grantataberfoyle

Saved from futility

‘What’s the use?’ We’ve probably heard that said, or said it ourselves. Nothing’s working and our time’s being wasted.

An old Greek myth tells the story of Sisyphus who is punished by being made to push a stone up a hill, only to have it roll down again when he nearly gets to the top. And he must do this forever! We now call a job that’s laborious and useless ‘sisyphean’.

That’s what life in this world is like—without God. Useless. And Christians have been saved from the futile ways we learn in this world (Ephesians 4:17-20).

In times past young believers were worshipping idols. And, of course, calling something a god when it can’t hear, think or act is futile. Nothing is going to happen by talking to it or offering it a bribe.

And the kind of life that grows from worshipping idols is also futile. There is nothing above us to lift us up. There is only a recycling of the mess we are already in.

Our own world dismisses giving reverence to God—any god. But we haven’t stopped worshipping something. We’ve been designed to look up and to be in awe of something. And people still say, ‘I just had to do that.’ It’s part of our being human to be compelled by something greater than ourselves.

If we don’t know the true God through his Son, Jesus Christ, we’ll install something in his place.

One writer (I’ve put a link to his article below) thinks self-worship is now the world’s fastest growing religion. This ‘religion’ or ideology teaches that each person’s own thinking, their emotions and choices, goals, values and creativity must determine everything else.

But then, he says, ‘When we try to be our own sources of truth, we slowly drive ourselves crazy. When we try to be our own sources of satisfaction, we become miserable wrecks. When we become our own standard of goodness and justice, we become obnoxiously self-righteous. When we seek self-glorification, we become more inglorious.’

Paul would say the same now as he did a long time ago. Without the true God, our understanding is darkened, not enlightened. It’s ignorant, not informed. It’s hard hearted, not sensitive.

It’s into this situation that God sends Jesus to live, and die, and rise again. He has come to lift us out of all this. That’s why Peter talks about being rescued from futility (1 Peter 1:8-19). Without him, we are slaves.

If you believe that the only things that are real are physical, it may seem strange to hear your way of life called futile. That’s why it’s important to look at the light God has sent into the world.

The story is told of a rebellious sailor who is lowered down into the empty hold of his ship as punishment. He has no light, no company. Only bread a water let down on a rope each day. Several days go by and the sailor defies the call to change his ways and return to the deck. So, the captain lowers a lamp down instead of the food.

Now, the sailor can see his surroundings—the filth and the vermin, and himself as part of it all. Quickly he asks to be pulled up out of his prison.

The way we are brought up, the way of life around us, seem normal. We can become accustomed to shallowness, to lies, and lust, and hollow laughter. Until, that is, we see Jesus Christ.

The only way to be freed from the futility of this world is for someone to pay for us—to be bought like a slave. And then be set free. That’s what ‘redeemed’ means in what Peter says.

God knows we are in the dark. He also knows we like being in the dark. We think it’s the only way to stay in control of our lives.

But then, God lets us see how bitter we have become—by letting us human beings kill his Son. He lets us see the meaning of love by his Son asking for us to be forgiven. He shows us there is a new way by raising his Son from death. We can begin to hope.

This is what it means to be ‘redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors…with the precious blood of Christ’.

All that the world has when it doesn’t want God is cravings.

Interestingly, one of the world’s religions—Buddhism—is focused on shutting down desire because it is the source of all our unhappiness. But desire is part of being alive! We want things. That’s what gets us up in the morning. It’s what makes us work hard and take risks.

What makes desire a problem is that we do not have God as our Father. Nothing we get is ever enough. It wasn’t meant to be enough. Only God can be ‘enough’. Under him, our desires are governed. Without him, they become insatiable.

We try to have a full life by letting rip with whatever we want. But without God, we generate endless unrest. We find ourselves yearning for what isn’t ours, or boasting about what we’ve done (1 John 2:15-17). But it’s all a temporary ‘fix’. If it doesn’t come from the Father, it won’t last. It’s futile.

But then, what if we come to know God as our Father? Our passions are under his care. We listen to what he says. We copy the way of life lived by his Son. We have something that will last forever. It begins to feel solid—even in this world. It’s not futile. We’ve be rescued.

It doesn’t take much experience, and honesty, to recognise that something isn’t solid just because we can see it. Why not, every time to find yourself getting fond of this world, taking another look at Jesus, and what he has done. Ask why he took so much trouble to show us what’s real. Ask if you can afford to give your life for what is passing away.

You can hear my talk on this topic at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kb4sbuJsus

Article: Self Worship is the world’s fastest growing religion; Thaddeus Williams

Self-Worship Is the World’s Fastest-Growing Religion

Friendship is all about other people

The story goes of a man coming home from a party saying, ‘I was surrounded by friends, but none of them were mine.’ Many people experience loneliness—including some who appear to be ‘the life of the party’.

These experiences demonstrate that loneliness isn’t mended with company. In the real world, having friends involves thinking—thinking about others.

Perhaps this is why many have experienced amazing community spirit when a catastrophe strikes—a flood or fire or accident. Everyone focusses on what needs to be done and forgets about themselves. They begin to ‘discover’ each other.

So, here’s the real issue. If we are only thinking of ourselves, there’s no real relationship going on. The other person is only ‘present’ to the extent that they are meeting a need of mine. They may be thinking the same. Neither of us are being real. We are like ghosts trying to hug each other.

