When we open the book of Ephesians,
at the very outset of this epistle, we are brought into the presence
of God Almighty in his august majesty, told of the wonders
of his grace, and brought to bow down before the triune God
and worship and adore him. This epistle of Ephesians is
perhaps that which I meditate upon think about, read, reflect
on, more than any other portion of the Scriptures, perhaps the
Psalms might be the exception. I wouldn't exalt one portion
above another, but these six chapters of Ephesians are so
very, very delightful, comforting, and instructive. This epistle
speaks constantly of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever you turn
here, wherever you sit down, Whatever you're thinking about,
you're confronted with Christ. In these six chapters, the Apostle
Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to use these words, or
words like them, fifty-five times in Christ, by Christ, of Christ,
for Christ. He would have us to understand
that everything God has for And everything God gives to sinners
and everything God accepts from sinners is in Christ, by Christ,
and for Christ. He is indeed all and in all. This book is a book that shows
a tremendous illustration of grace in the people to whom it
is written. Ephesus was a large, sprawling,
metropolitan city. It was one of those cities where
tradesmen and businessmen wanted to live. It was a place where
philosophers and educated people came. It was a metropolis area
well known and admired. It was a pagan, godless city. We shouldn't say godless, I guess.
They had all kinds of gods. They had gods galore. They just
didn't know God. The great temple of Diana was
one of the great wonders of the world. And in their religion,
as with the religious folks of our day, they readily mixed without
any thought. They mixed religion with superstition
and idolatry and moral decadence and moral perversion of every
kind. And yet to these Ephesian Gentiles,
so base, so groveling, so low in themselves as Gentiles were,
the apostle Paul was sent of God to preach the gospel. Now,
to try to get the contrast, this man Paul, before God saved him,
would have walked miles to avoid coming into contact with these
godless Ephesians. He would have nothing to do with
them. He would not mingle with them at all. And yet the apostle
Paul writes to these Ephesians as men and women while he's in
prison. It is the first of his prison
epistles. And these are the people for
whom he hazarded his life that he might preach the gospel to
them. Look in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints. those who are sanctified, those
who are made holy by God's grace, to the saints which are at Ephesus
in the midst of this godless, reprobate generation, and to
the faithful. That's who saints are, they're
faithful folks. They've been made faithful by
the grace of God in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul counted it his
great privilege and his high honor to be a messenger of God
Almighty to these men and women at Ephesus. Look at chapter 3,
verse 8. He says, Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints. He's in prison now, and in his
old age he's grown a lot in the grace of God. He once spoke of
himself as being less than the least of the apostles. Now he
speaks of himself as less than the least of all Saints, and
in his very last epistle he speaks of himself as being the chief
of sinners. He wasn't putting on, he wasn't acting humble,
he was confessing what he knew to be so. He knew himself to
be a sinner saved by God's grace, nothing else. A sinner just like
these Ephesus people to whom he was writing. And he says to
me, who am less than the least of all Saints, is this grace
given, oh, what a grace, that I should preach among the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ. Six times in this book of Ephesians,
Paul uses a phrase, a term that is not used anywhere else in
the New Testament. He uses the words, heavenly places. Modern translations like to translate
the words The word that is here translated heavenly places, they
like to translate it heavenlies. Well, I won't argue with them,
but whichever way you translate it, it doesn't change the meaning
at all. Heavenly places are described in chapter 1, verse 3, as the
place of eternal covenant blessing. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. That's talking about heaven itself,
God's covenant grace from eternity. Look in chapter 1, verse 19.
