The Ephesian Epistle heavily places... and we got, we're dealing with a real body. Okay, it's a spiritual body, but it's a real body. He's a head. He's a real head. He's living and ever all the members are alive in Him.
And now we got gifts that are given to that body, which is the church. And we're trans... we're... we're... we're transformed. We're translating the epistle into now. We're getting into application, application of doctrine in our lives as Christians.
Go ahead, brother.
Unity of the Spirit
Ephesians chapter 4, the headline says, "Unity of the Spirit."
"I, therefore, as the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, for there is one body, and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far up above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
And He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working of every part, make the increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God has created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind, one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you."
Brother, you read that excellently, may I say. Thank you. Holy Spirit emphasis on certain words, I appreciate that.
The Application of Kindness
Ephesians chapter 4, that was. And there's the application. Something that sticks out is this kindness thing, to be kind. It's really, you're just disposed to do good. You're in this mode that you want to do good to others and make them happy by granting their requests.
Now, obviously, you know, you don't have to do anything evil to grant their requests, but it's within the truth, within Christ, be kind one to another, tender-hearted.
Kindness goes a long way. Kindness.
And you got application there of the new nature which we have been regenerated to. So putting that on isn't something difficult either. It's not something that is out of bounds for us. It's really as easy as repenting and turning again. If you're a believer and maybe your behavior has been more of the old man that's been crucified... He's dead in trespasses and sins and he's going away anyway soon enough. But we're going to put on the new man, the new nature.
The Body as a Living Reality
And the church, you notice that the body is described as a real body. I mean, He breaks it up between joints and ligaments and He talks about it working together, all the members. So I don't see it as anything that is other than absolutely effectual, effective and working out Christ's ministry on the earth.
So the Lord Jesus Christ isn't here anymore, right? He had a three and a half year ministry, right? So to speak He dies and goes to heaven. Yet He continues on. The body of Christ is here. So Christ's ministry continues on and it's continuing on in such a way as to bring people to Christ and out of the clutches of Satan, out of the death and destruction, and out of the judgment and hell and the lake of fire.
And the chapter just is wonderful and the fact that we do have a real adversary. The devil's brought up a lot in Ephesians. I've heard if you get closer to Jesus, you get closer to the devil. There's some truth in that experientially, I'll say. But we're not to give him a place. And sometimes we give him a place, but he doesn't have any control or dominion over us any longer. He doesn't have any control or dominion over us any longer.
Conformed to the image of Christ, transformed from glory to glory into His image because you're a new creature in Christ.
Gifts and Unity in the Body
Simple Cosmos, do you want to say anything because your mic's open so I'm learning before that...
Yeah oh I'm sorry I guess I forgot to hit mute um yeah that's so powerful I mean the depth there's so many layers and levels of nutrition for our soul to absorb from Ephesians, all of it, but chapter four is just on a whole another level.
I guess if you're asking me what part stands out the most, it's most convicting actually, is that we're supposed to acknowledge and admire the gifts as given differently to different people. You know, we, as humans, tend to live in our own little cage, our little box of mirrors, and we think about ourselves way too much. But every person in this space, and every person in the body of Christ, is given a unique set of gifts by the gift giver. And if we can't appreciate that person, we can at least appreciate the person who gave them the gifts.
It doesn't list all the gifts there, but I think it's rather amazing that it talks about the unity coming together, acknowledging the other person's strengths, being on the same team for the purpose, building each other up, growing, maturing. There's a lot of maturity words in there, may grow up, the fullness of the stature.
There's just... it's... it's... there's a lot in there, but I guess the necessity of unity for the maturity of all believers, you know.
Practical Application for Fellowship
On a practical level, just two things. This is psychology, so it's highly suspect, but somebody said once that the outside world, when they join a new group, be that a company or a church, they need about six and a half real vibrant contacts to feel at home and to make it their place. So a little more than six familiar friendly bonds or contacts and I guess how that applies on a church level is we've got to be proactive to try to go establish those bonds, you know Christ wants us to reach out and connect and find out how we can partner with other people for the furtherance of the gospel.
And the second thing I guess I... is just having practical baby step discipleship materials in place so that there's a little bit of a reasonable decent structure. I'm not saying we should worship structure. I'm saying that, you know, having a little booklet that talks about the divinity of Christ and having another topical study on why the Scripture can be trusted or whatever. Anyway, so I just admire... as far as having a pathway of development for newborn believers to advance, I think having practical discipleship material that's like baby food, baby steps so that anybody on our team can go arm in arm and partner with that person and walk them through some basic scriptural understanding and just get them in the rhythm of spiritual growth, almost like you're spoon feeding a baby.
Yeah, I think that's all I have liberty to say, but thanks for asking, I'll mute myself.
The Living Reality of Discipleship
Thank you brother, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I believe that platforms such as this and many brothers and sisters in this space, through their own spaces, if they're giving the word of God out and they're continuing and they're in it... The Holy Spirit is working in it. Discipleship has happened. And I've seen that. I've seen that just in three or four years of doing this. So, yeah, amen.
And also, yeah, there's materials that are... other materials that are biblical, extra biblical materials like tracts, like chip tracts, and nothing like the fellowship of believers getting together in the Holy Spirit and hearing the Word of God and continuing and abiding the Word and not only keeping it, keeping what He says and applying it. So that's where we are right now.
You can take God, chapter 5, the invitation of God. You know, this is another epistle.
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