Ephesians 4:7-16 – Summary: the church’s goal, the dangers, and its growth.

Class Outline:

Thursday January 20, 2022

 

The prize, the upward call, is being like Christ. The reward is a life exceeding, abundantly beyond what could be thought and imagined as well as reward in eternity (JSOC).

 

Man was created in the image of God and in God’s likeness, GEN 1:26. Man was blessed (all blessing comes from God) and he was to fill the earth and rule over it.

 

GEN 1:26-28

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

 

This is repeated when the generations of Adam are given in Gen 5. This second toldot (out of ten in Genesis) reveals clearly that God still has a plan for the human race despite the curse of death.

 

GEN 5:1-5

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. 5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.

 

By repeating themes from the creation account, the writer shows God’s intention for the human race. It begins with the creation and blessing of Adam as the image of God (likeness is used and then image - reversed from chapter 1). The reader should not miss the emphasis on the blessing of the image at creation, nor the intended contrast with the theme of death that suddenly takes over the passage - “and he died” occurs eight times.

The idea here is also that whatever “image” involved was passed on to the son, for Seth was the image of his father. The spiritual capacities that were imparted to Adam and Eve, that endowed them with the ability and responsibility to represent God on earth, were passed on by natural reproduction. Even in a cursed world human beings are in the image of God (as GEN 9:6 reiterates) and may yet serve  Him and enjoy His blessing.

In spite of this marvelous reminder of what God had in mind for His creation, a sudden shift in the mood alerts the reader that something is terribly wrong. Adam died (ROM 5:12). The Christian student will have to correlate the NT’s teachings on life under the curse of death. In the new creation in Christ Jesus, people have the responsibility of conforming to the image of Christ, who is the express image of the Father, in order to represent Him on earth and enjoy His blessings. In Gen 5, seventh from Adam, Enoch is the one exception that gives a ray of hope to all human history, he walked with God and God took him -

 

Fellowship and obedience with the Lord, walking with the Lord, is a step above mere living.

 

The kingdom of God is not yet established on the earth, however, every member of the body of Christ are eternal members of it, and each of them are commanded to live according to the image of the heavenly King and Priest, Jesus Christ. Our church is to look like the kingdom of God spiritually, not physically, which is impossible.

 

The word kingdom is used 18 times in the epistles, referring to divine rule. Some of these passages assert specifically that the kingdom belongs to the future rather than the present age of the church. Paul specifically writes that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1CO 15:50).

 

Unlike the kingdom of God established on earth by Christ at His second coming, the church has no power of rulership over political and social systems. Even if it is admitted that the church can only influence the world in peace and morality, the church still does not rule in the present age. Ideas such as these when they have been implemented have always led to political control of the state by the church, which in every case has led to terrible results and sometimes disaster.

 

The kingdom of God will not come to the earth during the church age, but every member of the church, of the body of Christ, is a member of God’s kingdom to all of whom have been given the spiritual blessings of the kingdom. Through our spiritual lives we each get a look at God’s kingdom, though we would have to say in part because we are not yet perfected in experience, but in position only. No one in the world can see it unless they become a part of the church by personal faith in Christ as their Savior.

 

1CO 13:12-13

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

The church is the called out in the world and not of the world. We are pilgrims and witnesses with peace in our hearts and (hopefully) our churches.

 

Love, joy, and peace in the church demands the growing up of its members in all things unto Christ, the head. It also demands church discipline when needed - not to the world (as if the kingdom of God were on the earth - “He will rule with a rod of iron”) but only in the church.

 

1CO 5:9-13

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler —  not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

 

Each member of the church is judicially in the kingdom of God before its establishment on earth (COL 1:13), and therefore, just like we have been raised up together with Christ and seated together with Him in the heavenlies, judicially, we are to live as those made alive in Christ and with the peace that comes from faith in our position. Our churches do not all look like a precursor to the peace and love and joy of the kingdom to come, but they are to be. Christ told us that He gave us His peace and joy and He commanded us to love as He loves.

 

During this age the wheat and the tares are allowed to grow together and the harvest will not come to the end of the age. When Jesus interprets that parable, He says that the good seed are the sons of the kingdom. Our harvest will not come until the end of the age, but we are judicially sons and daughters of the kingdom, and we are called to live accordingly, in the manner of our calling which is holiness and blamelessness. At the same time the Lord is permitting a parallel development of evil in the world under the leadership of Satan (“sons of the evil one” according to Christ’s interpretation). It is the purpose of God to bring both to harvest, when the good and the bad will be separated, and then to establish His kingdom in power and righteousness.

 

EPH 4:15-16

but speaking the truth [living and being truth] in love, we are to grow up in all aspects [all things] into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint [fully] supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

 

“proper working” - energeia = energy, referring to the power of God in each believer. Every believer supplies as the power of God flows in them.