If it is God’s will to bring people together, you don’t have
to have a lot of “smarts” to guess what the objective would be for the powers
of this dark world. Though unseen, they are at work as Satan’s messengers,
seeking to plant selfishness, suspicion, jealousy, distrust, envy and hatred in
the hearts of people, thus producing division wherever they can. Obviously,
they target different racial and ethnic groups; they nurture nationalism and
tribalism. But they go further and bore their ways into the hearts of families
and neighbors.
But into this divided world, God sent his Son, who came and
preached peace and then laid down his life as the ultimate peace offering. He
has a peace plan, and it works every time people respond to him. Those who come
to him at the cross and crucify their pride, arrogance and selfishness truly
come together as a new family in the church. When this happens, as it did in
the first century and as it is happening in our day, the manifold wisdom of God is made known to rulers and authorities in
the heavenly realms. In other words, in the community of the cross, the
church of Jesus, it is made clear to these powers of darkness and these spiritual
forces of evil that God is overcoming and defeating all of the nastiness they
have planted in people’s hearts.
The church is essentially God’s way of saying to the forces
of darkness, “Look at all these people you divided. God is bringing them back
together and teaching them to love and care for each other.” Specifically, Paul
says that it is “the manifold wisdom of God” that is made known to the evil
empire (v10). The word “manifold” could be translated “many-colored,” but it
refers to that which has many features and a variety of applications. God’s
wisdom may seem like foolishness to men (1 Corinthians 1:18), but it is rich
and full of power and capable of uniting all manner of people who seemed
impossible to unite. All of this, Paul says, was “according to his eternal
purpose which he accomplished in Christ” (v11). God has a plan, and as you and
I unite with others in the church, we fulfill God’s eternal purpose!
this is awesome. Whenever I am in a large group of disciples, watching them together, having fun together, I marvel at the reality that if they were not disciples of Jesus, they would not be there together! The variety of races, and personalities that God brings together is amazing! Let us fight the good fight as Satan works relentlessly to divide us by insecurites and worldly fears.
ReplyDeleteamen Tom. What a great point. God is a God not only of love but of peace. Where there is love and peace there is unity and hopefully humility. We should become less so God can become more.
ReplyDeletethanx, we need more of that.sending our love from Athens, Greece,Theo
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