Identity
Who are you? How do you introduce yourself? What do you want people to know about you? What is your identity? Our society has been talking a lot about identities in recent years. Do you wish you could be something other than what and who you are? As we start into Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, we’ll look at a couple of identities. Wouldn’t you love to be one or both of them? You can be, and it wouldn’t be weird or wrong. From Ephesians 1:1.
A Curious Letter
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, (Ephesians 1:1a, NIV84)
Paul briefly introduces himself as the author of this letter. As usual, he identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ, an apostle—a sent one—specifically. He doesn’t go into any detail here, but will in the third chapter.
It’s the way he shares those details in chapter 3 that makes it seem like Paul doesn’t know these Ephesians or they don’t know him. Which is odd, since he spent at least two years with them. Has so much time passed since he saw them last?
It is possible that big city churches—and Ephesus would count as a big city—had a more transient membership than we might think. Or that it had grown significantly while he’d been away. According to what we have recorded in Scripture, the last time he was in Ephesus, he was about to return to Jerusalem to be arrested, imprisoned in Caesarea for two years, then transferred to Rome for at least another two years’ imprisonment. That’s quite a while to be away, but not really that long, right? Things don’t change that much in four years!
Ephesians is one of Paul’s prison epistles, along with Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. If it was written about the same time as those other letters, then according to Paul’s own words to Philemon, he was now “an old man” (Philemon 1:9). It’s possible that even more than a few years had passed since he’d been to Ephesus. The leaders he personally trained may have passed the baton to a new team they had trained. Or many of those he knew may have gone on to other parts, carrying the Gospel to new regions, after the pattern of the one who discipled them. By the writing of this letter, the Ephesian church could have been an unfamiliar church to Paul, though they surely would have heard of him, as a big name in Christian circles or as their founding Apostle.
Not His Own
In Paul’s introduction, he mentions that he is an apostle “by the will of God.” He did not choose this role or responsibility. It was chosen for him. At Christ’s appearance to him and his conversion at Damascus, he was told that Jesus had appointed him to be a witness of Christ and all He would show him, in particular to the Gentiles (Acts 26:15-18). God’s sovereign control and authority over all things, even our lives, and the glory and honor due Him because of it, is a key theme of this chapter.
Paul’s life was not his own; neither are ours. Paul’s destiny wasn’t of his own determination; neither are ours. We must understand who we serve, who we are and our obligation to the Lord of all Creation. We may not all be appointed apostles of Christ and sent out to far away places, but we are all appointed witnesses and we are all called to obey all Christ commanded His apostles. Remember that from Matthew 28:19-20?
Apostles Needed
I also want to remind you that “apostle” in its most basic sense simply means “sent one,” and any believer who goes out from his home and people to carry the Gospel to places where it has not been or is yet lacking, it is right to consider them “apostles.” We normally call them “missionaries,” as if afraid of accidentally confusing them for one of the real Apostles! But they are worthy of greater honor than we usually assign them. Notice, we even refer to Paul’s ministry travels as “missionary journeys.” Going to the nations to proclaim the Gospel and establish churches is one aspect of an apostle’s work that can and should be done by any number of faithful and determined believers in Jesus Christ. And the price they pay, as well as the benefit they reap from Christ for their extraordinary sacrifice should grant them privilege and honor over those, even pastors and professors, who’ve never left everything to bring the Gospel to strange places.
The call to store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth goes all the way back to Matthew chapter 6. We who believe in Jesus are not to love the world or live to gather the things of the world, even things as basic as what we’re to eat or drink or wear. Instead, Jesus called those who listened to Him to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33, NIV84). The promise that “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30) was not given just to the Twelve, but to everyone who hung around Jesus. And to any of us today who believe and act on it.
It seems reasonable to assume that not everyone in that day gave these things up to the same degree, but every one of us is called to disengage our hearts, our identities, our lives from all these things and to hitch our heart, identity and life to Jesus Christ. However, to the degree that one of us not only gives these things up from the heart, but also in action, to that same degree he will grow in his understanding and experience of God and Christ.