A relationship with someone else is not just a matter of chemistry, or sex, or common interest. It involves love, and this means seeing who someone is and what they need—thinking about them and how we may be a part of their lives.

Paul tells his friends at Philippi to think of others and not just themselves, and consider others better than themselves.

That’s good advice but it’s easier said than done. Selfishness runs deep and takes us back to thinking about ourselves. That’s why Paul points to how Christ has lived among us (Philippians 2:1-11).

It would be worthwhile reading some Gospel stories about Jesus. People called him a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34). That’s what we need—not someone who expects high standards, conformity, or agreement but a friend who knows who we are, what we can become and what help we need.

And the first need we have is to be forgiven. We don’t merely need people we can follow, or who like us. We need a Saviour. We need Christ’s encouragement, comfort, tenderness and compassion.

We need to belong to a whole group of people participating in a love that’s bigger than all the funny things that go on between us people. We need to be God’s children—together.

Believe me, what we read here fixes the problem. We have a quality of life that doesn’t depend on our friends being friendly or us being perfect! There’s something different that happens among people who receive forgiveness from God, and receive the gift of his Holy Spirit.

Paul also says we need to put away selfish ambition or conceit (v. 3). In business circles, people talk about ‘networking’—finding relationships that may further their interests. But that’s not friendship. Friends aren’t concerned with their own interests but the interest of their friend.

In fact, we are called to consider others better than ourselves (v. 4). This is nothing to do with us being better or worse than others. We are talking about considering others better than ourselves.

So, is all of this just a game? Do we just act in a certain way because that will make other people feel happier with us? Hardly. That’s hypocrisy, and eventually, hypocrisy shows!

Here’s why it’s so important to know how Jesus thinks. He has been thinking about us—not himself. And because he is thinking about us, we can be freed from always focusing on ourselves. We can have the same thought in our minds as Jesus Christ.

How can this be? Stay with this! It might seem like I’m trying to crack a problem with a heavy thump of Bible, but thinking about ourselves doesn’t yield easily!

The way Jesus thinks starts with him being equal with God. He is God. But he doesn’t think this fact needs to be defended. He doesn’t need to protect his rights or have his identity acknowledged. Simply—he’s God. He knows it. And he acts accordingly.

Here’s what he does. He ‘made himself nothing’. That is, he pours out all that he is—for us.

The Son of God becomes one of us—a human being. As God, he is in charge. But, as a human being, he is told what to do. He’s become a servant.

Then, the job he is given is to show us who God is. So, he shows us the ‘comfort of his love’, his ‘tenderness and compassion’.

It’s because we don’t know this that we have to protect ourselves. This is why we have to be surrounded with approving people. We’re not persuaded that God is friendly.

So, Jesus makes himself an offering for our sins. He’s already a servant, but he becomes a humble one and does the most despicable job you could ever take on. He’s nailed to a Roman cross. In our place.

This is the mind of Christ. He has come closer to us that we can come to ourselves. By being what he is—God, doing a human job—he’s shown us what it means to be human. He’s also shown us what it means to be God.

And then, Jesus is given the name above every name—that’s the name ‘Lord’, or God. There’s never been any risk of him losing his identity!

And there’s no risk of us losing our identity either when we think fondly about people around us—in just the same way we think about ourselves. If we’ve been united with Christ through faith, we have his encouragement, his tenderness and compassion.

So now, we are free to live, to love, to give and to share. It will seem risky. Sometimes, we may lose a friend rather than gain one. But we will always have Christ’s friendship.

Surely and certainly, we will discover the riches of relationships that flow from a reliable source—from no less than the God who made us to be like him.

It matters what you think

If you are asked, ‘What are you doing?’ you may say, ‘Just thinking.’ But we are never just thinking. What is going on in our heads—or not going on—affects what happens. Good thinking leads to good living.

It’s also true that if you are not thinking, someone else is doing it for you. And one day, you may resent giving your mind over to others—to musicians, playwrights, pressure groups or dictators.

But how does healthy thinking happen? I’m not trying to be an amateur psychologist here. I’m simply pointing out some directions we’ve been given to help us think well. They come from Paul, in his letter to the Philippians (4:4-9).

In human terms, if we are going to think well, we need to be inwardly happy—not depressed by our circumstances. We also need some confidence—so we are not embattled by rival opinions.

We need to be secure rather than anxious. And we also need lots of good options to choose from.

Many would agree with all this. Courses and therapies try to produce these states so that we can think and live well.

But Paul shows that these qualities arise from who God is, and from what Jesus Christ does. The world believes its enlightenment comes from our own history and experience. But we need to be enlightened by God speaking to us. Our thinking then becomes the way these unseen things become visible in the real world.

Let’s see how this works out.

First, Paul tells us to delight in the Lord—that is, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not just called to believe in Jesus Christ but enjoy him. A healthy mind starts by being happy, content, joyful—and Jesus Christ has given us good reason to do that.

Anyone who’s suffered with depression will tell you unhappiness is not healthy. It doesn’t lead to good decisions, or relationships or communities.

Because there’s a lot of trouble in the world, many would say we need to represent this in our attitudes and arts. For example, we have angry music, catastrophic news casts, dystopian novels and bizarre entertainment.

There’s lots in this world that’s going wrong. We can’t close our eyes to what’s painful or evil. Some things should make us speak up or try to change things. But if this is all we have, we tend to produce more despair than hope, more anger than action.

