エフェソの信徒への手紙2:1-3 Ephesians 2:1-3,
さて、あなたがたは、以前は自分の過ちと罪のために死んでいたのです。 （エフェソ2:1）
「あなたがた」とはエフェソ教会の信徒たちのことです。それは主にユダヤ人以外の人々でクリスチャンとなったいわゆる異邦人クリスチャンであったのでしょう。エフェソではギリシア神話の女神アルテミスへの崇拝が特に盛んでした。アルテミスは天と地と死者の世界を支配する偉大な力をもつと信じられていました。このようなアルテミスへの崇拝は、エフェソの人々の世界観や生活に大きな影響を与えていました。エフェソの人々はアルテミスを崇拝することによって、この世や死後の災いから守られると信じていました。そのため、エフェソの人々は魔術的な儀式や呪文や祈りによって、アルテミスの霊的な守りを得ようとしていました。しかし、それは人間の造り出した神々の偶像を礼拝するという「過ちと罪」であったのです。聖書の研究者によれば、「罪」と翻訳されているハマルティアというギリシア語は、神様に反逆する一般的な行動や態度を指し、「過ち」と翻訳されているパラプトーマというギリシア語は、神様の明らかな命令や教えを破る特定の行動を指すということです。
パウロはローマの信徒への手紙1章28節から31節で、まことの神を礼拝しないで偶像を礼拝する人々がどのような状態になるかということを、次のように厳しく記しています。「彼らは神を認めようとしなかったので、神は彼らを無価値な思いに渡され、そのため、彼らはしてはならないことをするようになりました。あらゆる不義、悪、むさぼり、悪意に満ち、ねたみ、殺意、不和、欺き、邪念にあふれ、陰口を言い、人をそしり、神を憎み、人を侮り、高慢であり、大言を吐き、悪事をたくらみ、親に逆らい、無知、不誠実、無情、無慈悲です。」
私たちがキリストを信じる前の自分の状態を思い出してみましょう。これらのことのうちの少なくとも一つは当てはまるのではないでしょうか。つまり、まことの神様を知らなかったために、神様に背を向けて自分の思い込みや衝動によって動かされて生きていたのではないでしょうか。それは、命の源である神様との交わりを失い、滅びゆく人間の姿でした。ですから、パウロは本日の箇所の1節で「あなたがたは、以前は自分の過ちと罪のために死んでいたのです」と記しているのです。 （2月9日の説教より）
Christianity has a deep insight into the nature of humanity. 462 years ago, in 1563, a book called the Heidelberg Catechism was published in Germany, which systematically laid out the teachings of Christianity. Following the first question and answer of “The Only Comfort,” the Heidelberg Catechism teaches in the form of questions and answers about the misery of human beings. For example, the fourth and fifth questions and their answers are as follows.
Q4. What does God’s law require of us?
- Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22:37-40:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like
it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets.”Q5. Can you live up to all this perfectly?
- No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbour.
If you are a Christian, you will probably agree that the Christian teaching is that we should love God and our neighbour. And Christians will also have to admit that we are unable to perfectly love God and our neighbour. But what about the statement, “I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbour”? Even among Christians, there may not be many who recognise their own sinfulness to such an extent. And ordinary people who are not Christians would probably argue, “That’s not true!” when they hear that human beings have a natural tendency to hate God and neighbour. They would probably argue, “Look at young children. Young children are capable of loving others purely and simply, aren’t they?”
The Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism emphasises the concept of salvation by faith in Amitabha. On the website of the Gathering of the Kagoshima Diocese of the Jodo Shinshu Honganji sect, there is an interesting sermon entitled “The Seeds of Conflict Are Born from My Own Mind.” In this sermon, the following incident at a nursery school is recounted. It happened when the children, who were playing freely, were putting away the toys they had been playing with because it was snack time. A child who was playing with blocks started to put away the large blocks he had been assembling. Then, a child who was reading a picture book nearby, after returning the book to the bookshelf, said to the child putting away the blocks, “Can I help you?” However, the child playing with the blocks replied, “I played with these, so I’ll put them away.” Then, the child who had offered to help said, “It’ll be quicker if we do it together,” and reached out to take the blocks. Then, as soon as the other child tried to touch the blocks, the child who had been putting away them said “Stop!” and slapped the other child’s hand. Both children were “good children” with good intentions, but they argued with each other because they were both insisting on their own good intentions.
This story reveals the self-centredness that exists in the human heart by showing the conflict between two “good children.” The child who offered to help should have considered the feelings of the child who said, “I played with these, so I’ll put them away.” However, he reached out without agreement because he thought that helping was a good thing. The child who was putting away the blocks should have thought more about the kind intentions of the child who offered to help. However, in trying to stick to the good intension of putting away the things he has played with by himself, he ended up slapping the other child. It is not told what happened to these two children afterwards, but if the child who was slapped had slapped back, they might have temporarily come to hate each other. And what about in the adult world? Since adults think carefully before acting, would something like this never happen? That’s not true! Even in the adult world, conflict arises when people are stubborn about what they think is right. And the hatred that results from that conflict is likely to be even deeper than in the case of children. Although Jodo Shinshu and Christianity are not the same teachings, when you read this sermon, you can see that both have a deep insight into the problems that exist within the human heart.
