LIFE OF CONTRAST ROSS SMITH 170519
ALL REFERENCES ARE FROM AMPLIFIED VERSION UNLESS NOTED
A real and true expression of a Christian life is described in Ephesians as
“A LIFE OF CONTRAST”. Much of our understanding in this respect centres on our being different from the activities and behaviour to that of the world (see Ephesians 2:3) and that is a legitimate conclusion. However, there is a greater purpose to be fulfilled than simply “exposing reproving and convicting” those who do not yet know Christ, despite the enormity of that task.
Ephesians 5:11 Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and enterprises of darkness, but instead [let your lives be so in CONTRAST as to] expose and reprove and convict them.
“NO PART” means no participation, and “NO FELLOWSHIP” means no compromise.
God has a purpose, in every single thing that happens, there is no coincidence or chance or fluke, everything is directly and purposefully under God’s control, no matter how we view or perceive it. Job, in reprimanding his wife stated, “Shall we accept [only] good at the hand of God and shall we not accept [also] misfortune and what is of a bad nature?” (Job 2:10 (B)) He also concluded that “God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as TRIVIAL”. (Job 36:5)
Paul recognised his vocation was to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, which he described as, “the unsearchable riches of Christ”. (Romans 11:33) But in so doing, it was for a greater purpose. He was privy to “the mystery of God’s plan” (Ephesians 3:3) This same “mystery” he refers to in Colossians 2:3 where it has lay hidden but now through Christ, the salvation of man is universally available and confirmed in Colossians 1:26 that it was “hidden for generations both from men and angels”. (See Ephesians 2:7 and 10)
Colossians 2:3 In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all THE RICHES OF SPIRITUAL] KNOWLEDGE AND ENLIGHTENMENT are stored up and lie hidden. (That’s the “mystery”)
Part of that “PURPOSE” or that “MYSTERY” God has already alerted us to in (Ephesians 1:10) and it is twofold, a life of contrast to “things on earth AND things in heaven”. The first part is individual, the second part is corporate.
The word “consummate” in verse 10 (Ephesians 3) means “to complete the transaction”, so both aspects of God’s purpose are His plan for us, individually by our salvation, and corporately for the church to show it to principalities and powers, or EARTH TEACHING HEAVEN!
So, the destiny of the Gentiles, or “US”, which once was a mystery hidden from all ages, has now become our responsibility as a church to make known using the wisdom of God (See James 3:17) for the benefit of the sublime intelligences. God’s design or “PURPOSE” was through redemption, to bless both “US AND THEM”.
Ephesians then makes this clear when Paul says, “THE PURPOSE IS”,
Ephesians 3:10 [THE PURPOSE IS] that THROUGH THE CHURCH the complicated, many-sided WISDOM of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the ANGELIC RULERS and AUTHORITIES (PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS) IN THE HEAVENLY SPHERE.
We must be redeemed before we become the church. The first nine verses of Ephesians 3 nominates the process, individually and then in verse 10 nominates the purpose, corporately.
It is “THE CHURCH”, not a denomination, not an organisation not “A” church but “THE” church. It will be identified by its performance of its allocated task and recognised by its function in being “fitly joined together.” Not a mega church as men would like to believe, but “MY CHURCH”.
Jesus when addressing Peter in Matthew 16:18 stated, “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold out against it].” The “gates of hell and powers of the infernal region” are simply or profoundly those principalities and powers that the church is been called to educate.
As a church, we should be reassured in God’s PURPOSE because Paul explained in Romans 8 that it was part of God’s PLAN. Any “purpose” will only succeed if there is a “plan” in place. In Ephesians 1:5 “God PLANNED for us – – In accordance with the PURPOSE of his will”. Notice Paul says, “WE ARE ASSURED” and therefore, despite the disarray we may observe around us God’s plans can never be overturned but we must strive to fulfil His “PURPOSE”, as set out in Ephesians 3:10.
Romans 8:28 We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labour] all things work together and are [FITTING INTO A PLAN] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] DESIGN AND PURPOSE. (The same thrust as Ephesians 1:5)
But before we get to “THE PURPOSE” it may be beneficial to explore the ROUTE, for it is unwise to set out on a journey without first having explored the route and the destination so that we can fulfil “THE PURPOSE”.
