SUMMER PODCAST REBOOT – this episode was originally published in Advent 2019.

Welcome to Wednesday’s podcast.  In two weeks time it will be Christmas day, so I hope you are well on the way with preparations.  Personally I need to buy some more sellotape!

REFLECTION:

Today our Bible reading is Ephesians 6 vs1-9, and we are going to focus on verse 3 which says: “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

This verse is taken from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy – Chapter 5 vs16.  In actual fact this phrase is used 9 times in Deuteronomy, and 3 times in Jeremiah, before it is quoted here by Paul.

As Paul explains, the sentence “so it may go well with you” follows a time when God has given a commandment to his people.  In the case of today’s passage this is in the Ten Commandments, where children are told to honour their father and mother.

However, every time the words “so it may go well with you” are used, it is after the Jewish people have been instructed to keep God’s decrees or commands, where they have been reminded to do what is right in the sight of the Lord, or where they have been told to remove things that are ungodly from amongst them.

Throughout the Old Testament therefore we see that the laws of God go hand in hand with the promises of God……but the law comes first.

But now we need to understand why Paul chooses to quote these words to the people of Ephesus, so let’s look back and remind ourselves of the context……..

Four weeks ago Alan started our journey through this book by saying that the foundation of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was to remind them, and us, that we are a chosen people and have been adopted into God’s family.  We have been redeemed by Jesus’ death on the cross.

Liam then highlighted the fact that the followers of Jesus in Ephesus were largely Gentiles, not Jews, and therefore there was an even greater significance to this group of people being brought into God’s family, as previously they had been separated, excluded and considered foreigners.  But now Jews and Gentiles were being built together to create a family or a community where God would choose to make his home.

And then last week Tom took us through Chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5, where we begin to learn how to live well alongside this new extended family that we find ourselves part of.  We see in these chapters that it is our responsibility to keep the bond of peace, and to grow in maturity as the body of Christ, as well as to build positive, healthy relationships with those around us.

And now in Chapter 6 Paul dials down even further into what it means to live as those who are members of God’s family, as he addresses not only relationships within community, but how we conduct ourselves in our workplaces, in our own households, in our marriages and with our children.

Do we live as Christ would want us to up close and personal, or is our relationship with Jesus just a public persona that we put on for others to see on Sunday?

Do our children see more of our anger, than they see of our kindness and compassion?

At the Christmas party, will our colleagues and boss see and hear more of our drinking and coarse language, than they will hear our of thanksgiving and encouragement?

The security that we gain from the promise of adoption into God’s family comes with the call to live as disciples of Christ not only in the world, but in the four walls of our home and workplace.

And as we saw yesterday, this can be difficult.  Our human nature struggles to put the needs of others before our own, and for some of us we just inherently want to question or fight against anything or anyone seeking to limit our personal freedom to do whatever we like.  And some aspects of this call to live a Godly lifestyle are hard because it challenges us to live radically different lives,