Jesus has a strange promise in John 14:21: “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” Doesn’t Jesus love everyone? Doesn’t He want everyone to know Him? Doesn’t He want to reveal Himself to everyone? Yes, of course! But the reality is that the degree He reveals Himself to someone is directly related to the degree that person takes hold of and obeys Jesus’ commands. The more you learn about Jesus and obey Him, the more He shows Himself to you. Which means knowing Jesus is not really a function of what Bible school you went to or how many years you’ve spent studying the Bible; knowing Jesus actually depends on how much you obey what you’ve read and heard and learned.
If you’re willing to actually sell all you have and give to the poor, then go and follow Jesus clear across the globe to tell people about Him, you can be sure that He’s going to show you more of Himself than if you kept your stuff and stayed home and served Him.
That’s not to say that you can know Him without giving up everything and crossing an ocean to share the Gospel. You can know Him as much as you obey Him. You can know Him more than you do today by accepting more of His commands and obeying them. And you can know Him even more by going all out and giving up everything to take the Gospel to unknown lands. To the degree that you love Him, you will obey Him; to the degree that you obey Him, He will show Himself to you.
So not all believers—not all church leaders—know Jesus to the same degree. That’s why there’s so much debate even among highly educated Christian leaders. As Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 8:1 (NIV84), “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Knowing God was never about knowledge itself, but about love, about “faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6, NIV84). Exalting knowledge by and large leads to arrogance, but acting in obedience to knowledge of God’s Word is faith expressed through love and drives you to humility.
The Law of God required that each king of Israel make himself a copy of the Law and read it daily so that he would learn to fear the Lord, carefully follow all God’s commands and be protected against considering himself better than his people (Deuteronomy 17:19-20). Obedience to God’s Word guards you and me against pride.
The more of Jesus’ commands we obey, the more we will know Him, because the more He will show Himself to us.
To be sure, there is a huge difference between a capital-A Apostle like Paul or the Twelve (with Judas replaced by Matthias) and a little-A apostle—what we commonly call “missionaries.” A capital-A Apostle is one who has seen the Lord face-to-face, spoken directly with Him, been trained personally by Him, and is directed to record the Word of God as heard from the Lord. That’s Paul. Little-A apostles are still apostles in the sense of those sent out by God and/or by the church to bring the established Word of God to far-away people who lack it. They don’t write new Scripture or receive revelation that should then be counted as additions to the Bible, but they do carry it to new or needy places.
Based on passages like John 14, they are just as likely or perhaps more likely to have a better understanding of who Jesus is. They will not have seen Jesus and heard from Him like the capital-A Apostles, but they will have had more of Jesus revealed to them than those who stayed home. The church needs them, not just to go where the rest of the congregation is unwilling or unable to go, but to bring back to them the things they’ve learned about Jesus, and to show by their own lives the real sacrifices every believer is called to make.
Folks, it is often said that the need in America is just as great as in foreign countries. We should be ashamed to say such a thing! To be sure, there is still work to be done here—and that should embarrass the Church of Jesus Christ in America! There are people growing up in American who haven’t heard the Gospel, and they’re not new immigrants. And yes, there are also new immigrants who have never heard of Jesus. But there are so many self-proclaimed Christians in this nation, that it should be impossible for someone in American not to know the truth about Jesus. Instead, we’re losing ground. No, we’re giving ground! We’re giving ourselves more and more to gaining the treasures of this world than the treasures of the next. We’re losing the next generation to ever greater worldliness and materialism. The American Church needs missionaries, not to re-evangelize our nation, but to rebuke us and remind us what we’re supposed to be living for—the advancement of the Kingdom of God! Not the growth of our own little fiefdom.
I believe this to be true: If every believer in America, truly began to put Jesus and His Kingdom first, then did what they were supposed to do—without having to leave home or family or houses or lands—we could evangelize this nation from coast to coast in a month. But it has been said, “No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once” (Oswald J. Smith, Canadian pastor and missions advocate), and I would agree with that sentiment. The rest of the world is in far dire spiritual straits than is America.
