Fair Warning
I am angry right now.
At the time that I’m writing this, there is a guy roaming Metromovers in Miami, waiting for the doors to close automatically and then beating up people as the train moves. A serial beater. The first time I saw this, he kicked, threw, and punched a lone woman. Just this morning I saw on Rener Gracie‘s Instagram that this perpetrator did it again, apparently the same day he beat up Andrea Puerta. He punched a guy in the face, unprovoked, and then went to work on the second guy on the train.
Neither guy in this more recent attack defended themselves, but more importantly, they didn’t defend one another. Watch the video! The guy who wasn’t being attacked at first walked away from the other guy getting attacked. Then when the second guy was attacked, the first guy rubbed his face and watched! What has happened in our world?!
What does this have to do with Bible study and application that is in front of us today? For me, a lot. But we will get to that in a minute.
Context
Wanting to keep the picture big, I went through Ephesians to remember what Paul says leading up to our current passage. I took Kristi-version notes. Scroll through the photos in order to see how I summarized.
Paul explains the gospel, then goes into what ramifications there should be in the believer’s life. There should be unity of faith (learn/ know/ live true doctrine, Ephesians 4:13), unity in the body of Christ (love one another, Ephesians 4:15-16), and unity with God (stability in who God is, Ephesians 4:22-24). After Paul contrasts and says, “Don’t be like Gentiles (Ephesians 4:17),” he explains in different ways the ultimate goal. Be like God (Ephesians 4:24, 25, 5:1-2).
This progression lands me at “Now, pay attention! (Ephesians 5:14-15)” Which isn’t the actual end of the passage, but I couldn’t eat the entirety in one sitting. Remember? I will start the next section of study with the same verse I’m ending this section (Ephesians 5:15) because I see it as a pivot point for Paul’s teaching about how to walk. From these things are true of all of you to specific groups being addressed.
Next I will take the understanding I have and make a plan to put it into practice. I have two main applications for my own life that I will share with you. One, God has no potential as compared to the reality that I have potential. Two, I will be awake and arise from the stupor of my own humanity, continually adjusting my priorities to align with God’s priorities. But first a wee moment of philosophy.
Being and Becoming
If you have attended to philosophy at all, you’ve thought about the nature of being. Technical term is ontology.
When I use a term like that, my hope isn’t that you will be impressed with my extensive linguistic skills, which I don’t personally have. My hope is that we might both understand what I’m talking about more accurately because I use a word that means something. When I started hearing the word “ontology” eight months ago, I had no clue what it meant. Now when I hear the word, encapsulated within the one word is more definition than could be adequately explained if I described the concept using many words. In the end, I think we will understand each other better if we use the proper term. Besides, if you’ve never heard of the term before, isn’t it fun to learn something new?
When I think about the difference between God and me according to what Paul has written thus far, ontology comes to mind. The nature of God’s being and my nature. Let me explain some of what’s happening in my head.
My understanding of who God is, namely his perfection and his stability of character, leads me to see what I am not. Not only what I’m not, but what I want to be pressing my character into, as much as is my responsibility to press.
God is a “being” while I am a “human becoming.” God has no potential while I have all kinds of potential.
I’ve heard someone smart say something along the line of, “The only thing that is constant is that everything is constantly changing.”
Constant Change in the World
By way of example, take this epic cup of coffee I brewed this morning.
When I finished using the coffee pour over, I had one cup of coffee. Then I added heavy whipping cream (hey, if I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it) and I had a different cup of coffee.
That’s obvious. But, from the moment I captured the cup of coffee in a photo, the next moment it was a different cup as well. There are dust particles in the air that fell in (don’t judge my housekeeping). The temperature of the coffee dropped from that moment till now, changing the flavor a slight bit.
And I’m different. I have a different number of cells working on tasting the coffee. My mood for coffee has changed, changing how I perceive it.
Everything is changing all the time.
I am a Human Becoming
Within this passage, I have clear direction. I will list 5 that I see.
- I have potential to become thankful as opposed to filthy (Ephesians 5:4)
- More stability in my faith is possible through knowledge of God (Ephesians 4:13-14, 5:6)
- I have potential to walk in the light and bear the fruit of the light (Ephesians 5:8-9)
- Opportunities abound to learn what pleases the Lord (Ephesians 5:10)
- I can push back darkness and reject fruit of darkness by not participating and by exposing (Ephesians 5:11-13)
God is a Being
To further my understanding, I will list the opposites. How God has no potential. God is.
- God is pure
- He is constant and immovable
- God is the light
- Everything the Lord does is pleasing to himself
- Where God is, there is no darkness; he eliminates it
Potential Change
Isn’t that a weird concept? God won’t get better. I have something that God doesn’t. Potential.
How will this truth impact my life? What application can be made?
I will not rail against my imperfections. It is man’s nature to be becoming so I need to not be annoyed with myself and my progress. Understanding that all truth meets at the top (God), I will focus on the one who is unchanging and become more like him.
That is a general “I will” statement. For specifics from this passage, I will have a growth mindset with regard to the list above where I am a human becoming.
- In order to combat that which is filthy from my mouth, I will practice speaking thankfulness.
- Growth in knowledge will educate my heart as well as my mind and I will grow in faith.
- Containing him who is light, I will live my life on a lamp stand, as it were. I will not be afraid of the darkness.
- As the definition of what is good, true, and right, I will study what pleases God and be active doing that work.
- My Father in heaven eliminates darkness by his nature so I will imitate him by pushing back darkness through exposure.
Some of those are a bit overlap, but if I have a couple of ways to think of similar concepts, that can’t be a bad thing.
