July 2, 1973 — Richmond, Virginia
Ministry given through Brother Stephen Kong.
The reading is from Ephesians 2:11-22; 4:17-32; and 5:1-21.
Wherefore remember, that once ye, the nations in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that called circumcision in the flesh done with the hand,
that ye were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ.
For He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of enclosure,
having annulled the enmity in His flesh, the law of commandments in ordinances, that He might form the two in Himself into one new man, making peace;
and might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross, having by it slain the enmity.
And, coming, He has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and glad tidings of peace to those who were nigh.
For through Him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father.
So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God,
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone,
in Whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord;
in Whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye should no longer walk as the rest of the nations walk in the vanity of their mind,
being darkened in understanding, estranged from the life of God by reason of the ignorance which is in them, by reason of the hardness of their hearts;
who, having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedy unsatisfied lust.
But ye have not thus learned the Christ, if indeed ye have heard Him and been instructed in Him, according as the truth is in Jesus:
namely, your having put off, according to the former manner of life, the old man, which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts;
and being renewed in the spirit of your mind;
and your having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness.
And be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you.
Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as the Christ also loved us, and delivered Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
For ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light;
for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is agreeable to the Lord.
And do not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather also reprove them.
For the things which are done by them in secret, it is shameful even to say.
But all things having their true character exposed by the light are made manifest; for that which makes everything manifest is light.
Wherefore He says, “Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.”
See therefore how ye walk carefully, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
For this reason be not foolish, but understanding what is the will of the Lord.
And be not drunk with wine, in which is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord,
giving thanks at all times for all things to Him Who is God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.
We mentioned last night that we are called out of this world into Christ. This is our calling. This is the very meaning of the word ecclesia, which in modern language is the word church. Ecclesia means “called-out ones.”
We are called out of every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and every people, that we may be gathered together unto Christ. That is the meaning of the word church, and that is our calling. That is what we are.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul tries to tell us the various aspects of our high calling. Last night we began with the first one. In Ephesians 1, we find that we are called to be the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.
What is the meaning of a body? A body is to contain the riches of the Head. Therefore, in Ephesians 1, Paul shows us how God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
In other words, all the riches that are in the Head have been given to the Body, having been deposited in the Body. Christ is the fullness of the Godhead. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and we are complete in Him. Why? Because we are His Body.
As you read the first chapter, you find Paul mentioning only a few of the riches of Christ that have been given to the Body. For instance, we are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.
We have been marked out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ unto Himself—adoption, sonship. We are not only chosen to be little children, but we are marked out for sonship, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
He has taken us into favour in the Beloved. We are favoured by God in Christ. Through His blood, we have forgiveness of offences. All our sins have been forgiven. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance.
These are only a few samples of the riches of the Head that have been deposited in the Body. Brothers and sisters, I want to emphasize again: we are called to be the Body of Christ. It is our calling.
It is not just something that we can take up and drop. It is not something that we can merely talk about and then forget. No. A calling is something with which we must be occupied.
What are we called to be? We are called to be the Body of Christ. Think of that. We are called to contain the riches, and we are called to express all that He is—to display Christ in all His fullness. That is what the Body is, and that is our calling.
Paul first presents our calling, that we may have a revelation of it—a glimpse of our calling. Then, together with that, Paul exhorts us to walk worthily of the calling wherewith we have been called.
In Ephesians 4:1-16, we find two basic principles of the life of the Body. The Body is one Body, but it has many members. If we are to walk worthily of the Body of Christ, we must diligently keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
First, there is unity; then, diversity. To each one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. We are one in God: one Body, one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, Who is over all, through all, and in us all.
God has already given us the unity of the Spirit because we are called to be the Body of Christ. What we need to do is diligently keep that unity. If we keep that unity, we are able to fellowship with one another, and we will arrive at the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
At the same time, we need to be living, functioning members of the Body. God has put us in the Body of Christ. Every member is necessary. Every member is given a function to fulfil, and every member is given gifts that we may fulfil that function.
All the members of the Body must function coordinately, not independently, under the Head. Then the Body will be built up. Body ministry is not some people ministering to the Body; body ministry is the Body ministering to itself.
The second aspect of our calling, as we find in the letter to the Ephesians, is that we are called to be the household of God—or, to use the modern word, the family of God.
In the first part of Ephesians 2, Paul deals with salvation in a personal way. There is a personal side to salvation. We who were dead in sins and transgressions were outwardly alive, yet in the sight of God we were dead.
Our spirit—that part of our being which is able to contact God and communicate with God—was dead in sins and transgressions. Therefore, there was no contact with God. The communication between us and God was cut off.
We lived according to the age of this world and according to the fashion of this world. How we wanted to be fashionable. How we wanted to follow the current of this world in everything—to be popular, to be fashionable.
Actually, we were driven along by the ruler of darkness. We might not have realized it. We thought we had liberty; we thought we could do anything we liked. But actually we were driven along by a hard master.
But God. I like those words: but God. We were once dead in sins and transgressions, but God, Who is rich in mercy, has made us alive with Christ, raised us up together with Christ, and seated us with Christ in the heavenlies.
