Tag Ephesians

Letting God Set the Agenda

Todd R 1 Comment

One of the most significant ways the media influence us is by what’s called “agenda setting,” which means is that they tell us what is important and what we should care about by choosing what issues or topics to cover most often and most prominently.  For example, if a topic appears regularly on the front pages of newspapers or the covers of magazines or in the “Breaking News” of a TV news program, those editors have decided those items are more important, and want us to feel the same.  Unfortunately, there’s also an old saying in journalism that “if it bleeds, it leads,” meaning that bad news should get more coverage because it’s good for the business of journalism.

Related, but not the same, is “framing” which means the way the media covers something (the words they use, the sources they cite, etc.) affects our attitudes about it.  When the media consistently use words like “radical” or “extreme” to represent only the other side, or if they lump all the news that bleeds to a specific group of people and not another, they’re employing framing.

The problem is that the same issues aren’t always as important to all people, and often the media’s agendas don’t align with what should be each person’s agenda.  It’s like news coverage is designed to make us think the world is so evil that we can’t do anything about it, but also that very little is our own responsibility (or fault).  As Corrie ten Boom wrote about her time in a Nazi concentration camp: “this was the great ploy of Satan in that kingdom of his: to display such blatant evil that one could almost believe one’s own secret sins didn’t matter.”

Is it really good or healthy to feel all the world’s problems are on our shoulders? However, all media have to make choices about what to cover and how to cover it, so there is no avoiding these problems…unless you have another source for your agenda and the framing of it.  That source is God, and here are some verses from His word that can guide us:

Cast Your Anxieties
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7

We can recognize that there is a sovereign God, and ultimately His agenda is the only one that matters.  With that knowledge, we know that there are many times where all we can do is pray to the One who sees all the bad news we do, and much more.  He is in control.

If It’s Worthy, It Leads
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” – Philippians 4:8

We can recognize that good news isn’t always easy to find, but we should seek it out, even if it’s in our own homes, families, or neighborhoods.  There is always something worthy of praise to pay attention to.

Frame Your Responsibility Locally
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10

Too much attention to the big picture problems of the world can distract us from the work God has put right in front of us, which we were created to do.  God wants us to be faithful, not to save the world (He has already done that!)

I agree with C.S. Lewis, who wrote: “I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know. God may call any one of us to respond to some far away problem or support those who have been so called. But we are finite and he will not call us everywhere or to support every worthy cause. And real needs are not far from us.”

Yes, global problems matter and there is always a lot of bad news, but today let God set your agenda and frame it through the lens of His eternal victory in Christ.

What are We Willing to Leave on the Cutting Room Floor?

Todd R Leave a comment

From earliest times, debate has raged over whether God’s word can be taken literally.  Since the serpent asked, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”[1] people have debated if the world was created in 6 days.  If Moses really parted the Red Sea.  If Jonah really spent 3 days inside a great fish.  And so on.  Talk about whether the Bible means what it says often focuses on the miraculous events within.

But what about verses like Ephesians 4:29?  “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”  When Paul wrote that, did he literally mean “no corrupting talk,” or just to aim for less crude language than the average person?  Did Paul mean each word needs to “fit the occasion,” or to repeat whatever catchphrase seems to work in most situations?  Did Paul mean everything we say should “give grace” to others, or is it ok if sometimes we want to look good or only appear gracious?  Do we need to always build up those who hear us?  Did Paul “actually say” what he wrote in Ephesians 4:29?

Failure to meet our ideals
does not mean that
we should change them.

We might reply that this is an impossible standard, but Jesus in Luke 18:19 said “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”  In that one statement, Jesus testifies that no one is good (everyone misses the mark), and also that He is God in the flesh, come to save us from failing to meet the standard.

So yes, Ephesians 4:29 should be taken literally, but we should also take literally that only Jesus can meet the standard, and that He did meet the standard.  Failure to meet our ideals does not mean they are the wrong ideals and that we should change them.  Holiness is holiness.

G.K. Chesterton wrote in his book Orthodoxy that “it does not matter (comparatively speaking) how often humanity fails to imitate its ideal; for then all its old failures are fruitful. But it does frightfully matter how often humanity changes its ideal; for then all its old failures are fruitless.”[2]

Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash

In film editing, “the cutting room floor” refers to pieces of physical film that (in pre-digital times) were cut out of the movie and left lying on the floor.  When writing this blog, one of the hardest things to do is to cut out parts or phrases I care deeply about, but sometimes it’s necessary, because my words aren’t always Ephesians 4:29 words.  Finding these failures can be fruitful if I learn from them and move closer to the ideal.  In real-time, daily conversation it’s even harder, but to take Ephesians 4:29 literally, we all have to figuratively ask:

What are we willing to leave on the cutting room floor today?

[1] Genesis 3:1
[2] Chesterton, G.K. Orthodoxy (1908).  P. 163.

