Here it is:
Choices
Based on Ephesians 4:17 – 5:2
August 12, 2012
We
are used to a life of choices; from day-to-day choices on what to eat and what
to wear, to bigger choices on where to live, and where to work. Some choices are easy, while others are
quite difficult. Often, our
choices affect other people, and other peoples’ choices affect us. In the epistle reading this morning,
the Apostle Paul discusses some choices.
He discusses the two ways in which you can choose to live your life.
On
the one hand, he talks about the way of the unbelieving Gentiles: living in
deceitful desires, speaking falsehood, stealing, corrupt speech, living in
bitterness, clamor, and anger, and slandering others. On the other hand, he talks of the way you have learned
Christ, of putting off the old self and living after the likeness of God:
speaking the truth, reconciling with your brothers and sisters in Christ, doing
honest work so that you can share with those in need, building up others in the
way you speak, and so on.
It
should be noted that Paul addresses this letter to the church in Ephesus; to
baptized Christians. But he goes
through painstaking detail to contrast the way of godlessness with the way of
Christ. Do Christians really need
to hear Paul’s exhortation to not live in darkness? Do Christians really need help in making choices on how to
live?
Forgiven
in baptism, the Christian nevertheless still has the Old Adam adhering to the
flesh, making himself known through passions and desires. Sin comes quite naturally. Secondly, we live in a world that
continually tempts us in every way imaginable. Paul mentions sensuality and greed [v.19], certainly two of
the more widespread enticements of the world. Thirdly, as Peter writes in his first epistle, “your
adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour.” [1 Pt. 5:8] The devil
would love nothing more than to cause you to sin. He exploits your weaknesses and tempts you with the things
of this world that appeal to you most.
He wants to disguise sin as something natural and desirable, so that you
do not see it as sin. Unless you
stay in the Word of God, you see lines between the choices begin to blur, and
wrong doesn’t seem so wrong anymore.
What society dictates as normal and acceptable seems to make sense in
this “progressive” and “advanced” society.
What
does Paul see in the progressive and advanced society of the Ephesians and the
Gentiles of the Roman Empire in general?
Paul doesn’t mention the unprecedented peace and prosperity of the time,
which existed for the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. There is no mention of the great
expansion of the Empire. No
mention of the developments in language, architecture, philosophy, law, or
forms of government.
Paul
only mentions the way the Gentiles walk: “in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their
understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is
in them, due to their hardness of heart.
They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality,
greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” [v.17 – 19] They have become dead to all
feeling. They have given
themselves over to licentiousness, insatiably pursuing every kind of
uncleanness without restraint, never being satisfied. They have become callous and hardened so that they do not
feel the accusations of conscience.
They have become oblivious to their poor choices.
This
is why Paul warns Christians. He
doesn’t want Christians to end up in the hopeless and godless situation of the
unbelievers. He knows the
temptations; he understands the weakness of the Christian. He warns us that unless we offer
resistance, we will fall into sin, and there is even a great danger of losing our faith and
the forgiveness of sins. This
happens when one falls into sin and refuses to be corrected by the Word of
God. Luther writes that in this
case the end will be even worse than the beginning, as they will begin to
despise and persecute the Word of God when corrected by it. “So strong and tough is that old hide
of our sinful flesh.” [Luther in his sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity]
While
Paul warns of the dangers of sin, his main goal is always to point to the
solution. While he writes of what
you should and should not do, the real answer is what Christ has already done
for you.
For
this reason Paul writes of the new self, which replaces the old self, and is
“created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” [v.
24] And this is not your doing. By the washing of your baptism you have
been made a new creation. Paul
writes in Titus, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in
righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration
and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus
Christ our Savior.” [3:5] Paul
also writes in 2 Corinthians, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come.” [5:17]
In Christ, our choice is made for us. He made the choice to recreate us. He gave us the Spirit to live in us and make us His temple
[1 Cor. 3:16]. As Paul writes
earlier in his letter to the Ephesians, God chose us before the foundation of
the world! [1:4] Thus, our
salvation is secure, because it is based on God choosing us. As we sung just before the sermon:
Lord, ‘tis not that I did choose Thee;
That, I know, could never be;
For this heart would still refuse Thee
Had Thy grace not chosen me.
Thou hast from the sin that stained me
Washed and cleansed and set me free
And unto this end ordained me,
That I ever live to Thee. [LSB 573, st. 1]
What
comfort it is to know that we don’t need to depend on our choices for
salvation. Jesus also explains in
the Gospel reading for today, “All that the Father gives me will come to me,
and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” [Jn. 6:37] So God the Father has chosen us, and
has given us to Christ, and our Saviour has promised to never cast us out.
As
we inevitably end up making bad choices, failing to do what we should, and
doing what we should not do, it is forgiveness that keeps us in Christ. He will not cast us out.
Consider
Elijah in the Old Testament reading.
Elijah decided to run for his life and hide in the desert upon hearing
the threat of the evil woman, Queen Jezebel. He decided the wilderness would be the only safe place for
him.
Let’s
have a quick review of what had taken place so that Jezebel threatened
Elijah. Elijah had been given the
power by his word to prevent rain, [1 Ki. 17:1] causing a drought. He had been miraculously fed by ravens
[v. 4 – 6] and by the widow whose flour and oil were never spent. [vv. 14 –
16] When the widow’s son died, he
raised the boy from the dead, [17 – 24] and with all of Israel to witness, he
called fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice on Mount Carmel and then had
the 450 prophets of Baal killed. [1 Ki. 18] He then outruns King Ahab’s chariot from Carmel to Jezreel,
a distance of 24 kilometres. [18:41 – 46]
This is where a messenger brings him the threat from Jezebel, since she
was a worshipper of Baal. And
Elijah gets scared. Despite
everything he had seen God do, including through his own hand, he chooses to
run for his life. [19:3] His human
reason tells him that this is the safest course of action, and thus he chooses
poorly.
God
responds to Elijah’s poor choice in love.
The angel of the Lord gives him food to eat, which strengthens him to
travel for 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Horeb, the mount of God. There, God comes and talks with him in
a low whisper, encouraging him with His Word. God tells him that he is not alone, and gives the weary
Elijah instructions for appointing a successor. God also encourages him by telling him that there are other
faithful believers, and gives hope for the future of Israel. [1 Ki. 19:9 – 18]
When
we make a poor choice, God not only forgives us, but He also strengthens us and
teaches us. As He miraculously fed
Elijah, He also miraculously feeds us in order to strengthen us; He gives us
His very body and blood. He gives
us the bread of life, to strengthen our faith.
So
even though Paul encourages Christians to make God-pleasing choices in their
lives and warns them of the dangers of sin, he knows that the Holy Spirit is
working in them, so that God’s commands are not burdensome. [1 Jn. 5:3] Paul knows that those forgiven by God
are not burdened by the Law. We
are free. We are no longer under
the slavery of sin, we have died to sin and thus have been given a new life and
are alive in Christ Jesus. [Rom. 6:1 – 11] And this new life was not our choice, it was Christ’s choice
to love us and give Himself up for us, “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God.” [Eph. 5:2] It was His choice
to ransom us from our futile ways with His precious blood. [1 Pt. 1:18 – 19 ] And it is His choice to feed us with His body and blood to
strengthen us to life everlasting.
Amen.
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