Twin City church of Christ Blog
Oct 28, 2024 - Be Filled with the Spirit
Sunday, October 27, 2024Be Filled with the Spirit
Reading: Ephesians 5:15-21
Paul wants Jesus’ disciples to “try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord”(Eph 5:10) and to “not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is”(Eph 5:17). It is clear that these are guidelines for living rather than specific instructions. Similarly, he cautions us to “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil”(Eph 5:15-16). Rather than living by the seat of our pants, responding thoughtlessly to every spiritual and moral dilemma, Paul urges wisdom. We “(make) the best use of the time” because we have a limited amount of time. When we don’t consciously plan to do good with our time, we often wind up doing evil. When we are not wisely considering the opportunities before us, they often pass us by.
Choosing wisdom over foolishness plays out in another arena. “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart”(Eph 5:18-19). In the past, we may have used alcohol to escape our frustrations or let loose our emotions, but Paul tells us to put that away. Instead, we are to “be filled with the Spirit.” It is God, not alcohol, who influences our actions and decisions. It is God, not alcohol, who is our delight. Rather than the despair that prompts drunkenness, God’s Spirit produces a vibrant joy that manifests in singing, gratitude (Eph 5:20), and mutual submission (Eph 5:21).
“Be filled with the Spirit” speaks to our willingness to listen to God’s revelation, develop the Spirit’s fruit, and follow the new path Jesus has revealed to us. Instead of alcohol affecting us, this new way of life pervades our thinking, our emotions, our speech, and ultimately our actions. We daily make the choice to follow the leading of the Spirit because it has brought us freedom and forgiveness.
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One Thing to Think About: How will I make the best use of the time I have today?
One Thing to Pray For: Wisdom
Oct 25, 2024 - Light and Dark
Thursday, October 24, 2024Light and Dark
Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
The Bible often uses light and dark to describe the difference between good and evil. Paul urges Christians not to involve themselves in worldly activities “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord”(Eph 5:8-10). Paul does not just say that Christians once were in darkness, but that we once were darkness and now we are light. We have been shown the goodness, righteousness, and truth that are in Christ and they have become a part of our character. That now needs to play out in our choices as we “try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”
Specifically this has applications to our associations with worldly people. “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light”(Eph 5:11-14). We must distance ourselves from the things we once were a part of—and perhaps also from those who continue to practice them. This is not because we are “too good” for such activities, but because we have learned from Jesus how evil they are and we want to live in a higher, cleaner way. We have become light, which means that we don’t want to be a part of the darkness anymore.
Passages like these challenge us because life is rarely so black-and-white. We must make decisions about our activities, words, friendships, attitudes, and money in which good and evil are not always apparent. Yet freedom in Christ does not mean that all choices are now fine; Paul’s wording here rules that out. Our goal is to “discern what is pleasing to the Lord” and “look carefully then how you walk”(Eph 5:15), continually aware of the danger of stepping out of the light and back into darkness.
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One Thing to Think About: Why is it sometimes hard to tell good from evil?
One Thing to Pray For: Discernment of the will of God in my everyday decisions
Oct 24, 2024 - What Is Proper Among Saints
Wednesday, October 23, 2024What Is Proper Among Saints
Reading: Ephesians 5:3-7
Paul continues to detail the shift that occurs when Jesus begins to transform us. “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints”(Eph 5:3). Our attitudes toward sex must change when we become saints. Sex outside our marriage bond pollutes us and compromises our newly-gained holiness. Likewise “impurity” (things that defile) and “covetousness” (a lust for possessions) must be removed from our lives. Why? Interestingly, Paul comments that a covetous person is an “idolater”(Eph 5:5), implying that we can make a false god out of the things we want. But his thought is even more sweeping: “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”(Eph 5:5). It is not enough to be cleansed from these things by the blood of Jesus; if we return to them, we stand to forfeit the inheritance he has given us.
Paul also sets expectations here for how Christian community should work. Having already said that some things are not “proper among saints,” he goes further: “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving”(Eph 5:4). Because we have experienced sin and its unpleasantness, we no longer want sin to be a part of our speech. It is “out of place.” Christians do not talk in crude or foolish ways to one another. We do not consider sin a laughing matter. Instead, Christian communities are full of “thanksgiving” as we continually remember and discuss all that God has done for us.
