In Ephesians 5, Saint Paul begins with a call to check our spirits, our inclinations, desires, and those with whom we associate.
“Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us…fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you…or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose…For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not partakers of them.”
When we seek to live in the Spirit of Christ and God, we must check our own souls for aspects and the presence of natures that detract and divert us from that spirit.
To know such aspects are within us is not sin. To such aspects are within us is not damnation. Even Paul himself speaks to a thorn of the flesh which he was never able to rid in his life, and whose surrender and call to God for aid against it was a source of returned humility and faith. To me, the presence of such aspects within us are opportunities to improve our spirits through consciousness and purposeful living; an ability to prove our faith by refining of lived soul. When we seek to live in the Spirit of Christ and God, we change our hearts (if needing so) to live in better embodiment of God’s light and love by both conscious living and seeking and allowing of God’s guidance and aid.
Last in this passage, when we speak, we should speak honestly; and when others engage us, may we be aided with discernment to tell truth from falsity and not be mislead by vain or false words of another.
I’ve been on both sides of this, wanting to believe others’ untruths as well as letting vanity for my words (especially as a writer seeking to expand an audience) and stories supersede the truths they seek to tell. Rather than letting vanity, or the desire to be heard, read, or seen carry us away, remember to say what we mean, and leave it at that.
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Next, what do we gain from ridding ourselves of baser natures within us, and the company of others that draw us back to such?
“For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of light. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth; proving what is well pleasing to God: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame to speak of. But all things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light; for all that is made manifest in light…
…be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual cantiles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father…”
In refining our spirits, we become piece with the light, spirit, and workings of God. Our spirits and presence become able to light, affect, and inspire others too to live a better spirit. Whatever we do, whether in darkness or light, in time it will be known; and God already sees.
Nobody’s perfect. Nobody will attain perfection. We’re all still refining and working forward to be nearer to that which God calls us to be; but in choosing to follow and desire a life aligned with God’s light, we will find the joy and songs of heart Paul speaks to in the second paragraph of this passage.
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In closing Ephesians 5, Paul speaks to marriage and its metaphor for the one we choose to share and make our life and how it relates too with our relationship with the church and our faith.
“Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the savior of his body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it: that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life: that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear her husband.”
In faith and an engaging church—as in marriage—we are bound and interdependent on one another. One does not dominate, nor control the other, but works together in love, empathy, and respect to continue raising the richness and depth of a relationship. Without interdependence, two becoming one in flesh to create future life; a church or believer divorced from the other, cannot sustain and pass on the living faith.
Church and the faithful need one another, just as husband and wife. We care for the other as ourselves, because—in the sacrament—that is what we become.
In reality, I believe such relationships will have their blemishes, points that need addressed and improved—for we begin as two human and imperfect souls working on ourselves as individuals simultaneous to our working on the union—but such are further opportunities to exercise God’s grace, mercy, empathy, love, and work to continue refining our personal spirits—and how we express such to those most close to us in our lives—for raising each other, the relationship, and the afterlife that follows (children, grandchildren…so long as God blesses the lineage of our blood—and Faith).
What do you believe?