Living with God (Ephesians 2:22)

One of the common problems that Christians face is that most people have very little idea regarding the identity and purpose of the church. This is seen in comments that are made about it by those outside the church and by those within it. Usually it is considered from the perspective of a human institution that bring some benefits to society as long as it engages with what society regards as relevant, which is very hard to define since society is composed of dozens, if not hundreds, of different groups with their particular ideas.

It is the case that the church should help those within and those outside it in practical ways. Yet we can see from Paul’s words here that the church is much more than a charity. The aspect that Paul stresses here is that it is a community in which God wants to dwell. Yet he does not dwell within the church as an equal member of the community. Instead, he is there as the One who is worshipped.

The community

It is possible for us to think of the church as a community in three different ways. We can think about the congregation to which we belong, we can think about the denomination to which we belong, and we can think about the church from a universal perspective. Each of them is a valid way of thinking. Here Paul challenges us to consider the universal nature of the church.

Before anyone joins the universal church at conversion, they are outside the community in which God is found. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they did not belong to God. We are familiar with the notion of a person being stateless, without a group with whom he can identify. Such are strangers and aliens from God, not part of his community. Of course, they were happy with this situation and it was the Lord who initiated and brought about the change in relationships when Jesus arranged for the gospel of peace to come their way.

When they believed the gospel, they immediately became members of God’s community. Paul uses two images to highlight the new situation – a city and a household. Both images depict interaction. In a city, there are neighbours and there are places of work; in a household, there are parents and children, masters and servants. Usually there would be harmony and peace within a city and a household.

What kind of people are in the community of the universal church? Paul says that they are saints and servants. A saint is a person who has been set apart to God and is being gradually transformed into the image of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. The point of sainthood is that God by the Spirit is active in the person’s life. Similarly, those in a household, whether family members or servants, were concerned with the honour of the family name, and such a desire was brought about within them by the Holy Spirit.

Paul does not say much here about the images of city and family and instead focuses on the illustration of a temple. It is worth noting the way that the apostle uses illustrations to explain his ideas. In doing this, he was imitating the example of Jesus who constantly used stories and illustrations to explain his teachings. It is likely that he has features of the temple in Jerusalem in his mind because it separated Jews and Gentiles by a literal wall and he points out that such separations do not exist in the temple that God is building.

The construction

Paul takes his readers to a building site and asks them to observe the erection of a building currently under construction. He mentions the foundation, the cornerstone and the stones. The illustration of a building is used several times in the New Testament and on other occasions Jesus is said to be the foundation. We should not imagine that this difference means that there are contradictions. Instead, all that is happening is that writers are using the same illustration for different purposes.

The foundation of the new temple is said to be the apostles and prophets. This phrase has been interpreted in different ways. One suggestion is that Paul means apostles who are also prophets (so he has one group of people in mind); a second suggestion is that he means New Testament apostles and Old Testament prophets (this suggestion claims to unify the Old and New Testaments, although it is not obvious why prophets only should be mentioned from the Old Testament and not priests and other men that God used); a third suggestion, and the most likely meaning, is that they are apostles and prophets who were gifted for those roles by the exalted Jesus.

What does Paul have in mind when he refers to the apostles and prophets as the foundation of the new temple? Since a foundation must be stable and strong, he cannot mean that those individuals in themselves were the foundation because they were sinners, were not always stable, as Peter showed when he had to be rebuked by Paul, and each confessed that they had no strength in themselves.

The point of the reference to the apostles and prophets is that the Holy Spirit guided them what to say. There was a direct link between them and the Holy Spirit which meant that they conveyed infallible truth whenever the Holy Spirit wished them to do so. One reason for their activity was that the New Testament had not been composed at that time and believers in Jesus required information about the truths it would contain. Since we have the New Testament, there is no longer a need for the roles of apostles and prophets. Yet we should observe the central role of the Holy Spirit in providing infallible truth as the foundation of the church. The test for everything is what is said about it in the Bible.

