my prison epistles mid term

Addison Roberts
NWT 363 – Prison Epistles
Chris Cascone


Reflect on the mission and make up of the church as disclosed in Ephesians

The mission of the church as disclosed in Ephesians seems to be unity and love. Ephesians 4:11 and 3:17 are two of the verses that show this. The mission of the church is to express a deep unity. We are to show what unity is in a disjointed and disconnected world. Paul says in another letter that in Christ there is neither slave nor free, male or female, Jew or Gentile, etc. The lines of class, gender, and race are to be washed away by the blood of Christ. The church is called in Ephesians to express this unity. We are to express God to the world, and God is one. Therefore we are to be one. We achieve this unity through love. This is two fold. We are to accept the forgiveness and love from God and in turn give that love and forgiveness away. This breaks down the barriers of offense and creates an even more unified whole. So the mission of the church is to express the unity and love in God. When we adequately express this, people will be drawn to the cross. Everyone feels the disconnectedness within humanity. If the churches expresses absolute unity in our marriages, families, and church bodies, we will show God to the world and people will long for him. If we express God's love, the world will feel welcomed by God and be able to act on their longing. In summary, The mission of the church is to show true unity and love to the world so that the world will be drawn to the cross
The make-up of the church is to be the fullness of Christ. We are to represent him in every way. We are to be his body. This is a rather simple point. The church is to be a mirror. We reflect Christ and show the world what he looks like. This should scare us. The church as a whole is Jesus' earthly body now that his physical body has gone to heaven. We are to live up to the image of God. The make up of the church is to be the full representation of all of Christ, his miracles, his integrity, his prayer, his very image earth. Let us live up to this high calling.


Reflect on Ephesians 5:22-33


First of all, I feel that this section is missing something. Verse 21 is crucial to the development of this idea. WE must all submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. That is crucial. Paul is simply expounding on one relationship that illustrates his point.
Secondly, in order to adequately reflect on these verses, we must take note of something. The woman is told to submit to her husband as to the Lord. This verse has been used to do so much harm to women and relationships and even to how some people view Christianity. But there is a second part to his commandment. The husband must love his wife as Christ loved the church. He must give himself up for her. Far too many men ask their wives to submit when they will not die. This is not Godly. The man is to lead the way in submission. He must first die. Then the wife will follow his example and submit to him as unto the Lord.
Thirdly, the book Love and Respect by Doctor Eggerich has some great points on the end of this passage. Men badly want to feel respected. They want to feel needed and they want to feel like a knight in shining armor. This is so critical to a man's psyche. If a woman acts overly independent or asserts authority over him or demeans him in any way, it does serious damage. On the flip side of this, a woman needs to feel loved. She wants to feel important and she needs to feel like the princess. This is also critical to her psyche. If a man is cruel or not concerned and caring or not good at expressing his affection, it does serious damage. The man and the woman both have roles that they play in each other's lives. If these roles are not fulfilled, the relationship will not operate correctly. The author gives a good picture by describing it a a cycle or wheel. One single niche in the wheel causes a bumpy ride.
So the point of these verses is to put responsibility on both the man and the woman. Marriage is a mutual thing. Both parties must play an active role. Anything else is not in line with the Bible. So let us live up to this and show the Biblical model for how marriage and relationships are supposed to work. This is a high calling, but if the church, armed with the power of God, does not take it up, no one will.

The Mystery of God as Disclosed in Ephesians

The mystery of God as disclosed in Ephesians has everything to do with Jesus. I kind of hit on certain aspects of this mystery. The mystery of God is basically his plan to bring all things into unity through Christ. This unity has two major aspects. The first of these is to bring unity between man and God. The second of these is to bring unity between man and man. We will talk about each separately.
The first part of the mystery that has been disclosed is God bringing unity through God and man through Jesus. There once was perfect unity between God and man but then Sin entered and all of creation was separated from God. We were made enemies to God and every inclination of our hearts was evil from birth. But then Jesus cam onto the scene. He lived up to God's standard and became the object on which God's wrath was satisfied. With God's wrath fully satisfied, he was able to enter into a loving relationship that he has always intended to have with his creation. This is part of the mystery of the work of Christ. It bridged the great divide caused by sin. Now, we can freely enter into relationship with our creator.
The second part of the mystery of Christ is seen in the unity between man and man. Christ, in his work on calvary, has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles (and all people) making one people in him. This new race is called Christians. As I said before. Race, gender and class lines are washed away by the blood of the spotless lamb. This unity among men is the natural response to the graceful unity that we enjoy with God. If God has broken down the wall of hostility between himself and man, shouldn't man break down any hostilities between himself and another man. If one who is perfectly righteous can make a way for one who deserves destruction, can't one who is unrighteous make a way for another who is equalyl as unrighteous God set the example for us. As we have been loved we must love. As we have been forgiven we must forgive. This is the mystery of the Gospel: That all things would come into unity under the headship of Christ. Only through Christ and in Christ is this even remotely possible. Let us then ask God to give us his affections. Let us ask God to give us his forgiveness, his love, his mercy and his grace. Let us watch barriers be destroyed.


