Ephesians paraphrased!

     Recently, I had the pleasure of studying the book of Ephesians with my small group Bible study at Church at the Ridge. One of the exercises I regularly do when studying through a book of the Bible is to paraphrase the section I have just studied as a way of making sure I comprehended what I just read. I take into account all the background information and context when I do this to have a well-rounded understanding. I have done this with a few other books (James & Colossians).

     Please make no mistake, I am not claiming to be a Bible translator or scholar, this is just my own paraphrase that came out of my personal study. However, it has not only proven helpful to me but to a few others I have shared it with. So I am making it available via this blog. I am not looking for critiques or to start doctrinal arguments. If you want to read it, then read it. If you don't then don't. If it's helpful, great. If not, forget it. If you disagree with my interpretation, let me encourage to not waste time arguing with me about it; make your own paraphrase. It's an excellent exercise for deeper comprehension of the text and the flow of them and though throughout. But be assured that if you go to the trouble of writing a lengthy commentary here, I will not bother to read it at all. I will in fact delete it unread. That is not the point here. The point here is to encourage and equip the family of God, not to quibble and quarrel.

So without further ado, follow this link to my Ephesians paraphrase. Grace and peace! -- Jerry

Fearless

--> “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
David had plenty of reason to be afraid. Few men in history have had giants, kings, armies, even entire nations of people trying to kill him. Yet David didn’t let fear control his life. He knew it, felt it, but didn’t surrender to it. How was he able to withstand the daily terror of running for his life?

David’s confidence was in God, specifically expressed in Psalm 27 by three word pictures: light, salvation, and a stronghold. And because God was these three things to him, David had the confidence to say, “Whom shall I fear?” Why these three pictures? What do these three things have to do with David not being afraid of anyone or anything? 

To answer this question, I asked my small group what things they afraid of. Specifically I phrased it this way: “What are some fears that have marked your life to this point?” I had a hunch that their answers would reveal exactly why David trusted God for light, for salvation, and for a stronghold. 

My hunch paid off big time:

• “I fear I will disappoint my family, that I will fail as a father and a husband.”      “I’m afraid that something bad will happen to my kids.”
• “I sometimes wonder if God will really save me, or that I’ve messed up so bad He will abandon me.” 
• “I wonder if today will be the day I die.”
• “I worry… What if something happens to me that I can’t handle?”

As everyone shared, I jotted down generally the fear they expressed: failure, abandonment, security and safety, fear of the unknown. As I looked over the list, my suspicions were confirmed…

 

Next, I asked the group how people typically handled fear. I told them I didn’t want “Sunday school” answers here. We all know how we should handle fear, but how do we usually handle it? Sometimes we react in anger when we feel threatened and lash out. Other times we seek to control our surroundings by insulating and isolating against even the possibility of being hurt.

 

It got deep, I can tell you. We hit some nerves to be sure. The Holy Spirit was uncovering some things that needed to be faced and dealt with at the cross of Christ.

I turned to Psalm 27:1 and read the verse, “The LORD is my light and my salvation… the LORD is the stronghold of my life.” I asked the group, “Why those three things? Of all the ways David has described God to in the Psalms, what is it about these three descriptions that makes David be able to say, ‘I don’t have to fear anything or anyone’?’

 

I told the group my theory: I believed that all the fears we expressed fell into one of three categories – fear of the unknown, fear of harm or danger, and fear of being vulnerable and exposed. These three categories applied across the board: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. My hunch at the beginning was that these three word pictures David used – light, salvation, stronghold – addressed these three categories of fear perfectly.

Light.  
What does light do? It illuminates. It reveals. It exposes. It dispels darkness. When you walk into a dark room, you have no idea what you are walking into until you turn on the light. As soon as the light comes on, you can see what’s there, you can know the truth about your situation. Because God is his Light, David can know what’s really true – about his life, about himself, about God. He doesn’t have to try to figure it out himself, always wondering and second-guessing, “Did I make the right decision? Did I do the right thing?” He can know what’s true and walk in the security of that knowledge: “Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.” (Ps. 27:11)

 

If one of our greatest areas of fear is the unknown, God will be our Light and reveal the truth. We don’t have to fear not knowing anymore! Jesus told His disciples, ““I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life… If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:12, 31-32) Free from what? Fear and the bondage it brings! Look, Christ faced down death and won. If we put our trust in Him, “of whom shall we be afraid?”

 

Salvation. 
What is salvation? The dictionary defines salvation as “a source or means of being saved from harm, ruin, or loss.” In Psalm 27 David describes the things that threaten to harm him – assailing enemies, armies encamped against him, war and violence, false witnesses defaming his character, even being abandoned by his own parents. If anyone needed saving, it was David!