Today’s Bible passage tells us that there is sin in the human heart, and that it manifests itself in bad behaviour. In 1:22 before today’s passage, Paul states that Christ, who died on the cross and then rose again, is seated on the heavenly throne and rules over everything, writing, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.” Then, in 1:23, he powerfully declares that Christ, who rules over all is present in the church through the Holy Spirit by writing that the church “is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” And in the following chapter 2, Paul is going to describe how those who believe in Christ are freed from the dominion of sin and are seated with Christ on the heavenly throne. That is, in verses 4-6 of chapter 2, Paul writes as follows.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Before describing Christ’s salvation in verses 4-6, in today’s passage Paul describes the state of human beings before they were saved by Christ. First, in verse 1, he says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.” The word “you” refers to the believers of the Ephesian church. These would have been mainly non-Jewish people who had become Christians, so-called “Gentile Christians.” As I explained last week, in Ephesus there was a particularly strong cult of the Greek goddess Artemis. It was believed that Artemis had great power over the heavens, the earth and the world of the dead. This worship of Artemis had a great influence on the worldview and lives of the people of Ephesus. The people of Ephesus believed that by worshipping Artemis, they would be protected from disasters in this world and in the afterlife. For this reason, the people of Ephesus sought to obtain Artemis’ spiritual protection through magical rituals, spells and prayers. However, these were “trespasses and sins” of worshipping idols created by humans. According to a biblical scholar, the Greek word ἁμαρτία, translated as “sin,” refers to “general activities, actions, and attitudes that express rebellion against God,” while the Greek word παράπτωμα, translated as “trespass,” refers to “more specific actions that involve breaking explicit commands or instructions.”
In Romans 1:28-31, Paul harshly describes the state of those who do not worship the true God but worship idols as follows.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to aa debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Let’s think about our own state before we believed in Christ. I think that at least one of these bad things applied to us. That is, because we didn’t know the true God, we were living our lives turning our backs on God and being driven by our own thoughts and impulses. We were human beings who had lost our fellowship with God, the source of life, and were on the verge of destruction. That is why Paul writes in verse 1 of today’s passage, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins.”
Continuing on from this, in verse 2 of today’s passage, Paul writes, “in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Of course, it is our own fault that we walked “in the trespasses and sins,” but Paul says that this is because we were “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” It would mean that to follow the course of this world is the same as to follow the evil spiritual powers that are mentioned just after it. The Japanese Bible which we use now translated the Greek word used here as not “course” but “ruler.” The reason for this difference in translation is that the Greek word used here, αἰών, has several meanings.
What does “the prince of the power of the air” mean? The word “air” (in Greek ἀήρ) refers to the space between heaven and earth. In ancient Greece, there was a belief that the heavens were ruled by gods, the earth by humans, and the air by various spirits. It seems that the people of Ephesus also believed this, and they thought that in order to get these spirits to do what they wanted, they needed to use magic. It seems that the popularity of magic in Ephesus was also due to the fact that they believed in the spirits in the air. Paul refers to such spirits in the air as “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” This means the spirit that works within the hearts of those who do not obey the true God. In a word, it is the devil. In other words, it is the devil that makes human beings commit trespasses and sins.
When you hear the word “devil,” some people may think it’s just an ancient superstition. However, even for those of us living in the modern age, when something wrong happens in society or in our immediate surroundings, we may think, “Why did that person do such a foolish thing? The devil must have tempted” (“Ma ga Sashita” in Japanese). In 1 Peter 5:8-9, the apostle Peter writes, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith.” When you look back on your life, you may think, “The devil was targeting me at that time.” Also, some of you may feel that you are being tempted by the devil right now. In 6:11-12 of this letter to the Ephesians, Paul teaches us to fight against the devil, not against people, as follows. This is the words to remember when you feel hostility or hatred towards other people.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
In verse 3 of today’s passage, Paul changes the subject to “we” and says, “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” By changing the subject to “we,” Paul is probably thinking of Jewish Christians like himself. As a Jewish Pharisee, Paul had lived his life faithfully observing the Ten Commandments and various laws of the Old Testament. He must have lived an ideal Jewish life, not worshipping idols, observing the Sabbath and fulfilling his duties to his Jewish neighbours. However, even though he was living this kind of life, he reflected himself saying “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” Why was this? It was because he had clung to his own righteousness and his own goodness in keeping the law.
What happens when we cling to our own righteousness and our own goodness? Think about the conflict between the children I mentioned in today’s sermon. By clinging to their own goodness, the children became enemies of each other. Clinging to our own righteousness and our own goodness is actually living “in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” The sins that Gentiles committed before becoming Christians were clearly sins that were against God’s teachings. However, the sins that Jews like Paul had committed before becoming Christians were difficult to know, as they appeared to be following God’s teachings, but in reality they were living self-centred lives. And since both Gentiles and Jews were sinners, both Gentiles and Jews “were by nature children of wrath.”
Today’s Bible passage teaches us about the misery of human beings, that all people are “by nature children of wrath.” In other words, it is a teaching about original sin, i.e., the idea that human beings are born with sin. Then, is Paul writing today’s passage to say that human beings have original sin and so have no choice but to live in misery? Of course not! He is writing today’s passage to show how human beings can be saved from their misery by becoming aware of their original sin and their miserable state. In other words, Paul is facing up to human beings’ sinfulness and misery in the light of salvation. The depth of the Bible’s insight into human beings is truly astonishing. Both the Old and New Testaments face up to the fact that human beings are sinful and miserable, and do not hide this fact. The reason they do not turn away from human beings’ sinfulness and misery is because there is hope that even such people can be saved through faith in Christ. I hope that we can walk forward this week with this hope.