Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 21 April 2013; Corps 614 Regent Park, 30 August 2015; and TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 08 June 2025 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay
This is the 2025 Version.
To view the 2015 version, click here:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/08/galatians-519-21-ephesians-427-32.html
To read the 2013 original, click here:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/04/galatians-519-21-ephesians-427-32.html
When
we served in Swift Current one Sunday my friend, Tim, told me this story about
why he was late for church:
Very early on Sunday morning before he was up and ready for church,
there was a knock on the door of his new place. He had just recently moved in.
He gets up, answers the door; it is a police officer. She asks, “Are you Tim?”
“Yes”
“I need you to come with me”, she says.
“Why”
She tells him what it is that he has supposedly done. Tim
doesn’t think that this applies to him. As far as he knows he has never been
involved in whatever the police officer is talking about but “Okay.” He's still
half asleep.
“Go get dressed”, she tells him. He does.
The whole time he is wondering, of course, ‘what is going on?’
As he is getting dressed, he is thinking that there is something not right
here; so, as he comes out of his room, fully clothed, he asks her again, “Who
are you looking for?”
As they walk out the door, “Tim”, she says.
As they go to the police car, “Tim who?” he says. “What is the
last name of the Tim you’re looking for?”
Standing beside the police car, “You tell me your last name
first”, she says. He does. “Show me your ID, please”, she says. He does. “Have
a nice day, Tim”, she says. He does. Apparently, some other Tim – in whom the
police were interested - used to live in this apartment before him; or the new
landlord thought he was some other Tim or something like that. That was Tim’s
excuse for missing church that day. I thought that was a good excuse.
There is
a possible case of mistaken identity. In our texts today – especially the one
from Galatians. The pericopes we read this morning are all passages from
letters that the Apostle Paul has written to the Saints (In the Bible, when we
see the word 'Saints' to whom is it referring? Christians). Paul has written
these letters to Saints/Christians in various communities he knows well. He is
writing these letters to churches he has planted himself. He is writing these
letters – in the cases of the Philippians and the Ephesians – to people he
loves and respects. And to the Galatians, he writes of their common problem,
Galatians 5:19-21:
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity
and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of
rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies,
and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will
not inherit the kingdom of God.
People
who indulge in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissentions, factions, envy, and the like, Paul says, will not inherit the
kingdom of God.[1] This is pretty serious stuff. He is concerned about his
friends and congregation members. He is not talking about those who have not
claimed that Jesus is Lord (See Mt 7:15-27; cf. Mt 25:31ff.); Paul is writing
this letter to and for people in the churches. Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Paul says that
those in the Christian churches – who he himself knows and some of these
churches he actually planted himself – Paul says to his friends that they
should make sure they aren’t mistaken for people who aren’t inheriting the Kingdom
who live a life with hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissentions, factions, envy and the like will not inherit the kingdom of
God.[2] This is serious stuff.
This
can be a real problem too. Paul had to write this similar sentiment in many of
his letters, three of which we have read from today. Paul had to warn people
who were meeting in the Christian congregations. Paul had to warn the Saints in
these Christian communities. Paul had to warn the good guys not to get drawn
into this stuff or, he says, they may not even seem like they will inherit the
kingdom of God.[3]
We
know too that just as these things were a temptation for people in the Roman
world of the first century, they are also a temptation for people in the
English-speaking world today. Who of us hasn’t seen, experienced, or even been
tempted ourselves to indulge in hatred (hating someone), discord (not getting
along with someone), jealousy, fits of rage (getting angry at people and
things), selfish ambition (wanting to be better than someone), dissentions,
factions (this includes getting people on your side, gossiping, talking behind
people's back), envy, and the like? Here then is Paul’s question for us
pertaining to mistaken identity. Have any of us ‘good guys’ as if we are not
saints by regularly partake in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like and so are in jeopardy of
missing out on the benefits of the Kingdom of God? And if so, what can we do
about it?
These
behaviours can pose a real temptation to draw us away from our relationship
with God and our neighbour. We have heard the analogy of yeast working its way
through dough. When we are surrounded by all of this bad list stuff, it becomes
contagious. We have heard the expression, ‘one bad apple spoils the whole
bunch’. This is true. Where one day no one is engaged in discord, dissentions,
factions, and the like; then one person indulges him or herself by gossiping
with another person who then huddles in a corner with a third person, who then
tells someone else about all of their problems with someone (which may or may
not even be true!) and then they tell two friends and then they tell two
friends and then they tell two friends, and so on and so on and so on and soon
the whole congregation and community is full of cliques, factions, whispering,
gossiping, fits of rage and the like. I think some of us may have been there
before: that is not a good place to be. And that is exactly where some of these
first century churches were and that is exactly where some of the 21st century
churches appear to be and that is exactly where I would hope and pray that we
would never find ourselves (again). Paul describes these things as so bad when
they get a hold of us we may be in very real danger of not, as Paul puts it,
inheriting the Kingdom of God.
The
effects of these things - hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like - are disastrous. It is
like this: I used to be an RCMP chaplain; One time they flew a number of us in a
small RCMP plane, stopping at many small communities to pick up other chaplains
so we could go to an RCMP training course in Edmonton. There were many good
speakers. The Edmonton ERT (SWAT) Team Leader let us play with some of their ‘toys’
(weapons) and he spoke to us about the importance of chaplains in his job when
people are shooting at them and when they have to consider what course of
action to take.
The
keynote speaker that day, Gerry Fostaty, was a fellow who wrote a book entitled,
As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier, about an incident that happened
to him when he was a teenager in military cadets.[4] He was probably about 19
or 20 and he was a leader of younger cadets – probably Heather’s age or even younger.
