A Comma of Errors?--Eph 1:4

There are no commas in Greek, there are really, really long sentences, and it sometimes is a problem.  A simple comma can change everything.  Sometimes it is significant, sometimes it doesn't change much.

The other day I decided to look up something in Greek in Ephesians.  I had studied ancient Greek for 3 years in college.

Here is the Greek literal translation of Eph 1:4-5:

"He chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be be holy and without blame before him in love he chose beforehand for to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ."

 No commas in Greek (at least in the original).  But the Bibles add the commas for us English readers.  Read the difference from the KJV and every other translation.

KJV:  "He chose us in him...to be holy and blameless before him in love.  He predestined us...."

Everyone else:  "He chose us in him...to be holy and blameless before him.  In love, he predestined us..."

The change matters. 

Is he asking us to be holy and blameless in our love?
Or is he saying it was in love he predestined us?

Very different. 

And for a moment I felt encouraged.  I'm not a KJV only person by any means, but to be holy and blameless in love?  For me that draws me more than just being holy and blameless and that's it.  To be holy and blameless in love gives me mission and grace.

It's also nice to think that in love he predestined us to be adopted as sons.  Adoption in love is assumed as it is an eternal covenant.

The Greek is not clear as to which way "love" goes.  That's why the different translations. 

But for now I'm leaning toward the KJV rendering.  We're to be holy and blameless in our love.  It means my love must mature.  Not just my moral uprightness.   Things to ponder.

Where Would We Be Without Jesus?

(by Roy Lessin)

• Without every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:30)
• Without salvation (Eph 2:5-8)
• Without His working in us (Eph 2:10)
• Without intimacy with God (Eph 2:13)
• Without peace (Eph 2:14)
• Without encouragement (Php 2:1)
• Without consolation (Php 2:1)
• Without light (Col 1:13)
• Without His kingdom (Col 1:3)
• Without redemption (Col 1:14)
• Without forgiveness (Col 1:14)
• Without fullness (Col 1:19)
• Without reconciliation (Col 1:20)
• Without holiness (Col 1:22)
• Without hope (Col 1:27)
• Without all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3)
• Without a spiritual walk (Col 2:6)
• Without edification (Col 2:7)
• Without completion (Col 2:10)
• Without spiritual life (Col 2:13)
• Without purpose (Eph 1:11)
• Without love (Eph 3:19)

The Mystery of Adoption-- Eph 1:3-6

These past 2 years I've had the privilege of watching several of my friends go through the process of adoption.  It's been so moving and encouraging to my faith to read their stories.  (Check out http://gowinfamily.com Jan 7 post or http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2009/08/it-is-my-16th-birthday-and-i-am-eating.html). 

With adoption it begins with an idea, a choice for love.  In that very moment life is conceived.  As a couple goes through the process of adoption, without a doubt they go through a pregnancy and delivery phase that is as very much as difficult as a physical labor and delivery.  It's a miraculous undertaking and it is not accomplished without many tears, anxious moments, extraordinary patience, and steep mountains followed by deep valleys.  But once the journey has begun, the couple cannot stop as it is love and life that were conceived back many months previous.

So why does anyone adopt?  It is because of love.  It is because there is such extraordinary pleasure in the loving.  Several people I know have mentioned that while their biological are the children of their womb and have an intimate and irreplaceable part of their heart, there's also something extra special about their adopted children. 

Having said that, adopted children tend to receive that love differently.  I have one friend who LOVES that he is adopted.  Just loves it.  He is a grown man and married now, and he still so loves that he was adopted.   And then there's another man I know of that never did receive his parents love.  Still hasn't.  His parents have lavished love on him like all their other children but he still feels like since he's adopted, he's the oddball out.  He is legally, relationally and emotionally a son, but he's never come into that sonship.  He's never accepted his own position.

We too are adopted, by God.  "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons..."  We are family.  We were conceived in love and determined beforehand by his pleasure that we would be His children.  "For he chose us in him before before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless through Jesus Christ."   Since God is holy and blameless, we had to be made like him in order to be in his family.  This was made legally possible through the death of Jesus. "He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ."  As His children, we have every single privilege that there is available as children.  Every single spiritual blessing.