Heavenly places are described here as the place of our great
high priest, his royal kingly intercession and advocacy and
his sovereign dominion. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, and raised him from
the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all principality and power." So heavenly places,
that's the place where Christ sits. That's the place where
our mediator makes intercession for us. That's the place of our
advocate. That's the mercy seat. That's
the throne of grace. Heavenly places are spoken of
again in chapter 2, in verse 6. And here heavenly places identify
our spiritual union and communion with Christ. When Paul describes
the new birth, he says, God has raised us up together and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We sit in heavenly
places with Christ. We are with him in heaven. And
we are not only with him representatively, but with him as members of his
body mystically, and we worship him at his throne in heavenly
places, preaching if it is what it ought to be. And I pray God will shut my mouth
unless he's pleased to make it so to you. Preaching is not just
the instruction of your mind. It's not just giving you knowledge
about Bible facts and dogma and religious truth. Preaching by
the blessing of God's Spirit is the moving of your heart Godward. It's the moving of your heart
to Christ. It is by the blessing of God's
Spirit that which allows us to enter into the heavens themselves
and worship our Savior on his throne. And then heavenly places
are the place where we are. Really, that's where we are. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be. For in the person of his son,
I'm as near as he. Frankly, I don't often feel very
near him. I feel like I follow my master
like Peter did far off. But my feelings have absolutely
nothing to do with the reality of what God declared. And God
declares that I am seated right now with Jesus Christ on his
throne in heavenly places. And I don't know about you, but
I'd rather believe God's word than believe my deceitful heart. He declares we are seated together
with Christ in heavenly places. Look in chapter 3, verse 10.
Heavenly places are those places in which we are taught of God
by divine revelation. What's he talking about here?
To the intent that now, under the principalities and powers
in heavenly places, might be known by the church to manifold
wisdom of God? When God's people gather in assemblies
like this one to worship him, the angels of God are taught
in this heavenly place the wonders of redemption. The angels of
God know nothing of electing love. The angels of God know
nothing of saving grace. The angels of God know nothing
of God's mercy. The angels of God know nothing
of redemption. Not by experience. Not by experience. So they gather with us and listen
to God's saying of his grace, and speak of his mercy, and declare
his redeeming work, and learn those wonders of the mysteries
of our God. heavenly places. In chapter 6
and verse 12 are spoken of as high places in our translation,
but the words are the same. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in heavenly places. Heavenly places are the place
of spiritual privilege, but of stern perplexity. a blessed assurance,
but of great anxiety, of sweet communion, and yet of stubborn
conflict. You see, the world is the enemy
of God our Father. The devil himself is in arms
against Christ our Savior. The flesh is at war with the
Spirit, and our carnal minds are still enmity against God.
Therefore, we need not be surprised to find ourselves daily in conflict
spiritually within ourselves, spiritually in conflict all the
time. And then this epistle not only
speaks so fully of Christ and of God's grace bestowed upon
us in heavenly places and our experience, but it speaks of
God's grace. I love this blessed book because
it talks so much about grace. free, sovereign, everlasting,
eternal grace. Brother Bob just told us an event
today, immediately, and my mind, my heart, made to break before
God for His goodness, because what he described could have
been me. would have been me, should have been me. But for
one thing, God Almighty graciously stepped into my life and caused
me to be his son by his grace. And I'm thankful for every reminder,
both of what I am by nature and what God has done for me by his
grace. Now, let's look at this book,
chapter by chapter, and we're just going to sort of skim the
surface, skip along the shoreline. You can pull off your shoes,
roll up your breeches, legs, and just wait as much as you want
to. And if you find any nuggets, pick them up and put them in
your pocket. It'll be all right. This is for you. All the grace of
God. All the grace of God. Oh, God
helped you to get And if you get this, you'll have enough
to sail your little boat for a while. All the grace of God,
all of it, is ours all the time in Christ Jesus, if we trust
God's Son. All of it, all his grace. Paul
begins the epistle by giving us an explanation of grace in
chapter 1. He's telling us here about what
God has done for us. These are things that God has
done outside our experience. These are things he has done
for us by his grace before we ever came to know his grace.
These are things that God has wrought for us. He's talking
to us now about the work of the triune God on our behalf that
which he did for us in eternity, and that which he did for us
at Calvary when Christ died, and then that which he did for
us in our experience as well. As he begins the book, Paul starts
off by telling us that God has blessed us from old eternity
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And then in this first chapter, And he names them for us. Obviously
he doesn't name all of them, but he gives us ten, and these
ten are something else. First he tells us in verses 3
and 4 that he's blessed us with divine election. God has chosen
a vast multitude of sinners out of Adam's fallen race unto salvation,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. That's his
purpose in choosing us. And when he gets done, he tells
us that we're going to be holy and without blame before him.