As an apostle, it was not Paul’s goal to start a church and remain there long term. His goal was to establish a church and leave it in the hands of spiritually qualified and reliable men, the kind of men we learned about in his letter to Titus. That’s what makes an apostle different from a pastor or teacher. He’s always looking to the next place that needs Jesus, even when the first place has not been fully evangelized. Completing that task falls to the newly established church.
We’ll revisit this in chapter 4.
In Ephesus
To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 1:1b, NIV84)
Some of the earliest manuscripts do not have “in Ephesus” here. It’s another possible clue that this letter was not originally sent to the Ephesians or only to the Ephesians. It could have been written for a wider context and delivered to many places. That would explain why there are no personal greetings, because it was not meant for any one church. It was a general letter in more ways than one, meant for a wide audience and covering all the basics of Christian faith and life.
Saints
“Saints.” Here’s another term that gets so easily elevated beyond God’s original intent. Biblically speaking, a “saint” is simply one who is set-apart as holy, special to God and separated from the common or ordinary. However, in many Christian traditions (not Biblical teaching), saints are another level up from regular believers in Jesus, believers who have attained a higher level of Christian perfection or purity or accomplishment. Some, like the Catholics, require miracles to be attributed to a person before they can be canonized as a saint.
So many Christians balk at being called saints. Was this letter then written to a superior variety of Christian, rather than regular, garden variety believers like us? We can’t use the term “apostle” today and we can’t use the term “saint,” unless we’re speaking of very special Christians. I’ve just argued for a more general use of the term “apostle,” as an appropriate title for missionaries. As far as the Bible is concerned, “saint” too should be used far more broadly than many of us today may be comfortable using.
A saint is one who has been set apart as holy. So who does that cover? Anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior! It is the blood of Jesus Christ—His death and resurrection—that purifies the believer and makes us holy, not our works or our greater obedience.
The Christian who gives up everything to travel to foreign lands to proclaim the Gospel is not more of a saint than the believer who stays home, but serves and loves Jesus to the best of his ability. He would be counted an apostle, while the one who remains home could be counted as something else. But both are saints. Paul would never argue that he is a saint and the recipients of his letters are not!
I’ve pointed this out before, but even the Corinthians, who vexed Paul by their carnal thinking, were called holy by Paul! In 1 Corinthians 1:2 (NIV84), Paul writes: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ--their Lord and ours.” First he says that are sanctified in Christ—sanctify means to make holy! Second, as the NIV renders it, they are “called to be holy.” The word there is the same word for “saint!” It could also be translated as “called to be saints.” But that gives the impression that a “saint” is something to rise, work or grow toward. The Greek there does not require that meaning or sense. In fact, other translations show that it can be rendered “called as saints” or “called saints.” So Paul isn’t saying two different things, as if they’ve been sanctified but still need to work to become saints. He’s describing what it means to be sanctified: you are now a saint!
1 Corinthians 6 has one of the most powerful statements about this transformation, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve pointed it out before and I’ll point it out again. Verses 9-11 say this:
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (emphasis added)
Paul knows exactly who these people are—saints! He also knows exactly who they were: sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers. Not a pretty lot! But they are none of those things any more! They repented at the preaching of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. They turned to God and away from their former ways of life. They were washed, as we saw in Titus 3:5, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” They received the Holy Spirit and He did His work of renewal, making them new creations.
Peter agrees with Paul, describing the recipients of his first letter as “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9, NIV84). We who believe in Jesus Christ are a holy nation! More than that, we are a royal priesthood! Priests who are royalty!
Here’s the thing. Most of us are afraid of thinking of ourselves as saints because we think we’ll become “holier than thou.” We think we’ll have an inflated ego and we’ll look down on everyone else.
Funny thing about God’s way of doing things, as I mentioned before, even obedience to God’s Word does not produce pride, but humility. Because we must humble ourselves before God and submit to His will and direction. That doesn’t produce pride. It’s when you sit in judgment on God’s Word to decide what applies to you and what does not—that’s where pride comes in.
