Bite 56: Observing Ephesians 3:14-21

Renewing Your Mind

Have I mentioned how much I’ve enjoyed listening to the late R.C. Sproul lectures currently available for free at www.ligonier.org? Yesterday, while throwing pots, I binge-listened to the end of the lecture series talking about Augustine and early church apologetics and then moved on to the series dealing with ethics and morality.

Much in the same way that we tend to have a routine for any discipline and don’t think we need any more information, I think we have a tendency to think we already think right. Since I think it, it must be right otherwise I would change what I think, wouldn’t I?

Unless I have no idea that there is another way.

How we think colors how we approach scripture. I choose that word ‘colors’ intentionally. The scripture simply is. It is static. Immutable. What changes is us. Our culture, our circumstances, our experiences. If we choose to continually be ignorant of those filters, we are only going to come to scripture properly by accident. I don’t want that for myself, dear fellow student of the Word, and I don’t want that for you either.

Dr. Sproul pleads in one lecture, “Christian, please think!” Yes. I will try. Will you try with me? It’s going to hurt, addressing wrong ways of thinking. But we can face the pain together, can’t we?

My Bias

Sproul’s lectures, identifying fallacies and biases, continuing to let the scripture show me who I am. These are all ways that I’ve been massaging my brain to identify how I think. Remember those posters I shared from here and here in this article? My bias is reactance. Which they define as “You’d rather do the opposite of what someone is making you do.” Oh, most definitely. Dang it.

What is my go-to for my pattern of thinking? Quotes like these describe what happens in my brain.

“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.” 
― Saint Augustine

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”  
― Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

Ha ha! That marquee is a photo Jeremy took a while back. Makes me giggle.

A Quick Story from my Youth

I can remember way back to 1983 when the presidential campaign season was raging. In Mr. Horner’s 7th grade class at Shuksan Middle School, I debated every other person in my class for my candidate. Including the teacher. I stood against every one of them on every point in the campaign. And I’d do it again. (Hands on my hips, teeth gritted. Even though I can’t remember the particulars.) I had reasons for my arguments (Kierkegaard) but I was also very likely simply reacting (my bias is reactance).

Do have a story that highlights a bias or fallacy you have? I’d love to hear about it below: we can learn from each other.

Since this has been on my mind with all the lectures I’ve heard from Dr. Sproul, I thought we would share the mindfulness. Let’s be aware as we approach this passage.

Observing by Considering the Context

Sandwiched between what is reality in the world for the audience and what Paul desires their direction to be is this prayer for them. Isn’t that neat? He declares what is and then is moved by his emotion under influence of the Spirit to pray for his brothers and sisters. I would like to spend more time with Paul and learn his ways better. When I exhort someone to a change in their direction, how would the situation be different if I followed Paul’s example here in Ephesians 3:14-21 and first prayed for them?

What Came Before

Remember that we composed a summary of the last section? Yep. That is what we will once again use as our “before.”

What Comes After

Having already discussed briefly what comes after, we will write a small highlight to help us remember.

Observing through Lists

When I make lists in the step of observation, I dismiss my thoughts of “oh, I already know that” and go ahead and note the obvious details. Paul noted them repeatedly in all of his epistles; I can note them in all of my lists. Perhaps Paul is reminding himself, certainly he’s reminding his audience, so why wouldn’t I remind myself as well?

The first list I made was observing all I could see about God. Did you notice anything in addition to what I noticed?

Next I will make a list observing what I see about Paul.

Sentence Diagram Amendment

I’ve got it! Remember the other day I was saying that in Ephesians 3:19 I couldn’t quite figure out where the that surpasses knowledge and the that you may be filled should go? In this article you can look at here, I said that I decided to organize it the way I did but that I may change my mind after looking at it some more. I changed my mind.

See? There is no reason to stress about the diagram because as we continue to analyze the text, our focus will get better. In this case, because it was printed out and I could see it in black and white, I could see relationships better. Also, I was making a list about Jesus (which we will look at in a minute) and trying to understand the relationships to see what I could observe about him. Here, I’ll show you what I notice.

To be strengthened
        so that Christ may dwell
        that you may have strength
        that you may be filled

See how that fits together and makes more sense than where I had the that you may be filled before? This is why we work with the text. This is also why we don’t stress about the diagram. We can always amend it–the diagram is not the goal. It is a tool to get to our goal. Tools get messy and sometimes need repair.

Back to Observation through Lists

The next list I observed is one about Jesus. Pretty short list from what I noticed, which is kind of interesting to me since Paul is praying but Jesus doesn’t come up much.

Side note: Hey! Did you notice that funny piece of punctuation up there? It's called an interabang. In good writing, only one piece of punctuation is proper at a time. But what if you want to express both exclamation and question? An interabang is your punctuation of choice. I think grammar is cool so I share with you. Grammar saves lives, you know?

The last list I think we’ll do together is about the recipients.

Observation through Asking Questions

In that list, we observed a lot and there were a lot of questions that arose for me. How about you? I jotted a few down as I was going through that list about the recipients.

That last question in particular was hard for me to articulate. He wanted them to be strengthened with power through the Spirit and then there is the power at work in believers. He’s included. Power so God can do all this work. Along with those other questions, I want to know more about this power business.

Reflection

When I think about thinking, learning from a right-thinker seems like a good plan. Paul was a right-thinker. He was a philosopher, theologian, missionary. Basically, he was an excellent student as he loved people. These footsteps are wise ones to follow, which makes sense because he even said somewhere in the Bible to follow him as he follows Christ.

Paul doesn’t berate his audience about their shakiness but instead asks them not to lose heart. When they are losing heart, he prays for them. After he prays, then he exhorts. This progression is an example of how I can walk alongside a believer who will let me walk with them.

My depth of reflection can’t be too deep since I’ve only scratched the surface of this text. But as an observer, I think a pattern for teaching and encouragement can be sensed right at the outset. I want to be sensitive to what the Spirit has for me in my time of study.

Wrap Up

For our Bible Study Bite today, even though we’ve chatted about it before, lists are beneficial. As a point of observation, the fact that within the 8 verses in front of us, there are numerous listed details about God, Paul, the recipients. But when we list about Jesus: not much is able to be listed.

Paul’s praying. Why isn’t he talking to or about Jesus? By virtue of this tiny list, a question has been formed and therefore some study will result from it. As students of the Word, that is our main objective. Ask questions of the text and then understand what the author meant by the words he wrote. After that, allow truth to marinate our hearts and change us from within.

Because if we walk around thinking that the way to “love one another” is to berate them when they are losing heart, are we following the apostle’s teaching? Teaching that has come through inspiration of God the Spirit? Obviously not.

We will study and verify this hypothesis about how to minister to those who are losing heart for loved ones, but for now this question can roll around in our brains and be a point of caution as we interact with others.