If we are Christian, then we live in two different worlds. There is the tangible and the spiritual, and these two worlds collide, often creating enough tension that persecution ensues. What stance do we take? How do we reconcile the two? This week, Author and Bible teacher, Charles Price, takes an in depth look at the role we are to play in each of these worlds, and provides a greater understanding of Christ’s agenda in where He has placed us in this world.
There is a popular expression that says, “They are so heavenly minded, they are of no earthly use.” In other words, they are so wrapped up in the spiritual world, so pious in nature, that they have lost touch with the realities of life, so we can’t expect them to be of any earthly value. However, the greater danger Christians face is that we can become so earthly minded that we are of no heavenly use. Our concerns can become so preoccupied by the demands of this life that we begin to think and act totally by the criteria of this material world.
Our life on earth is not a waiting room where we sit, waiting for our number to be called before we are heaven bound. As Christians, we are in this world by divine appointment with resources that are not material or physical, but that derive solely from Christ. In Paul’s salutation to the Ephesians, he writes, “To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.” He is saying, “You live in two places, with two identities in two different spheres, the physical, tangible world of Ephesus, and at the same time, they are in Christ. This is their identity and also where they live. The big question is how do we live with our feet firmly planted in our own ‘Ephesus’, while at the same time, live in union with Christ and fulfill the agenda of heaven on earth?
Paul gives us a clue by using two operative words for each of these spheres. He says, “To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.” To understand more fully what it meant to be a saint in Ephesus, it’s helpful to know a little of its history at the time. Ephesus is located about halfway between Jerusalem and Rome, and was a political center and the capitol of Asia Minor, (part of present day Turkey). It was a large commercial center, and a main port and trading depot on the Aegean Sea. Being a major coastal city, there was anonymity, which made for a breeding ground of corruption, attracting many illicit people who had gravitated to that city.
Ephesus was also a religious center where the headquarters of the cult of Artemis was centered. ‘Artemis’ is the Greek name for the goddess, Diana. This was a strong, powerful religion, dependent on cultish activity and sexual promiscuity, which dominated not only the city, but the entire region. Inhabitants were gripped by the occult, and it was in this environment Paul spent three years, establishing a church and converting many from sorcery and occultism to Christ. It is no wonder that He wrote to the Ephesians, “Our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
For three months Paul preached in the synagogue before he was driven out. He then rented the lecture hall of Tyrannus where he preached for two years. Despite persecution from the pagan populace, the Gospel spread throughout the province of Asia, with many other churches in the area being formed. The followers of the goddess Diana were diminishing, and this caused a great deal of contention for the craftsmen who made a living from making statues and shrines, worshipping the goddess. Headed by a silversmith named Demetrius, an assembly of related tradesmen was formed, and subsequently Paul was forced out of Ephesus.
When Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, he addressed them as saints, faithful in Christ Jesus. The word ‘saint’ has since been distorted from its New Testament usage. Many think of saints as people who were good, pious and lived back in history, but actually, the opposite is true. A saint is a person who recognizes that he or she has no virtue of their own, but have come humbly to Christ and been reconciled to God. It has nothing to do with merit or virtues, but everything to do with recognizing their failure and sin, and the cleansing blood of Christ. A saint is a person set apart for the purposes of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is to these saints in Ephesus, living in a contaminated world that Paul writes his letter.
In John 17:15 Jesus prayed for His disciples about this very issue, and by extension, He is praying for every Christian, as we are all called to be disciples. “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” We don’t live where we do by accident. A Christian is ‘sent’ in order to be set apart for God in whatever environment He has placed us in. God’s purpose is not our withdrawal from society, but our participation in it, and in such a way that we are on the agenda of heaven. We are not called just to be saints, but the operative word is ‘faithful’ saints in Christ.
What does it mean to be in Christ? Paul uses this term about 20 times in Ephesians, and it’s the other identity, the spiritual world to which we belong, where two things happen when we become a Christian. Christ comes to live in us and we come to be in Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” This is the body of Christ, but it’s one thing for us ‘to be in Christ’, and another for ‘Christ to be in us’. They are complimentary, and we can’t separate them as far as the timing is concerned, but we can separate them as far as their meaning and purpose.
Before we became a Christian, we were spiritually dead, but after becoming a Christian, we received the life of Christ, living within us, and are then spiritually alive. We become a member of one corporate body, of which Christ is the Head. Christ in us is our source of power, but severed from Christ, there is no spiritual life or power. The emphasis of ‘being in Christ’ is not just that we have life, but that we now have purpose. Christ in us brings salvation, and ourselves in Christ leads to service under His Lordship. Christ in us gives us resources and ourselves in Christ gives us responsibilities. Christ in us is personal, but ourselves in Christ is corporate.
As Christians, we are a part of the much bigger picture, and become the instruments by which God does His work on earth. In addition, we have an inheritance in Christ, which is Christ, Himself, and the unlimited resources that come with being in Christ. Christ also has an inheritance in us in that He now has another body in union with His to live in and work through.
The actual thrust of the book of Ephesians is about the corporate relationship we have, operating interdependently with one another, and built together as Christ’s church. It is one body with Christ as the Head where God lives by His Spirit. We are the corporate center in which Christ uses our individual personalities; shy, clever, boisterous; whatever our personalities, He will speak with our lips, love with our hearts and walk with our feet. Being in Christ is a disposition of heart, that says, “Lord, I’m available to You and Your purposes”, and we then become His saints, set apart in this world for His agenda wherever He has placed us.
