​Ephesians 4: 14 – 32
 
The Apostle Paul wrote the Ephesian Epistle from his prison in Rome around A.D. 60, to strengthen the believers’ faith by teaching them the significance of their heavenly citizenship, and its requirement to live as God’s testimonials. From its prologue, the Ephesian narrative described an unusual realm that we can only tag as ‘heaven-on-earth,’ where the church is earth-bound but with a heavenly milieu: it’s neither completely one nor the other. However, we are clear on one point – the radical power to live an earthly transformed lifestyle can only be derived from God. The Kingdom of Heaven is here with us, albeit in an incomplete sense, as we “grow up in all aspects into Him… until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:15,13). How that is achieved is then partially exposited by Paul in the rest of his Letter. We will only focus on a limited segment.
 
The reminder by Paul that we are no longer children is an apt analogy (Eph 4:14), for youngsters soon develop a will of their own and would resist any reasonable parental demands despite the latter’s’ best advice, and would even at times, by craftiness and deceit, get their own way; if we allow them to get away with it. In this context, the believers are encouraged to not be misled by the trickery and cunning of others into theological unorthodoxies, but to consider themselves as one covenant community in Christ, committed to practicing the truth in love (Eph 4:15a; the Greek form does not indicate a verb for “speaking,” but is a participle, a verbal adjective, literally translated as “truthing in love”; cf., Eph 4:25). The writer’s thought is about engagement – by living the truth before each other. Biblical ‘truth-living’ is demanding and is a reason for our routine nominalized faith in practice, as it involves taking responsibility for how we interpret the world around us in the light of others and the Scriptural standards. Undertaking responsibility requires responsiveness, which is not a mere subjective state, but a way of responding to what is before us with the resources that are available to us as social beings in Christ. That is how Jesus responded to our needs; even in His silence, He speaks.
 
Further, Paul spelt it all out explicitly how this community was going to transform itself (Eph 4:25-32). He began by informing the Ephesians that they are not to revert to the meaningless condition of their pagan past (Eph 4:17), which resulted in hardened hearts and ignorant minds (Eph 4:18). The outcome of such a combination was a pervasive self-centeredness and an uncaring and materialistic attitude (Eph 4:19). It is an excellent practice to remind ourselves where we would be today, if not for God’s salvific action in our lives. Paul’s motive was for the Ephesian community to embody corporately Jesus’ way of life. They must renew their minds and think from their new position in Christ, being righteous and holy in recognizing and eradicating destructive community routines which subvert others’ integrity (Eph 4:20-24). Understandably, he is only able to list a salient few which are particularly toxic among any group of people (Eph 4: 25-32). 
 
It is appropriate to remind ourselves that Paul was writing to believers about an unmistakable darkness of double mindedness that still plaques us all, often contradicting the Christian values inherent in our heavenly citizenship. The crux of his letter was to foster a Spirit-empowered community mindset and behaviors, characterizing the heavenly nature of an earthly church.

​Psalm 146
 
The Psalmist first reminded us by his perceptive appreciation of God’s absolute trustworthiness and almighty creative power by comparing these eternal attributes with man’s innate follies (Ps 146:6). This portrayal of our Creator, as the be-all-and-end-all of man’s ultimate hope is future-oriented, and it possesses colossal ramification concerning who we ultimately and consistently trust in this world. He then turned his attention to a motley group of people who hardly would have been the focus of any consideration - society’s non-descripts! It is not that He is indifferent to the political shenanigans in our broken world, but despite His commitment to care for everyone, He possesses a distinct predilection in His love and concern for the world’s underdogs (c.f., Deut 10:16-21; Is 61: 1-2; James 2:14-17), in providing for their welfare and seeking justice for their causes. It is within this context that the psalmist also exhorts us to continue to worship and keep faith with the One who saves and Who is faithful to the end (Ps 146:1-6). 
 
There are over 400 occasions in Scripture, where the Hebrew noun 'mishpat' generally translated as justice, judgments, just, or ordinances, is used to remind us about God’s laws, His principles of justice, and the need for His people to practice His form of justice to all (cf., Micah 6:8). He then lists who He meant by the oppressed: the poor, the unjustly imprisoned, the alien, the orphans, and the widows (Ps 146:7-9; c.f., Prov 31:8-9). Justice as defined within the context of divine law is meant to be applied equally among the Israelites, as well as strangers, or non-Israelites in their midst (Lev 24:22). It is significant that what God was looking for is certainly not a casual intermittent assistance towards the afflicted and burdened, but a perennial way of life of seeking to intentionally alleviate their distresses - a lifestyle of living justly and aiding those who have been unjustly treated.
 