The Christian has a reason to be joyful. Jesus has died. Jesus has risen. Jesus is coming again. This is the framework for our thinking. The world has a Saviour. And we are part of what he is doing.

Notice, this joy is not something that happens to us. It’s something we decide. ‘Rejoice in the Lord, and again, I say, rejoice!’ We’re being called to embrace this. Some are waiting for their circumstances to change to give them some joy. God is giving us an opportunity to change our thinking. It could be that this will become the cause of a change in circumstance.

Paul describes himself doing this a little earlier in his letter. Things haven’t worked out well with his work. People are opposing him, competing with him. But he reckons that Jesus is still being made known. This makes him glad. Then he says, ‘And I will rejoice!’ (1:18).

This attitude helps him to think of things that will give joy to others (2:27-28).

We all need to find this source of inward delight. Is this what you have? Is this something you’ve been missing out on? Have circumstances been framing your thinking? What do you have that secures your happiness?

Think again of what you have in Jesus Christ—the forgiveness of sins, a place in God’s favour and purpose, a Father to approach and a goal to share. Set your mind on these things and see if life changes!

Second, our core confidence is that the Lord is near. So, we can be reasonable or gentle towards others.

In practical terms, if we know where we are coming from, we don’t need to get rattled by people with opposing views. If we’re sure of our ground, we don’t need to shout.

This is a big ask—given the frustrating and frightening situations and people we meet. But Paul has a reason: ‘The Lord is near.’ He could mean that Jesus is coming back again to put everything right. Or he could mean Jesus is here now. Both are true.

Jesus has confronted this world’s corruption and rebellion head on. He let the world kill him. And he did it for us. And God raised him from the dead and put him in charge of everything. And now, he is near. The situations we are facing are being managed by him and he has us in the middle of it for some purpose.

People say you have to be strong when confronted by something really difficult. That’s true. But the Christian is saying that someone else strong is near—Jesus Christ. That’s our strength.

Many Christians can tell us about their experience of going through difficulty and finding Jesus Christ more real and powerful than they ever did before. Their difficulty made Jesus Christ more enjoyable—not less. Their thinking changed. And they changed. And things around them started changing.

Third, we need to call on God for what we need—and not let them run on into anxiety.

Think about this. Something is wrong, threatening, damaging or impossible to manage. Isn’t fright and flight an appropriate response?

In lots of situations, putting ourselves out of harm’s way is the best option. But that’s not always possible. And then, there’s lots of reasons why we feel anxiety. We can’t always switch these feelings off with some positive thinking.

It helps a lot if we know there’s something we can do. We can pray.

Now, here’s something very interesting. When we learn to pray rather than give way to panic, God’s peace will be like a wall around us. Notice, he’s not saying we feel peaceful. He’s saying the peace of God is around us.

Our God is the ‘God of peace’ (v. 9). This is who he is. He isn’t flustered, altered or surprised by anything. He has decided how things will work out best and that is the plan he’s working on. It’s this peace—a lot bigger than what will fit in our heads—that will keep our hearts and minds.

God doesn’t make us clever enough to cope. Our thinking needs to be going on inside his thinking. There are some things we just can’t work out. We weren’t meant to. We are meant to pray. And God will keep our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. That is, he won’t explain the complexities of everything. He will keep us trusting his Son.

That’s where we can find help for our mental health.

Fourth, we have a list of good things to focus on.

There are lots of things that are worthy of attention—things that are true, worthy, right, pure, lovely, admirable. The long list of similar words suggests that we won’t be stuck for things to dwell on.

There’s a Bible full of good things to read. But the list suggests people and events we are seeing, hearing, studying or sharing in. There are wonderful examples in people around us who do worthy things. We can seek out their company. Or we can read their stories. We can learn from what they discover and be encouraged

Of course, there’s plenty of things we can’t avoid seeing and hearing that are false, shameful, impure or ugly. We need to grieve over them. We may have to deal with them.

Again, the Bible has many sad and gruesome stories. However, if you read the whole story, you can see that they are told from the perspective of a God who deals with evil and promises good.

These impure, things don’t need to frame our thinking. So, we don’t need to feed on them and let them fester in our heads. We need to hate them and put something better in their place (Jude 22).

We need a mind full of good things if we are going to form proper assessments, make good choices and act well. And we need to seek them out, delight in them and let them shape our decisions.

Elsewhere, Paul tell us that God transforms us by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2). This happens by thinking that starts with what God has done, and looks at everything else from that point of view.

I hope these pointers help us on the way to some good thinking.

1—The real world

If you’re a Christian, you’ll know that life is not just drifting. There are things to know, decisions to make and battles to fight. In the life we have been given, we will need to be strong.

Paul writes about this at the end of his letter to the Ephesians (6:10-18). He has described God bringing us to himself, sending his Son to make it happen, and told us how we are to live. Now, we need to take up the strength he will give us through Jesus Christ.

And he says we will need to stand in an ‘evil day’. There’s a battle on—something particularly difficult and threatening.

When anything goes wrong, our immediate instinct is to blame someone, protect ourselves or attack someone. But if we do this, we are not seeing what’s really going on.

In the real world—as God reveals it to us, our battle is not with people we can see. It’s against ‘powers of this dark world’—headed up by the devil or Satan. And although they are powers of this world, they are operating in ‘the heavenly realms’.

We need to know this space well, because it is where our struggles are happening.

It sounds strange to hear of evil in heavenly places! But it will help if we notice the other things that are happening in this area.