The Armor of God as Disclosed in Ephesians


The armor of God discourse at the end of Ephesians is one of those passages that you hear a lot of growing up and it can easily become one of those passages that is thrown into the “one of those verses I know” pool. Let us never throw anything there. All of scripture is profitable. Even Leviticus..ouch! Realizing this, we must take notice of the implications of the armor of God discourse. It is not some ear tickling fun passage to read. It is the battle cry of the church and we must realize the points being made here. I see three major themes n this discourse: we are at war, it is not easy and there is an essential uniform for every soldier.
We are at war! Christianity is more than a life style. To accept Christ is to enter the ranks. To accept Christ is to accept a mission. We enter into a war against powers and principalities that are much stronger than us. However, they are not stronger than the Lord. This puts the importance of a devotional life in a whole new light. If we view any part of our Christian life as a chore or simply a part of the walk, we will neglect them. We must view every aspect as either a preperation for or an engagement in battle. We must not pretend we are not at war. We must view ourselves as soldiers.
It is not easy! Paul encourages his readers to “stand” four times. It must be hard to stand or the Holy Spirit wouldn't waste that much space. Christianity is not easy. We have an enemy that hates us and he has snipers and spies and is very good at what he does. Let us not down play this. We must be ever vigilant to stand our ground firmly. If we are not, we may fall victim to the devils schemes.
There is a uniform. Every Christian must take up every part of the armor of God. To not take up even a single piece is to be under equipped and you don't want to be under equipped. It is a warzone out there and Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may DEVOUR..not talk to or get to fall down momentarily and then carry on his merry way. If you choose to fight he will fight back. Put on the full armor of God and check twice to make sure you are well prepared. You are entering enemy territory and you are in danger if you do not follow the plan. However, if we do follow the plan, rejoice, because victory for assured with great certainty.

The Adoption of the Saints (one that I chose)

This topic interests me greatly. Ephesians 1 talks about how we have been adopted as his sons through the work of Christ. Wow! What an awesome thing to praise God for. He has picked us. We are his chosen sons and daughters. That is probably the coolest thing ever. But when we talk about this one major argument come up and that is the argument of Predestination. If God chose and adopted some, did he not chose others? I will dig into this briefly and try to come up with an adequate answer.
On the issue of Adoption, we have missed the point. Paul is writing a letter of praise. He is thanking God that he has been adopted. He is thanking God that he has been chosen. We turn this quickly and curse and question God because we feel that this means others have not. That is not the point even a little bit. Consider this: Children are adopted every day. Most of these children are pulled out of horrible circumstances by parents that choose to love them and care for them and give them a life they could have never dreamed of. Now, consider this: One of these adopted children, at fifteen years old, turns to his parent and asks “Why mom, did you pick me? Why do I deserve your favor?” the answer of course is that the child didn't earn her favor an she picked him just because she did. She picked him because she wanted relationship with him. His parents picked him because they wanted him. We stand this way before God. God has pulled us out of horrendous circumstances. He has given us a life we never deserved or earned. Jesus has chosen us to be adopted and we need to praise him for that. If our focus is on the flip side we have missed the point greatly. A just God would send everyone to hell. A loving God has made a way for everyone to go to heaven. We should not call God unjust even if he has chosen some and not others. Let us praise him that we, who have no merit of our own, were chosen by him to be called his own. We were chosen to share an inheritance with his perfect son. Let us not miss the point of this adoption thing. It is meant to be a praise so let us treat it as such. Let us all take a second and thank God for calling us out of Egypt. Let us deeply thank God that we are his pick and take comfort that we are chosen by God. To view that as anything less than wonderful is to totally miss the point.