エフェソの信徒への手紙4:14-16 Ephesians 4:14-16,
むしろ、愛に根ざして真理を語り、あらゆる面で、頭であるキリストに向かって成長していきます。（エフェソ4:14-15）
この箇所は、私たちが信仰生活をする上でとても大切なことを教えてくれています。それは「愛に根ざす」ということと「真理を語る」ということです。「愛に根ざす」生き方は、4章2節に「愛をもって互いに忍耐し」とありますように、互いに忍耐する生き方です。また、この手紙の5章2節には、「キリストがわたしたちを愛して、御自分を香りのよい供え物、つまり、いけにえとしてわたしたちのために神に献げてくださったように、あなたがたも愛によって歩みなさい」と勧められています。つまり、私たちが愛をもって互いに忍耐することができるのは、キリストが罪人である私たちの救いのために、ご自身を神様に対するいけにえとして献げて十字架で死んでくださった愛があったからです。「この罪人である私の救いのためにキリストが十字架で死んでくださった」ということを一致して信じているときに、私たちはキリストの愛を共に受け取ることができ、愛をもって互いに忍耐することができるのです。
「真理を語る」とは、キリストの福音を語るということです。この手紙の1章13節で、パウロは「あなたがたもまた、キリストにおいて、真理の言葉、救いをもたらす福音を聞き、そして信じて、約束された聖霊で証印を押されたのです」と述べています。キリストの福音とは、キリストが私たちの救いのために十字架で死んで復活してくださり、このキリストを信じるならば罪が赦されて永遠の命を受けることができるということです。そして、もう少し広く考えるならば、「真理を語る」とは、使徒信条に告白されているような、父・子・聖霊なる三位一体の神様への信仰を語るということです。キリストの福音や三位一体の神様への信仰を、お互いの間で語り合い、また外部の人々に対しても語っているならば、その信仰共同体は成長していきます。しかし、キリストの福音や三位一体の神様への信仰に反することを語り合っていると、信仰共同体は成長しないでむしろ壊れていきます。ですから、もしキリストの福音や三位一体の神様への信仰についてわからないことがあれば、「神様、わたしはキリストの復活がわかりません。わかるようにしてください」とか「神様、わたくしは聖霊のことがわかりません。わかるようにしてください」というように祈って、日曜日の礼拝の中でその答えが与えられるように待ちましょう。そして、忍耐強く教会の礼拝に出席して聖書の解き明かしを聴き続けましょう。そうすると、神様がわからなかったことをわかるようにしてくださいます。 （6月22日の説教より）
As the roots of Protestant Christianity in Japan, it is said that there were three groups of people who believed in Christ in the 1870s, after the “Meiji Restoration.” These three groups are called the Sapporo Band, the Yokohama Band, and the Kumamoto Band, using the English word “band” to mean “group.” In reality, there were many other people who believed in Christ and formed groups in various regions. However, the people who belonged to these three groups had a significant impact on the history of Christianity in Japan, which is why they are particularly remembered. The Yokohama Band founded the current Yokohama Kaigan Church and became the roots of the Church of Christ in Japan, i.e., our denomination. A prominent figure was Rev. UEMURA Masahisa, a leader of the former Church of Christ in Japan before the Second World War and pastor of Fujimi-cho Church. The Kumamoto Band consisted of graduates of Kumamoto Yōgakkō, a school where Mr. Leroy Lansing Janes taught western studies. These graduates moved to Doshisha English School in Kyoto and played a significant role there. A notable figure is Rev. EBINA Danjō, who became the president of Doshisha.
