Sunday, October 7, 2018 – Ephesians 6:24
We are to have Incorruptible Love for
our Lord Jesus Christ, Pt.2
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
5. The Encouragement, vs. 21-24.
Eph
6:24, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with
incorruptible love.”
To help us define the application
of “incorruptible,” APHTHARSIA, in our text, we will note other cognates like
the Adjective APHTHARTOS, ἄφθαρτος that means “imperishable, incorruptible.” It
is also used 7 times, in 6, (the number of man), applications in the NT, Rom 1:23; 1 Cor 9:25; 15:52; 1 Tim 1:17; 1
Peter 1:4, 23; 3:4. In classical Greek, it means “indestructible, not
liable to death,” and is the opposite of PHTHARTOS, “destruction, death.” In
older Greek philosophy, APHTHARTOS referred to that which is constant and
abiding in nature, as opposed to that which changes and perishes. In drawing a
contrast, the historian Philo described man as PHTHARTOS, while God is
APHTHARTOS. Likewise, Josephus classified the SOMA, “body,” as PHTHARTOS, and
the PSUCHE, “soul,” as APHTHARTOS. Therefore, using the opposite of our human
life that is corruptible, we are to love Him with our soul and spirit in
perfection with an incorruptible love.
1. In Rom 1:23 and 1 Tim 1:17, it
is used as an attribute of God in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, this is a Divine Love we are to have for Him.
a. In Rom 1:23, for man not
believing in and honoring the incorruptible God.
b. In 1 Tim 1:17, it defines
God who deserves our praise and glory.
2. In 1 Cor 9:25, we see how we are to live the spiritual life, so as to
win an imperishable crown. Therefore, we are to give our all in Loving TLJC.
When we do, we will be rewarded at the BEMA seat of Jesus Christ.
3. In 1 Cor 15:52, it is used with the Noun APHTHARSIA, speaking of the
resurrection body and life we will have at the resurrection or Rapture of the
Church; an imperishable one. Therefore, this love is from our new spiritual
creation; not from our flesh.
4. In 1 Peter 1:4, it defines our eternal inheritance as imperishable,
incorruptible. Therefore, this love will be carried forward to the eternal
state.
5. In 1 Peter 1:23, it defines the means by which we are saved, the Word
of God that is imperishable and incorruptible. Therefore, through the
application of Bible Doctrine, we are able to express this love for our Lord.
6. In 1 Peter 3:4, it tells us of the way we should be worshipping God,
from the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit.
Therefore, from the heart of our soul, we express this love towards our Lord in
gentleness and quietness.
From the Adjective APHTHARTOS, we
see that this type of Incorruptible MVA Love for our Lord Jesus Christ is a
“godly love from our souls,” in thanksgiving and reciprocation for the
imperishable life that He is and gives to us, along with the imperishable
inheritance and rewards He provides and gives to us.
To complete the word study, a
synonym of APHTHARSIA is the noun ATHANASIA, ἀθανασία that means,
“immortality.” It is used 3 times in the NT. It is used in 1 Tim 6:16 to describe the attribute of God of immortality, cf. Rom 1:23; 1 Tim 1:17 above. And, it is
used twice alongside of APHTHARSIA in 1
Cor 15:53-54, regarding the resurrection and resurrection body.
1 Cor 15:53-54, “For this perishable must put on the
imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But
when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will
have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is
written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.”
In the resurrection, our bodies
will be clothed in immortality. This is part of Christ’s total victory over
death. The concept of immortality is bound together with the hope of
resurrection and eternal life in Christ Jesus. Our union with Christ means we
not only die with Him but are raised with Him and will live with Him, John 6:44-51; 10:27-30; Rom 6:3-9; 8:11.