Jesus is the cornerstone of the new temple. A cornerstone held the building together and was a large stone that bore the weight of the building. Without a cornerstone the building would collapse. We can easily see the application when applied to the Saviour. Without him, there is no church, but with him there is no possibility of collapse as far as the true church is concerned. Moreover, the cornerstone set the direction in which the building would grow, and we can see in this the fact that Jesus controls the growth of his church.

Paul stresses the unique and essential contribution of Jesus by including the word ‘himself’ alongside the statement that he is the cornerstone. The imagery of a cornerstone was used in prophetic descriptions of the Messiah (Isa. 28:16), and it was even predicted that he would be rejected (Ps. 118:22), a verse that Jesus applied to himself.

The third detail about the building is that it is growing, with each new stone representing a new believer. Again we see here a reference to the Holy Spirit because he is the divine Person who brings about the growth. He convicts a person of his sins, enables that person to understand the gospel, and gives new life to that person. At the moment of regeneration, he unites the individual to the universal church. This, of course, means that the only stones in this building are living stones.

The stones are also joined together. Apparently, Paul invented a word to describe this unity by adding a preposition meaning ‘with’ or ‘together’ to a verb that in itself means ‘to join together’. So he is saying that the unity of this temple is very strong and very deep, and we can understand that is so when we recall that it will last for ever. Of course, Paul wants them to realise the consequences of the unity in the present.

As far as each stone is concerned in the new temple, it is united to the cornerstone. This would not have been possible in a literal building because there would be layers of stones one on top of the other, with those at the top not directly in contact with the cornerstone. Unlike other buildings, all the stones in the new temple derive life from the cornerstone. They have this life because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their hearts who unites them permanently to Jesus.

What was Paul wanting to create in the outlook of his readers as he wrote this description of the church of Jesus? No doubt, he had many reasons, but here are three possibilities. First, there should be a sense of admiration. We often marvel at the skills expressed in the erection of magnificent buildings, but what are they in comparison with the skills of the Holy Spirit as he creates the church? Second, there should be affection for all the other stones in the building. How do we express affection for them? Given that we will never meet most of them, the answer to the question must be prayer. It can be said that we love the ones we pray for and we pray for the ones we love. Third, there should be a sense of anticipation as we look ahead to the completion of the building, to that moment when the last stone will be added and the church will be complete. If we are not looking forward to this reality, what kind of spirituality do we have?

God’s dwelling place

Paul reminds the Ephesians that they are one of the places where God dwells. We are used to regarding him as dwelling heaven and we forget that the Bible tells us that he dwells elsewhere as well. How many addresses does God have concerning where he resides? The category of address is people and there are three types within it. First, there is the universal church, second there is each of his people, and third, there is what we can call a local church. It is the local church that Paul is referring to here as we can see from the phrase ‘you are being built together’.

What would this have meant for the Ephesians and by extension for us? The obvious aspect that we can see is how close they were brought to God, how near to him we are. Paul stresses this several times in this letter when he reminds his readers that they have been adopted into God’s family and brought near to him by the blood of Christ. The relationship is closer than even the nearest human relationship because by the Holy Spirit God dwells in us. So when we see one another, we should remind ourselves that we are close to God.

Second, we should see the ongoing necessity of cleansing in order for God to dwell in us. Cleansing is given to us in two ways. First, we are cleansed by the application of the blood of Christ and by this cleansing we are forgiven. Second, we are cleansed by the practical application of the Word of God by which we become holy in character, in our thinking and in our affections as well as in our outward behaviour. Those in whom God dwells, whether as individuals or as a group, must be consecrated, otherwise he will not be pleased.

Third, we should see the centrality of Jesus in a community in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. After all, he is the cornerstone, the one on whom they all depend and with whom they are all united. Although he is elevated in glory, as Paul makes very clear in this letter, he can be known personally and increasingly.

Fourth, since the Holy Spirit in the context is linked to a growing church, it must mean that local congregations should grow numerically, that they should experience conversions. Something is wrong when they don’t increase in size. The presence of the Holy Spirit should not be a barrier to growth unless he is displeased with something, and we will think about this possibility when we come to the passage in Ephesians that refers to grieving the Spirit. Normally, there should be converts in a spiritually healthy church.