Flesh Vs. Spirit, The Battlefield Within

The book of Ephesians is one of Paul’s many New Testament letters, or epistles, to the Christian church still in its infancy. At the time of its writing, Paul is in Rome, imprisoned for championing the purposes of Christ and growing the church. We see numerous occurrences where Paul, being a man of little concern for the status quo, is either imprisoned or fleeing capture by Jewish or Roman officials for usurping the latter (Acts 19: 23-41). The date of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is dated 60-61A.D., depending on differing research. While this is certainly one of his epistles known as the “prison letters”, Ephesians was penned prior to Paul’s first roman

The writer Paul addresses the Galatians, "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. and he goes on to explain to them, "Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. The scripture also tells us to, "Cast all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded and alert. Your advisary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your

If you look at the undisputed epistles, Paul is addressing issues in those churches. Those issues are wide ranging. Some of the issues are theological issues and others of practical problems encountered during that day and time in the church. Paul appears to write with an urgent need to address each one of

In this case, he does the same things in regard to his rivals. Paul uses pathos in order to convince the church to adopt a countercultural lifestyle than those around them. He takes his rivals and uses himself as a foil against them. He contrasts the motives and the purposes of the rivals and tells the church to do the opposite. The rivals are preaching “from envy” (1:15) but he tells them to “do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit” (2:3). The rival preachers are preaching from “strife” but he tells the Philippians to do all things with the proper attitude which includes not “grumbling or disputing” (2:14). Paul states that the rivals are preaching “out of selfish ambition” (1:17) but he tells the church, “do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of

As I elaborate on the theme, “Equipping Saints for Ministry in the New Millennium”, I will discuss Paul’s words in Ephesians 4 to illustrate

Ephesians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul during his imprisonment in Rome. This is the same Paul who had previously persecuted the church. He is not writing to a particular church body, rather his intended audience was various churches in the surrounding vicinity of Ephesus. To encourage

To understand the meaning of Galatians 5: 16-18 we must understand the purpose of the letter. Galatians is an occasional letter (Duvall, Hayes 2008, 100) meant to address a congregation who is faced with the dilemma of Judaizers. The Judaizers were teaching that in order for a Gentile to be truly saved he must convert to Judaism; he must be circumcised. They preached salvation by works of the flesh, putting the Gentiles under the law (5: 9-15). But the flesh; circumcision or no circumcision, following the Judaic laws or not following the Judaic laws, makes no difference in salvation. Righteousness is found through faith and shown in love (5:6). Insistence that Gentiles convert to Judaism “distorts salvation by grace alone” and causes dissension in the body of Christ (Wilson 2013, Gal. 5:15). Paul argues that Christians should rely on the Holy Spirit for the power to overcome the flesh and walk in love and faith (5:16– 18). There is clearly a distinction between the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit (5:19-26). Paul

Paul talks a lot in Galatians about being in bondage to the law - to any system of rules. Yet this is the way most people live what they refer to as the Christian life. It's really just coming into bondage to some form of religion.

The Personality of the Holy Spirit HOMI 860-397 LUO Jonathan Behler L23929745   Several decade ago Lloyd Price sang a song called, “Personality.” Some of the lyrics go like this: “'cause you got personality, walk, personality, talk, personality, smile, personality, charm, personality, love, personality…” (Price, n.d.) I can tell by the looks on your faces many of you remember that song. Well, the Holy Spirit does have personality. The Holy Spirit has many divine attributes that define His personality.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV).

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-20 takes the opportunity to convey to the Church at Ephesus, the growing threat of the spiritual issues confronting the body of Christ. The central beliefs implant and reside in the texts, seem to be a battle cry that resounds from the heart of the Apostle Paul. Paul's aim in the texts is to shade light on the spiritual warfare that's outside of the eyesight of the believer. Furthermore, the battle that is in question is a spiritual battle that seizes eternal ramification involving every believer. As noted by author Warren Wiersbe, when he stated that "sooner or later every believer discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground and that he faces an enemy who is much stronger than he

This argument does not, however, decisively remove the possible use of ‘conversion’ for Paul, as Stendahl’s view that conversion must mean abandonment of a previous religious system is certainly not a necessary condition. In addition to this, to remove the language of ‘conversion’ from Paul’s experience is to remove its decisiveness; its absolute alteration of Paul’s thinking and being that can be seen in Gal 1:12-14. In these passages we see Paul speak of the risen Christ, who gave him his teaching and drew him away from his life in the Law, and as a Pharisee, in which he excelled (Gal 1:14) and which had led him to persecute the Church (Gal 1:13). When this Christocentric language is placed against his former understanding, which had caused him to persecute the Church, one cannot simply speak of a ‘call’, but rather must move to language of radical turning, of ‘conversion’. As this shows, while Stendahl’s argument that Paul should not be considered a ‘convert’ is not strong enough to warrant abandonment of the term, his exposition of Paul as ‘called’ should not be ignored, as, from a missional point of view, he certainly was. This leads us to the conception of Paul’s experience as encapsulating both ‘call’ and a ‘conversion’ dynamic, more fully expressing the reports he and others gave of this time.

A major situation confronting Paul during ancient times was trying to make sense of the barriers between Jews and Gentiles. Ultimately, the solution to breaking the barrier comes through Christ alone. Christ died for all humankind not just one kind. This view of Christ as the true solution is also the answer to the oppositions in the book of Romans. Two major oppositions are seen in Romans 8:1-11, between good and evil and spirit and flesh. Paul, who confronts many issues in Rome, cannot resolve these oppositions. Rather, "he proclaims liberation from the existential rupture in human nature, formulated by means of the figures that express opposition between flesh and the spirit, through participation in Christ." Romans 8:1-11 proves that living in the Spirit results in ultimate freedom and everlasting life. This freedom in the Spirit then means that the bondage of the law of sin and death is released.

Paul visited Ephesus on his first missionary journey, on the way from Greece to Syria. After his third missionary journey, he stayed there and pastored the Ephesian church for 3 years (Easton, np). “Though Paul was not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there, he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana” (Orr, np). Because of his strong ties to the church, Paul cared deeply about the faith of the believers there (Macarthur, np).

3. Paul says what everybody has to do to stay away from the evil and sin, and closer to the Lord. (6:14-16)