The Sapporo Band, which, along with the Yokohama Band and the Kumamoto Band, became the roots of Protestant Christianity in Japan, was formed by people who signed the “Covenant of Those Who Believe in Jesus” under the influence of Dr. William Smith Clark, the vice-president of Sapporo Agricultural School. Notable figures include Mr. UCHIMURA Kanzō, a Christian thinker, and Dr. NITOBE Inazō, an educator. The members of the Sapporo Band held their own small gatherings, but in 1882, they founded the Sapporo Independent Christian Church, which was not affiliated with any specific denomination. However, Uchimura eventually broke away from the Christian church as a whole and established the “No Church” faction as a non-denominational Christian group. The reason why UCHIMURA founded the “No Church” faction is a complex issue that cannot be easily explained. However, by reading UCHIMURA’s work, Kisisuto Shintono Nagusame (The Comfort of Christian Believers), one can gain some insight into why he founded the “No Church” faction. In this book, UCHIMURA states that when he first converted to Christianity, he believed that the Christian church was “heaven on earth,” a place where there was no suspicion or hatred, and where one could freely speak about things one could not even discuss with one’s own family. He continues by writing as follows.
Ah, how dear to me is the church in the remote northern region where I was converted! Morning and evening, believers gathered together; on Thursday nights, there were prayer meetings; on Saturdays, there were gatherings on the mountain; on Sundays, there were all-day discussions, prayers, and Bible studies. If a member fell ill, believers would take turns staying awake to care for them. When it was time for them to depart, and when they departed, prayer, praise, and the Bible never left our lips or hearts. When Christian believers came from outside, we greeted them, as if we were old friends and as if we had met allies in enemy territory, and we welcomed them with joy. We could not even imagine that there could be evil people among Christians. (Translated by MIYOSHI Akira. Same below.)
The “remote northern region” referred to here was Sapporo, which at the time was considered a remote northern area. There, UCHIMURA experienced a church life marked by deeply intimate relationships among believers. He stated, “We could not even imagine that there could be evil people among Christians.”
However, immediately after recounting this beautiful memory of church life, UCHIMURA writes as follows.
However, this childish notion was soon shattered, and I came to realise that the Christian church was not a place where only good people gather. I came to understand that even within the church, one must not let down one’s guard.
What does this mean? It means that the childlike notion that the church is an ideal place was shattered and that he came to realise the church is not a place where only good people exist. After this, UCHIMURA writes about how he is criticised by the authoritative figures of the Christian church due to his unique beliefs. He then states that he is a person who has been abandoned by the church. Furthermore, he offers a shocking prayer that means, “God, even if I leave the church, I cannot leave you. Being abandoned by the church is unfortunate, but since I have already been abandoned, that is enough. Please do not let me leave you because I have been abandoned by the church,” and concludes the chapter titled “When One Was Abandoned by the Christian Church.”
What strikes one upon reading this passage by UCHIMURA is the stark contrast between his initial belief that the church is an ideal place and his later realisation that “the church is not a place where only good people gather” and that “I have been abandoned by the church.” According to the teachings of the Bible, the church is a gathering of sinners who have been forgiven of their sins, so it is a mistake to view the earthly church as an overly ideal place. If one reads carefully the letters to the Corinthians and Galatians in the New Testament, it is clear that “the church is not a place where only good people gather.” This is something one should have realised at the very beginning of one’s faith life. Why did he fail to realise this and later say, “The church is not a place where only good people gather,” leading him to make the extreme statement, “I was abandoned by the Christian church”? This is not something that can be easily explained. UCHIMURA’s thought was formed through various hardships, so it is difficult to analyse it simply. However, it can be said that people like UCIMURA and the Sapporo Band had a strong personal faith in Christ as the centre of their own lives. On the other hand, their communal faith in God, who called them to the church as the body of Christ and granted them salvation, may have been weak.
In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul teaches the communal faith that God has called us to be the body of Christ, the church, and has given us salvation. He then urges those who have received salvation to live in a manner worthy of God’s calling. In verses 1-4 of chapter 4, which precedes today’s passage, Paul writes as follows.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
What kind of life does Paul recommend here as a life worthy of God’s calling? As it says, “with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” it is a life guided by the Holy Spirit as a member of the community of faith. And that community of faith is an invisible community of faith that includes Christians in heaven and Christians on earth. As it says, “One body and one Spirit,” and “called to the one hope that belongs to your call,” it refers to the one community that transcends denominations, ethnicities, and eras, called the “Holy Catholic Church” in the Apostles’ Creed. Christians are permanent members of the eternal community called the “Holy Catholic Church,” chosen by God to receive eternal life.