It’s here God blesses us with the full blessing of being in Christ. It’s here we find out we are chosen, called sons and daughters of God, forgiven through Christ’s death, and told many things about the future we will share (1:3-10). It’s the space where we know and relate to him.

Then, it’s the place where Christ is reigning—seated beside God (1:20). In other words, Christ is totally in control of the place where we relate to God. We should be enormously grateful for this.

But there’s more. We have been raised up from our spiritual death to sit with Christ in God’s presence—in ‘heavenly places’ (2:6). It’s the space where we enjoy his friendship.

But then, this space is also where God displays the greatness of his work in us for others to see—the rulers and authorities in heavenly places (3:10). Who are these other creatures inhabiting the space we share with God?

Our passage now makes this clear. They are ‘the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’ (6:12).

So ‘heavenly places’ is not heaven. Satan can’t be there. And we are not in heaven yet. But we are in these heavenly realms and so is Satan. In other words, he and his hordes come to mess with our relationship with God.

It turns out that ‘the heavenlies’ are the arena we are living in now! It’s the way things are. The real battle in life is about relating to God. If you are ignoring ‘the heavenlies’ you’re not dealing with your God, or with your real enemy. You’re not really ready to live.

Having to battle in this space is how things have been from the beginning.

God puts Adam and Eve in his Garden of Eden—the space in which they can relate to him. Everything is wonderful and there is unfettered companionship between God and his creatures. Satan enters this space. He sows doubt about who God is. He suggests to Eve and Adam that they should decide things for themselves.

In very short time, he has moved them over to his side (Genesis 3:1-6). They eat the forbidden fruit and immediately are ashamed. Satan has others with him now who are experiencing God as an enemy rather than as a friend.

Our first ‘parents’ got us all involved in Satan’s plan. That’s the battle that’s going on.

If you think this is just something ‘spiritual’—in the sense of being unreal—think again. The battle is being worked out in a very domestic way.

In Eden, Adam and Eve immediately start blaming others. They don’t deal with the real problem. They start fighting each other. And it goes on. Their oldest boy kills his younger brother.

Notice, they have given opportunity to the devil by not accepting that their enemy is Satan. The blame game goes on amongst us humans and the devil gets free points!

Everyone has this problem. The world tries to deal with its own community angers, but, all too often, it uses anger to try and resolve anger.

If there’s no one to resolve our dispute with God, our social battles become messy and complex. We are surrounded with hostilities and power plays. While we think the problems are merely human, and solvable, we are living in ‘fairy land’!

Paul has already given us some idea of how anger can play into Satan’s hands. He says, ‘be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil’ (4:26-27).

There are some things that ought to make us angry—enough to make us speak up, or act. But anger can take us over. It can move from being right, to being wrong—in a flash! Satan will have us being furious with each other while we don’t even admit he exists—and he’s laughing.

Given this is the battle we are in, Paul will tell us how to be strong in the Lord. We are going to need all of who he is and what he has done. We are going to need to take it up and to put it on. But more of this in the next articles.

2—The Real Breakthrough

How come we need Jesus Christ to be strong and ready to live?

The answer is partly because of the battle that’s going on. We’re living in God’s world, but there’s an undercurrent that says you can stay in charge by assuming people and the environment are all there is.

I’ve shown what can happen when we think we’re only dealing with what we can see. Life can become a cycle of blame shifting and discontent. The anger we see and feel gets out of control.

In fact, our problem is Satan—because he’s messed with us relating to God.

It’s Jesus who makes the real breakthrough.

So, let’s look at how he—in this world—goes about being the one who is strong. We need to know this, and know him, if we are going to trust him with our life.

We may have the impression that Jesus is always being ’nice’ to people, but if you read the story of his life—the four Gospels—it’s clear that he’s not just someone who responds to need. He takes the initiative to make sure we deal with life’s real issues—not just circumstances.

Jesus doesn’t begin with us! His first job is to go to a desert, alone, and there wrestle with Satan—for over a month (Luke 4:1).

In the place where the first man—Adam—gets everything wrong, this second Man gets it right. He knows the real enemy. And he knows that his only defence against Satan’s cunning is what God says. He sends his enemy off unheeded! And he begins his ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:13-14). Notice, he is strong—in his Father God.

He continues by showing he is stronger than the devil (Matthew 12:28-29). He isn’t just healing people. He is pushing back against the inroads of the devil.

When it comes time for Jesus to die, he says, ‘Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out’ (John 12:31). Notice, he’s called Satan this world’s prince. Drifting along with the world isn’t all it seems! There’s unseen powers behind what we are experiencing.

Jesus says his death will throw Satan down—unable to achieve his goals anymore (John 14:30). And as he dies, he says, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).

But now we come to why we can be ‘strong in the Lord’.

God raises Jesus—our Saviour—from death. He does this to demonstrate his great power, not just in Jesus, but for us (1:18-23).

Our collaboration with the enemy, our sharing of his rebellion and God’s judgement on it, have all been worn by a loving Saviour. We have forgiveness through his blood. And God raises him from the dead to show that this rebellion doesn’t have a future!

Satan no longer has us on his team. By trusting Christ, you can be strong and ready to live.

Now, anger with one another doesn’t need to rule us. We will deal with antagonisms, but they won’t be the main game. Rather, we will wrestle against ‘spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’—in the space God has created for us to relate to him. ‘Resist the devil and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7). There lots of ways this happens and Paul is going to show us how to ‘take up’ and ‘put on’ this strength of Jesus Christ.

