Ephesians Devotionals
Bob Morris
The Freedom of Commitment (Ephesians 3:1 and 7)
For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles…became a servant of the gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.
Sometimes Paul’s mind seems to work faster than his amanuensis (scribe) can write. For example, in Ephesians 1, verses 3-14 form one complex sentence in the Greek. Here in chapter 3 he begins one thought only to interject verses 2-6 before completing the original thought. For our purposes we will look at them separately.
There is more freedom in commitment and servanthood than in “independence”. Dan (not his real name), a young medical doctor working in Pakistan, came from strong Brethren roots in Canada. To his chagrin, he found himself working in a part of Pakistan where the Church of Pakistan held sway in the life of most believers. Because of the hierarchical nature of the church (a merger of Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican and Baptist churches), the local Bishop expected to know what was going on in his diocese, especially where foreign missionaries were concerned.
Dan chafed under the constant informal “supervision” of a bishop to whom he felt little allegiance. Eventually the matter came to a head: Dan either had to cooperate with the Bishop or leave the area. Wisely, he chose the former and was ordained a lay reader in the Church of Pakistan. Soon he discovered that he actually had more scope for ministry than before. He had a recognizable “identity”, his ministry was more readily accepted by believers in the area, and because the Bishop in this case was a brother in Christ, both the diocese and the mission became more effective and fruitful.
Paul refers to himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus and a servant of the gospel. These were not limiting factors; both God’s grace and his power were strongly at work in his life. Our natural tendency is always to maintain control of our lives and we are wary of any person, organization or institution that threatens our control. But the truth is, the more we concede control of our lives to Christ, the more we experience life to the full. The challenge is to choose wisely those to whom we make commitments, so that our “slavery” becomes freedom and not the reverse.
One of the keys to surrendering control wisely is evaluating the reason for doing it. Paul was a prisoner of Christ “for the sake of you Gentiles”. People are worth dying for; organizations per se are not. If I can introduce people to Christ and the freedom we have in him, any control I surrender will be trivial by comparison. Sometimes that control is exercised by a group of people committed to a common task. Even then, it is wise to ask the church, community or mission to whom we are asked to submit, “Are you here to facilitate mission or control it?” When we find those who are committed to Christ and his mission, we can and should happily commit to them, and cede personal autonomy for the sake of the gospel.
All of this becomes almost trivial in the light of the cross and the events of Good Friday we remember this week. Jesus felt we were worth dying for, and allowed himself to become a prisoner in order to set us free. We express our gratitude by living for him and not ourselves. "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Cor. 5: 15)
Amazing love, how can it be that you, my King, would die for me. Amazing love, I know it's true, it's my joy to honour you in all I do. Amen.
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