That's what he declares in Ephesians 5 verse 27. He's going to present
us to himself a holy church without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. He's going to present us holy
and not only without blame, but by being so perfectly holy in
Christ Jesus the Lord that we're unblameable by God himself. Holy and without blame. That's
where it all began in sovereign election. Now let men cuss and
spit and snarl all they want to. Election's good. Oh, election's
good. Election doesn't shut anybody
out of heaven. Election makes sure somebody
gets in. Election is God's sovereign purpose to save his people, and
save them he will. The second blessing of grace
described in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 1 is predestination. in eternal love for us, and actually
the words in love at the end of verse 3 ought to start verse
4. In love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
God Almighty having chosen us from eternity, predestinated
our ultimate end in the enjoyment of all the blessedness of that
thing Paul calls back in Romans 8, the glorious liberty of the
sons of God. When he talks about him predestinating
us unto the adoption of sons, he's not talking about he predestinated
us to become his sons. That was taken care of in election.
He predestinated us to the enjoyment of the great privilege of God's
sons in the perfection of our sonship at last. That's begun
in the new birth, and it is consummated in resurrection glory. And God
from eternity, having chosen us in Christ, predestined everything
that ever comes to pass in time to secure his purpose of grace
toward us in the blessed liberty of the sons of God. And then
thirdly, he speaks of adoption. Oh, what a blessing this is!
Imagine that! God, our Father, the God and
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, adopted us into his family, in
and by Christ Jesus, before ever he called the world into existence. We often ask, why? But normally, people, particularly
religious They ask why when something bad happens to them. Why me? Why does that have to happen
to me? Why not you? Who could be more worthy unless it was
me? Why not you? Why shouldn't something bad happen
to you? Oh, but God Almighty has adopted me as his son. Why? Why? He tells us he did it according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace. If it is the glory of his grace
to save sinners, he could not better glorify himself than by
saving such as we are, could he? And then he tells us in verse
6 that God hath made us accepted Now, remember, he's talking about
something that happened in eternity. He's talking about things already
done, before ever the world came into being. And it doesn't say
he made us acceptable. That's not what it says, and
that's not what it teaches. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. accepted in Christ as one with
Christ, because of Christ, to exactly the same degree as Christ,
and for the same reason as Christ, is accepted as our substitute,
our surety and mediator. The Father received the Son back
into heaven because he had put away sin, had him brought in
everlasting righteousness, and stands before God as a perfect
man worthy of God's smile. And before the world began, God
Almighty looked on him, and looked on us in him, and started smiling. And no experience in time, no
event in history, will ever wipe away his smile, excepted in the
beloved, excepted. Oh, here's another nugget. Redemption. That's named as the fifth bounty
of God's grace. Deliverance from sin, deliverance
from the curse, deliverance from bondage, deliverance from death. deliverance from condemnation,
deliverance from all possibility of condemnation, deliverance
from all the consequences of sin, deliverance into the final,
ultimate, glorious liberty of resurrection, glory with Christ!