3—Being true really matters

This series of articles all have to do with being ready to live, and ready to live in the real world. We’ve seen that this arena is not just the one we can see. There are ‘heavenly places’ where we relate to God and know his blessing. It’s a place where Christ reigns. And it’s also a place where Satan works with hateful constancy.

Paul says we need to be strong and stand our ground (Ephesians 6:10-13). And our first line of defence is truth.

An editorial in this morning’s paper claims that lies have become a way of public life in Australia. It says that much of what we hear is carefully crafted (it’s now a major industry), not to inform, but to exert power.

But lies are not the way to win in the real world we are in. We need truth!

Notice that it’s not a truth that originates from us. Paul uses imagery that shows we pick it up and put it on. What is this truth? Paul doesn’t leave us guessing.

Truth is Jesus himself (4:20-21). He’s come to our world and said what is true. But he’s also lived it. His goodness is real. And his love is real. And it has encompassed us, and saved us. Where truth is concerned, we have to start with him.

It would be worthwhile reading one of the Gospels through, and ask if this man Jesus is true. Paul is saying, we’ve heard about him, we’re surrounded by him—heard him speak in a way. In this way, we’ve discovered that the truth is in Jesus.

Our Lord towers over the make-believe, the ideologies, the excuses and straight out lies that make up so much of what we see and hear around us. Many have given up believing there is such a thing as ‘truth’. So, there’s nothing that can tie us together as a community. Nothing that can lift us out of the world we’ve imagined.

Compare this with Jesus. He challenges people to prove him to be false—a bold public claim. And he calls the devil the father of liars (John 8:44-47). He tells Pilate, in court, that he has come into the world to reveal the truth and that everyone who is true will come to him (John 18:37).

In the process, Jesus exposes us all as sinners, but he loves us and brings us to God. That’s not only the truth of Christ. It’s now the truth about us as well (John 3:20-21).

The Lord knows we don’t have the ‘stomach’ for this battle—in this case, the battle to live truly. Prophecies have told us how God clothes himself in righteousness (a breastplate) and salvation (a helmet), and deals with the godlessness himself (Isaiah 59:16-20). He intervenes.

In fact, the Lord comes to us as our King, wearing righteousness as a belt and faithfulness (or truth) around his waist (Isaiah 11:1-5). In other words, God must take up the fight or we are lost. And he sends Jesus to do the job, wearing righteousness and truth.

It’s ‘no secret that this intervention is done by Jesus on his cross (see Isaiah 53:12). It’s here that he goes to war with Satan and disables the apparatus—the lies and the accusations—that Satan uses against us (Colossians 2:15).

So, here’s an end to our self-importance and self-justification. These are the things that stop us speaking the truth to each other. They make us unreal. They lead to conflict or withdrawal from meaningful relationships. But now, our inclination to massage the truth, to make it palatable to our ego, or to further our ambition, is gone.

We can acknowledge we are unworthy sinners whom God has loved and for whom Jesus has died. In the light of this, we can speak the truth to each other (4:15, 25). Because we’ve lost our need to be the one who is right, we can see and speak about things as they are.

We’re free to say we were wrong. We can enjoy what others are doing. We can disagree without ceasing to love. We can investigate something that is new. We are free—in the truth!

Our truth telling doesn’t need to be brutal—exposure for the sake of being factual. It comes from the perspective of Christ being Lord. It’s about what will build up another person, not what will tear them down (Colossians 4:5-6). It’s about what will heal a community, not what will serve a party interest.

It’s important to actually do this! Apart from Christ, our life is a lie, and Satan will use this to his own advantage. But if we receive Christ as our truth, and stand in him, and relate to others by him, Satan is foiled. And wonderfully, a community is born where people live for each other rather than for themselves.

We’re doing something real, in the real world—and something that’s eternal.

4—Being right really matters

All of us want to be ‘right’. It’s how we are made (Ecclesiastes 7:29) and we feel ill at ease if we can’t justify our actions.

But, in the real world, we are actually living before God. So, we need to be right in his eyes—that’s what righteousness means. Without this, we fall into Satan’s hands.

Some have professed to believe in Christ but not been careful how they live, and Satan has brought them low. So, Paul tells us we need to be protected by righteousness (Ephesians 6:14). We need to put it on!

This sounds strange, but, thankfully, he’s already told us what he means earlier in his letter. We’ll just look at three ways in which this happens.

First, we need to know that a Christian is something God makes.

Paul says there’s a new ‘self’ to put on—created by God, and to be ‘like God in true righteousness and holiness’ (4:24). He’s talking about things we need to do, like being truthful and not getting angry, but our new ‘self’ needs a ‘Made by God’ label on it.

We become Christians because of God alone—a work of grace. And he creates us ‘in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (2:8-10).

Being God’s new creation means we’re already reconciled to God and that he doesn’t count our sins against us any more (2 Corinthians 5:17-19). This is not just a book-keeping entry in heaven. It’s a relationship. A Christian is someone moved by God’s love (v. 14). When it comes to being a Christian, this is where we are always beginning.

Every day, we find our righteousness is lacking—sometimes, badly. But Christ’s blood keeps on cleansing us (1 John 1:9). Our task is to keep clean what God makes clean, not tidy up yesterday’s mess!

Now, we need to be what we are—to act consistently with our new identity as God’s creation. If we forget who we are, we’ve got nothing to be!