Awake and Arise
Now to the application that came to mind as I watched that Gracie Breakdown of the assailant on the Metromover. There are people in the world who do not want another’s good. For some time now the narrative has been that “people are basically good.” That word “basically” is a problem. Plus there is the definition of “good” that can be Off Base. To say the least. Because Joshua James King thought it was “good” to beat up random people, or he wouldn’t have done it. We do what we believe.
I can’t fix Mr. King. The only hope he has is the same as anyone else’s hope: redemption through faith in Christ. Mr. King is not my focus or my point. Merely an example of what I may encounter in the world as a person walking along minding my own business. In our current culture and political climate, I could be attacked on the street because I’m not wearing a mask. Or because I’m wearing an American flag. It is a reality of our day.
In a way, the violence isn’t my focus or point either. Although, it is the means by which I became acutely aware of what it can look like to be asleep and dead, metaphorically.
Asleep and Dead Metaphorically
Remember that I studied this composite OT quote in Ephesians 5:14? The conclusion I derived from my analysis is “What was lost/dead/defeated/dark will, in the Lord, be redeemed.”
From studying, I can see that there are those who are
- lost
- dead
- defeated
- in darkness
- asleep (though it isn’t written in my final summary, Isaiah 26:19)
This is the state of being that is mankind. It is what Isaiah poetically calls Israel to. Through inspiration of the Spirit, he commands a stirring of a natural state. A new attitude is called upon, one which is counter to their natural state of unawareness. Sleepers to awake and be joyful. The shamed to stand and be well-clothed. Dead to become alive. They are called to counter-intuitive attitudes and postures.
“Normal” Reaction
There is a book, On Combat, Jeremy has been reading and then sharing with me in the evening what he’s learned. Fascinating, let me tell you.
One of the things Jeremy told me about is that it is human nature to see/hear/feel violence and to, by any means, get away from it. This is where tramplings come from when there are shootings, bombings, or some other kind of attack. Most recently, the desire to get away from violence can be witnessed in this video Rener Gracie shared. Human nature drove these two men to go the other direction when confronted with violence.
They didn’t defend themselves. And certainly did not defend or come to aid for anyone else. The only reactions these chaps had was to preserve themselves.
God’s Reaction
If I invert the “normal” reaction, what kind of behavior or nature does that describe? The opposite of only preserving oneself. Who cares if it’s “normal” for people to run from danger? “Normal” is relative and none of us want to buy into anything related to moral relativism. If I invert the reaction of self-preservation, whose nature went toward danger to preserve others?
As a recipient of Paul’s letter, I’m commanded to imitate God. The example given after this imperative? Christ’s love in giving himself up as a sacrifice. And if you consider Jesus’ anticipation of the horrors to come on the eve of Calvary, there was a natural inclination to want to run away from the violence as well. But he didn’t. He was counter-intuitive and laid his life down.
Application in My Life
In the context of Ephesians, what does being awake and arising look like in my life as an imitation of God? I think that if I were on a train with another person who was being attacked, I’m called to go counter-nature. Like in Isaiah, dead could come to life (Isaiah 26:19), those who had been punished could wake up with strength and get dressed up (Isaiah 51:17, 52:1), and they could stand up and make light because Yahweh had shown on them first (Isaiah 60:1). As believers, we’ve been lost/dead/defeated/in the dark and been redeemed. Let what Christ has done be reflected.
Being a sleeper and dead in Ephesians 5:14 are descriptions of those who belong to God, as I see it. Sandwiched between figure out what pleases the Lord and path-pondering, Paul brings the OT commands forward to his day. Kristi, don’t be who you were in the past, be who you are now. Get up, sleepyhead, and shine the light that has been shone on you.
What is my application? When I see injustice? Wake up! Get up! Shine light! Aligning my mind with God’s, in the case of the serial beater in Miami, why would I think that I’m less deserving of an assault than another bystander? Jesus had never done anything wrong and he put himself in my place. His action was to get in the way of violence due to me and take it himself.
I could find other nuances to this application, but right now, I’m focused on the possibility that people going about their daily lives are more likely to be attacked in our day than they were just a few months ago. So I’m camping on the idea of keeping my eyes open and jumping into a place of sacrifice.
Reflection
Again, application is personal. These are not necessarily the applications God has for you, but they are for me. Also, the way the world is right now is strange and new. In a bad way. I’m not clear what the functional application is for sure. What does it really look like? I’m not sure, but like I said, because I’ve been shone upon, I’m intending to get up, shine the light in dark places, and live sacrificially for those under attack.
God help me, please, because now that my anger is less acute, that sounds scary.
Wrap Up
I’ve heard R.C. Sproul say that people ask him (asked him: he’s one of the dead guys now) where he gets all of his illustrations. I’ve listened to him for an extended period of time now, and I’ve noticed that he has certain anecdotes and experiences he will share related to whatever topic he is teaching. His response to the idea that he would look in books for illustrations? Nope. Just life.
Why? Because Sproul saw theology in every realm of life. I don’t know if Sproul is the one who came up with the phraseology that “all truth meets at the top,” but that’s how he saw the world. If something’s true, its source is God. Because God is truth.
Rener’s video angered me. Motivated by that anger, I’m inspired to consider how what I’m learning applies if I were presented with that situation. Since it came to my attention, God has something in it for me to learn.
Our Bible Study Bite then is to look around your world and your experiences. All of them are there for a reason. As we study, let’s look at those experiences through the adjusted lenses of the Word to see what God has for us in them.
As always, thanks for studying with me today! I’d love to hear from you as you are studying. If you found our time together useful, please click the like and subscribe. And please share with another student of the Word, because we all need each other!