And all of that by his blood. And Paul doesn't say this is
what we're going to have, he says in whom we have redemption through
his blood. Well, what's that mean? The very
next blessing describes what it means. the forgiveness of
sins. Where there is redemption, there
is forgiveness, no exceptions. As a matter of fact, redemption
through his blood, because it is the satisfaction of divine
justice, demands the forgiveness of all for whom his blood was
shed. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his
grace. Look at verse 9 and 10. Here
Paul tells us that God has given to every believer the knowledge
of the mystery of his will. The secret things belong to God,
and we're delighted to leave them there. How often have you
been talking to family or friends, someone, and you talk to them
about God's election, You know, they think it's kind of strange
that you like it, and you talk to them about divine, sovereign
predestination and God determining all things from eternity. They
say, well, I don't bother with that secret thing that belonged
to God. Well, that's true. That's true. The things that
are secret belong to him. But the things that are revealed
belong to us and our children. They belong to us and those who
come after us, us who believe God. And God has revealed to
us the mystery of his will. And Paul describes it for us
here in verses 9 and 10. There's a day coming when God
Almighty, having predestinated all things and working all things
according to the purpose of his own will, after the counsel of
his own will, he's going to ultimately bring everything in heaven and
in earth, gathered together in one in Christ. He's going to
save all his people, and this is what he's doing as he works
all things after the counsel of his own will. You see fellows working, and
you look at them, well, what on earth is he doing? But if
he's got good sense and he's working hard, he's got a purpose
in mind. Sixteen years old, just before
God saved me, I worked for a year in Wrist of Mills in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. And it didn't take me long to
realize working there sixteen hours a day, seven days a week,
was not something I wanted to do all my life. But we used to
make cloths. We'd take these looms and run. Did you ever see those things,
Ron? Man, a mess. Just a small mess,
if I got hold of it. I mean, I can take a fishing
rod and nobody else mess up, but Larry will tell you, and
I can mess it up. But when the looms are working as they ought
to, Get on the other side and watch him mix the colors and
see the pattern made. And you'll see an ultimate end
was in design from the beginning. And God Almighty, in everything
he does in this world, is saving his people to the glory of his
name for his everlasting praise. And I keep praying that he'll
give me grace to be comfortable with that. He's doing his will. And then the Apostle tells us
that we have obtained, verses 11 and 12, an inheritance in
heaven. We've obtained this inheritance.
How can that be? Because Christ, our substitute
and our surety, with his own blood entered in once into the
holy place, having obtained, got in his hand, eternal redemption
for us. And we have already obtained
it by his grace. Then in verse 13, the apostle
tells us that every believer is sealed by God the Holy Spirit. Believing on Christ, we are sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise. Sealed. When you see something
that's sealed, sealed, that implies at least these four things. keep
out, this is private. And God Almighty says to all
hell concerning his own, keep out, these are mine, these are
mine. It implies puppety. That which
is sealed is somebody's puppety. And when God sealed us by his
grace, sealed us in his grace, and sealed us by his grace, by
his Spirit, and sealed us in life everlasting, he says, these
are my property. And a seal implies preciousness. Something you bother to seal
up is of great value. And we are God's peculiar treasure,
sealed by his Spirit. A seal implies preservation. seal things to keep them from
spalling, to keep them from going bad. Then Paul gives us this
tenth blessing of grace in verse 14, the earnest of the Spirit.
God the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is the pledge and guarantee
of our everlasting salvation in Christ. And he prays in the
latter part of chapter 1, he offers a prayer to God for these
Ephesians and for us, that God would open their understanding
and give them eyes to see. You see, a man can be very, very
rich and not really know it, because he hasn't come into possession
of his wealth yet. And God's people in this world
Oh, we don't even begin to get a tide of the knowledge of our
blessed wealth in Christ Jesus the Lord. And so Paul prays,
Lord, I want you to cause your people to see and understand. And he gives us three what's.
I want them to see and understand these three what's. What is the
hope of his calling? Oh God, teach you and me that
the hope of our calling, are you listening, has nothing
to do with our experience. You talk to the average religious
fellow, conservative, fundamental religious fellow, about his hope,
I'll guarantee The first thing he'll do is talk to you about
a time and a place. I guarantee you he will. That's
not the hope of our calling. The hope of our calling is Christ's
obedience unto death as our substitute, and his resurrection as our mediator.
He says, Lord, teach them to know what are the riches of the
glory of your inheritance in the saints. We are the complete
satisfaction of God's purpose. Christ finished work, and the
Holy Spirit's mighty operations of grace. whom God Almighty has dug from
the dung heap of fallen humanity, with the mighty arm of his grace,
and fashioned into the crown jewels of his head, are the riches
of his inheritance in the saints." Imagine that! God counts us his
jewels and his delight. And then Paul says, let them
know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe. What does it take to cause the
sinner to believe? Well, read the first chapter.
