Name....
Ephes. 3:14-21 For this reason I kneel before the Father, [15] from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. [16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.
[20] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Family was important in the ancient world. You worked hard to raise children and to look after your own aged parents, knowing that your children would look after you when you got older. So when Paul uses family as a metaphor for the church he is mining a deep seem of imagery that his readers would have grasped and identified with.
We are part of the family of God. Sometimes we take that to be just some abstract form of relation to our brother and sister believers – maybe our experience of family has been an incomplete one and we transfer that relationship to our spiritual one. But when the bible speaks about family it speaks about a collection of people who have obligations to love and serve each other, to look out for their weaknesses and help them when they are low. It is not an abstract concept – family in the Bible has concrete expectations.
Names are a powerful metaphor too, because in the really ancient world, your name was who you were. We use names as a label, because they sound good and identify us, but they used to be used to sum up a person’s character or qualities; mighty in battle, beloved of God, grumpy on wet Tuesdays….. which is why people took great store in the name of God, and why he is even more jealous of guarding his reputation than we are. And here Paul has told us that we derive our name from God. It is almost like when we marry, often our name changes as we adopt another (probably just the girls I know….) but being part of God’s family means we have adopted his name – but only if we start to reflect his qualities and characteristics to the world around us. If we haven’t changed to be like Jesus, just how serious are at being part of God’s family?
Just one last thought about having adopted God’s name as part of his family. It makes God head of our household, and as head HE becomes responsible for us. We may find that often God asks us to step out of our comfort zones, for some of us it may be that he calls us to live prophetically to point others towards him. When we do this He becomes responsible for looking after us, for our food and shelter and our protection. It may not be what we dream about when we are thinking selfishly, but we will find that it is always enough and we will have the comfort of knowing that we are doing God’s will. As Jesus said, we will discover that he is with us until the end of the age.
[20] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Family was important in the ancient world. You worked hard to raise children and to look after your own aged parents, knowing that your children would look after you when you got older. So when Paul uses family as a metaphor for the church he is mining a deep seem of imagery that his readers would have grasped and identified with.
We are part of the family of God. Sometimes we take that to be just some abstract form of relation to our brother and sister believers – maybe our experience of family has been an incomplete one and we transfer that relationship to our spiritual one. But when the bible speaks about family it speaks about a collection of people who have obligations to love and serve each other, to look out for their weaknesses and help them when they are low. It is not an abstract concept – family in the Bible has concrete expectations.
Names are a powerful metaphor too, because in the really ancient world, your name was who you were. We use names as a label, because they sound good and identify us, but they used to be used to sum up a person’s character or qualities; mighty in battle, beloved of God, grumpy on wet Tuesdays….. which is why people took great store in the name of God, and why he is even more jealous of guarding his reputation than we are. And here Paul has told us that we derive our name from God. It is almost like when we marry, often our name changes as we adopt another (probably just the girls I know….) but being part of God’s family means we have adopted his name – but only if we start to reflect his qualities and characteristics to the world around us. If we haven’t changed to be like Jesus, just how serious are at being part of God’s family?
Just one last thought about having adopted God’s name as part of his family. It makes God head of our household, and as head HE becomes responsible for us. We may find that often God asks us to step out of our comfort zones, for some of us it may be that he calls us to live prophetically to point others towards him. When we do this He becomes responsible for looking after us, for our food and shelter and our protection. It may not be what we dream about when we are thinking selfishly, but we will find that it is always enough and we will have the comfort of knowing that we are doing God’s will. As Jesus said, we will discover that he is with us until the end of the age.
posted by Gordon at
9:11 am
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