North End Methodist Church
Jan 18, 2004
Ephesians 4:17-5:2;15-18
What is the essence of Christianity? What is it that makes a person a Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian? Do you remember that phrase “going back to basics”. And as a believer, it is useful sometimes to that, to ask ourselves that. What are the basics? What are the Christian basics? It's a pertinent question on this Sunday in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, when we think, not about those things which divide us, but concentrate our thinking on what unites us. What, at core, does it mean, then, to be a Christian. We are one in Christ.
To begin with, let's look at some popular ideas of what i means to be a Christian. Some people think it's going to church. Others see it as leading a certain kind of life Yet again, it may be centred on self-improvement. especially moral improvement. Maybe the essential of being a Christian, what makes you one is it doing good to our fellow man or woman. Or, maybe serving God- ‘doing something for God’. If you go back to Christian beginnings, to those people with whom Christianity started, you find a different answer.
Think of those words of Paul to Ephesus that we just heard.
You were taught the truth in him (Christ) in accordance with the truth
that is in Jesus.
‘The truth that is in Jesus’, the man who was God-incarnate, the God who invaded his own creation, who became a man, who taught the truth about God and his ways, his desires for men. Jesus: the man who was put to death on a Cross and who prayed, Father, forgive them. Jesus: the man who rose again, who also said “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” And all this, Luke records for us in Acts 1 is about what Jesus ‘began to do‘. So Jesus, therefore, continued to do things, as recorded in Acts, and has gone on doing things since. So, it follows from all this that Christianity is not just about living in this way, or that. It is not ’doing something for God’! No, it's much more radical! It about God, through Jesus Christ, doing things through us!
That is the core of Christainity, and the core of being a Christian! It's the truth in Jesus. And, it's God doing something through us. And, it's that truth in Jesus which is the foundation. Without Jesus there could have been no Christianity. We're gathered here today because of a man who lived in Galilee 2,000 years ago, and because ot that 'truth in Jesus'.
What then was the truth taught in Jesus? For Paul goes on to expand it.
You were taught about your old way of life, your pagan way of life. What, then, was that pagan way of life? Look around today, I would say! Look at the rampant downward slide of society. Look at the way everything sacred is being taken apart. Look at the violence rampant in our cities,and at a sex- and pleasure sated society. No! says Paul. You were taught to get rid of that way of life. You were taught to accept a new way of life. Paul is now homing in on the most basic point, not of what distinguishes a Christian, but of how a person ever comes to be a Christian Paul speaks about a new life. He speaks about a new life created by God and to be made your own, my own. That is the sine qua non. And at root it is God’s gift. That gift is new life, eternal life and it is found only in Christ. It's a new life where our sin, our old life can no longer bring us into condemnation. That is the only basis. That is Christianity! It's new life, a life which is God’s gift through Jesus Christ. It is God, through Jesus Christ, doing things through us.
Paul says:
You have been given a new life by God created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. That is the basis. That is the foundation. You never become a Christian by moral effort- you can waste a whole life trying. Nor can you become a Christian by going to church. You've probably heard this one before: You won't become a car just by going and standing in
the garage. No more will you become a Christian by going to church. You won't become a Christian, either, just by holding certain beliefs. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul says, to those who would have claimed to base their Christianty elsewhere
No one can lay any foundation other than that which is already laid, which is
Jesus Christ.
The question is: What do we build on that foundation? That, really, is what Paul was on about in writing this particular passage. The Corinthians were reverting to their old life-pattern, and thereby living a denial. The trouble was, that living this lie, would, in Paul's words darken (their) understanding They would become hardened in this, too, and be the worse off for it. It was to get this situation right that Paul had to go back to the basics.
So, fundamentally, if I am a Christian I have a new life to live. It's a life, through which Jesus may act, through which he wants to act, and, indeed, wills to act. The living of this way of life does not- even though it is God’s gift follow automatically. We claim to be Christian on Sunday. On Monday we go to the office and steal and tell lies. 'That is not on', says Paul. It is my responsibility. So Paul needed to write Ephesians 4:25-5:2 and the verses which follow. The living of this new life is my responsibility. It requires my co-operation. Verse 23 says that we are to be made new in the attitude of your mind. This is an on-going process. It requires daily deciding. While the surrounding verbs, which have the sense of once-for-all acts in their grammar, here we have ’be made new’, and it's put as a continuous verb. ’Go on being made new’. And for that we’ve just looked at, this is passive: 'go on being made new'- not 'go on making yourself new'. It won't work that way! That way, we just get in God's way!
But! But there must be a moral outworking of our new life in Christ. We are called to reject all that belongs to our old way of life. We don’t just say: “Well, I’m only human”. In verse 17 Paul says:
I insist on it in the Lord that you no longer live as the Gentiles do
Paul knew himself to be personally called, as an 'apostle to the Gentiles', and he uses this authority here. 'I insist on it'- and 'in the Lord' It wasn't something for discussion, nor for personal choice or prefernce. He was writing to Ephesus. Epehseus was a por, and a city full of pagan temples. One can only guess at the moral climate. “Have nothing to do with that way of life Paul is saying. Solomon, the great king of Israel who followed David met his downfall. he began well. The seeds were sown, though, right at the start. In 1 Kings 3 we read:
Solomon showed his love for the Lord....except.
The except opened the door. In verse 27 Paul says: Do not give the devil a foothold.
There are no-go areas for the Christian. We need to know what they are. Or else our loves will be full of ’excepts’
-Do not lie
-Do not nurture anger
-Do not steal No- do something useful and productive
-Watch your talk
-Out with bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander
Paul had said we had to 'put off' the 'old man'; the sort of person we were, the way of life we lead, and that involved certain sorts of behaviour, and this wasn't open for discussion. It's a point which needs ramming home in today's church of relative, liberal values
Then there are things we are to do, to be. Be kind. Be compassionate. Be forgiving. Imitate
God in a life of love. Let's not forget at this point that none of these “do’s” and “don'ts” make us Christian. But, if we have put on the new life in Christ we are to ’not do’ or ’do’. Only then can Jesus-as it says in Acts 1- ’continue to do’.
How? Well in 5:18 Paul says
Do not be drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery, but be filled with
the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit alone can enable, even empower our decision-making. Daily, we are to be made new in our thinking, in our decision making. All our thoughts and decisions are to be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit.
So: daily we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Or else our Christianity can so easily become something we do . Something we do on Sundays and then, so easily, something we pack away for another week.
The Holy Spirit not an add-on extra. Not just for ’keen’ Christians. In verses 15-17 of chapter 5, Paul, continuing the outworking of the new life had been saying:
-be careful how you live
-make the most of very opportunity
-understand the Lord’s will
So: back to basics. To the truth in Jesus, the man, who after his baptism and temptation returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14)
We must never let go or forget the truth in Jesus. We do need, regularly, often to remind ourselves of Christian basics. We need to remember that fact od that new life, eternal life, where our sin, our old life cannot bring us into condemnation. We remember that this life is God’s gift through Jesus Christ. God, through Jesus Christ, doing things through us. How can I even begin, except in the power and the fullness of the Holy Spirit?
Don’t be drunk with wine. Don’t go back to your old life of worldly ways, and to worldly pleasures. Be filled with the Spirit. That is the essence of Christianity. That is what it means to be a Christian.
Be filled- a continuous command: Be filled with the Spirit.