Job’s own description in his defense before Yahweh, of his righteous ministry towards society’s underdogs in his days, is exemplary where justice, as he portrays it, was like a robe and a turban – meaning, akin to an everyday responsibility (Job 29:12-17). Today’s societal partialities are no different from the Old Testament era, where many are still being enslaved, incarcerated, persecuted, and murdered by powerful interests in different countries and communities, whether differentiated by politics or religion, race or otherwise. As God’s people, we cannot turn a blind eye towards these evil misdemeanors. Job understood that for him to notice these injustices and not do anything about it, was likened to have God punish him by ‘dislocating his shoulder and breaking his arm’ – not only is it a sin against the Almighty but a personal blight (Job 31:13-23; Prov 14:31).   
 
A self-righteous individual is incapable of contemplating mercy towards another, and therefore to expect him to initiate justice for the oppressed is improbable. Additionally, the peril of a black-and-white mode of impatient justice, often without due consideration for compassion becomes a form of cognitive distortion, where justice for justice’s sake is applied irrespective of mercy. God, on the other hand, would always be gracious and magnanimous in forgiving and encouraging change for the better, and when He does judge, the guilty, invariably, would have consciously ignored many prior opportunities to reform (cf., Ps 103:6-14).  

1 Samuel 4: 1 – 7: 14.
 
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8) is a familiar Scriptural refrain, but what does it mean as God is invisible, omnipresent and sovereign. Perhaps this rather poignantly counterpoint story soon after Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of God will aid us in our understanding of the dynamics of being in God’s presence. It occurred during the sunset years of Eli the Levitical High Priest, when his two infamous sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were responsible for the corrupt  administration of the temple at Jerusalem (1Sam 2:12-17). Their behaviour was a reflection of the nation’s iniquitous disposition as religious unrighteousness is symptomatic of a decrepit spiritual institution. After an initial skirmish, when the Philistines defeated Israel, the elders sent for the ark of the covenant from Shiloh, under the impression that now God will battle for them to victory. In the ensuing battle, Hophni, Phinehas, and 30,000 Israelite soldiers perished and the ark was captured by the Philistines. The ark, representing Yahweh’s sacred and formidable presence, remained impotent through the battle and its seizure! When the news reached Eli, it killed him. God is sovereign and cannot be manipulated, and any relationship with Him demands our unmitigated commitment to Him. Although the ark at some point in time represented a permanent abode for God in Israel, it appears that God’s choice of how He would manifest His presence through an assortment of objects and modes is quite unpredictable: e.g., a whirlwind with Elijah, the burning coal in Isaiah’s vision, and Peter’s vision of Cornelius. He is not in the habit of attaching Himself permanently to one locality or a person (except Christ), and neither is His palpable presence fixated on one object. What we do know is that when He does express His presence in our world, He has chosen to limit Himself by breaking into the constraints of time and space.   
 
The ark, now considered a valuable trophy of Israel’s defeat, was brought into the Philistine temple of Dagon at Ashdod, to honour their superior grain fertility deity. Yahweh had lessons for both the Israelites and the Philistines as He waited and allowed the pragmatically victorious Philistines to bask in the ‘superiority’ of Dagon. On two consecutive mornings, the Philistines found that the statue of Dagon had fallen before the ark. In a dramatic demonstration, God again exercised His unequivocal omnipotence over Dagon. On the second occasion, its head decapitated and hands broken in pieces. Yahweh needs no one to defend His authority for Him, neither a Levite nor the Israelites. Suddenly, the Ashdodites succumbed to a blight of fatal tumours. The fear of annihilation compelled them to send the ark away to Gath, and finally, to Ekron. The epidemic followed the ark. The Ekronites decided to test the authenticity of the divine curse by hitching the ark on two locally milch cows. As a matter of course, these creatures would normally find their way back to their rightful owners, but instead, they took off in a mysterious direction straight towards the Israelite village of Beth-shemesh. Irrespective of one’s spiritual persuasions, being in God’s presence elicited consequences concerning one’s idols. To desire to follow Him is to have our earthly dependencies (i.e., our idols) surfaced and destroyed.
 