 

But what was David’s reaction to all this? “My heart shall not fear… yet I will be confident.” (Ps. 27:3) David’s confidence was not in his own strategy or skill or ability. David’s confidence was in God. “The LORD is my salvation.”

 

One of the greatest fears we all share is the fear of being destroyed with no one to rescue. We fear death, we dear harm, we fear destruction. And not just physical threats; some have gotten into such an overwhelming financial burden of debt, they fear it will destroy them and their family. Some are held in bondage to addictions to food, drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, money, success, that they are ruining their lives and see no way out. Others are being destroyed from the inside out by their own bodies, racked with sickness, disease, or infirmity. We need a Savior! “The LORD is my salvation.”

 

Now does God always heal in this life? Does God always make our difficult circumstances go away? No. But God offers salvation nonetheless – not always from something, but always through something. We have the sure promise of a Holy God that this life is not all there is. Those who trust in Him will see the Kingdom, where there is no more sorrow, sickness, pain, or suffering. Forever.

 

When the apostle Paul was addressing the suffering of persecuted Christians in the first century church, he encouraged them with this truth:

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:7-9, 16-18)

David expressed it this way, 

“[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living!

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.” (Ps. 27:13-14, Amplified)

The Lord IS our salvation, both in this life and the life to come. Let the world do its worst. In mercy God will deliver us, or in mercy He will sustain us in the midst of our suffering. But the Kingdom is coming. And those who trust Him will be there. “Whom shall I fear?”
 

Stronghold. 
A stronghold is a fortress. High walls and ample defenses. It is stocked with provision and built for protection. Inside it, we are safe from all enemies.

 

Another area of fear we all share is of being exposed and vulnerable. We fear revealing our true selves to anyone because they might reject us, and that rejection is too painful. We all find that out the hard way, don’t we? Our response is to retreat into a fortress of our own making. Like Adam and Eve, we will build it out of whatever is laying around – sticks, leaves, debris. Fragile things these homemade strongholds.

 

The truth is – if you really want to get down to it – is that we don’t know how to build a stronghold; we only now how to build a prison. But we call it a stronghold because it seems to work. It keeps out everything that might hurt us and protects us from being exposed for ho we are. What we don’t realize is that we aren’t keeping anything out, we are just keeping ourselves locked inside.

 

This expresses itself in a number of ways in our lives: 

·      The Poser: a carefully crafted persona that we think everyone will like because we have believed the lie that the true us – the one God made for His glory – is not good enough. We dare not risk rejection of our truest self, so we invent one based on what we think the culture (or our friends or parents or whoever) want us to be. The problem is that it is a lie. Lies take an enormous amount of spiritual, emotional, and mental energy to keep up. Eventually, they collapse under the weight of our own lives and the result is devastation.

·     The Tyrant. This is the person who seeks to control everything and everyone as a means of protecting himself from pain. If he can foresee and prepare himself against every possible eventuality and possibility of hurt, and take the necessary steps to prevent it, then maybe he will not have his worst fears come true. The over-protective parent. The domineering husband. The domineering wife. The manipulative friend. The demanding boss. The workaholic. These are just a few of the self-made strongholds that become prisons of fear.

·      The Loner. It stands to reason that if I never open my life to anyone then no one can hurt me. I can never fail if I never risk. I can never be rejected if I never offer. So he checks out. Life just rolls by and he passively watches from the sidelines, numb to its pleasures as well as its pain. He seeks to preserve his life by never living it. When he gets to the end of it, he realizes what he has done and lunches into eternity in utter despair.

 

David sang,

“For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.” (Ps. 27:5-6)

So how does that work? What is the difference between hiding in a prison we made and a fortress God provides?

 

The best answer I have ever seen is in 1 John 4:16-18)

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

John draws a direct correlation between the love God has for us and our fear. What he is saying is essentially this: “Look, if God knows the truth about you – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and still loves you in spite of all that, what do you care what anyone else thinks about you? If you don’t have to fear the rejection of God at the judgment because of what Christ has done for you , then why would you fear the judgment or rejection of anyone else? Who else matters?”

 

We can live freely, love openly, and offer our true selves with wild abandon, because in Christ we are accepted by the God who knows us best and loves us anyway. His love is the stronghold of our lives where fear is kept out by His perfect love. The key that opens the fortress to us is in the word abide. We don’t use that word much in our culture. A modern translation might be “to move in an live there.” We make it our home. We settle there and stay. How? Glad you asked…

 

Look again at 1 John 4:16: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.” A lot of us have heard that Jesus loves us.  Many even accept intellectually the possibility that that might even be true. But it’s something else altogether to truly believe it. Belief always results in a change of some kind. If we say we believe something, we must either adjust our lives to align with that belief or else admit that we don’t really believe it after all.

