Freedom For Today

“A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

When someone is writing a letter to you and they say, “A final word…” it’s time to pay attention to something very important. It is no accident that Paul has saved one of his most important points for last so that it will stick with the Ephesian Christians. His message? Stay strong. Fight on a supernatural level. There is a whole lot more to this Jesus-thing than meets the eye.

So how do we fight supernatural battles we can’t see or fully understand? Supernaturally, of course. We can’t rely on our own earthly senses. The Holy Spirit has to open our eyes so that we can see into deeper spiritual places than we ever have before. Paul will list some specific tips in tomorrow’s post, but for now start with prayer. Ask God to open your spiritual eyes and give you spiritual tools to fight the demons that stalk you.

Here’s your freedom for today: we don’t have to be afraid of the dark. The Holy Spirit is like a giant flashlight, shining into dark places. Since he dwells within us when we accept the forgiveness and leadership of Jesus, everywhere we go is an opportunity to shine a light. As Jesus followers we can act differently than the world around us and we can walk around free. That freedom is all by itself quite a light to a dark world without you having to do or say a thing. What would it mean for you to live a free life? What darkness lurks around you that needs a light to shine on it?

“Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. ‘Honor your father and mother.’ This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, ‘things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.’ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.  Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.”

Isn’t it easy to use the Bible to understand what other people should do? These verses remind me of the ways that I have tried to get others to relate to me (“Kids, the Bible says you should obey your parents!” and I used to joke when I was a child, “Dad, don’t provoke your children!!”). When we think about the Bible’s teaching on relationships, we need to remember to come at it from a learner’s perspective. “What is God saying to me?” versus “What is God trying to say to everyone else?”

Parent/child relationships can be complicated, and as a counselor I’ve known countless numbers of people who have a strained relationship with their parents or their children. What does it mean to honor your parents when they have abused you? What does it mean to repair damage you may have done to your children? On top of that, reading about slavery in the Bible can be confusing and difficult. In our American history, people have misused the Bible to support slavery. In Paul’s day, Jewish slaves were people who had entered into voluntary slavery with other Jews in order to work off a debt. The main point? Act like Jesus no matter who you are because God doesn’t care at all about your earthly status. We are all the same in his eyes.

Here’s your freedom for today: Jesus always offers new possibilities. I’ve known many people who have repaired and restored broken relationships after years of repentance and work. I’ve known many who have honored their parents or respected their adult children by staying out of their lives appropriately. Still others have found a new family at church and these new relationships are a form of redemption from old family relationships. Jesus can also get you out of indebtedness to others and set you free from all kinds of slavery. No matter where you are at with your relationships, Jesus can guide you into right ways of living. Just keep your eyes on your path and he’ll lead you.

“And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church.  As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.  In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Paul is building on his themes of rejecting sin and living a different kind of life as he addresses married couples in these verses. If you are not married, don’t tune out just yet. We see in these verses that marriage is a symbol of something far greater: Jesus’ relationship with the church.

What does it mean for you to love like Jesus did? Sacrifice. Surrender. Dying and finding new life. All of these concepts guide us in marriage, and they also guide us in all of our relationships (as we will see in the next few days). There is a beautiful picture God is painting through Paul’s letter: a symbiotic relationship rooted in supernatural love. This picture captures the very heart of God.

Here’s your freedom for today: you will find freedom when you lay your self-interests down. Particularly for independent, self-focused Americans, laying down your own interests is a countercultural concept. We are told to protect ourselves, watch out for number one, and do whatever it takes to be happy. God has something far greater in mind for us, and he knows all about it because he accomplished it already through Jesus. Christ gave himself up, literally walking away from Heaven and even life itself in order to rescue us. He showed us that sacrifice and love are spiritual weapons that win wars. Consider those the most effective weapons in your arsenal. When we imitate him in this way, whether in marriage or in other relationships, we gain spiritual ground and have victory and freedom in ways that are not humanly possible. Who can you supernaturally love today?

“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Following Jesus is a life-and-death matter. Not just eternal life, as some Christians might prefer to think. Genuine pursuit of Jesus, hanging out with the kinds of people he hung out with, will bring you into deep spiritual places that are full of warfare. It is simply foolish to mess around in our evil days. You don’t even want to stick your toe in a sin-puddle if you are working to bring the kingdom of God into this world. Satan can and will use everything against you.

Getting drunk isn’t an option for Jesus-followers, because you can’t be strategic when you’re not in your right mind. You cannot simultaneously go deeper with Jesus and be on a path of life-destruction. Those paths are mutually exclusive. When you fill your life with the Holy Spirit, you are brimming over with songs, prayers, and thanksgiving. Those aren’t feeling words, those are direct actions that will overcome anything Satan is trying to throw at you.

Here’s your freedom for today: praising Jesus isn’t about feeling happy. Anyone I know who is pressing hard into following Jesus has signed up for a hard life. Living a life worth living means you are setting aside your own interests for the interests of others. You are rejecting the things of this world for the things of the Spirit. You are in a constant wrestle with all the things that are not right about this world and trying to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That kind of life doesn’t produce happiness. But it can produce praise. In fact, being filled with the Spirit means you have peace when it makes no sense to have peace. You praise when it makes no sense to praise. If you are in a hard season right now, press in instead of trying to escape. God is fighting on your behalf and spiritual victory comes through prayer and praise.

“Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!  For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'”

Paul continues his admonishment about sin versus the imitation of God as his children. How often do we ourselves make excuses for the sins he listed (see yesterday’s post), not to mentioned the disregard in our society for what comes out of a person’s mouth. In this way, when we are followers of Jesus we are inherently operating in a different framework, and we are not fooled by cheap excuses.

The letter continues on with a theme of dark versus light. The classic description of evil versus good. Our job as Christians is to shine a light on everything around us. When we shine a light on the good, it looks even more beautiful and holy. When we use our light to expose secrets and evil, God delivers his righteous justice.

Here’s your freedom for today: Jesus will open your eyes and wake up your soul. Sometimes we need to be shaken out of our complacency and remember our role as the church. We can’t fall asleep on the job here — the world needs the light of Jesus desperately. If we believe he is the answer to the pain of the world, then we can’t waste a single minute. We have to bring his love and his light to everyone we can, offering hope to a hopeless world. If your spiritual life doesn’t feel awake and alive, then ask God to bring you to a new place of passion. We need all hands on deck as we seek to bring the kingdom of God into all its fullness.