Last night Jeremy and I went to our weekly class of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. As part of our pattern of life, it has both been informative in the arena of self defense and it’s been therapeutic. With all the tumult of late in our lives especially with regard to our children, going to a class like that ensures the only topic rattling around in our heads is BJJ.
Jeremy has been such a help with learning how to think in the world of BJJ. My natural flow of thinking does not typically include a scenario like, “You’re on the ground and your assailant has all of his weight on your chest. What do you do?”
Whimper and ask him to get off, please?
Freak out with a flurry of panicky activity?
Or have a progression of technique that allows me to calmly and methodically move in such a way to keep myself from further harm and might also allow me to disable my opponent and get away?
Exciting news for me. All the physical drills and practice and the mental review my beloved spent time helping me learn has resulted in me actually knowing some method. Wrestling with a partner in class last night, Professor Matt noticed that I had a some tools in my BJJ tool bag and was able to submit my partner a few times. I now have a stripe on my little white belt! Yay me!
All of that to say, a little practice, a little effort, and I was able to practice a discipline.
Bible study isn’t about getting recognition by way of a stripe on a belt. Or a grade in a class. However, when circumstance punches you in the face and you’re on the ground grappling for your life, do you have theology tools that will help you keep from more harm? Or from being submitted?
I know it costs something. Rolling around–literally doing rolls–makes me dizzy to the point I think I’m going to throw up. But if we don’t labor and learn and let our bodies and our minds know who is boss, will we be ready for battle?
Thank you for learning and growing with me. It’s better with two.
Keeping it in Context
With our structural diagram in hand, let’s begin by observing what comes before and what comes after our passage.
Do you remember that we composed a summary for the previous passage? That is what I typically use to keep what came before in mind. The summary was, “Paul heard testimony and he prayed, giving thanks and asking the recipients might know how God moves in the past, present, and future for their good.”
In order to have a clue about what comes after the passage, I skim over the verses that follow. What I see is another attempt by Paul to paint a word picture for the audience that accurately portrays their condition before God moved to save them and their position after.
In case you can’t read what I’ve got written there it says, “After: Gentiles were at one time separated from ✝︎ and had no hope.”
Having some idea of what comes before and what comes after will help to keep us grounded in the entire letter.
Lists
The first group I identify in this passage is you. The audience. I then proceeded to list everything Paul said about them in the passage. Listing down the side of my worksheet, I ran out of room. There is a boatload of information about the condition of the audience. Let’s write it out here.
Recipients
- v1 they were dead
- v2 they walked in sin
- v2 they followed world
- v2 they followed a prince
- v2 they followed a spirit
- v3 they lived among sons of disobedience
- v3 they lived in fleshly passion
- v3 they carried out own desires
- v3 they were children of wrath
- v3 they were the same as rest of mankind
- v4-5 they were loved by God while dead
- v5 they were made alive together
- v5 they were made alive with Christ
- v5 they were made alive by grace
- v6 they were raised up
- v6 they were raised with Jesus
- v6 they were seated with Jesus
- v6 they were seated in the heavenly places
- v6 they were seated in Christ
- v7 they had riches of grace shown them
- v7 they had riches in kindness shown them
- v8 they were saved by grace
- v8 they were saved through faith
- v9-10 works didn’t save them
- v9 they received gift from God
- v9 they can’t boast
- v10 they were created in Christ
- v10 works planned for them
See? That is a lot of information. And do you see how the sentence diagram lends itself to making such a list? Lining up the parts of the sentences allows us to be able to have the lists practically write themselves.
The next list I can see to make is about God.
God
- v4 is rich in mercy
- v4 has great love for them
- v5 loves dead people
- v5 loves sinful people
- v5 made them alive
- v6 raised them
- v6 seated them
- v7 wants to show riches of his grace
- v7 wants to show kindness
- v8 gives gift of salvation
- v10 worked on them
- v10 created us in Christ
- v10 planned their path
Even though I’ve said it before, I believe it’s worth repeating. We’ve made this list of truth gathered directly from the passage, what do you do with it?
Dwell in it. Let the reality of who God revealed himself to be resonant in your soul. We aren’t interpreting yet, but simply observing the straightforward facts of who God is. I encourage you to identify the pitfall we all have of allowing others or our culture define who God is. We all start out our spiritual journey being educated by something other than the word, and as we study scripture over the course of our adventure as students of the word, different facets of our God will come into the light. Over time, we will mature towards knowing the God of the Bible. Right now, we can throw our arms wide, faces lifted toward heaven, and bask in these truths that we listed. Good study causes good worship.
The last list we will make together will be about Jesus.
Jesus
- v5 they are alive with him
- v6 they are raised with him
- v6 they are seated with him
- v6 they are in heavenly places with him
- v6 they are in heavenly places in him
- v7 through him God shows riches of grace
- v7 through him God shows kindness
- v10 work on them done in him
This is a list that causes an eyebrow to raise. What does all of that mean? Perfect segway to the next topic.
Do You Have Questions?
Because I sure do. If I leave my backpack of preconceived ideas at the door, there are definitely some words and phrases I do not understand. Identifying those questions are a part of the process of observation. Here is how I handle my questions:
I write them down. I label them as “I don’t know this” and have a plan to investigate further. In case you can’t see it, I’ll write the list again.
I Have Questions
- prince of the power of the air
- sons of disobedience
- children of wrath
- mercy/grace
- alive/raised/seated
- salvation/workmanship/works
Ooh! I’m excited about the robust study that we are about to launch into. I will continue to effort at making each Bite fit in our mouths without drooling or crumbs falling out. Sometimes it is fun to cram too much in at once though…
Wrap Up
Our Bible Study Bite for today is like the effort I’m making to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Methodical process. Step-by-step review. Practice. Occasionally feeling overwhelmed with all that is needed to learn in order to remind the body and the mind who is in charge of it. It’s hard, I know. But the journey is nicer with two. We will learn and grow and develop technique together.