The question  is what does it look like to be a child of God?  I have a friend who is a wonderful guy who grew up in a middle-eastern country and later in his teenage years the family returned to Canada, the family's place of origin.  He thought and acted like a Middle-Easterner but his citizenship was Canadian.  In this often confusing state that is found in children of missionaries, he decided he was going to find out what it was to be Canadian and that's what he was going to be.    So he spent a year trying to discover what it was to be Canadian so that he could be a one.  It was such an odd thing for me.  I wanted to tell him that he is Canadian by the very nature that he is.  You can't go out and find what it is to be Canadian.  Be yourself and that's all you need to be.  As a holder of that citizenship, that's what you are.  And the more time he is in Canada the more he would absorb the culture, but he is free to be himself.

But am I the same way as the man who couldn't receive his adoption, or my friend who struggled knowing his citizenship?  What is it for me to be adopted?  Do I receive my adoption?  Do I fully accept myself as a daughter of God?

To be fully accepted is to allow myself to be fully loved.  It's a place of rest.  It's not a trying to be pleasing to him to find acceptance.  He already finds pleasure in me.  Even in my disobedience he finds pleasure in me.  (That thought alone could change everything. )  The very fact that I'm officially his child is pleasing to him.  This changes how I live.  I live in a place of deep connection.  It is the place I stand legally (adoption) and through citizenship (heavenly).  In love I was adopted "in accordance with his pleasure and will."  His grace "teaches me to say 'no' to ungodliness" and his love creates a secure environment in which my very being is pleasing to him.  So how does this change things?  No longer do I need to live for his favor but I now I can live from it.   

A New Identity--Eph 1:1-3

My identity is as a saint--a holy one (Eph 1:1).  In Christ, I am holy and righteous.  I am a new creation.  The old is gone and the new has come. 

These are things I can easily spout out, but are these how I really perceive myself?  Is this how I believe God perceives me?  The reality is that my thoughts focus a lot on my short-comings.  I find myself continually repenting of little thoughts, attitudes and actions.  Not that this is bad.  We need to repent and confess our sins.  But it places my focus on sin, and on me, and on my short-comings.  And if I'm honest, what do I see in other people?  Things that need to be corrected, to be changed.  It's because I treat other people how I treat myself.  But does God only see in me what needs corrected?  Is that all he sees except for a few times when he sees me as a child he can enjoy for a few moments before he gets back to work turning me into something holy?

A couple of months ago I was riding in the car with someone who kept apologizing for everything.  I confess, it drove me crazy.  Now zoom backward almost exactly 500 years ago.  A Catholic priest was sitting in a confessional getting terribly annoyed by one of his student priests/monks who came daily to confess every sin possible.  Finally in exasperation he told the young man, "Go home until you have something to repent about!"  The young man went home, thought about what he said and began to study Scripture.  Martin Luther's revelation of grace would change the world.

The problem with perceiving ourselves only as a sinner is that we focus more on sin and our ineptitude to stay holy than on God's grace and his goodness.  An employee is always concerned about whether or not they are doing a good job, because they know if they don't, they will get fired or not get a raise. On the other hand if a child is continually concerned about whether or not they doing a good job, apologizing often, not sure if they are pleasing to their parents or exasperating them, then we would all probably think it was a sick family situation.  Either the child has severe problems or the parents are over-bearing and critical.  So why is it any different with God?

We are His children.  It was through his good pleasure that he adopted us.  A child is not in a continual state of self-correction, sending themselves to their room and such.  It is the parents' responsibility and judgment to know when to correct and discipline. A child has a lot of freedom to make mistakes.  The parents step in when needed but a child trusts that they know when to step in.

Perhaps it would be a good thing if I thought more of myself as a saint, then perhaps I would begin to live out that identity.  Not only that but if I began to see my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as saints, then perhaps I would see and encourage that identity in them as well.  And most of all, I think it would well up in me a greater gratitude for God's mercy, grace and redemption.  Time for a change.