Itty Bitty Bible Study Ephesians 2: 20-22 living stones and the temple

My thoughts for the Itty Bitty Bible Study group on Facebook. (join if you’d like to get these in fb!)

For review – here is IBBS Ephesians 2:1-10 and IBBS Ephesians 2:11-19

 

A review from IBBS Ephesians 2:11-19, which you can skip if you are up to date:

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This section brings to mind the hymn “How Firm a Foundation” and “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand”.

How God created the body of Christ

Ephesians 2:20-22 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
21 The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord.
22 You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

LIVING STONES! stones are dead until God breathes life into them!

1 Peter 2:4-6 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
4 Coming to Him, a living stone—rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God— 5 you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it is contained in Scripture:

Look! I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and honored[a] cornerstone,[b]
and the one who believes in Him
will never be put to shame![c][d]

At the beginning of this passage we are told to remember! What are we supposed to remember? On one side, we’re supposed to remember the we are nothing special apart from God. Apart from God we can do no good thing(John 15). In God we can do all things(Phil 4:13).

As we discussed in Chapter 2: 8 – 9 it’s by grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves but it’s the gift of God! Not of Works lest any man should boast. (IBBS Ephesians 2:1-10) We cannot do anything to earn our salvation except to put our hands out and believe and receive from the hands of God!

What else is this that he’s talking about?

  • That we are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens that we are of the household of God.
  • That we are living stones.
  • That we are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets that Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone.
  • We’re being built together into a holy Temple unto the Lord

 

Ephesians 2:22 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
22 You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit!

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How is this temple built?

Ephesians 2:20-22 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. 21 The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. 22 You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

What does this mean for us, and how do we apply it?
1st Corinthians 3 talks about the foundation and he who Waters and he who plants and he who harvests.

1 Corinthians 3:11 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

Then it goes on to talk about building with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and stubble and that every man’s work will be judged by fire.

THIS IS NOT SALVATION BUT EVIDENCE OF OUR LIFE COMMITMENT TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

1st Corinthians 3:16 know ye not that ye are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you

That makes a very pretty little song but here is the second half, it’s following in our previous contrast and compare of the Flesh and the spirit

1 Corinthians 3:17 King James Version (KJV)
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

To know how serious God is about his dwelling place, just read the old testament about the tabernacle, the temple, or for that matter, his response to ones who touched the ark of the covenant that were not qualified. Jehovah God takes his dwelling place very seriously. Life and death seriously.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 King James Version (KJV)
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

If you read 1st Corinthians 6 Paul’s talking to us about making sure that we walk sanctified and that we should walk in righteousness. He talks about what will be in the kingdom and what won’t be in the Kingdom. He’s also talking that there’s a difference between what you eat as in legalism and the actual sins of the heart and the spirit if you start in verse

12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is helpful.
“Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be brought under the control of anything.
13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will do away with both of them.
The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.
15 Don’t you know that your bodies are a part of Christ’s body?
So should I take a part of Christ’s body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not!
16 Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh.
17 But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

I’m not talking about legalism and rules.
I’m talking about glorifying God in our bodies!
This is NOT Old Testament laws…this is new testament response!

Ephesians 2:10 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Remember that we are bought with a price…we OWE HIM EVERYTHING!!!
We owe him our lives!

Our choices can link us to God or the enemy.
Our choices indicate flesh or spirit guidance.
Our choices can bring us life or death!

Proverbs 18:21 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
21 Life and death are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.

James 3:6 KJV
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 New International Version (NIV)
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

Back to the garden…they had a choice to choose life or death!

Genesis 2:16-17 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat[a] from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Jeremiah 21 speaks judgement to Zedekiah, and yet, God gives the people a choice – life or death.

Jeremiah 21:8 Holman Christian Standard Bible
“But you must say to this people, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look, I am presenting to you the way of life and the way of death.

It’s all about choosing life or death, flesh or spirit!

Romans 6 talks about the fact that we are slaves to whomever we bind ourselves to…BUT IT’S A CHOICE!

Romans 6:16-18 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone[a] as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred[b] to, 18 and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

The truth is, we are slaves.
BUT WE GET TO CHOOSE TO WHOM!!!

and then, the most beautiful thing happens when we choose Christ:
Galatians 4

Galatians 4:6-7 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

If that’s not special enough, Jesus said, in John 15:15:

I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.

There is an understanding that a son of someone can represent their father, for good and for bad.

Ambassadors represent the nations for which they are elected. for good and for bad.
The same is true for us.

I’m trying to keep these shorter…so, I’ll talk about the HOW in the next section. For now, let’s worship!

For review – here previous sections:

Hi!
My hope in the midst of despair and my joy in the face of depression is because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. If you do not have one, or are not sure you will join him in heaven, please check out these links.

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

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