The righteous acts we do are basically gratefulness for God’s goodness to us. Anything we do outside this would be making something of ourselves, and that’s not righteousness! What impresses God and deters Satan must be made by God (Philippians 2:13).

In another letter, Paul says we have put on our new self—that’s what happens when we become a Christian. And now we are being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator (Colossians 3:10). This is what we must talk about next. But both our beginning and continuing are what God creates.

Second, we need to think in this new way.

Paul calls this being ‘renewed in the spirit of your minds’ (4:23). What God has made is alive and needs to grow. What we’ve received needs to work its way through all of our thinking (Romans 12:1-2).

There’s a lot of talk these days about what is right and wrong. But, in many cases, we are not being asked to think, but to agree. God doesn’t want ‘Yes’ people. He wants us to understand what he says, love what he wants, and think of ways to share in his working.

Our teacher in getting this new mind is Jesus (4:20-21). We can’t afford to trust our feelings or majority opinion. Our understanding of what is right needs to come from him—a gracious Saviour.

But then, he is also the material we learn. He is what is true, and he is what we need to be. It’s his purity, and it’s his kindness that are powerful to help us change.

You could say, we are in his space! He is not just the best teacher but he also the ideal environment for learning. For example, we are to ‘be kind to one another, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you’ (4:32).

Third, we need to change how we live.

A physiotherapist told me once, ‘the body is a cheat’. It finds the way of least effort to do what it needs to—even when it’s damaging itself. The same is true with behaviour. The way we’ve always done things, or what comes naturally, seem preferable to change. But then, no change may mean death! We need to think about what we’re doing.

There are things to ‘put off’. We used to do whatever we felt like—without God, without shame and without limits (4:22). Now we know these things don’t set us free. They deceive and corrupt us. Where Satan is concerned, we’re letting him walk all over us, not standing against him. Sometimes, we just have to say ‘No!’

And there are things to ‘put on’ (4:24), like being self-sufficient and generous (4:28). We need to let the Holy Spirit fill up all our dark spaces with helpful conversation and kindness (4:29-31).

Paul gives us a list of ways in which we can imitate the God who is giving us new life (5:1-18). He tells us to walk carefully, to make good use of time because the days are evil and to understand what the will of the Lord is. All this needs some enthusiasm and persistence. And we’ll need the company of our Christian friends (5:19-21).

If being righteous sounds boring and conservative, or impossible, think again. You’re a human being doing exactly what you were created to do. You’re enjoying the purpose God has in saving you. And God is treating you with great dignity by expecting something from you. It’s the way to be strong, and the only way to be protected from our enemy.

5—Made ready by Christ’s peace

We’re exploring how to live in what God calls the real world. It’s all about whether we will relate to God or not. But there’s opposition to this everywhere.

So now, if we are in this battle, how can an announcement of peace help us? It not only helps but is effective because Christ has won a great victory. He has won the right to announce the peace. And Paul says having this peace and this message gets us ready to fight our real enemy.

The letter of Ephesians tells us how this is so. Here’s three things that are clear.

First, we were far from God. But then, we are brought near to him, by Christ’s blood (2:13-18). An offering has been made for our sins. We have peace with God.

The world assumes God is an enemy to be hated, or a delusion to destroy. But if God reveals himself and tells us he has no more quarrel with us, that our sins are forgiven, our whole being can operate properly. We can think. We can sing. We can love.

It has been noted that atheists often have a personal rather than a logical reason for their belief. Something has happened, or not happened, and they blame God for it. But what if we see that God is not against us but for us? What if we discover we are loved? This is peace with God.

When Jesus rises from the dead, his first words are, ‘Peace be with you’. This was a common greeting at the time, but coming from Jesus, and after what has just happened, it is an announcement of peace between Jesus and his followers. And this means, an announcement of peace with God.

So, Jesus comes announcing peace and declaring good news of happiness (Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15). He does this through the preaching of his gospel.

Second, there’s one way of reconciliation for everyone.

This is important to Paul because he has thought you have to be a Jew to know God. Then, he hears the church announcing peace with God without the trappings of Judaism. Jesus has entered his space and says there is room for people of all nations to live before him in peace.

This makes Paul desperately angry. He begins to fight against the enemy he can see—the church. But then, Jesus speaks to him as a friend. ‘You’re having a hard time Saul. Why are you fighting me?’ Paul has come to God with war in his heart. Jesus comes to Paul with an announcement of peace. (XXX; James 3).

Paul now knows the way to have peace with God. And he knows this is the way of peace for the world—Jews and Gentiles (2:13-14).

Jesus has not only resolved the conflict between us and God. He has resolved the reason for our conflicts with one another. He spells this out in some detail (2:15-22).

Jewish worship had pointed to Christ. But now that Christ has come, its purpose is completed and everyone must embrace the reality—Jesus is our peace with God.

So, Jews and Gentiles can come to God in the same way. The reason for Paul to defend his ‘territory’ is gone. Jews and Gentiles can be in the same family. God himself comes to live with his people.

Christ’s peace has removed the need to defend our cultural space. For Paul, it has been religion. But now, he can relate freely—travelling with Christ into all the places God takes him.

The same principle applies to all the other ‘territories’ we create for ourselves. Paul speaks about it in numbers of his letters. With Christ as our peace, we don’t need to make a warring party out of our social status, or our race or our gender (Romans 10:12; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:28; 5:6; Colossians 3:10-11). If we belong to Christ, we belong together.

