This continues my thoughts on sermon application.
The theme passage for this discussion is Ephesians 4:22-24:
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
In my first post in this series, I said this passage suggests three interlocking lenses for sermon application:
- The way we think, our worldview;
- Who we are, as individual Christians, and corporately as families, churches and communities; and
- What we want, our desires.
My previous post addressed worldview - being "made new in the attitude of our mind". Here, I want to think about self-image.
When we become Christians, we are regenerated, we are "born again". As far as God is concerned, we're new people. Our old self died with Christ, and we are new people, raised with Christ in glory. We are partial, personal, individualised prolepses of how everything will be recreated when when Christ returns (John 3:3; Romans 6; 2 Cor 5:17; 1 Pet 1:23). Our challenge is to live out this new identity in Christ. This is difficult because the world we operate in is still in rebellion against Christ, our old self still drags us back, and the devil is still active to tempt us (Gal 5:16-17; Eph 6:10-13; 1 Pet 5:8-9; 1 John 2:15-17). It's the old trilogy: the world, the flesh and the devil.
So, when thinking about applying the passage, I ask: how does this passage shape our view of ourselves, our self-identity? How do we normally think of ourselves? How does the world want us to see ourselves? How is that different from what the passage demands?
This applies beyond us as individual Christians, it applies to us as:
- family members – brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers;
- a church, a community of Christians;
- members of society generally: our social groups, ethnic groups, local communities.
- other...?
Eg: what's the generally accepted, taken-for-granted, worldly attitude to church? Well, it could be any of the following: - it's an outpost of traditional, oppressive values - we should re-educate and enlighten them, or get rid of them [Richard Dawkins];
- it's a bunch of old-fashioned eccentrics - we can laugh at them;
- they can do what they want, as long as they don't stop me from doing what I want [this might be the most common attitude...?];
- it's a place where I might go to get spiritual, personal healing when I feel like I need it [a "spiritualist", "consumer" attitude to church - maybe many of our regular attenders think like this?];
But what's God's attitude to his church, his people? 1 Pet 2:4-10 talks of the church as God's holy temple, built on the precious foundation of Christ himself. That means God considers his people to be precious and valuable. It also means we have a high, noble calling: to praise this God, who has brought us to himself.
If we think of ourselves, and our church community, in worldly ways, we will be embarrassed, or keep searching for a church where we are "comfortable", or only get involved in church if it's convenient to us - or something like that. But if we take our identity, and our calling, seriously, then we'll:
- be motivated to praise God for bringing us into his community;
- not be surprised when people mock and marginalise us - that's what they did to Jesus, so of course that's what they'll do to us;
- think of church as a place to serve and care for others, not a place to be comfortable and expect everyone else to serve us; and
- be eager to tell everyone that they're attitude to both Christ and his people are profoundly wrong.
Thoughts, anyone?
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