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As Paul
instructs the church at Ephesus, he highlights for them the things for which
they should strive. Ephesians 4:25ff says Speak the truth, be angry, but do
not let your anger smolder and build into resentment, resolve your differences
on the same day, do not steal, earn your money with your own hands so you will
have something to share with the poor, use words that will encourage one
another, be kind, forgive.
It is an
extensive list, isn’t it? Paul was trained as a Pharisee. That meant he knew
the law of the Jewish people backwards and forwards. He knew what was allowed
and what was forbidden. He knew not only what was “black and white,” but he
also knew what was allowed in the gray areas, those expectations that had, or
required, exceptional circumstances. If you were not allowed to work on a holy
day, well, what exactly constituted “work?” If you had animals that needed
care, was that work or not?
In all of
this, Paul could see that this new way that called for forgiveness and grace
could very easily turn into another extensive list of rules, even more
comprehensive than the Jewish people had lived under for centuries. How was that,
Grace? How was that forgiveness? Would all the attempts to follow this Jesus
turn into another system where people were simply trying to balance the scales
between sin and righteousness?
Finally,
Paul gave the Ephesians one simple bit of encouragement. He says, therefore be
imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1 NASB). Paul was boldly telling the new
converts all over the world, that they should act like Jesus did in all things.
Here we see just how differently Christian behavior was from the pagan world. Jesus
was not only a model of behavior, but he was also the power to fulfill the life
that was that showed forth the model.
Craig C.
Krueger