Perhaps you can see how urgently we need this peace of Christ—bringing us to God—in the midst of what we call issues today. He puts to rest the seeds of our discontent. He frees us to love without necessarily agreeing, and discuss without being spiteful. We learn this, even if with some difficulty, as we relate to our fellow Christians. But then, this gives us ways to relate to others as we move out into the world.

Third, this announcement of peace is the preparation we all need if we are to engage in the battle ahead.

Paul is astonished that he has been entrusted with such good news for the world. He is ready to go anywhere and do anything that will enable others to know it is true. He is ready to live!

This new way of peace—peace with God—confronts the unseen powers we are fighting against (3:8-10). It names and shames this whole hostility thing and says, ‘You don’t need to be angry!’ That is, not selfishly angry.

If you can’t see the real battle, you have to maintain the rage. And we do! And we are! Even in countries that have no political oppressor, we find one thing after another to fight about.

But what if we can announce Jesus Christ as God’s way of peace! Many will scorn it of course. But then, some will find that the wars they are conducting are not the main game. They will discover that the currents of God’s loving are more powerful and persuasive than all the puff of the world and its Prince.

Paul is telling us to wear this announcement of peace like shoes! We shouldn’t go anywhere without God’s peace in our hearts. We shouldn’t say anything that merely defends our territory. And we should never be ashamed of the blood of Jesus by which this precious peace has been announced to us. This is the peace we have needed. And it is the peace that is needed in the world.

With Jesus, we may say to those who persecute us, ‘It is hard for you to kick against the peace Christ has established!’

6—Faith foils fiery attacks

Trusting God for everything has a special place in being ready to live as a Christian. This is the only item in the Christian’s armour where Paul tells us what it is for—we can snuff out the fires Satan tries to light with a shield of faith (Eph. 6:16).

The shield Paul is referring to is large, made of wood, covered with leather and, if necessary, soaked in water. Arrows intended to start fires would be extinguished on impact. In other words, faith is very effective!

Being a Christian doesn’t remove us from our weaknesses. Satan can stir us up about something we’ve done. He can sow doubts about God’s goodness or make us feel silly about our faith. He can stir up fears about our future. He can lure us with a passion until it’s out of control. He can manage all of these things at the same time! He has lots of strategies and they come with force.

Important things are at risk. Satan likes to dull our minds to God’s presence. More importantly, he wants us to think God is not able or willing to step in and help. He wants us to think we are not important to God.

He wants us to move from trusting God to trusting what is seen. He wants us to join his world that only believes what it can see or describe, what it can measure and control.

We have to admit, trusting something we can’t see doesn’t come naturally. The unbelief of the world has a way of seeping into us. We forget the unseen world God is revealing.

But the big questions in life are: is God powerful? is he good? is he near? and does he love me? Faith says ‘Yes! And, by this, Satan is foiled.

Faith like this is something we do but not something we work up. It’s a proper response to the God who reveals himself. It is created in us by God’s word (Romans 10:17).

So, here’s what Paul tells us about faith in this letter of Ephesians.

First, faith is all about Jesus Christ (1:12-15; cf. 1 Pet. 1:21). He is the reason we believe.

Much of what Jesus does in his ministry on earth is to build up the faith levels of God’s people. Many kind and powerful acts demonstrate that God is alive and well and interested and capable to care for his people (Acts 10:37-43).

Four times Jesus tells his disciples to have faith, or more faith. They’re all worth reading!

Two of them are in life-threatening emergencies—at sea (Matt. 8:23-27; 14:23-32). Another is when the disciples see a miracle Jesus does to indicate the state and fate of Israel (Mark 11:20-25). Another is when Peter is told how badly he will behave (John 13:37—14:1). Imagine being told you are a failure, and then being told to believe in God and in Christ!

Everything God has done to bless us is done through Jesus (1:3-14). If we forget him and focus on ourselves, we lose the sense of our high calling as God’s holy, forgiven and beloved people. All the hard work of coming to God has been done by him.

Christ is called ‘the Beloved’. That’s what the Father calls his Son on two occasions (Mark 1:11; 9:7). And now we are accepted in him. We are loved too.

If we keep looking at him rather than ourselves, Satan can’t get anywhere. He can’t offer redemption when things go wrong. He can’t promise a future that’s worth having. He has nothing to offer! Not anything that’s permanent or satisfying or real! His fiery arrows fizzle.

Second, faith is certainly not about us. Having faith in Jesus Christ is a decision to make and an action to take. But it’s not something we do alone. We’re not saying, ‘Look at me!’ We’re saying, Look at him!’

We’ve had enough of trusting ourselves. It resulted in some nasty behaviour and states of mind. We deserved God’s anger and got mercy. We were dead and came alive to God. We were nobody and now sit with Christ next to God (2:1-10).

This is just the beginning! God has done all this so he can show us the full extent of his kindness in the world to come.

Those who forget this are in trouble. Those who think they deserve this are dreaming. But we who know he is gracious are counting on it.

Third, faith is coming to God, confidently (3:12). Paul tells us not to be discouraged by the difficulties we have to face. We need to go to God and pour our hearts out to him.

We can be bolder coming to God that we can be in coming to anyone else. He’s given us more reason to trust him than any human can do. People around us may make us feel unwelcome or threatened or inferior. But God makes us welcome.

Fourth, faith is very personal (3:14-17).

