What Is God Up To In This World?
Paul wanted the Ephesian church to know that God is up to something big in his world. He has a plan (Eph. 1:10) a mysterious plan had been revealed to Paul (Eph. 3:1-10). And, says Paul to the church, when you read this you can know the plan and we can make the plan known. First, though, shouldn't we learn to read the plan?
My brother Bob and I were carpenters. During our college years we worked out a four-year apprenticeship during the summers. In our 3rd year we were sent to work on a school building that was fouled up because someone could not read the plans. A 30’ long, 8” thick concrete wall was on the wrong side of the line. With great difficulty Bob and I led the crew in erecting another wall beside it on the right side of the line. As apprentices neither of us could be foreman, so we became the lay-out carpenters because we could read the plans.
God’s plan (oikonomian) was building and maintaining his house. Not just any house, but a holy temple in which He would dwell with his people by the Spirit (Eph. 2:19-22). His plan was to unite all things in Christ. It addressed a big problem in that world; the dividing wall between Jewish believers and Gentiles who were coming to faith (3:6). We may simplify the plan by following the “pronoun trail” in Ephesians 1 & 2. The trail begins with the we first (1:12) and follows with the you also who are included (1:13) and ends with the us both in one body (2:14, 16, 18). Jewish believers first and Ephesian Gentile believers next are reconciled in one body in which they are no longer strangers and aliens. Instead, they are being built together into one holy temple. This was God’s eternal purpose for the church which has been realized in Christ Jesus (3:11).
Imagine that we are members of one of the house churches in Ephesus meeting in the house of Prisca and Aquila (Rom. 16:3-4). We heard them read this letter and perhaps explain its meaning. On our walk to that gathering we had walked past the temple of Artemis. That temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was larger than the Ohio State and University of Michigan football shrines combined. Paul’s letter would resonate with us. God’s plan was bigger -- to unite all things in heaven and earth in Christ by the Gospel. As Paul prayed, the eyes of our hearts were opened to the wonder of what God is up to in his world (Eph. 1:17-23). We are not called to a mere intellectual understanding, but to be exhibit A of God’s plan. Today, I call us to explore that wonderful plan of God. Perhaps it will answer the question posed earlier of why we are members of the church.
—Tom Yoakum