Port Moody Pacific Grace (13 Oct 2024). 2. Vancouver BP (3 Nov 2024). 3. GIBC (21 Feb 2025).
I would like to tap into the wisdom of some of the great teachers of the past who have looked at this great epistle and had some insights. A few weeks’ ago, I recommended Dr Martin Llyod Jones who shared some great wisdom and these are still available to us online.
Today, as an outline for the whole 6 chapters, I want to refer you to Watchman Nee and stand on his shoulders to see what he saw and get a better focus on the same material. In fact, most of what he wrote about was transcribed by missionaries as they heard him preach and they are published as books, that are available to us today.
One of them is his book on Ephesians: He uses 3 metaphors or descriptive postures:
Sit: (1:20 and 2:6), which is the posture of rest.
Walk (4:17, 5:2), which is a posture of activity or how we interphase in life and relationships; and
Stand: (6:11,13 and 14), a reminder that we have to be strong and to be able to withstand attacks.
The point: if we don’t sit, then our walking will be full of difficulty and standing will be impossible as we won’t be able to withstand the opposition. Sitting is a posture of rest and gaining strength. This is a power-packed chap and I’ll ask you to think of someone who is in a state of rest.
He is needs to reckon and come to terms with himself. This is a reflective, meditative pose and he needs to ask himself some hard questions about himself.
One of the most difficult things to do is to be fully honest about oneself.
Our culture wants us to be free of shackles, wants us to be independent and beholden to no one, so the way to do that is to have a guilt- free, elevated self image.
They think that words such as “saved by grace” sound very patronizing. They don’t want to be objects of someone’s grace.
2.1. The Natural Human Condition (2:1): a healthy self-image cannot happen without realizing what our natural condition is like. If we don’t reflect honestly on ourselves then it is living a lie and having a bad foundation because the do-it-yourself mindset does not go deep enough to see what humans are really like.
Scripture tells us to come to terms with our natural condition and then apply God’s prescription before health and restoration follow. We believe in spiritual health but health comes about when there is a realistic recognition of sin.
2:1 Tells us that we were “dead in our trespasses and sins.” No one wants to hear this about themselves but unless we recognize this we will won’t be able to move beyond home base not realizing that our natural state is a fallen state and is one that is misaligned from what God wants us to be and as we progress further along life without correction, the wider the misalignment will be.
What this means is there is nothing we can do about that state naturally. It is so ingrained that it does not occur to anyone to change it and that person will see any teaching about sin as guilt-tripping. Notice the plural: trespasses and sins. They are manifestations of the pre-existing mal-aligned condition, which is sin. Sins naturally follow the original sinful condition, which is a result of the fall. 2.2. Following the Prince (2:2): this tells us that the controlling force out there works on our weaknesses as a magnet draws iron filings. It is an invisible person that does not wear horns and a pitchfork. In fact, he assumes or impersonates an angel of light. There is an attractive quality to this person that our senses are often won over and seduced by. He sometimes quotes and misquotes scripture and unless we are discerning we too will be caught up in the lies and misrepresentations of truth. Remember, how he tried to mislead Jesus with scriptural misquotation.