TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IHOP BIBLE STUDY # 4 Ephesians 4: 1-16, with commentary. The purpose of the Ephesians Letter describes, Guidelines For Living The Enlightened Life As New Selves. Today s study is the 4th of 5 lessons. PLEASE NOTE the new section toward the end of this study page. According to our Study Chart: This is the second major section of our chart, Guidelines for Living as New Selves. This is the 1st of 2 lessons in this section. (For more information, see the master Ephesians Chart previously sent to you. Also, it is available at www.triumc.org/web1/biblestudy. Are you having trouble downloading the Chart? Send an email directly to me at wsalmon@cox.net and I ll snail-mail you a copy. Read the assigned reading at one time: Ephesians 4: 1 16. The chart of the weekly reading: The purpose of the Letter to the Ephesians Guidelines For Living The Enlightened Life As New Selves Section 2: Guidelines for Living as New Selves (The first of two lessons in this section) Living the life worthy of your calling The worthy life is in the practice of our calling and is measured by our maturity in the practice of love. The worthy life is lived in At-One-Ment with neighbor and in surrender to the practice of the task to which we are assigned. In this way we mature in our practice of love. Live worthy of our Unity We are one with neighbor and God as we surrender (faith) to our calling We are not let of the hook of practicing our various assignments in the practice of our unity We are no longer infants but grown up living the Jesus life We are glued together by love Vss. 1 3 Vss. 4 6 Vss. 7 13 Vss. 14 15 Vs. 16 I. Review section A. Vs. 1, What is your experience of living a worthy life? WS: It is living the humane life. Other IHOPers responded: It is WWJD; It is doing God s thing my way; It is living at peace and not struggling; It is living At-One with the world; It is the Boy Scout principle of leaving our space better than we found it.
B. Vs. 3, How do you experience a unity with the Spirit? WS: The experience of the Spirit is the freedom to live the life for which we are created. Other IHOPers responded: It is the Holy Spirit; It is living the humble life; It is meeting the needs of others. C. Vs. 7 How do you experience grace? WS: Grace is not being let off the hook of our intended creation which is to live the humane life. D. Vss. 8 10, How does Paul define our task here? WS: What is implied in Psalm 68: 8 is that our assigned task is to fill the world as we experience it to the brim. From a Jewish experience this is the purpose of awakening to the reality that already everything is filled God who is experienced as Perfect At-One-Ment; that is, we are the reality in which meaning and experience become One. One IHOPer s Bible interpreted this Psalm as Captivity is made captive. I like this phrase because it implies that the barriers (captivity) preventing us from living our intended creation is taken captive. Beautiful. E. Vs. 11, What is your assigned task? WS: My assigned task is to be a teacher/preacher. Each of the IHOPers were asked to identify their assigned task. F. Vss. 14 15, If you were walking down the street how would you recognize and infant in the faith? Someone mature in the faith? WS: Infants in the faith have no stand point as a reference to interpret life s experiences. Those mature in the faith have such a reference point. G. Vs. 16, How do we experience the glue than Paul is writing about? WS: First, the glue is experienced as the wrath of God. God s wrath always is God s loving judgment when we are acting in ways that are contrary to living the humane life. Second, the glue is experienced as a deep sense of satisfaction when we do fulfill this intended purpose. II. The second assignment is to answer the following questions in our usual format. It is helpful to begin to brood about WHY the Ephesian churches were unable to solve these problems themselves. When we get around to asking this question we ll be dealing with one of the contradictions preventing their own solutions. These contradictions are not always named in the scripture, but frequently implied. However, Paul provides his solution which gives us some idea about this very deep barrier. At this point we do some intuitional work that always is revealing.
