Faithful to Christ, By The Will Of God Study #2
By The Will Of God, A Study Through Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsHow many of us look for an unfaithful partner? Do we desire friends that are unfaithful? If we prize faithfulness in our human, worldly lives, how do we come to better understand the need for faithfulness in our spiritual life? When Paul says to those who are faithful in Christ, what does that mean?
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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
How many of us look for an unfaithful partner? Do we desire friends that are unfaithful? If we prize faithfulness in our human, worldly lives, how do we come to better understand the need for faithfulness in our spiritual life? When Paul says to those who are faithful in Christ, what does that mean?
How many of us look for an unfaithful partner? Do we desire friends that are unfaithful? If we prize faithfulness in our human, worldly lives, how do we come to better understand the need for faithfulness in our spiritual life? When Paul says to those who are faithful in Christ, what does that mean?
Paul’s life reminds us that God can radically change anyone. Here we have a man who might formerly have been compared to a terrorist now writing the New Testament.
Think about this, Saul actively pursued those in the Christian faith and executed them in some of the most brutal ways possible. He wasn’t a passive participant, he was the instigator.
Paul says he was an apostle by “God’s will.” God’s will is an important theme in the letter, emphasizing God’s purposes. Paul’s apostleship was not of his own choosing .
There was a radical transformation in his life when God called him and showed Paul the will he had for his life.
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
). God appointed him from birth.
God appointed him from birth.
Merida, Tony. Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Merida, Tony. Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Faithfulness is more than simply showing up, it is also showing out.
Faithfulness is more than simply showing up, it is also showing out.
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 31.86 πιστός, ή, όν
πιστόςa, ή, όν: (derivative of πιστεύωb ‘to trust,’ 31.85)
Pistos - Faithful, Reliable, Believing
Pistos - Faithful, Reliable, Believing
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 31.87 πιστός, ή, όν
pertaining to being trusted—‘faithful, trustworthy, dependable, reliable.’ δοῦλε ἀγαθὲ καὶ πιστέ ‘good and faithful servant’ Mt 25:21; ταῦτα παράθου πιστοῖς ἀνθρώποις ‘pass these on to reliable men’ 2 Tm 2:2; πιστὸς ὁ λόγος ‘this word can be trusted’ 2 Tm 2:11. Since πιστόςb is a type of passive derivative of πιστεύωb, it may be necessary in a number of languages to render this passive relationship in an active form. For example, the phrase δοῦλε ἀγαθὲ καὶ πιστέ in Mt 25:21 may be rendered as ‘good servant and one whom I can trust.’ In 2 Tm 2:11 the phrase πιστὸς ὁ λόγος may be rendered as ‘this is a saying we can have confidence in’ or ‘… that we can trust.’
pertaining to being trusted—‘faithful, trustworthy, dependable, reliable.
’ δοῦλε ἀγαθὲ καὶ πιστέ ‘good and faithful servant’ ;
‘good and faithful servant’ ; ταῦτα παράθου πιστοῖς ἀνθρώποις ‘pass these on to reliable men’ 2 Tm 2:2; πιστὸς ὁ λόγος ‘this word can be trusted’ 2 Tm 2:11. Since πιστόςb is a type of passive derivative of πιστεύωb, it may be necessary in a number of languages to render this passive relationship in an active form. For example, the phrase δοῦλε ἀγαθὲ καὶ πιστέ in may be rendered as ‘good servant and one whom I can trust.’ In 2 Tm 2:11 the phrase πιστὸς ὁ λόγος may be rendered as ‘this is a saying we can have confidence in’ or ‘… that we can trust.’
ταῦτα παράθου πιστοῖς ἀνθρώποις ‘pass these on to reliable men’ 2 Tm 2:2;
πιστὸς ὁ λόγος ‘this word can be trusted’ 2 Tm 2:11.
Since πιστόςb is a type of passive derivative of πιστεύωb, it may be necessary in a number of languages to render this passive relationship in an active form.
For example, the phrase δοῦλε ἀγαθὲ καὶ πιστέ in may be rendered as ‘good servant and one whom I can trust.’ In 2 Tm 2:11 the phrase πιστὸς ὁ λόγος may be rendered as ‘this is a saying we can have confidence in’ or ‘… that we can trust.’
The word pistos is used to describe people in the scripture who you can trust. It is also used in statements which we can trust in the Bible as well.
We often immediately think these things about God.
God is Faithful
God is Trustworthy
God is Dependable
God is Reliable
But,
Are we? Are you?
Are we? Are you?
Are you Faithful in Christ?
Are you Trustworthy in Christ?
Are you Dependable in Christ?
Are you Reliable in Christ?
In order to know if we are, we need to know what it looks like.
Faithfulness is not perfection but it is progress.
Faithfulness is not perfection but it is progress.
We aren’t perfect and we aren’t going to be until we see are Savior and Lord face to face. Then we will be given perfect bodies and sin will be no more. Here on earth, faithfulness is something we strive for.
Faithfulness is not earning salvation.
Faithfulness is not earning salvation.
Our salvation isn’t earned, it was something we received through the grace of Jesus Christ. Who left heaven and eventually His Father so he could pay the price for our sins. We did nothing to deserve this, it was through His love for us that He did this.
Faithfulness in the Bible indicates a dedication to becoming more and more like Christ. Growing in Him.
Faithfulness in the Bible indicates a dedication to becoming more and more like Christ. Growing in Him.
This is the progress we talked about earlier.
It is an acknowledgement that we are not the measurement by which we are measured.
It is an acknowledgement that we are not the measurement by which we are measured.
If we think in our humanness that we are the stick we measure our faithfulness by, then we are mistaken.
It is understanding our chosen, called, adopted personhood in Christ and stepping into that personhood.
It is understanding our chosen, called, adopted personhood in Christ and stepping into that personhood.
It is being renewed in our mind and spirit.
It is being renewed in our mind and spirit.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Jesus did not come so we could reside in darkness until He returned. He came so that we can walk in the light today.
Jesus did not come so we could reside in darkness until He returned. He came so that we can walk in the light today.
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
How can we walk this way?
I don’t want to say this is simple, but when we understand who we are in Christ, we have a power to walk the way He wants us to because He is right there by our side.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
We are adopted, we are children and if children.
Psalm 1
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
So then what do we do?
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We are faithful because
He has given us the position in Christ to begin so.
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
He has given us the power in the Spirit to believe so.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
He has given us the instruction in His Word to become so.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
We love because he first loved us.
God has been so faithful to us! Why would we not want to be faithful to Him.
God has been so faithful to us! Why would we not want to be faithful to Him.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
This world will throw everything possible at us to try and make us be unfaithful to Christ.
But, He has overcome the world, and through Him, we can as well.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
We can be faithful because He is Faithful to make us so.
We can be faithful because He is Faithful to make us so.
Lord thank you that when I am weak, you are strong.
I echo the cry of the father in Mark chapter 9.
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Lord I desire to be faithful, help my unfaithfulness!
Lord I desire to be faithful, help my unfaithfulness!