There is a negative attitude among some Christian as well as non-Christians about the Church these days. In this age of post-Christendom the Church has lost its privileged place. It is looked upon as a place where hypocrites dwells or simply as a place of no relevance. Some of the criticisms I must admit is well deserved. However, as I preached through Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians I stumbled upon another definition for the Church, a definition every Church must strive to live up to. In Ephesians 3:10 Paul calls the Church the manifold wisdom of God. He writes there: So that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
The word in manifold refers to the many-sidedness or multi-coloredness of the wisdom of God. The Greek word translated manifold in this verse referred to intricately embroidered pattern of many colored cloaks or the manifold hues of a garland of flowers. It is used here to speak of the richly diverse nature or many-sidedness of God’s wisdom. When we think about what God did through the Cross of Jesus Christ we tend to have a narrow one sided focus. We tend to think of only that Christ died for my sin and that I am forgiven. Yet what Paul is revealing to us through this phrase “manifold wisdom of God” is that the wisdom of God that lies behind the Cross of Jesus Christ goes beyond just our forgiveness, that it is many-sided. Just as in Genesis 3 our sin led to the breaking down of relationships in all directions (Adam and Eve’s relationship with God, Adam’s relationship with Eve, Adam and Eve’s relationship with themselves, and Adam and Eve’s relationship with the rest of the created order), the atonement for our sin on the Cross means reconciliation in all directions, and ultimately the restoration of the whole world in which people will live in harmony with God, with one another and with the rest of the created world. That is what the manifold or the many-sided wisdom of God refers to, that the outworking of God’s wisdom has many sides to it other than just our forgiveness. In the immediate context of Ephesians 3 it refers to God through the Cross not only reconciles the Gentiles to Himself by forgiving their sins, but also reconciles the Jews and the Gentiles (2:16).
Therefore, when Paul says through the Church this manifold wisdom of God is made known he is saying that the very existence of the Church as a multiracial community where two previously warring people, the Jews and the Gentiles now reside in harmony is a tangible manifestation of the manifold wisdom of God. In our time when you see an Indian and a Pakistani or an American and an Iranian or a Palestinian and an Israelite or a Croats and a Serbian loving each other in a Church because now they have been reconciled to God and to each other through Jesus Christ, you not only know that their sins have been forgiven but that the sin of hatred that kept them as enemies is also taken away by Jesus. And you begin to understand the truly amazing manifold wisdom of God, that He not only forgives and reconciles to people to Himself through the Cross of Jesus, but that He also reconciles them to each other as a first step towards the new haven and the new earth that one day He will create. And the Church on this earth made up of forgiven people reconciled to God and reconciled to each other across socio-economic-political-racial lines becomes the first sight of that new heaven and new earth.
Next Paul says that this manifold wisdom of God through the Church is made known to all the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Rulers and authorities in the heavenly places are a reference to the fallen angels, the demonic force that oppose God and tries to frustrate his plan for world peace by making people hate and destroy each other. Therefore, what is made known to them is that even though the power of darkness crucified Jesus on the Cross, God through that Cross has started the process of bringing world peace, and the Church where all walls of divisions are broken down is the tangible expression of that manifold wisdom of God. This is the identity we as a Church need to live up to.
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