Read
Ephesians 2:8-10
If
you have grown up in church or attended for a while, you have probably heard
people say that they are “works in progress” meaning they are not perfect but
are headed that way. It is important to realize this. It is more important
though to see ourselves as the work of a master craftsman. We should sit down
and ponder our lives before God as believers and check our progress to see what
has been done in the past year, month or week. How have we grown spiritually
and are we on track with God’s plans for our lives.
Paul
relates us to a common object of his day. Idols. Now don’t be alarmed that I
liken us to idols, but in the locality where the Ephesian church was, the
dominant industry was the making and selling of idols primarily to worship the
goddess Diana, a fertility and sexual perversion “deity.” The Christian is none
of this; however, with the skill these idol makers carved and shaped likenesses
of their pagan god. We as Paul compares and contrasts are the likeness of our God,
the Lord Jesus. Examine what he says about us in this light.
1.
We
are the work of God himself.
The idol makers of Ephesus were fallible
man. They could not make a perfect anything no matter how skilled they were.
Diana should have produced her own “works” among men, but she too was a dumb
idol of uselessness save the intentions Satan had for the idea of her being.
God on the other hand created everything that is in the world and beyond it.
God creates living things not dead ones. Paul once likened us to stones. No
stones are alive that build temples, but we as believers are living building
blocks that actually do something! God himself fashioned each of us
specifically and uniquely. God made us to be His servants, but He also gave us
a will and a set of talents that others do not possess.
2.
We
are specifically created for good.
Note that we are intended for building
up and glorifying God, not men. The idol makers of Ephesus were in the trade
for the money and their own self-gratification. They would extort sums from
weak minded dupes of darkness for “promises” of prosperity and other favors
that the great goddess they served would provide. Contrastingly, God is not in
it for the money or the worldly virtues. Remember how Jesus drove the
moneychangers from the temple? These wicked men were doing the same thing as
the Ephesian idolaters. God is not in the business of bondage. God created us
to be instruments of righteousness and light to a world that needs hope, not
driven farther into darkness. The reason why the Christian is offensive to the
world system is because he or she uncovers the real motives of sinful practice.
What good are you created for? Every Christian is to be a herald or a forth
teller of the salvation of God and the entrance to His kingdom by and through
only Jesus Christ. Beyond that there are some as Paul says given to be
teachers, some evangelists, some encouragers, some who are hospitable and so
forth.
3.
We
are predestined to act and serve for the good.
Whatever your gift or talent may be (and
you do have at least one) it is given you for the healing of the world and the
manifesting of the Gospel to those around you. You are the rescue team sent
down to help. You are the doctor with the cure. You are the mechanic with the
tools. You are the locksmith with the keys. You are here to help deliver under
God’s power. This mission is what you were born and fashioned to do. You have
no commands or commission to do evil or to turn others away. It may be said
that the wood or metal those idol makers used were predestined to be images of
Diana, but you have been chosen far higher and nobler than these. What honor is
it to be the servant of something that cannot even speak for itself? Yet God
speaks to you and through you in His Spirit and in His Word, the Bible. There
is no higher honor than to be commissioned by Royal Decree for the mission of
Hope. It is what you were made for, anything less would be a shame and waste.
Are we works in progress? Oh yes. Every day we are growing
and being shaped. However in our shaping, we reflect our Maker before the eyes
of a watching world. So as you are being worked on, let others see that joy in
you each and every day. You are His workmanship!
PRAYER
Lord, help me to be all that You want me to be. May I not go in my own strength to do my own things, but in full realization of the fact that I am Yours and created for You and Your service. Help me not to lead others astray but that they would see You in me. Amen.
*image courtesy of creation swap
