Excessive Grace!
A look at a popular theme in Ephesians
Ephesus and Greed
Timothy was stationed in Ephesus to “order some not to teach other teachings” (1 Timothy 1:3, Scot McKnight’s The Second Testament). One of the things that Timothy had to bring to order was a healthy view of money and outward appearance.
In 1 Timothy 2:9, Paul instructed the women of Ephesus to adorn themselves with good works instead of costly things like gold and pearls.
A chapter later, he warned Timothy to not appoint a mentor who loved silver (1 Timothy 3:3).
In chapter 5, Paul instructed Timothy to organize a system to take care of the widows, but he pointed out that such a system might attract those who would take advantage of the system (1 Timothy 5:6, 11-13).
Finally, in chapter 6, Paul tells Timothy that Christians should be content with sustenance and protection (or clothing), the two things Jesus promised his followers in Matthew 6. Desiring to be rich, on the other hand, would lead to temptation, the indulgence of “brainless desires,” and would lay a path to calamity and destruction because the love of money is the root of all badness and causes people to wander from the faith and pierce themselves with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
I bring all of this up to show how a desire for excess apparently plagued many in the church at Ephesus. Even in Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesus shepherds, he warned them that dangerous teachings would afflict their flock, and a misuse of money was already on his radar:
And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:32–35, NRSV
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul warned against wanting “more and more” three times: Ephesians 4:19; Ephesians 5:3; Ephesians 5:5. This all sets us up for a really cool idea that shows up over and over in Ephesians.
Excessive Grace
How do you reach people who are fixated on wealth? Perhaps one way would be to emphasize the excessiveness of God’s grace and mercy. That’s exactly what Paul did in his letter to the Ephesians. Instead of giving commentary, here are three passages that stood out to me.
Ephesians 1:3 - God is “the one who blessed us with every Spirit-prompted blessing…” (The Second Testament)
Ephesians 1:8-10 - “In whom we have liberation through his blood, the release from the wrongs, consistent with his grace’s wealth, which flowed over to you in all wisdom and prudence, making known to you his plan’s secret, consistent with his delight that he offered in him for the management of the seasons’ fullness, for all matters to be recapitulated in the Christos - manners in the heavens and matters in the land in him.”
Ephesians 3:8, 18-21 - …”to gospel Christos’s incomprehensible wealth to the ethnic groups…that you…may be strengthened to grasp what is the width and length and height and depth, indeed, to know the excessiveness of knowing Christos-love, so you may be filled out in all of God’s fullness. To the one empowered to do beyond all things uber-abundantly more than what we ask or think…”
God’s grace is described as abundant, wealthy, delightful, all-encompassing, incomprehensible, and excessive. To end, here is a quote from Rachel Held Evans:
We’re good at getting in the way. Perhaps we’re afraid that if we move, God might use people and methods we don’t approve of, that rules will be broken and theologies questioned. Perhaps we’re afraid that if we get out of the way, this grace thing might get out of hand.
Well, guess what? It already has.
Grace got out of hand the moment the God of the universe hung on a Roman cross and with outstretched hands looked out upon those who had hung him there and declared, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Grace has been out of hand for more than two thousand years now. We best get used to it.
Evans, Rachel Held. Searching for Sunday (pp. 39-42). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.