They were at a cadet camp in Valcartier, Quebec. As part of the camp, they got
to play with weapons not entirely unlike we did at the conference in Edmonton.
The cadets (even more) learned how to use the weapons properly and how to take
care of the weapons and how the weapons worked and all kinds of things like that.
In one
class, the adult instructor was handing out dummy grenades for the children to
examine. The dummy grenades you can apparently tell from the real grenades
because the dummies are brightly coloured - orange, pink, blue – not the
military green of combat weaponry. The cadets, these children were encouraged
to take apart these dummy grenades, put them back together, examine how they
work, etc., etc., etc…
Apparently
and disastrously in with the orange, pink, and blue-coloured grenades was at
least one live green grenade. The children were passing this live green grenade
– along with the toy grenades – along the line of cadets in the class. They
were taking the pin out and placing it back in and they were holding (I don’t
know what the term is but…) the safety and disabling and reassembling it along
with the coloured grenades and then… one little boy pulled the pin on the live
grenade and holding it out too long…
The
writer of this book was out of the room at the time; he ran in when he heard
the explosion and found his little brother who -was not seriously injured-
along with many others who were. One deadly green grenade had mixed in with the
harmless coloured grenades and this one green grenade brought destruction with
it and it brought death with it.
The
result of this green grenade in the room full of children is essentially the
same as what results when hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like wind up in our churches.
These are our green grenades. When we put ourselves first, engaging in selfish
ambition instead of thinking of others as greater than ourselves (as Paul
extols us; Philippians 2) the results are essentially the same.[5] Just as the
green grenade brings death when people handle it; if it goes unchecked, Paul
reminds us that hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissentions, factions, envy, and the like, also bring death to a church and
people who are consumed with them. Paul words are ‘they will not inherit the
kingdom of God’.
So
what can we do about this? The Apostle Paul says, in essence, that we should
remove the green grenades from the box; we should remove these things from the
church. We should, Ephesians 4:31-5:2a:
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander,
along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly
loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us…
Remove
the green grenades before they go off. Paul says, Galatians 5:16, 22-25:
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the
desires of the flesh… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit,
let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Remove
the green grenades. Paul says, Philippians 2:3-4,12-13:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in
humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but
each of you to the interests of the others... Therefore, my dear friends, as
you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my
absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.
Friends,
you are all doing very well. The Lord is calling, equipping and using you to do
many great things. So today I will encourage and remind us all, as Paul did
2000 years ago, that selfishness, gossip, slander, talking about others in this
way, unforgiveness, pulling each other down instead of building each other up.
These are the green grenades that can blow the roof right off the top of any church,
even one that to has until now been actively fighting in the good fight. When
we think of ourselves as better than others, when we allow ourselves to get worked
up about what other people are doing or saying, when we start to talk about
others, not forgiving them but tearing them down instead of building them up,
that is really our pulling the pin out of a green grenade that the Enemy has
tossed into the church.[6] So today I challenge and I encourage each and every
one of us here to look for the green grenades in our life and put them aside
and in so doing, as TSA doc 10 says, “to be wholly sanctified, and that their
whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ” and as Paul says, Philippians 2:3,4: let us continue to
“do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility [let
us] value others above ourselves, not looking to our own interests but each of us
to the interests of the others.” As we continue to do this I have every faith
that we will all continue to serve our Lord for now and forever in the Kingdom
of God
Let us pray.
---
[1] Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An
Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1989
(Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 10), S. 139: Quoting the Old Testament
again, the Septuagint of Psalm 4:4, he says, Be angry but do not sin. The av
rendering of the psalm, ‘Stand in awe, and sin not’, gives a different turn to
it. The Hebrew verb rāgaz means basically to ‘tremble’, and it could be with
fear or rage (BDB). Whichever was the psalmist’s thought, the Septuagint is
meaningful and relevant. There is anger which is righteous anger, such as we
see in our Lord himself (e.g. Mark 3:5; John 2:13–17); but His anger never led
to sin, because His emotions were kept under perfect control.
[2] R. Alan Cole, Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary.
Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1989 (Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries 9), S. 217: Inherit the kingdom of God; although Paul is emphatic
that we cannot by ‘doing’ the works of the law enter our promised inheritance
(3:12, 18), but that entry is by faith alone (3:11), yet he strongly asserts
here that by ‘doing’ these very different things we can bar ourselves from the
kingdom …those who do such things thereby show themselves to be without the
transforming gift of faith which leads to the gift of the promised Spirit,
which, in turn, leads to the fruits of the Spirit, the seal of our inheritance.
[3] Cf. James Montgomery Boice, The
Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Galatians/Exposition of
Galatians/III. The Call to Godly Living (5:1-6:10)/C. Life in the Spirit
(5:13-26)/2. The works of the flesh (5:19-21), Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Gerry Fostaty, As You Were: The
Tragedy at Valcartier (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 2011).
[5] Ralph P. Martin, Philippians: An
Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1987
(Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 11), S. 101: The ethical terms used here
expose the spiritual malaise at the heart of the church and point to the
all-sufficient remedy. Selfish ambition, eritheia (rv, ‘faction’) is the same
word as in 1:17 where it is used to describe the inimical intention of Paul’s
enemies. Of the Philippians it is used of party squabbles and petty conceits.
We might translate it ‘quarrelsomeness’, although that does not quite convey
the hint of self-seeking which the word contains. Such a display which
Galatians 5:19–21 brands as an ‘act of the sinful nature’ sadly disfigured the
inner life of the church.
[6] Cf. Morna D. Hooker, The Letter to
the Philippians, NIB XI, 499
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