It takes exactly the same power as that which the Holy Spirit
wrought in the physical body of the Son of God when he raised
him from the dead. And then he closes out chapter
1 by talking about the fullness of Christ. He describes Christ's
resurrection, glory, and his dominion And then he says that
we are the fulness of his church, the church which is his body,
is the fulness of him that filleth all in all. What an astounding
statement! Take off just a little end of
that thing there. This body is not complete. And
Christ as our mediator, as our surety, as our substitute, would
have a maimed body and could never be complete if even one
of his redeemed, chosen, called, sealed ones were to perish. In other words, our everlasting
salvation, believing the Son of God, is just as much a matter
of certainty as is the fullness of Christ our Mediator. Then
in chapter 2, Paul talks about the experience Now remember,
we're talking about the experience of grace here. In chapter 2,
the experience of grace involves these two things. I'll sum it
up for you very quickly. We'll move on to chapter 3. Regeneration
and reconciliation. We must be born again because
we were born wrong the first time. We must be born again because
by nature we're children of wrath, that is, we're God-hating men
and women under the curse of God in our own consciences by
nature. We are men and women dead in
trespasses and in sins. And the only way we can ever
live before God is if God Almighty steps into our lives and gives
us life. You have to be quickened who
were dead in trespasses and in sins. And this is the work of
his grace. By grace you are saved. By grace
you are saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
And then, being born of God's Spirit, called to live by him,
we believe on the Son of God, and we are reconciled to him
in our hearts. You see, man's problem is he
hates God. Every unbeliever's problem. He
hates God. That's his problem. He will not
be reconciled to God. That's his problem. Now, God
Almighty reconciled us to him legally and judicially in Christ
when he died at the force of Calvary. He reconciled us to
him legally and judicially in Christ, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. But we still lived like this, shoved
in God's face, until God stepped in and broke the arm of rebellion in our hearts and made us willing
in the day of his power to kiss the sun. Remember what you were
and where you were when God found you. Don't ever forget that at
that time, verses 11 and 12, you were without Christ, aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants
of promise. You didn't have any right to
claim anything from God. No hope without God. What could be sadder to describe
a man or woman on this earth without hope, without God, without
a promise from God in the world, amongst the fallen masses of
humanity? But now, verse 13, are ye in
Christ Jesus, who sometime were far off, But now in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes are far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. Not only are we reconciled to
God in Christ, but being born of God, experiencing his grace,
believers are reconciled to one another. Christ is our peace.
He's broken down the middle wall of partition, separating Jew
and Gentile. He's broken down that wall of
petition and separates men from one another, whatever the wall
is. So the believers, when they come by faith to the throne of
grace, trusting Christ the Lord as their only hope before God,
their only righteousness, they come before him as one. Walk
in peace with one another. The church of God, what is it
but the habitation of God by the Spirit. We're the temple
of God. The temple of God. built on one
cornerstone. And as the stones on a foundation
are all joined to the one cornerstone and form one house, so God's
people in this world are one. And then in chapter 3, Paul talks
to us about the blessed enjoyment of grace. I don't know any other
way to summarize the chapter. There comes a time, sometime
after you are converted, as you grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, there comes a time when you begin to
really enjoy God's grace. You might say, well, it ought
to be that way from the beginning. I expect it ought to be, but it's not.
Shelby and I will soon be married thirty-five years. And you know,
we live together in the blessed enjoyment of comfortable confidence
with regard to one another in our relationship with one another.
It wasn't always that way. It wasn't always that way. I
used to get a little uneasy. I used to get a little uneasy
if I saw somebody looking the wrong way. It doesn't bother
me anymore. Look on. Eat your heart out.