A. How does this material express the surface barriers or problems? WS: Check out Vs. 14. The Ephesian membership are still infants in the faith. Other IHOPers said, The Church is not mature; They have not earned their spiritual merit badges. B. Describe Paul s solution. WS: Check out Vs. 11. Paul recommends that each person identify their unique calling and begin to act out of it. C. What does Paul s solution suggest about the Deeper Problem? (Note: this usually results in new information.) WS: Check out Vss. 3 & 6. The deeper problem is the church is not acting of our unity. III. Words to be added to your lexicon or list of words and definitions. For the foreseeable future, I m adding a few words for you to write down the Gut Trip Analysis (definition) in a small notebook. You may want to put these in some kind of alphabetical order so that you can refer to them when you ve forgotten how these words ARE EXPEREINCED. (For those familiar with Microsoft Excel or any spread sheet, or data base, these words can be entered in any order, and then they can be alphabetized by the computer.) One of the persistent problems people face in this Bible Study is the struggle to push our old Christian Code Words from Head Trip explanations into Gut Trip experiences. Although, we been at this task just over six years, the struggle remains. It is time for us to move beyond this fundamental exercise. In order to find Gut Trip Analysis useful, it will be helpful to become selfconscious about these definitions. I ll provide the Gut Trip definition, and you can illuminate the word by writing down your own personal experience. Each week two or three new words will be added to this list. Give it a try. Will you? SAVE THE FOLLOWING AND CREATE YOUR OWN LEXICON! Refer to in when you can t think of your definition. Old Christian Code Word God Jesus Gut Trip Analysis Definition The experience of Perfect At-One-Ment that we embody as we live the humane life. The demonstrator of living the humane life. Salmon s definition I experience the antithesis of At-One- Ment when I get so frustrated that I have a language change, and I m almost beside myself. When I finally get my act together, then my wife affirms that I m living the humane life; i.e., that I living the Jesus life. Your personal definition
Christ Holy Spirit The Church The EVENT in which, or by which, we are awakened from living in the anti-thesis of At- One-Ment, and in which we are awakened to live the humane life. The act of choosing to be obedient to living the Christ-like life as humane human beings. Actually, the freedom we have to be the obedient ones behalf of a world that is not obedient against the day when all the world will be obedient in living the humane life. The church is the gathered body of those who live the awakened life. The Church is what the church does; when the church is living out of the ethic of WWJD it is the church. This is a universal principle and is not necessarily applied just to Christian organizations. When Beverly confronts my potty mouth, then at this moment I am convicted of living the antithesis of At-One- Ment. In this same event I am confronted with the possibility of living the humane life. Actually, any kind of a confrontation has the possibility of being a Christ event. Theologically, this is called ontological (reality) thinking. Also, Gut Trip Analysis calls it the indicative or The Way Life Is. When we choose to live the humane life we are experiencing what Christian tradition points to in the word The Holy Spirit, i.e., the empowerment to live the human life. The humane life is lived when others affirm we are helpful and pleasant to be around, or can embrace our leadership at the moment. Also, it is as we do acts of justice and mercy that is that we no longer participate in racist or sexist jokes that we participate in the activity of the Holy Spirit. An example of a large group of people acting as The Awakened People living the Human Life is that of the Turks rallying against the Islamic fundamentalists who wish to turn the country away from its secular roots. OUR DANGER IS IN MAKING CHRIST TOO SMALL; THE BODY OF CHRIST IS UNIVERSA, JUST AS CHRIST IS UNIVERSAL.
The human situation (How did we humans became a part of creation, and then what happened to us? Take seriously Genesis 2 11! Sin The human situation is to live spiritual unaware of our intended purpose for living the humane life. This predicament is illustrated in the murder of Able by Cain, in the desire of the people to replace God in the Tower of Babel, and in the Noah story about God s wrath. Sin is living in a state of separation. This is an unavoidable situation and predicament illustrated in our gender, race and culture. Frequently, when my sense of frustration gets the best of me I experience being beside myself. This is not the experience God wants for me. God s purpose for me is to live selfconsciously! My human situation (John Wesley s predicament ) is to be male. My wife, Beverly s, situation is to be female. While we have been married for 50 years we still are wired differently. It is only in coitus that we approach some measure of unity (as promised in the Bible), yet each of us will approach death by ourselves. Alright folks, talk to me!