Can we trust God with our very selves? Faith includes thinking and deciding but, in the end, it’s an affection that submits to the one we have found can be trusted and loved.

Paul asks for the Holy Spirit to inwardly strengthen us. It takes real people to love—not self-made phantoms. What God does to save us, and the reconciliation he offers to all nations—the things Paul has been talking about—leaves us out of our depth. But we need to swim!

Trusting in Jesus Christ has taken us to God himself. And God has come to us—into us.

Keep reading God’s promises, and keep asking to grow in understanding until faith grows warm!

In practical terms, having a shield of faith is having God himself as protection (Genesis 15:1; Psalm 33:20; 91:4). Many have found that God is like a shield—‘a very present help in time of trouble’.

We all need to say what Mary says, ‘May your word to me be fulfilled’ (Luke 1:38). That’s how Jesus comes to be born. And it’s how we live by faith. Satan can’t get near this (1 Peter 5:9). He can’t give anything to someone who is already satisfied!

7—It’s God who saves

A Christian is someone who knows they need God to save them from the trouble they are in.

If there’s no God, we may think our difficulties are visible, discoverable and solvable. But, in fact, we are created to reflect God. Only he can fix what he has made.

Paul says we need to take God’s salvation as a gift and wear it for protection (Ephesians 6:17). Apart from this, we get overwhelmed.

He’s not telling us to become Christians. That’s already happened. He’s saying that we need to live in the victory God has won over our enemies. This includes our own sinfulness, the world that hates God and Satan who supervises it all.

By sending his Son into the world, God has already made the winning move, has the end game all arranged, and has included us in his victory. We need to know this and live in it.

Without this, we become afraid—quickly, and even constantly. We may believe the gospel and try to please God, but have no energy. Satan gains the advantage. He hasn’t taken us over, but he has us contained.

The world is good at being afraid. Opinion writers and governments can stir up anxiety easily because it’s part of living in the world without God (Hebrews 2:14). We are in danger of taking on this sense of being overwhelmed. But we don’t need to.

We need to know what it means to be saved by God, and Paul makes this clear in his letter.

First, our salvation has happened, convincingly.

We used to drift along with the world, basically, being guided by our passions. Without us realising, Satan had us doing his business. More than this, we had to live with dread because we couldn’t change the fact that we are made by God and would have to face his anger one day (2:1-3).

But God has given us life. The message of Jesus, about his life and death and resurrection, came to us as mercy from heaven, relief for our conscience, hope for our future. Simply, we believed (1:13; 2:4-10).

This message was convincing because it didn’t come from us. It came to us, from God. Anything that starts with us is going to be shaky.

And then, we knew we’d been saved to do good things—things God wanted done. A new life was already in progress. We were launched!

Now—Paul speaks to us Christians, ‘Receive this gift—every day! Wear it as protection for your head. Don’t ever think you are on your own. Not ever!

If this is settled, we can put way our fears. We can expect God’s help in everyday things because he’s looked after our most important thing. We will never have to face his anger. We know God as our Father! We have been set up for a useful life. We can love each other because we are no longer anxious about ourselves.

Second, our salvation will happen, comprehensively.

God is always getting us to look forward to what he is going to do. In a coming age, he has more kindness to show us that we can imagine at present (2:7). Elsewhere, Paul calls this ‘helmet’ the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8).

God has included us in his plan to have the entire creation working harmoniously under Christ (1:9-10). And we have been marked for inclusion in this inheritance by the gift of the Holy Spirit (1:13-14).

This Holy Spirit has already enabled us to call Jesus Lord, and to call God our Father. Already, he is producing changes in our lives (Galatians 5:22-25). This helps us to hope for more amazing things to come.

Imagine God looking at his world now—like he did at creation—and calling it good. Everywhere, creation is struggling to be the beautiful place it was intended to be (Romans 8:22-23). Fancy him looking at us—stumbling and suffering—and saying, ‘That’s good enough.’

God would be ashamed of us if we only thought he could do what we are seeing now (Hebrews 11:13-16).

What God has begun in us is not the finished product. We have been saved to participate in the renewed creation. This means us—immortal and perfected. It means our environment—unpolluted and glorious. It means nations bringing their glory into God’s kingdom. There won’t be a place where Jesus isn’t known and reverenced (Isaiah 11:9). Righteousness and joy will be total.

Paul acknowledges that this involves some suffering in the present but he insists it is like the suffering of a woman giving birth. It’s suffering with a joyous outcome (Romans 8:18-21). He also tells us to wake up because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed’ (Romans 13:11).

Third, our salvation is happening, continuously.

This is what Paul has in mind when he says we should wear our salvation confidently (6:17). It’s what we are receiving now.

In addition to being sure we have been saved, and being sure that we will be saved, he wants us to be sure we are being saved (1 Corinthians 15:12).

This does not mean that salvation is gradual. It doesn’t mean the result is in doubt. It just means that what God is doing isn’t complete yet. We need this present time for our faith to toughen up, our character to develop, our hope to grow. We need this time for God’s love to be poured into our hearts (Romans 5:3-5).

Why wait until Christ returns to enjoy what he has done? Take it up now! Live in its certainty and hope. Relish the love that will then be total. Let that perfect future infiltrate every day. Understand that what you are doing now is eternal.

So, receive and wear God’s salvation. Don’t let the pessimism of the world, or its despair, ruin your faith. Jesus tells us, ‘When these [calamities] begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near’ (Luke 21:28).