In this case, it involves the WISDOM OF GOD and although the KJV uses the words, “MANIFOLD WISDOM”, the Amplified version serves to focus attention on the critical nature and obligation assigned to us as part of His church to use God’s wisdom as the curriculum to display that it is;-
- COMPLICATED
- MANY SIDED
- INFINITE VARIETY
- OF INNUMERABLE ASPECT
We can see from this description that God’s Wisdom is not just enhanced intelligence, but an incalculable and immeasurable resource made available to man for a particular and unique PURPOSE. The wisdom of God differs radically from worldly wisdom, the wisdom which is from above is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” (See I Corinthians 1 and 2) (Hypocrisy is the opposite of integrity.)
Whilst we may mourn the paucity of this resource both individually and corporately, we have little excuse because God’s wisdom is available to those who are ambitious to glorify God. But we also must be prepared for the consequences. How many have taken advantage of the offer in James?
James 1:5 IF ANY OF YOU IS DEFICIENT IN WISDOM, LET HIM ASK of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.
Proverbs 2:6 For THE LORD GIVES SKILLFUL AND GODLY WISDOM; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Understanding is experience or putting into practice)
So, we must conclude that Ephesians 3:10 (P2) expands on and begins to explain what we understand as “A LIFE OF CONTRAST”. We limit the potential because we imagine we are only on the stage before the view of man because that’s what we see in front of us. We are influenced by the opinions of men and shaped by their reaction.
If we look at the descriptions of God’s Wisdom it is “complicated, many-sided WISDOM of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects”and so in mundane terms, it is a “KALEIDOSCOPE”.
I recall as a child I was given one of these “toys”, comprising a small cardboard tube with several mirrors inside, a compartment with shards of broken coloured glass on one end and an eyepiece at the other. Every turn of just one degree produced spectacular images of indescribable beauty and complexity, causing one to pause and wonder at the infinity of patterns. An apt description of God’s Wisdom!!!!
VIEWING A KALEIDOSCOPE
But we may need to understand God’s WISDOM a little better if we are to be endowed with such an enormous responsibility as Ephesians 3:10 nominates, for our task is to evidence the phenomenon to the principalities and powers.
- GOD’S WISDOM IS “COMPLICATED”. Dare I suggest that the “complication” of God’s wisdom is evidenced all around us and confirmed regularly by the scientific community who admit that with all their scientific tools and prognostications, they cannot understand the origin or the extent of the universe. The Bible says Wisdom was present at creation. (Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15). But do we just accept the complications of creation without the recognition, and fall foul of Romans 1:20, inexcusable because of our failure to acknowledge God’s “COMPLICATED WISDOM”. (Psalm 19:1-4, Romans 10:18)
HUBBLE TELESCOPE PICTURE CALLED “HEAVENS GATE”
It is not only in the observance of nature that we see God’s handiwork, not just in the impeccable timing of the sunrise, not just in the industrious character of the ant, not just in the unfathomable chemistry of the blood in our veins, not in the unshackled power of lightning nor the boundaries set on the oceans, but even down to the provision and allocation of every single breath we breathe. GOD’S WISDOM IS COMPLICATED BEYOND COMPREHENSION BUT NOT BEYOND DEMONSTRATION.
Proverbs 8:23 I [WISDOM] was inaugurated and ordained from everlasting, from the beginning, BEFORE EVER THE EARTH EXISTED.
- GOD’S WISDOM IS “MANY SIDED”. Also, defined as, “Multifaceted or manifold”, the term used as in KJV. The Greek, “polypoikilos”, means “much variegated, marked with a great variety of colours of cloth or a painting, multi-dimensional.” (Kaleidoscopic!!)
Man’s concept of wisdom is most often confined to one branch of study. Academic degrees are singular in their qualification but narrow in their application. God’s wisdom is “MANY SIDED”.
