FOR THE SAKE OF THE CALL

20 years ago, Pastor Mark had a vision of returning to Jesus’ calling of people to put aside differences, ALL differences: racial, social, economic, political, for the sake of a bigger mission. This past Sunday, he supported that with the Word.

There is no denying that every generation of Bible readers has cultural blinders that we have to work through in order to see the Word more clearly, and ours is no exception. The particular cultural milieu in America of individualism often causes us to read Paul’s letter as written to us personally. We tend to give very little thought to the situation he was writing in, who he was writing to, and WHY he was writing it.

The book of Ephesians is not the only one of Paul’s letters to spell out the vision of the small “g” gospel, but it is the one that we will be focusing on in the next couple of weeks. Perhaps one of the most memorable imperatives from this book is the exhortation to “stand firm.” As stated above, we usually read this as a personal exhortation to stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ. And we should certainly do that. But also, in keeping with the context, we are to stand firm in the little “g” gospel of setting aside our differences for the sake of Christ. 

As we love each other through these differences, the world we see the fruit of His Spirit in us and will know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that we are not merely saved, but that we are truly His disciples.