As we have seen, the Biblical
meaning of the term incorruptibility is twofold: it refers to God and to
believing mankind. When applied to God, incorruptibility, along with
immortality, is a Divine feature that characterizes His eternal nature, shows
His perfection, and tells of His self-sufficiency, as revealed in the
Scriptures. This does not mean an abstract quality of the Divine transcendent
essence, but the personal character of the Biblical eternal God who is deeply
involved in a relationship with man and the world. It also defines God’s entire
economy, His actions and words, especially those that speak about His Son’s
incarnation. As such, incorruptibility is first applied to God in a Trinitarian
construction: the Father is incorruptible, the Holy Spirit has an incorruptible
purity, and the Only-begotten God is incorruptible. By the incarnation of the
incorruptible Son of God, believers have the possibility of participating in
His purity and so they become partakers of His immortal glory. And with these
grace gifts, we love Him.
Now, we see in Scripture that this
word is applied to God and believing man. When applied to man, APHTHARSIA
appears in Paul’s texts with soteriological (salvation) and ontological
(existence) implications. Incorruptibility represents the feature of the
restored man changed from the fallen one. This process happens at the
resurrection and is related to Christ, the one who united in Himself the two
natures: Divine and human. Therefore, APHTHARSIA is an attribute of eternal
life and man is invited to participate in that life as a heritage from God.
Therefore, Paul intended to state indirectly that when the heart of man is free
from all hypocrisy, it will be free from all corruption. In that way, we are to
love our Lord. This prayer conveys to us the instruction that the only way of
enjoying the light of the Divine countenance in our lives, is to love
incorruptibly God’s own Son, in whom His love toward us has been declared and
confirmed.
You are a genuine Christian if you
know that God has given you eternal life in His Son, 1 John 1:2; 2:25; 3:15, 16; 5:11, 13, 20, and as a result, you love
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Therefore, we are to love Him with an
immortal / incorruptible MVA Love that is unending, undying, incorruptible, and
without decay as we walk in our new nature fulfilling the unique spiritual life
for the Age of Grace. When we do, God’s grace will be poured out onto us. And,
when we experience His grace, it will further increase our Incorruptible MVA
Love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
As such, in our passage Paul is
identifying the ones who will receive grace as only those whose love is not
temporary and untrue, but one that is permanent, genuine, and undiminishing.
Believers’ love for the Lord Jesus Christ is to be pure, not corrupted with
wrong motives or secret disloyalties of sin, human good, legalism, religiosity,
or evil. Unfortunately, years later, some Ephesian believers did lose the
fervency of their love for Christ, Rev
2:4.
Rev 2:4, “But I have this against you, that you have left
your first love.”
In spite of their zeal and hard
work for the Lord, the Ephesians had one serious flaw. They had left or
forsaken their first love. Their love for the Lord was corrupted. The Greek for
“left” is the Aorist, Active, Indicative of APHIEMI, ἀφίημι that means, “let
go, leave, disregard, leave behind, dismiss, divorce, cancel, remit, or
abandon.” It is usually used of willful abandonment, a deliberate giving up,
though it also includes the results of long neglect. They were giving the Lord
their service but not giving Him themselves. They were outstanding in their
work for the Lord, but they no longer had the intimate fellowship with Him they
once had. Therefore, their incorruptible love was corrupted by the sin nature
in either lasciviousness or approbation lust.
Peter exhorts us how to continue
in our incorruptible MVA Love for Christ in 2 Peter 1:4-8.
2 Peter 1:4-8, “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent
promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5Now for
this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral
excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6and in your
knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your
perseverance, godliness, 7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness,
and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8For if these qualities
are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in
the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Many profess to love our Lord Jesus who are corrupt in all
their ways; on these the grace or favor of God cannot rest; they profess to
know Him, but in works deny Him. Such can neither expect favor here, nor
hereafter.” (Adam Clarke's Commentary.)
“There could not be a more appropriate close of the epistle
than such a desire; there will be nothing more needful for us, when we come to
the close of life, than the consciousness that we love the Lord Jesus Christ
with an incorruptible love. Far better is the evidence of such incorruptible
love, than all the wealth which we can gain, all the honors which the world can
bestow upon us, then the most splendid mansion, or the widest fame.” (Barnes' Notes on the New Testament.)
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