Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, part 41: Inner man; the good heart.

Wednesday May 27, 2020

 

The words of the Lord must never grow old, never grow empty, and never lose their power to move me.

 

LUK 6:35-38

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. 36 "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 "And do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. 38 "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

 

Then we are told not to judge or condemn others, which is the other side of the coin when we greet, love, do good, and lend to others.

 

And so, “Give!” He tersely states in present active imperative. But what will be given to me? The experience of the life of Christ. Everyone has some level of fear in doing this. And that takes us back to our initial point. Give all to God and you will possess it all by humbly doing God’s will with all of it.

 

To the measure you give, to that measure you will possess. “For the measure you measure it shall be measured again to you.” (literal)

 

“Measure” is stamped on your mind when He says it three times as subject, verb, and object. Do you think of measure, meaning how much you give? I could be like the “sinner” who lends knowing he will receive it back. I could say to myself, “I gave some of my time or money or energy or life.” Christ said that’s what you will receive. I gave a stingy something and you get a stingy something. Your heart will only be transformed into a stingy something. So again, we see that what we give to God is all that we truly own. It will be measured to me in return. If I give Him everything then my whole heart will be transformed now in this life. That is the great reward.

 

“Man finds it hard to get what he wants because he does not want the best. God finds it hard to give because He would give the best, and man will not take it.” [George MacDonald, Your Life in Christ]

 

And the reward, the life lived, will be greater than what we initially gave to God. We gave Him our lives and He gives to us a more abundant life,

 

“Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap.”

 

When we come to know something of Yavah Elohim, this all makes sense, though in the world it is viewed as the greatest foolishness.

 

The Son of God then tells us that the self-life is blind and ends up in the pit.

 

“The blind end up in a pit.” Earthy life ends up buried in the earth.

 

Our eyes are pointed towards heaven. Fixing our eyes on the Author and Perfecter of faith; constantly reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ.

 

He then tells us that we cannot judge anything until the log in our eye is removed.

 

In context the log is the personal desire of the self-life. The earthy life in our hearts must be removed and then we’ll see clearly.

 

We are told to pick our cross and follow Him. On any journey a person must leave something behind. Abraham left Ur behind. Moses left Egypt behind. Paul left Phariseeism behind. To follow Christ, we must leave self behind, and then He promises that we will find our real selves.

 

Then He tells us that only the good tree produces good fruit. We must be men and women of a certain type, one’s whose hearts are just like Christ’s. Like Him, we must be sons and daughters.

 

Our obedience can either be of a slave or a son. We can obey out of duty or out of love of duty. Obeying out of duty will make you a good slave; out to love of duty will make you a son. You are sons and daughters possessing the Father’s family name. Seeing this, realizing this, living this is the greatest reward.  

 

LUK 6:35

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High

 

True meaning of life can only come from being as close the Creator as possible. You must be like Him to see it, and this is what Jesus said would make His joy abide in us. If we are sons, knowing by faith what that it and what it means, we will fight the good fight to leave slavery behind, and by that I mean duty for the sake of it, grudgingly, and moving on to sonship, and by that I mean a love of duty. If we saw ourselves as sons and daughters, loved by the Father, in a Father son relationship with Him as the Jesus the Son of God, in His bosom, beloved as His child in His lap, then we wouldn’t complain of any hardships or miseries or troubles of life; no longer grumble at aches and pains, pinching poverty or hunger; no longer indignant at rejection by society; we would see everything as from our loving Father.

 

Only God can draw us close to Himself, only He knows how, and He has shown it in His word. If we obey it, even with a slave mentality, we will be drawn closer, and if persistent, we will come to see that we are sons.

 

All must be on Him. He is all and in all. All will be judged by Him and gathered to Him in the end.

 

Many modern secular theories about Jesus is that He was a fine moral man of His time. They submit that His theories on life fit the time and the place and religion of the time, but that is a false statement that is swallowed by the passerby who doesn’t care to know anything about the Lord. Jesus was the bread of life from heaven.

 

If anyone soberly reads His words, they find nothing of the place, or the time, or the then religion of the Jews.

 

The end of His life is proof of that. What place or time were these laws the norm, or even the desire for norm, in any society? They are not found anywhere. Even the Mosaic Law, which Law came from Him, from heaven, is but a preamble of them.

 

Jesus turned everything upside-down. Everything in His kingdom is precisely inverted from man’s order and expectation: the last are first, the first are last, servants rule, God the infinite becomes a child, to possess more give everything away, ridicule is cause to give thanks.

 

To the eyes of mankind, individuality and independence are the greatest possible possessions besides wealth. To have self-expression, more independence from any and all others, and to be admired are all the traits of an expanded life according to the world system. It is marketed as ultimate freedom, but it is isolation and sin in separation from God.

 

Jesus showed us that we had it all backwards. You were not given your life to grow it into a prideful and autonomous entity of its own. In truth, your life is not your own. You were given it so that you could lay it on God’s altar, and when you do, God promises that it will then be truly yours, which again is upside-down from the world.

 

But mind, we are not to torture the self. That is asceticism, which is ineffective against lust. We are to deny it; abandon it utterly.

 

COL 2:20-23

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) —  in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

 

His words are like what might be the mysterious utterance of a being beyond man, from another world, walking alive among men.

 

LUK 6:39-42

And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 "A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher [Christ and the Holy Spirit]. 41 "And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.