Then, in verses 7-10, Paul explains that Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, which is beyond this world, sent the Holy Spirit from heaven, and is forming the church, which is the body of Christ, on earth by giving various gifts to those who believe in Christ. As it says in verse 7, “according to the measure of Christ’s gift,” who receives what gift and to what extent is determined by Christ’s plan. Believers are given ministries according to the gifts they have received and are united as one. The community of faith grows as if it were one person. Paul describes this growth in verse 13: “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The term translated as “mature manhood” is written in the original Greek text in the singular form. This means that the community of faith, united through gifts and ministries, can bear witness to Christ as if it were a single person.
In verses 14 and 15 of today’s passage, Paul continues as follows.
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
As I mentioned last week, the word translated as “children” is written in the plural form in the original Greek text, too. In other words, a mature community of faith becomes one mature person, as described in verse 13, but an immature community of faith is a group of immature individuals who are not united as one.
Paul describes the characteristics of a mature community of faith as, first, “no longer be” “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes,” and second, “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
The first point, when reversed, means that an immature faith community is one that is “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” What kind of teaching is “every wind of doctrine”? In the Epistle to the Colossians, which is believed to have a deep connection with this Epistle to the Ephesians, it is written that there were those who were “insisting on asceticism and worship of angels” (Colossians 2:18) and who were “promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body (Colossians 2:23). These are what are known as heretical teachings. Even today, there are teachings that appear to be a branch of Christianity but are fundamentally different from it. Examples include the Unification Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormonism. There are also individuals who alter Christianity according to their own beliefs and create their own teachings. These are people who have been baptised but claim that “the resurrection of Christ is not a historical fact” or “I do not believe in the second coming of Christ.” Such teachings are nothing more than “human cunning” and “craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Let us not be “tossed to and fro” by such teachings, as Paul urges us.
The second point teaches us something very important for our life of faith. It is “speaking the truth in love.” A life of love is a life of mutual patience, as stated in 4:2, “bearing with one another in love.” Furthermore, in 5:2 of this letter, we are exhorted to “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” In other words, we are able to bear with one another in love because Christ, out of love for us sinners, gave himself as a sacrifice to God on the cross for our salvation. When we unanimously believe that “Christ died on the cross for the salvation of this sinner like me,” we can receive Christ’s love together and endure one another with love.
“Speaking the truth” means speaking the gospel of Christ. In 1:13 of this letter, Paul says, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” The gospel of Christ is that Christ died on the cross and rose again for our salvation, and that if we believe in this Christ, our sins will be forgiven and we will receive eternal life. And if we think about it a little more broadly, “speaking the truth” means speaking the faith in the triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—as confessed in the Apostles’ Creed. If we share the gospel of Christ and our faith in the Triune God with one another and also with those outside the church, the community of faith will grow. However, if we share things that contradict the gospel of Christ or our faith in the Triune God, the community of faith will not grow but will instead be destroyed. Therefore, if there is anything about the gospel of Christ or our faith in the Triune God that you do not understand, pray like this: “God, I do not understand the resurrection of Christ. Please help me understand,” or “God, I do not understand the Holy Spirit. Please help me understand,” and wait for the answer to be given in Sunday worship. And continue to attend church services with patience and listen to the exposition of the Bible. Then, God will help you understand what you did not understand.
In the last verse of today’s passage, Paul says, “from whom (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” This passage uses the analogy of the body to explain very clearly how the church grows. The body grows by being “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly.” The church, which is the body of Christ, also grows by each person with different gifts being “joined and held together,” and each person with different ministries working according to their proper function. How wonderful it would be if the church, as a community of faith, could grow in this way!
The church on earth is a gathering of forgiven sinners. Therefore, there are always problems. However, despite this, Christ in heaven pours out the Holy Spirit on the church, cleanses those who gather, bestows gifts, assigns ministries, and causes the church to grow. Let us continue to pray that growth may be granted, believing that the church grows by Christ.