Last week, we looked at Ephesians 6:10-17, which as some of you may know, is where Paul talks about putting on the armor of God. A few things resonated with me to various degrees.
We're (that is, I'm) not perfect. Far from it, actually, in a lot of ways. Sometimes I can convince myself that I'm pretty alright, but let's be honest. My life is a work in progress. The good part of all this is that I don't have to work alone, and, in fact, I can't do it alone. Our God is a god of love, a god of mercy (not getting what we deserve), and a god of grace (getting what we don't deserve).
(This isn't new information to me, but it's good to be reminded sometimes)
The three weapons of the enemy are death, deception, and dissension. If I think of all the times I've been kicked down by Satan or stuck in sin; a vast majority (probably even all) can be attributed one of these three tricks. I've seen and experienced (too many times) the hurt that death can cause. I've seen and experienced the destruction that comes from deception; the worst of which can come from self-deception. I've seen and experienced how relationships can be frayed and snap from dissension. That said, there is healing that occurs after losing a loved friend or family member. There is rebuilding after the deception. There can be mended relationships after dissension.
Two of the more interesting things I learned from this sermon are language based:
In the Greek, this passage talks about all the armor as singular, but the 'you' that Paul uses is the plural form. Paul is talking about y'all, you guys, all of you, or however it is your regional dialect refers to a group of people. This means that equipping the armor of God is a communal action. Now, this makes a lot of sense if you know a little about the Roman combat style of the time, which depended on soldiers fighting in groups. In a similar way, we also need to be able to rely on our Christian brothers and sisters in the war. Putting on the armor of God is not an individual activity; it's a community response to the evil we experience in our fallen world.
In verse 17, we are told that the sword of the Spirit is the ῥῆμα (rhema) of God. In Greek, rhema is the spoken word of God that we hear (not necessarily audibly) at that moment: our lowest moment. I don't know about you, but I would say that's pretty dang awesome. Christ speaks to us at our lowest. Incredible.
How do you do community? Have you heard the rhema word of God at your lowest?
Community is interesting to me because it comes in so many forms. For me, it's people from Grand Rapids, Calvin, Discovery; people from both of the churches I've attended here in Cincinnati; the people I work with at both of my jobs. There's different levels of community, I think. There's the body as a whole, the people I worship with on a consistent basis, but there's also groups of people who I go deeper with, who know me on a more personal and vulnerable level. I think it's good for us to have these different levels because they bring different qualities (for lack of a better word) to our communities.
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