We are saved by grace through faith—not of ourselves, but the work of God. This personal side of salvation is very important because everyone must be saved personally. No one can believe in the Lord and be saved for another person.
But, dear brothers and sisters, very often we emphasize the personal side of salvation and overlook the corporate side. When God saves us, it is more than saving us individually. He saves us corporately.
When God saved the children of Israel, He did not save only this man and that man of Israel; God saved the whole nation. There is a corporate side to salvation.
This corporate side of salvation is presented in the second part of Ephesians 2. Paul moves from the personal to the corporate: “Wherefore remember, that once ye, the nations in the flesh.”
In the world there are many divisions, distinctions, and discriminations. Why? Because sin divides and separates. Even when sin entered the first family—Adam and Eve—sin immediately divided them. Adam said, “It is the woman.”
In the second generation, Cain murdered his brother Abel. Because sin is in this world, everything is broken up and divided. You cannot expect this world to be one in peace and harmony, because where sin is, it divides.
There are racial problems, social problems, and religious problems. Race can divide people. Social status can divide people. Religious background can divide people. In this world, everything tends to divide and not to unite.
Of all the divisions in the world, there is no division harder or more impossible to reconcile than religious division. The division between Jews and Gentiles was more than racial; it was religious.
The Jews considered themselves the commonwealth of God. They had the covenants of God, the promises of God, and the privileges of God. The Gentiles were outside the commonwealth and strangers to the covenants of promise. They had no hope and were without God in the world.
In the temple there was a court of the Gentiles, far outside the temple proper. Between the court of the Gentiles and the court of the women was a low wall. At intervals upon that wall was written: “Gentile, thou canst come thus far and no further. If thou crossest this point, thou riskest thine own life.”
There was a wall of enclosure, a wall of partition, between Jews and Gentiles. Humanly speaking, it was an impossible situation. How could Jews and Gentiles be reconciled and brought into one? Impossible.
But thank God: on the cross, in His own body, our Lord Jesus annulled the enmity between Jews and Gentiles. On the cross He put aside the whole old creation.
All distinctions, divisions, separations, and discriminations—however deep, however strong, however impossible—were nailed to the cross and done away with. He is our peace.
In Christ Jesus, He has brought us together into one new man. This includes not only the enmity between Jews and Gentiles, but every division and distinction in the old creation.
It is not a matter of educating, reforming, or improving the old man so that we can be united. It is the casting aside of the old and the bringing in of the new man.
When God calls us to Himself to be that one new man, we must pass by the cross. As we pass through the cross to enter in, all divisions, discriminations, distinctions, and separations are annulled by the cross.
In newness of life, in the life of Christ, we are joined together as one new man. Therefore, it is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Because we are now one new man, we are of the household of God.
Paul speaks of one new man, then the household of God, and then a holy habitation of God. These figures are closely related. Only when we live in that one new man can we live as members of the family of God.
If you try to live in your own name, immediately you disturb the unity and peace of the household of God. Only when we realize that our old man was crucified and that we are in Christ as one new man can we live peacefully and harmoniously with our brothers and sisters.
We are not called individually; we are called corporately. We are not only saved individually and personally, but in God’s salvation we are saved that we may be one new man—the household of God.
In this family we have many brothers and many sisters. We are not isolated, individual Christians. The life we receive from the Lord is a life that we must share with our brothers and sisters, because the very life of Christ is shared by all of us.
We are all the family of God. That is what we are called into. We are called to be the family of God.
Believers today may realize that they belong to one family, the family of God. But do we really see that the family of God is our calling? There is a great difference between knowing that you belong to the family of God and knowing that the family of God is your calling.
If you merely know that you belong to the family of God, you may thank God for your brothers and sisters. But when they become a little more difficult, you may protect yourself by separating yourself from them.
If the family is convenient and suits you, then you need the family. But if you feel that it is not convenient, does not suit you, or does not give you the liberty you want, then off you go.
But if you really see that the family of God is a calling—this is what we are called to be—then there is no way of escaping your family.
This is not a light matter, because we are called to be the family of God. If this is our calling, then we must apply ourselves to make that family a prosperous, peaceful, successful family that glorifies God.
From Ephesians 4:17 through Ephesians 6:9, Paul deals with how we should walk worthily as the family of God. This morning, we would like to point out a few things.
Paul says that once we walked as the nations walk, in the vanity of the mind. The way you live, the aim of your life, the mood of your life, and the pursuit of your life are primarily governed by what you think.
If you set your mind on money, your whole walk of life will be trying to get money. If you set your mind on fame, your whole direction of life will be trying to get fame. The way you think describes the direction you go.
When we were of the nations, we walked according to the vanity of our minds. We walked in strife and vainglory, seeking things for ourselves. No wonder there was no peace—no peace within ourselves and no peace with other people.
But when we are taught in Christ, we do not learn Christ in this way. If we have been instructed in Christ, in the truth that is in Jesus, then we know that our old man was crucified and that there is a renewing of the spirit of our mind.