Time: A Quint of Quotes

Todd R 2 Comments

Dear fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes” from my collection on the theme of time:

“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.” – Seneca

“You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” – Charles Buxton

“Your reality is yours. Stop wasting time looking at someone else’s reality while doing nothing about yours.” – Steve Harvey

“Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity.”- Charles Spurgeon

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” – Ephesians 5:15-16

Photo by Mark Vihtelic on Unsplash

Peacemaking Stones

Todd R Leave a comment

In the Old Testament, King David wanted to build a temple for God, reasoning that people lived in houses, but God has only ever lived in a tabernacle (tent).  Why should people live in a nicer place than God?  However, David was not allowed to build the temple, but God said his son Solomon would build it.  David gives the reason in a speech to Israel from 1 Chronicles 28:2-3:

“I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building.  But God said to me, ‘You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.’” (emphasis mine)

Since becoming king, David had to fight many of Israel’s neighbors in order to establish peace, which was accomplished by Solomon’s time as king.  But David was not idle regarding the temple; he made many preparations to make Solomon’s job easier when the time came.  After David’s death, Solomon, preparing for construction, worked with Hiram king of Tyre to secure lumber.  In his letter to Hiram, Solomon wrote:

“You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.  But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune.” – 1 Kings 5:3-4

God wanted His temple – His dwelling place – built under peaceful conditions, by a peaceful leader, not by a warrior.  Under Solomon’s leadership, God’s temple was completed.

Solomon’s temple is no more, but God is now building another temple – another dwelling place – His church.  How do we know this?  Peter wrote that Christians as “living stones are being built up as a spiritual house”[1] and Paul that Christians “also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”[2]  God now spiritually lives in and among His people, not in a physical building.

What does David and Solomon’s experience teach us about the temple God is now building?  We know that Solomon’s temple had to be built by peaceful people, and Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:9, that:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

In the Greek language used in the New Testament, the word for peace comes from the verb “to join,” so peacemaking has to do with joining people together.  Between believers, this means that the more we live like Christ, the more we are able to join together in unity.  From believers to unbelievers, this “joining” means we offer them the love Christ gave us and hope and pray they will join with Him.  When discussing all issues non-essential to salvation, this means we seek to join and not separate, to promote peace instead of discord.

So, with God now building a temple of peacemakers, Paul urges us to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”[3]  Pray that this Spirit can grow in each of us and in His people worldwide!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

[1] 1 Peter 2:5
[2] Ephesians 2:22
[3] Ephesians 4:3

The Economic Solution?

Todd R 1 Comment

What if only one verse from the Bible could solve all of the world’s economic problems?  If one could, it would probably be Ephesians 4:28, where Paul wrote:

“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”

What if everyone followed the three rules suggested by this one verse?

A fig tree. Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

First, imagine if there was no crime.  “Let the thief no longer steal.”  The Bible tells us that in a perfect world, God’s people “shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid”[1]  Every person will reap the rewards of their effort – their own wine and figs – with no concern for it being taken away from them.

Next, imagine if everyone’s job was productive and meaningful; that each person did “honest work with his own hands.”  What if everyone approached their job as an act of worship, offered to God who sees and knows all?  No dishonesty, no scandal, no nasty office politics, no slacking.

Last, imagine if everyone’s needs were taken care of from the surplus of others.  Imagine if we had the mindset that working in order to have more to share is better than working in order to accumulate for ourselves.

What a world that would be!  So, let’s make these rules into law, enforce them strictly, and we will have a perfect society, right?  Wrong, because rules and laws are not the solution to the world’s problems.  People don’t consistently follow rules, especially when they require that we abandon our selfish ways.  At the root of Adam and Eve’s sin – the sin that taints us all – is that they wanted to do things their own way, making their own choices between good and evil, rather than trusting God to know it for them.  When rebellion is the problem, more or better rules can’t solve it.  Rebellion against God can’t be solved from the outside of us, only from the inside.

However, while sin will always taint us in this world, Christians are called to, and able to, live differently.  Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  The principles of Ephesians 4:28 apply to God’s people now.

Christians are called not to follow this world’s economic models and incentives, but to “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”[2]  Because in heaven the thief will “no longer steal” and we should desire that God’s “will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we should no longer steal now.  We should know that in any job we should “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”[3] and we should share with those in need because Jesus told us “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”[4]

Is this possible?  Yes, and Paul modeled some of this for us in his own life.  In Acts 20:34 he said, “You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.”  While as an apostle he could have asked each church he founded to fully support his ministry and cover his costs, instead he worked as a tentmaker to show us the principles of Ephesians 4:28 at work.

Maybe one verse can solve all of our economic problems, but only when everyone lives like God knows best.  Our Savior Jesus offers us a world just like that.  All good things are possible.

“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”

[1] Micah 4:4
[2] Matthew 6:20
[3] Colossians 3:23
[4] Matthew 25:40