This is why we have such difficulty in explaining the Wisdom of God because it cannot be confined to a single definition. God’s Wisdom encompasses all the nuances, the hues and tints, all the reflecting facets that make up any one event or incident, so “MANY SIDES” it is imponderable. It is no wonder the Bible says, “Is anything too hard for God?” (Jeremiah 32:27)
- GOD’S WISDOM IS OF INFINITE VARIETY The apostle Paul when writing to the Romans begins to scratch the surface of the “INFINITE VARIETY” of God’s wisdom declaring in extravagant terms how God’s Wisdom is beyond the capability of a mortal mind to grasp. He expands the principle by not only identifying the vastness, the limitlessness, the enormity of Gods Wisdom but stretches the canvas to include “His ways, His methods, His paths”. The KJV says “and His ways past finding out!”
Romans 11:33 OH, THE DEPTH OF THE RICHES AND WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD! How UNFATHOMABLE (INSCRUTABLE, UNSEARCHABLE) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how UNTRACEABLE (MYSTERIOUS, UNDISCOVERABLE) are HIS WAYS (HIS METHODS, HIS PATHS)!
The apostle’s eloquence in this verse should prompt us to stop and ponder, for he starts off by acknowledging the “unfathomable depth” and proceeds to state it is “inscrutable”. “Inscrutable” means, “incapable of being investigated, analysed or scrutinised”. Is this not an applicable description of the spiritual man in 1 Corinthians 2:15? And if this description in Romans applies to God’s “ways, methods, paths,” why do we have any apprehension about our circumstances?
Psalm 104:24 O Lord, HOW MANY AND VARIED are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures.
- GOD’S WISDOM IS OF INNUMERABLE ASPECTS It is not enough that God’s Wisdom is of “INFINITE VARIETY” but now the apostle expands it to a dimension or magnitude that has no definition. The intention is to make known God’s understanding of the things that matter most and serve to heighten the idea of multiplicity.
Psalm 139:17-18 How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would be MORE IN NUMBER THAN THE SAND. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.
If we think this is “innumerable” we can contemplate the universe of which our galaxy is a small part, called the Milky Way and described by “Infoplease.com” as:- “A large barred spiral comprising an estimated 200 billion stars (some estimates range as high as 400 billion) arrayed in the form of a disk, with a central elliptical bulge (some 12,000 light-years in diameter) of closely packed stars.
MILKY WAY
So, having identified the stimulus promoting God’s PURPOSE, His “WISDOM”, we now need to see the PURPOSE and vehicle God wants to use, nominated as “THE CHURCH”, for the ultimate result, or the “AUDIENCE”.
It is necessary to have an AUDIENCE as they are the observers of the LIFE OF CONTRAST, the target for the “PURPOSE” of the church. If there is no audience there is no need for a contrast. Another name for contrast is “COMPARISON”.
In reality, human beings are not the PRIMARY audience we are intended to live before, but still important as we are to be salt and light to them, despite our preconceptions of accepting responsibility only to our environment. Our choices and lifestyle are lived out before heavenly rulers and authorities, principalities and powers, and it is God’s intention that THEY SEE the “CONTRAST” in the demonstration of God’s “MANIFOLD WISDOM”. (See “Jealous Angels”, a study on 1 Peter 1:12)
Paul tells us that God has determined to make his wisdom known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. It would make sense if Paul said that God wants the church to make known his wisdom to the nations and to all men, and God does want the church to reveal his wisdom to men, but Paul makes it clear that he wants the church to do more than this. God wants the church to make a statement to heavenly rulers and authorities.
No matter how small a platform or voice we may seem to have, God wants to use us to instruct the principalities and powers of this age. That is a high calling and a huge responsibility. Recognizing the magnitude of our calling and our true audience allows us to live free of the pressures and assessments or evaluations and opinions of man. Even when men reject us, and it is promised that they will, we can live free of their intimidation knowing that we live on a stage much bigger than the stage of human opinion.
Psalm 8:4-5 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him? Yet You have made him but a little lower than God [or HEAVENLY BEINGS], and You have crowned him with glory and honour.
Education was once the three “R’s” however I am not sure that it still applies as indicated by result. With our spiritual indication there are four “R’s”, REVIEW, REFINE, REINFORCE, REPLICATE for we are “Professors” to erudite beings, but beings who are not endowed with the gift of God’s grace.