God has changed us from sinners to saints. Now we live with respect for what is “proper among saints.” The idea here is not that we simply keep our desires for evil things quiet around our brethren, but that we no longer want what we used to want. The Christian community helps transform us by giving us a place where gratitude and holiness are expected.
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One Thing to Think About: Do I bring impurity, evil ideas, or foolish talk to the community?
One Thing to Pray For: A stronger desire for the pure, good things that God has revealed
Oct 23, 2024 - A Higher Way of Life
Tuesday, October 22, 2024A Higher Way of Life
Reading: Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Paul fleshes out what it means to “put off your old self” and “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”(Eph 4:22, 24). God has expectations for how his people will live once they are redeemed and he has earned our allegiance by saving and forgiving us. This higher way of life will mean that we must put away old, evil behaviors and replace them with new, holy behaviors. “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another”(Eph 4:25). We must stop lying. But God does not want us to merely sit silently so that we do not lie; we replace our old habit with a new insistence on speaking truth at all times. Stark honesty will be an adjustment. We will still grow angry, but we do not let our anger to lead us to sin as we did before (Eph 4:26-27). In place of our old habit of thieving and harming others, we “labor, doing honest work with (our) own hands”(Eph 4:28). Instead of taking from others, we give. Rather than using our speech to tear down and spread corruption, we speak encouraging words that bless those around us (Eph 4:29).
Paul then highlights our reaction when we are wounded by others. “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”(Eph 4:31-32). Each word here (bitterness, wrath, slander, malice) represents a response to harm that God has now deemed inappropriate. It’s who we used to be. But now that we have been forgiven, we forgive each other. Allowing anger to reign in our hearts, poisoning our view of others, is destructive and evil.
With just a few verses, Paul throws down the gauntlet. Each one of these areas holds a deep challenge. Many of these practices have been burned into us as deeply ingrained habits. Some of them are now parts of our personalities: we are crotchety or loose with the truth or swift to anger. Paul does not say this change will be easy. But God has forgiven and changed us by his grace and now renews our minds. These changes are possible and the higher way of life God calls us to, by his power, we can reach.
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One Thing to Think About: In which of these areas do I need the most work?
One Thing to Pray For: Courage to confront my bad habits and power to overcome them
Oct 22, 2024 - We Live Like We Think
Monday, October 21, 2024We Live Like We Think
Reading: Ephesians 4:17-24
Paul grows increasingly practical in this part of the letter, emphasizing that what we believe about Jesus must begin to affect our behavior. “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds”(Eph 4:17). The Gentiles were notorious for low moral standards (see 1 Cor 5:1 and Matt 5:47), so Paul wants these Gentiles to make some changes from their former way of life. But before they can learn to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do,” they must first see the mental world from which such actions spring: “the futility of their minds.”
He goes on: “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity”(Eph 4:18-19). The descriptions here center around the mental world. Pointless, darkened, ignorant, callous thinking leads somewhere. When we give ourselves up to sensuality, it is no surprise when we live sensual lives. When we are “greedy to practice every kind of impurity,” it is no surprise when we end up practicing every kind of impurity. When our thoughts are dark, our lives inevitably become dark. We live like we think. So when Paul teaches Christians to “put off the old self” and “put on the new self,” he stresses that we need “to be renewed in the spirit of (our) minds”(Eph 4:22, 24, 23). Without new patterns of thinking, we will find long-term behavior change impossible. We live like we think.
What we dwell on, desire, and aspire to affects our behavior. We are misguided if we believe that our thoughts don’t matter as long as we don’t act on them. Serious sin emerges from a bubbling inner cauldron of seriously dark thoughts and emotions. The good news is that Jesus provides renewal for our thinking: new thoughts, wholesome and good, producing new emotions and leading to a completely fresh, holy way of life. When we ingest and delight in his words and goals, letting his word dwell in us richly, we can begin to live in higher ways.
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One Thing to Think About: What do I spend most of my time thinking about?
One Thing to Pray For: The renewal of my mind