Jacobs Thoughts and Doings

To help celebrate Paul and Tammy’s 18th Anniversary, we did one of oue favoprite things yesterday – ice cream at fritz and freez!

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Ephesians 6:10, 11

Paul is writing this letter while a prisoner, surrounded by well-armed Roman soldiers.  He had plenty of time to observe his guards and even chat with them, no doubt.  While looking at how they were dressed, I can imagine him wishing that all the believers he is writing to would have such armor to fight the enemy, Satan.

He starts by encouraging the Ephesian believers to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Armor is no good if the one who wears it is too weak or frightened to fight the good fight of faith.  Such strength does not come from us, but from God himself who loves us, saves us and keeps us.  We fight our spiritual battles in his strength, not our own.  But battle, we must!  Every follower of Jesus Christ learns that discipleship is a battle, a real battle.

Paul writes, Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  This armor is a gift from God who knows of our battles with the enemy and through his amazing grace, offers us spiritual armor to overcome the demonic strategies.

I like to think that Paul is emphasizing the importance of going to the armory to get our armor.  God will not dress us, we must deliberately dress ourselves with the armor that God so graciously provides.  Put it on, Paul says!

All of us believers need help!  And we discover that while we are fighting one battle, another appears before us and we must keep on the good fight.  I am now pushing 90 – still fighting.  I pray that Jesus in me will strengthen me, no matter, to meet Him with a testimony of his goodness.

We had the joy of having a picnic in our yard with the Brubaker bunch yesterday.  It is the season to cluster around the outdoor fire and just enjoy one another and the great outdoors.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Ephesians 6:1 – 9

Children, obey your parents in the Lord.  I find it interesting that Paul begins with counseling the children.  As I think of it, children represent a new generation and can easily turn against their parents.  Paul encourages them to be who they are, new members of the human family, but he reminds them that they can be legitimate young people without turning against their parents.  That takes wisdom beyond what children have.  But all should try.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children.  I do not hear this word much if at all.  I think it means being pushed unduly to the point of frustration.  Some of us parents are more demanding than God himself.  We should love at all times, being patient as God is patient with us.  Avoid making children feel like they cannot possibly please their fathers, or mothers, for that matter.

We now enter an unfamiliar culture – where there are slaves and masters.  In our time slavery is considered one of the most inhuman of all institutions.  Paul takes off the edge a bit by counseling Christian slaves to obey just as you would obey Christ.  Can more be said?

Then Paul shifts to the attitudes of Christian slave owners who are encouraged to treat their slaves as God treats them, and there is no favoritism with him.  In other words, in the eyes of God each believer is precious in the eyes of God, owner and slave alike, and should be treated like everyone else, without favoritism.

Paul has a word of grace for each of these four categories – children, parents, slave, master.  These relationships are very demanding, indeed.  The answer is not to empower some over others but to treat each one as a thankful child of God, forgiven and made new in Christ.  This is our new sociology!

Glads gladden the heart. These beauties bloom and bloom!  What a delight!

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”   This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Ephesians 5:31 – 33

Mystery, indeed.  If I try to explain why it is that I love Anna Ruth so, I find no words to express my feelings.  I am simply overwhelmed.  Love does not lend itself to analysis. Not that I cannot list a dozen of her admirable qualities, and even more.  It is just that the deepest emotions and love feelings simply cannot possibly state what I know, and feel, but cannot fully explain.  This feeling is no doubt universal among human beings, made even more marvelous by Christian faith and humility.

Having made this point about the mystery of the relationship between lovers, life-long lovers, Paul turns our thoughts to what he is really writing about, husband and wife relationships, but to a similar but much more profound mystery, Christ and the church.  Human marriage casts a certain light on this mystery but it is far greater than the mind can imagine or that the imagination can even begin to grasp.

I rejoice greatly in my love for Anna Ruth. Rightly so.  But I rejoice even more when I think that I am, in a more profound sense, “married” to Christ.  That God should love me as I love Anna Ruth simply lets me speechless.  That is a marriage that is hard for me to believe, that Jesus Christ wants me as his intimate “spouse,” if I may use that word. I believe that is what Paul says, and as overwhelmed as he.

These giant beauties add vitality to our little garden.  What a blast of color!

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:32

Anna Ruth and I married in 1949 and have lived together as close friends, soul-mates and dedicated lovers for over 67 years!  That is hard to believe, but true.  It is a miracle of love, both divine and human.  I am devoted to her and she to me. That bond is a mystery, indeed.  We have many interests, many relationships, but nothing comes close to our love for one another and our commitment to one another.

Our brother in the Lord, Paul, uses such human bonding to provide an insight into the spiritual, eternal bonding between Christ and the church, often described as a husband/wife relationship.

The mystery of marriage bonding is helpful when we consider our bonding with our Lover, Jesus Christ.  No love is greater than his love for us, the church, the body of Christ on the earth.  He died for us, remember?

Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  That is how we should love our spouse!

This morning, once again, I humbly bow before that mystery, the love of Christ, and breath a prayer of thanksgiving for the fact that I am bonded to Jesus and he to me in a love that is even stronger and more precious and more costly than my love for dear Anna Ruth! To be sure, I am confounded by our love for one another.  But there is a greater mystery, This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

I, and you, are in that!  Let us just praise Him with all our hearts and serve him forever.

Several years ago I bought some seed among which was the seed for this flower that now comes up every year to please and surprise us.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ephesians 5:21 – 22 and 25

Paul now gets down to putting the love of God into practice.  He calls it “submission.”  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  This covers all relationships. The Spirit of God is never haughty or demanding, but elevating and freeing.  As new-born sons and daughters, we learn, not from culture but from Christ himself.

Paul touches on one of our most intimate relationships, husband/wives.  As both are saved by Christ Jesus, they are enabled to put pride aside and submit no one another “as you do to the Lord.” 

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  We have been saved and our thinking transformed so we can receive a new message from the Lord, “Submit to one another!”

I find this one of the most demanding life-changing aspects of living in Christ as new creatures in the body of Christ. Two words stand out, “love,” and “submit.”  The opposite marks the old life – selfishness and self-protection.  Two persons who love Jesus will love and submit, without being instructed.  They do so because Jesus has changed them.

I am now 89 years old, still learning how to love and submit to Anna Ruth, my dear wife since 1949!  I am still at it!  I find that my submission to her is a beautiful reflection of Jesus’ love for the church.