Ephesians 2:22

My admonition to my Sunday School Teachers….

From September of 2001 to December of 2015 I pastored a local church. Throughout my pastorate, I tried to invest in my Sunday School teachers. One phrase I would hear them say that made me cringe was this: “Now children, when you are about to do anything, ask yourself, would I do this if Jesus was standing right next to me?”  More times than I can count I would admonish them to stop what I considered an unbiblical and dangerous teaching for our youth.

Our admonition should not be “What if Jesus was standing next to you” it should be “if you are saved, Jesus is standing INSIDE YOU, so everything you do, you make Him do those things with you!”

The Only Faith that makes this claim

Leonard Ravenhill once recounted the story of a Chinese scholar was given a New Testament. He had read all the other sacred texts of the world’s religions. After reading it he was asked what was the thing that stood out the most. It was expected the answer would be the Resurrection of Christ. That was not his answer. His answer was Ephesians 2:22. He asked the witness who gave him the New Testament, “Does your God have His habitation inside you?” No other world religion dares claim that their God resides within the hearts of its adherents.

YOU are the Habitation of God. YOU are the house God rests His Spirit in while you sojourn in this present age.  Do you realize what an awesome privilege and responsibility that is? The saints of the Old Testament did not have that blessing. Those who will be saved during the Tribulation will have that blessing. Only we who live during the Dispensation of Grace have that privilege.

A life-changing realization

            Once we get hold of this truth, everything SHOULD change. I tell this to my Marines at the Military Fellowship Center in this way: Everything you look at on your phone or computer, Jesus is looking at as well through your eyes. Every lustful, hateful, envying and selfish thought you think Jesus hears, because He is in your mind, in your heart, behind your eyes and inside your ears. They always react with astonishment and cries of “Don’t say that!” “It’s too much!”

            But it’s true, IF you are saved, THEN Jesus resides within you through His Holy Spirit. THEREFORE (to use a good Bible word), how then should we walk, talk, and be ourselves (Acts 17:28)? Or as I am asked often, “What does that look like?” What does it look like to have Christ living inside of you? How do I act knowing this truth? I can’t answer that for you except to say this. You have the guidebook to living Eternal Life now. Read it. A LOT.  Preachers of old would often say that every failure of a saint starts in the prayer closet. Still true, but I’m more convinced each day that the failures in the prayer closet start in the study. We don’t read our Bible like we ought. Lester Roloff used to say that if we read our Bibles like we should we wouldn’t need concordances. And if we did read our Bible as we should, we wouldn’t need to ask “How then should I live?” the answer would be shed across our hearts in in our minds and would be second-nature. 

            To close let’s state that in the context of Ephesians 2:19-22, the Church is in view. We the church, together, are the Habitation of God. But we cannot be that together unless we are first that individually. Be in His house, be with His house, and BE His house.