This Week's Memesplanations
Memesplanation Short – Ephesians 4:1-4
Ephesians 4:1-4
As a prisoner of the Lord, I plead with you to walk holy, in a way that is suitable to your high rank, given to you in your divine calling. With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience. Be faithful to guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace, being one body and one spirit, as you were all called into the same glorious hope of divine destiny.
We are one body, and have one spirit, the Holy Spirit. That is who we are. Why do we not see this in most gatherings of believers? Why have we allowed incorrect emphases to dominate our minds and hearts and destroy that reality? We have a shared divine calling and a high rank, thus we need to live and operate differently than we have in the past. Wake up. You have slumbered, lulled to sleep by fluffy, happy motivational speeches disguised as sermons, many of us for years.
Memesplanation Short – Ephesians 4:11-13
Ephesians 4:11-13
And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.
The 5-fold ministry: apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher, pastor. It is not who you are, but these are things that many of us have been called to participate in and do. These offices are still very vital and active (not just the last 3). We are to experience the fullness of knowing Jesus, oneness in the faith of Christ, and fully spiritually mature people. I do not see that in many corners of the Body of Christ, I do not claim to have attained to this, yet, either. However, I want to get there, so cutting myself off from some of these offices, which are all meant to help me in that maturing process, does not make sense.
Memesplanation Short – Ephesians 4:18-19
Ephesians 4:18-19
So with the wisdom given to me from the Lord I say: You should not live like the unbelievers around you who walk in their empty delusions. Their corrupted logic has been clouded because their hearts are so far from God—their blinded understanding and deep-seated moral darkness keeps them from the true knowledge of God. Because of spiritual apathy, they surrender their lives to lewdness, impurity, and sexual obsession.
We act differently from the world around us. That is how we are holy. We do not walk in spiritual apathy because we know the Truth, and He has set us free. We have purer logic than the world, as it has been adjusted by being in Christ. Our consciences are actually functional to help us be different. That is who we are, we are a holy people. We are each holy as individuals as well.