Recognizing the true extent of our influence strengthens us to value that which is small and seems insignificant. Even if something seems insignificant before human beings, God is using it to make a statement before heavenly hosts and that gives even the smallest things in life incredible significance. Job wrote, “God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as trivial”. (Job 36:5)
Our words are not just the revelation of our heart, they are an influence on the world. Matthew 12:36 – 37 says we are accountable for our words.
There are two categories in this heavenly host who are watching us, the good and the bad. To them, we are either a “CONTRAST”, or a “CONTRADICTION”, either what God “PURPOSED” or what we “PREFER”.
And so, mankind can be likened to the crowd outside the stadium, watching on the big screen, whilst the “principalities and powers” have the box seats in the dress circle. It is like as if they have paid to see our testimony, and they barrack for their side, but there is only one winner, as God has purposed according to Ephesians that, – – “HIS CHURCH”, is destined to “make known” Gods “manifold wisdom”, and Ephesians 1:8 says it is, “EVERY KIND OF WISDOM”.
The perverse powers will always attack a believer’s perception of who they are before God because, if they can win that battle, they can make an individual spiritually impotent and ineffective. However, they are neutralised when they come against the body of Christ, “HIS CHURCH”.
However, when an individual breaks through in God to recognize their identity and value and purpose before and to God and begins to live and walk in that identity, it challenges and threatens the powers. So significant is our gift of salvation that it attracts the attention of the angels, they long to understand it. (See study “JEALOUS ANGELS”)
1 Peter 1:12 It was then disclosed to them (The prophets, who prophesied of grace – v10) that the services they were rendering were not meant for themselves and their period of time, but for you. [It is these very] things which have now already been made known (The mystery of Ephesians 3:3) plainly to you by those who preached the good news (the Gospel) to you by the [same] Holy Spirit sent from heaven. INTO THESE THINGS [THE VERY] ANGELS LONG TO LOOK!
So not only do we have to set an example before the angelic host, but we also have to expend ourselves in convincing the demonic host that we are commissioned as tutors that “through the church the complicated, many-sided WISDOM of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere”.
God has purposed the individual to reveal His wisdom to men by the gospel, but Paul makes it clear that He wants the church to do more than this. God wants the church to make a statement to heavenly rulers and authorities by our life.
This is why Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that the church doesn’t actually wrestle with flesh and blood but principalities and powers. We are not ultimately in conflict with other human beings, or shouldn’t be, we are ultimately in conflict with the powers of darkness in heavenly places and in unity with the watching angels. So, we need to have our armour on so the enemy can see whose side we are on.
Ephesians 6:12 For WE ARE NOT WRESTLING WITH FLESH AND BLOOD [contending only with physical opponents], BUT against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
I suggest the Church, which as His body, is not presently making known to them, those nominated above as the principalities and powers, but is negligent in God’s purpose to make known the manifold wisdom of God.
The key word in Ephesians 3:10 is; now, “TO THE INTENT that NOW unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” OUR ROLE is further explained as a responsibility for utilising the gifts he has given EACH ONE so that the CHURCH can fulfil its function.
Ephesians 4:12 HIS INTENTION was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church), (Also Ephesians 1:5)
As part of our responsibility as a church, we are obligated to cultivate our relationship with God so that he can trust us to represent Him in a manner which may be beyond the comprehension of man but surely as an expectancy of the heavenly host. To do so we have to not only receive Wisdom from above, but to describe and display the “manifold wisdom of God” to the principalities and powers. Ephesians goes on to confirm this.
Ephesians 1:17 [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,
God has revealed much to us about our responsibility. Though God is sovereign and has foreordained all our circumstances, we are still accountable and responsible. Humans provide the vehicle through which God will fill the earth with His glory. Strictly speaking, it is only humans who can truly reveal the glory of the LORD.
The mountains, stars and other items of God’s natural creation, beautiful as they are, cannot fully reveal God’s character. A tree cannot show love, a mountain cannot show grace – they all lack the essential characteristic that gives humans the capacity to reveal God’s character – free will.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that have been revealed belong to us, that we may do the words of this Law”
1 Timothy 3:16 And great and important and weighty, we confess, is the hidden truth (the mystic secret) of godliness. He [God] was made visible in human flesh, justified and vindicated in the [Holy] Spirit, was seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, [and] taken up in glory.
Ross Smith 