It doesn't bother me at all. Because she's mine. She's mine. And that's not presumption. That's
delightful. Will you hear me? Paul describes
for us the enjoyment of grace and says, I want you to know
the length and breadth and height of the love of God, the love
of God that passes knowledge. I want you to know it. so that you walk before God with
comfortable confidence. You're His, and He's yours, and
everything is all right. Did you get that? Hear me, sinner. Say more, do you believe the
Son of God? That means you're His, and He's
yours, and it ain't ever gonna change, and everything's all
right. Chapter 4, he talks to us about
the education of grace. He tells us that the grace of
God that brings salvation and teaches us denying ungodliness
and worldly lust, teaches us how to live in this world for
the honor of God. And he begins by telling us to
live together as one body in Christ, in blessed unity. Promoting and seeking to promote,
laboring to promote the unity of the Spirit and the bond of
peace. How do you do that? How do you
do that? You quit thinking about yourself
and walk before God and your brethren in humility, meekness,
lowliness of mind, long-suffering. forbearing, forgiving. I don't know why it should be so
hard for me to put up with you, you put up with me. Long-suffering. What does that
mean? It means suffer long. Bite your tongue. Body your passions. Live for somebody besides yourself. I promise you, I'll give you
my moral lesson for the day. Young people and old alike, because
old means as bad as young. As long as you seek to live to
make yourself happy, you're going to live in utter misery. Living
to yourself, you live in bad company. It's just bad company. I'll tell you how you can live
in joy. live to serve Christ and his
people. Live in unity and live without
jealousy. God gives his gifts in his church
to whom he will, as he will. No need for us to envy one another. He tells us that when our Lord
was raised on high, he received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious
also, and he gives to each one according to his own measure
of faith, and according to the measure of faith he's given him,
and the measure of grace he's given him. So that our place
in his kingdom is determined by his will, our place of service
by his will, our work by his will, our ability by his will,
what we do by his will. I can't do this, I can't do that. There's not much I can do. There's
not much I can do. I can preach. And that's my responsibility. And what God's given you the
ability to do for His people and His glory, that's your responsibility. And then folks always, when you
talk so much about grace, they say, oh, well, I see justice.
That's evil doctrine. It promotes evil. It teaches
men to live ungodly lives. Verses 17 through 24, they say,
oh, no, no, no. The gospel of the grace of God,
when it's experienced in the soul, teaches believing men and
women to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present evil
world. for the glory of Christ. We're
totally free from the law of God, totally free. But that doesn't
mean believers are lawless. Saved men and women seek to glorify
God. Now, they just do. They just
do. Fail miserably, Brother Lindsay,
but saved men and women seek to glorify God. And they seek
to do one another good. And that's what this chapter
4 is about. In a word, grace makes people gracious. Paul says
in verse 31, 32, listen to this, Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice." He's not talking about cussing. I'm not recommending
that you start cussing. He's talking about gossip and
bitterness and backbiting. I got a note today from a friend.
I wrote him, and I said, I understand that I've been the subject of
conversation with some preachers recently. Nothing new. Ungodly! Ungodly! Less evil to curse and swear
like a drunken sailor than to speak evil of your brother. Remember
what that young man said to Joab when he asked him about Absalom?
Why do you kill Absalom? He said, If you'd give me ten thousand
talents of gold, I wouldn't do anything against the king's son. Nothing against the king's son.
These are the king's sons and daughters here. So you treat
them like it. Put away the bitterness. Look
at this now. And be kind, one to another. Kind. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one
another. Explain that picture. even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." That's how. Then in chapter 5, down to verse
9 of chapter 6, Paul calls on us to exercise the grace of God.
As we have been loved of God, we ought to love one another,
and walk in love with one another. As people who are called to be
saints, let us seek live in a manner of becoming saints, putting away
the evil things. Constantly endeavor to be filled
with the Spirit. That doesn't mean seek some kind
of charismatic spasm. Well, you know better than that,
I don't have to talk about that. This is what it is to be filled
with the Spirit. It is to live before God, offering thanks and
praise to him all the time for everything in your heart. Now,
what it says right here in verses 18 through 33? It is to submit
to one another in the will of God. Any time I insist on having my
way, I'm walking in the flesh. That's what it's walking to,
to submit to one another. It is to imitate Christ in all
things. as a husband, as a father, as
a master, as a servant. And then Paul urges us in chapter
6, with this exhortation, to put on the whole armor of God, to stand fast. I don't know what I can do.