 

To believe the love that God has for us – to rest the full weight of our lives on it – is to move into a new neighborhood. We pack our things and leave behind that homemade shack of sticks we have called our fortress, and move into the sprawling freedom of being loved and accepted in Christ. Now make no mistake, there is work to be done. There are things that are going to have to change. That’s why John said that His love must be “perfected” in us, meaning it has to be gradually brought to its maturity, its intended state. That’s a life-long, ongoing process. But it is also an expression of His love because “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Heb. 12:6) His correction means He loves you and has accepted you!

 

So it doesn’t matter what anyone else says or thinks, or how they react to your truest you. If you are in Christ, He will be your defender. The LORD is the stronghold of your life. You are now free to live, to love, and to offer all you were created to offer. Fearlessly.

 

Isn’t that good news? Don’t we all want that kind of life? Can I say with David, “Because the LORD is my light, my salvation, and my stronghold, I don’t have to live in fear anymore!”

Week 11 of the Grand Story... the plot thickens!

“They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” (Deut. 32:21)

One of the very last instructions God gave Moses was to write a song and teach it to the people of Israel. This song was to be a witness against them when – not if, but when – they abandoned Him and went after the false gods of the pagan nations around them. Tucked away in this song is a lyrical couplet that contains an important prophecy, a sneak peek into His future plans to redeem all of humanity out from under the curse of sin and restore them to Himself.

God says, “I am going to stir up in you a desire for me by extending My grace to Gentiles. You will see the beauty of my love and mercy toward them and it will actually make you jealous for that kind of relationship with Me.”

He further unfolds this plan through the prophet Hosea: “And I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they will say, ‘You are my God!’” (Hos. 2:23, NASB) He speaks through Isaiah, “I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name.” (Isa. 65:1) In Romans 11:11, Paul confirms that “salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.” God’s plan all along has been to redeem all of humanity, not just Israel. He chose them to be the people He would reveal Himself to and through so that “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 22:18)

Even now, God is always only ever about one thing: His Kingdom, the comprehensive rule of God over everything and everyone in all places at all times. That is Plan A and there is no Plan B. That is where history is headed and nothing can stop it. Right now God continues to draw men, women, boys, and girls from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people to Himself through Jesus Christ. And the primary way He chooses to extend that invitation is through the changed lives of ordinary, messed-up, broken people like you and me. Bit-by-bit, day-by-day, we are being transformed by His love into the image of His Son that we were originally created to bear.

Scripture records another song, one that we will sing someday – Jews and Gentiles together – when Christ returns: “Worthy are You… for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5: 9-10)

Come quickly, Jesus!

That's a good question...

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9)

What an amazing verse this is! God comes looking for us, knowing full well our rebellion, our faithlessness, our depravity. He doesn't appear in wrath or judgement, but like a tender-hearted Father, he comes looking for his lost children. What a precious and hopeful thought, that even though I hide from Him, He comes looking for me!

Simon Tugwell says, "So long as we imagine that it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart. But it is the other way about; He is looking for us. And so we can afford to recognize that very often we are not looking for God; far from it, we are in full flight from him, in high rebellion against him. And He knows that and has taken it into account. He has followed us into our own darkness; there where we thought finally to escape him, we run straight into his arms. So we do not have to erect a false piety for ourselves, to give us the hope of salvation. Our hope is in his determination to save us, and he will not give in." (Prayer)

You hear the tenderness, the aching heart, in His simple question, "Where are you?" He doesn't ask because He doesn't know. He doesn't need information. He is trying to show us something He already knows but we don't yet realize: that we are far from Him, by our own choosing. He wants us to open our eyes, look around, and answer the question, "Now tell me, what d you see? Where has this gotten you? Do you see where you are?"

And so He pursues. Not to condemn but to rescue. Yes, there are harsh and bitter consequences, but His plan is to reconcile, redeem, ransom, and rescue. And He sets that plan immediately into motion in verse 15, the protoevangelium, the first gospel. He then seals it in blood for the first time of many in verse 21, the first blood sacrifice to cover the sins of man. Every verse of the rest of the Old Testament is a steady march toward the culmination of that plan, ultimately realized in Jesus Christ, the final and only perfect blood sacrifice for our sin. The rest of the New Testament is the story of Himself drawing men, women, boys, and girls from every tribe, tongue, and nation to Himself through Jesus. The story continues today, and we are all -- all believers everywhere -- a vital part of it with an irreplaceable role to play.

And our story still starts with this question: "Where are you?" The answer to that question can change your life forever.