead. It is Jesus who has brought - and is still bringing through His People - healing and sanity to our dysfunctional planet - not individual humans trying in their own strength to awaken their own consciousness.
We are individual, each unique, Christians, but there are no independent Christians. Diversity of thought and action and gifts are needed to accurately reflect God's character, but diversity of allegiance, of Spirit, of the heart's deepest desire does not accurately reflect Him. The Body seeks unity with the Head at all costs, and depends on the Head to bring unity among its members - does not force a false unity (e.g., the arm doesn't directly tell the other arm what to do). The idea of going it alone to "find yourself" or to have a private spiritual walk is anti-Christian. We need to have regular and frequent times of solitude for worship and prayer, as Jesus did, but we must be aware that we are never disconnected from the Body...and we do not grow apart from the Body and its Head....and for me that changes everything in the way to live.
When I read the lesson for today and especially 1 Cor 12:4-11, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills," I ask myself the question, do I see people being healed at church, or miracles taking place during our church service? If the Spirit is expected to give these gifts to members of our church, then why haven't I seen the manifestation of these gifts during the service at church? Is it because we as a church are not structured for the outpouring of these gifts. As a church, do we seek out these gifts amongst our members and give them opportunities to function for the edification of the saints? How are pastors, evangelists, healers, individuals with the gift of discerning of spirits, miracle workers, teachers, etc. used to edify the members of our church? If it is currently done according to the directions of the bible and the Holy Spirit, then why don't we see them during our service at church? When Paul wrote these passages of scripture, these things happened on a regular basis. My prayer is that I will be filled with the Holy Spirit so that I could be used by him to fulfill my mission.
I don’t know what pre-or post-lapsian means. But I don’t see that it changes who Jesus Christ is in our lives. I do see, hear and understand the issues regarding what time is sunset in North Alaska and did the international date line really change when Sabbath happens. I see as a much greater issue to the church today as who really wrote the 1880s era great controversy.
Pre-/post-lapsian refers to the argument as to whether Christ's human nature was the same as Adam's before or after the fall. And yes, you are right in that it does not/should not change what Christ does in our lives. This was a big argument in the 1950s and 60s when I first became aware of this thing called theology. I don't want to reopen the debate. I mentioned it because there was a lot of unchristian behaviour on both sides of that argument.
If you would like some perspective on the writing of The Great Controversy, I found that Dr Gil Valentine's book W. W. Prescott is quite informative of the interactions that took place during its writing. It may not answer you question but is does provide perspective.