Romans 12:2 says:
Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your intelligent service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Our mind is renewed because our spirit has been made alive and the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit. The life of Christ begins to control the mind. Thus, we have the mind of Christ.
What is the mind of Christ? Philippians 2 tells us that the mind of Christ is humility. Though He was equal with God and subsisted in the form of God, He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a servant.
He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the Father even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Humility is not thinking less of yourself; humility is not thinking of yourself.
Our Lord Jesus gave up His glory, His position, His rights—everything—in order that He might fulfil the Father’s purpose. He did not think of Himself. He thought only of doing the Father’s will and of accomplishing His purpose for us.
Formerly, as the nations, we walked in the vanity of our mind. Now, being the household of God, we walk in the humility of Christ. How can we maintain peace in the family of God? By walking humbly before God and before one another.
We must not be high-minded, thinking that we are above everyone else. If we are high-minded, we will try to lord it over others. If our opinions are not respected, we may immediately fall into a fit.
Be not high-minded. Be lowly in mind. Be humble, esteeming our brothers and sisters as more excellent than ourselves. If every member of the family walks humbly, preferring one another in honour, that family will be peaceful, happy, harmonious, and prosperous.
Does walking humbly mean that you become weak or without strength? Not at all. Paul says, “Be angry, and sin not.” If you read it in context, you may ask, “How can you be angry if you are humble?”
The Lord Jesus was so humble that He had the right to be angry. We have no right to get angry when self is involved. But the Lord Jesus was selfless. He was not angry with people; He was angry with everything that was not of God.
His anger was righteous anger. If we walk humbly, there will be strength to deal with things that are not of God, and yet we do not sin.
Be angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil.
You may be angry because you see that a brother or sister is not walking according to God. Yet do not become over-righteous so that you cannot forgive. Before the sun goes down, forgive. That is humility; that is strength.
Paul says, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.”
Spiritually speaking, how often do we steal from the family of God? Instead of living, supplying, and contributing to the family, we are taking from the family all the time.
Steal no more. Labour before the Lord, that you may have something to contribute. Do not be lazy and allow your brothers and sisters to labour before the Lord so that they may have something to give while you only take from them.
The spirit of Christ is no longer, “Everything for me.” It is having more to give to others. For a family truly to prosper, everyone has to work for the family and not expect the family to work for him.
How often we go to a meeting feeling weak, depressed, and empty, hoping that we will be filled. If we are not built up, we criticize the meeting. But do we come to meet with our brothers and sisters only for that purpose?
Or do we come bringing what we have laboured over, what God has given us as increase, in order to give it to the family? If everybody does that, how rich will the family be.
Secondly, walk in love. Paul says, “As beloved children of God, let us walk in love, as Christ loved us and offered Himself for us as a sacrifice and offering to God for a sweet-smelling savor.”
In the family of God, there must be love. The family of God is not a court where we come to reason; the family of God is a home where love prevails.
Let us learn to love one another as Christ has loved us. In love there is always an element of sacrifice. If there is no sacrifice, something is missing in love.
The Lord Jesus loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us. If we love our brothers and sisters, we must be willing to sacrifice for them.
Love negatively never does anything harmful to a brother. Love positively always tries to establish and build up the other. Therefore Paul says, “Owe no man anything, except to love one another.”
We will never come to the point where we can say that we have loved our brothers and sisters enough. We always owe our brothers and sisters love.
Thirdly, walk in light, because we are children of light. The light here means the light of life. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
We have the life of Christ in us, and this life gives light to our path. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Every one of us in the family of God must learn to walk in the light of life that God has given to us today. Some brothers and sisters have greater light; some have smaller light. But everyone must walk in the light that he has.
Those who have greater light are not to measure those with smaller light by their own light and criticize them. Rather, they should walk before those with lesser light.
When those with lesser light see the greater light, they are exposed by it and thereby grow before the Lord. That is how light should shine: to expose, reprove, show the true character of everything, and build up.
Finally, as members of the family of God, we must walk wisely. To walk wisely simply means to walk in the will of God.
How can we walk in the will of God? Be filled with the Holy Spirit. If your life is controlled by the Holy Spirit, you are walking in the will of God.
If we walk in the will of God, everything will be set in order: the relationship between husband and wife, parents and children, masters and servants, and the relationship among brothers and sisters.
The order of the family will be established because everyone walks in the will of God, keeps his proper place, and is rightly related under our Lord.
O heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee. Thou hast not only saved us individually, but Thou hast put us into this great family of God.
O, we thank Thee for Thyself. We thank Thee for our brothers and sisters. How we need Thee, and how we need one another. But Lord, do show us that this is our calling.
Lord, do teach us how to walk worthily of this calling. O, that we may all gird ourselves with humility; that we may really walk in love; that we may walk in light, and walk wisely.
O Lord, we do desire to see Thy family peaceful, happy, growing, prosperous, and glorifying Thyself. O Lord, we praise and thank Thee that there is a part for us to play, and we just commit ourselves for this Thy calling.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.