The Israelites were euphoric over the recovery of their national icon; ironic that they played no part in it. The fact that it was the most sacred object in their temple and God initiated its return seemed of minimal consequence to them. An attempt by 50,070 men to catch a forbidden glimpse inside it, resulted in their premature deaths. A further endeavour by Uzzah, a non-Levite, to stabilise it, also killed him. The ark was eventually transported by the sons of Levitical tribe of Kohath to Kiritath-jearim, and thereafter, remaining at the house of Abinadab for the next 20 years. God’s presence is enduringly identified with absolute holiness (c.f., Ex 3:4-6; Isa 6:1-7), and certain rules concerning the ark’s handling had been laid down in Scripture (Num 4:15). Although Scripture is silent on it, isn't interesting that none of the Philistines who handled the ark, and probably looked inside it, perished! As believers, being in Christ is such a deep privilege, as holiness is imputed, and we have access through Him into the Holy of Holies (Heb 10:19-22; c.f., Acts 3:14; 2Cor 5:21; Heb 7:26-28; 1Peter 1:15-16). It, therefore, becomes our responsibility to order our lives in line with our Lord’s will for us as we seek to serve Him ceaselessly.

​2 Corinthians 4
 
The focus of our hopes in life usually becomes transparent at the point of suffering, whether they are disappointments or difficulties, and it vulnerably exposes where we have centred our faith. The Apostle Paul was no stranger to ordeals, as is reflected in this Epistle to the Corinthians, as he pulls back the curtain to his heart, showing us what it was like to have forsaken all to follow Christ (2 Cor 4:1-12; 11: 23-29). The transformation of his spiritual allegiance was radical: from a Pharisaic leader of a persecutory group to a faithful follower of the Way sect, with consequent sacrificial outcomes that included a constant threat to his life from Jewish zealots, ultimately forcing him to appeal to the Gentile Caesar (Acts 9:19-25; 21:27-28:14), and ironically, in whose hands he was probably martyred. 
 
The Corinthian believers were questioning Paul’s apostolic credentials and motives because of false teachers in their midst. His metaphorical reply (2 Cor 4:10-12) is indicative of the Apostle’s selflessly laying down his own life in the spread of the gospel message to the Gentiles and the edification of the churches. Paul also observed that time never stops, and physical life, inclusive of creation itself, in all its expressions, is progressively decaying (2 Cor 4:16-18; cf., Rom 5: 3-5), but for the resurrection life of Christ, which transcends death (cf., 2 Cor 12: 7-13). Surely, 'we do not loose heart... but by looking at the things which are not seen' (2 Cor 4:16 -18) and allowing our heart to love God deeply, as He would have us do, despite personal challenges to responsibilities He had given us, because of His deep love for all (John 12:24). And just as Paul would press on, we continue moving forward too.
 
Paul’s personal experience of hardships was insufferable (2 Cor 1:8-9), but as he looked back, he is totally convinced that he came through them simply because the life of Jesus was manifested in his body (2 Cor 4:10). Our concept of evil and suffering naturally conditions us to avoid them at all costs, despite its universality and undifferentiating character, but Paul caught sight of its mystery; not dissimilar to the process of evil that led to Calvary which resulted in God’s glory in salvation. In fact, Paul makes an astonishing admission: “for our present troubles are small and would not last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever” (2Cor 4:17). This unseen heavenly hope in interpreting evil as love’s handmaiden in God’s hands, bringing about glory in His time, puts everything else that preoccupies us in perspective (2 Cor 4:17-18; cf., 1 Peter 4:14,16). After all, when he refers to ‘glory,’ it is about a particular ‘Presence,’ the presence of God. Inevitably, His Presence with us during suffering that is being differentiated.
 
It is often difficult to see beyond the confines of our finite world as we are helmed in by our own individual dimensional limitations, but occasionally a foretaste of what it is like to know the beauty of heavenly holiness and sublimity breaks through our skeptical barriers. Paul’s instruction to the Corinthians was to fasten their ‘eyes’ on the eternal – on the Presence of our faithful God (2 Cor 4:18).
 
Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.
 
Open my ears that I may hear voices of truth Thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear, everything false will disappear. 
 
Open my mouth and let me bear tidings of mercy everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare love with Thy children thus to share. 
 
Open my mind that I may read more of Thy love in word and deed;
What shall I fear while yet Thou dost lead? Only for light from Thee I plead.
 
Silently now I wait for Thee, ready, my God, Thy will to see;
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit Divine!       
 
(Lyrics by Clara Scott)