In the same way, when we think we have brought this “saintliness” on ourselves, that we have accomplished it for ourselves by our own wisdom or strength—that’s when pride comes in. But when we recognize that it is God who has worked this miraculous new birth in us, making us an entirely new creation in righteousness and holiness, that doesn’t breed pride, but humility and awe!
And it drives us to make good on this change that God has wrought in us. God made us holy, God made us a righteous people—we need to discipline ourselves to walk in His brand of righteousness and holiness!
Look, there’s a lot of talk today about identity, about identifying as this or that. Notice what an apparently powerful thing that is: If I identify as female, I’m supposed to dress and act like the caricature of a women that I imagine. If I identify as a cat, I’m supposed to act like how I think a cat acts! See how identity drives behavior? Of course, people who do such things get things weirdly—even frighteningly—wrong because they’re not actually learning from the real thing—they’re following their own warped ideas.
When you and I identify as sinners—which is exactly what we were—we actually act it out correctly, because we’re so well practiced at it! But when we accept what the Bible says about those who believe in Jesus Christ, we can either act like the caricature of holiness that is horrible to behold, or we can turn to the One who is in fact holy and learn from Him how He desires us to live. That’s where humility comes in, becomes the order of the day, and protects us from Pharisaical hypocrisy: We don’t define what holiness looks like, God does, in His Word.
We must not merely imitate what we think He does, but we need to carefully observe His ways, put them into practice, make adjustments as needed, and above all, come to understand His thoughts, at least to the degree that He has revealed them to us in Scripture. You and I can know the heart and thoughts of God—we can know God! The problem with people who pretend to be something they’re not is that they don’t know from the inside out what it is they’re trying to copy. But we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us and the Word of God in our hands to learn from and be directed by. And as I said before, the more we practice obeying Christ, the more He reveals of Himself to us. The better we know Him, the better we act and speak like Him.
We must humble ourselves and practice what God commands in His Word. We must open ourselves up to the critique of those like us who are also trying to learn what holiness looks like, especially those more mature in Christ. The Christian life is not learned in isolation, but neither are we entirely dependent on others to show us the way. God wants you to know Him personally! That’s why He recorded His thoughts and ways in the Scriptures. That’s why He sent Jesus to die for you and rise again to life, to remake you in righteousness and holiness. And that’s why He placed His Holy Spirit within you!
Conclusion
So what do we learn from this first verse of Ephesians?
- Recipients: You’ll notice I just called this book the Letter to the Ephesians. Whether it was in fact written to the Ephesians or not doesn’t matter. What matters is its teaching. Don’t get bogged down or distracted by insignificant details. The meaning of the letter is not affected in any way by who the actual recipients were. Perhaps they were actually you and me!
- Apostles: Does it actually matter what an apostle is and who should be counted as one? Yes, absolutely. We need to be continually challenged to break the world’s grip on our hearts and lives. We need the living, breathing examples that missionary/apostles represent, and we need to restore them to their rightful place in church structure and influence to keep us from being bogged down by the world and worldly affairs. We need their teaching and insights to bring the whole counsel of God to our fellowship and our personal training. This will make even more sense when we get to Chapter 4.
- Saints: Isn’t it better to identify as a sinner for humility’s sake, than to identify as a saint? No. What I see more often than not is that those who readily identify as sinners are not as diligent to conform their behavior to what Christ saved them to be. But if you correctly identify as one gifted with righteousness and holiness, and you understand how precious a gift that is, then you will reorient your thinking and behavior to emulate Christ. You were a sinner but that’s no longer who you are! You are no longer a victim, but a conqueror (Romans 8). Chapter 4 and 5 will further explain this.
If you believe in Jesus Christ, you are a saint. If you desire to be an apostle, you can be, if you’re willing to pay the price. Preparation actually begins with embracing your identity as a saint and learning how to walk in it. So go. Read at least one chapter of your Bible each day. Work on practicing one thing God teaches in that passage. Then come back and share the results, and we’ll discuss it together and keep hammering out how it is that God wants us to live. And as we grow in Christlikeness, we will be ready to go to any people and tell them who Christ is and what He has done for us.