エフェソの信徒への手紙4:17-21 Ephesians 4:17-21,

彼らは愚かな考えに従って歩み、知性は暗くなり、彼らの中にある無知とその心のかたくなさのために、神の命から遠く離れています。　　　　　　　　　　　　（エフェソ4:18）

この箇所は、英語の聖書では受け身の意味に翻訳されています。たとえば、English Standard Version という聖書では「彼らは理解を暗くされ」（They are darkened in their understanding）とか、「神の命から遠く離され」（alienated from the life of God）というように受け身の意味に翻訳されています。これは、この箇所のギリシア語の動詞を「受動態」つまり受け身の形であると解釈しているからです。ところが、古代のギリシア語には「受動態」と同じ形でありながら別の意味を表す「中動態」というものがありました。「中動態」は主語が自分自身との関係で何かをすることを表します。つまり、わかりやすく言えば、「自分に〜する」という意味です。そして、この箇所のギリシア語の動詞は「中動態」であると解釈することもできます。「中動態」と解釈してその意味がよくわかるように18節を翻訳しますと、「彼らは自分の知性を暗くし、彼らの中にある無知とその心のかたくなさのために、自分を神の命から遠く離しています」となります。聖書の研究者たちも、この箇所をそのような「中動態」の意味に解釈することに賛成しています。

これはどういうことかと申しますと、偶像を神とするような空しい考えをもっている人は、自分で自分自身の知性を暗くし、自分で自分自身を神の命から遠く離してしまっているということです。この場合、「神の命」とは永遠の命のことを指しています。つまり、偶像を神とするような空しい考えをもっている人は、自分で自分自身を永遠の命を受けることができないようにしているということです。18節をこのように解釈すると、19節の意味もさらによくわかるようになります。19節の「放縦な生活をし」という日本語に翻訳されているギリシア語の言葉は、文字どおりに翻訳すれば「自分自身を放縦な生活へと引き渡し」となります。つまり、偶像を神とするような空しい考えをもっている人は、自分で自分自身を乱れた退廃的な生活へと引き渡してしまうということです。偶像とは自分の願望や欲望を形にしたものです。ですから、偶像を神とすると、自分の願望や欲望を神とすることになります。そして、自分の願望や欲望から生じる衝動のままに行動するようになり、自分自身を乱れた退廃的な生活へと引き渡してしまう結果となるのです。 （9月21日の説教より）

Our lives are profoundly shaped by the people we encounter. Some encounters bring us grace and nourishment, while others bring suffering and wounds.

The persons one encounter first in life are likely one’s family members. Family members are close to one from the moment one is born. As one grows, one experiences many things through one’s family. Since family members are inherently close to one, they might not be considered new encounters. Yet, even within family, each person has a distinct personality; one member does not know everything about another member. Thus, in daily life, one experiences discovering new aspects of family members that one did not know before. This too may be called an encounter. If the newly experienced aspect is family care or affection, it can be called a fortunate encounter. At such times, one has the precious experience of meeting someone trustworthy. However, if the newly experienced aspect is family bullying or abuse, it must be called an unfortunate encounter. When one has such an experience, one endures the tragic experience of meeting someone untrustworthy. Many people may grow up experiencing both such fortune and misfortune.

As an individual grows, the range of people they encounter broadens. First, it extends to those met within the circle of relatives and the local community; then to those met within the school environment; and finally, to those met within the workplace and wider society. And within this expanding circle of encounters, there are both fortunate and unfortunate meetings. Meeting someone who encourages growth with consideration, or someone who walks alongside with empathy, is a fortunate experience. However, encounters with those who bully with malice or harass without understanding are unfortunate and sad experiences. In general society, we often have such unfortunate and sad experiences, do we not? Based on the teachings of the Bible, since all people are sinners before God, perhaps it is only natural to have such unfortunate and sad experiences. Yet, even within general society, we sometimes encounter people who treat us with consideration and empathy. Often, these individuals are not what we would call Christians. Furthermore, within the Christian church, we can meet people who show a level of consideration and empathy rarely experienced elsewhere in general society. However, we may encounter people who, while being so-called Christians, lack understanding and harbour malice. This is perhaps unavoidable, for even among those baptised, the depth of their knowledge and faith in Christ, and the extent to which they have repented and been cleansed by the Holy Spirit, varies from person to person. When we consider it, the one we should ultimately encounter within the Christian church is not fellow church members, but Jesus Christ himself. It is through encountering Christ himself that we are given a new life. And it is by continuing fellowship with Christ himself that we can keep living this new life, without reverting to our old life.

From today, we wish to listen once more to the message of the Epistle to the Ephesians. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul teaches the communal faith that God has called us into the body of Christ, the church, and granted us salvation. He then exhorts those believers who have received salvation to live in a manner worthy of God’s calling. In 4:1-4 before 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 manner of life does Paul here exhort as worthy of the God’s calling? It is, as stated, “bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” a life guided by the Holy Spirit as a member of the community of faith. And this community is the invisible community of faith uniting Christians in heaven with those on earth. That is, as it states, “one body and one Spirit,” and “called to the one hope,” it is the one community transcending denominations, ethnicities, and eras, referred to in the Apostles’ Creed as “the holy catholic Church.” Christians are permanent members of this eternal community, “the holy catholic Church,” chosen by God to receive eternal life.

Subsequently, from verses 7-10, Paul describes how Jesus Christ who died on the cross, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven beyond this world, and sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to give various gifts upon those who believe in Christ, thereby forming the church on earth as the body of Christ. Believers are each given a ministry according to the gift they have received and are united together. Thus, 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 community of faith, united through gifts and ministries, can thus bear witness to Christ’s grace as if it were one person. Furthermore, Paul describes the characteristics of a mature faith community in verse 14: “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,” and in verse 15: “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” And as verse 16 states, the church grows as each individual, endowed with different gift, is “joined and held together,” and as each person, assigned different ministry, “is working properly.”

However, Paul was not optimistically assuming that the growth of the church as the community of faith, or the growth of individual Christians, would naturally occur if left to its own devices. For even after believing in Christ, there was a danger that believers might revert to the ways of thinking and living from the time before they believed in Christ. Therefore, Paul describes how those who do not believe in Christ are living miserable lives, warning believers not to revert to the ways of thinking and living from the time before they believed in Christ. That is, in verses 17-19 of today’s passage Paul says as follows.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Here Paul strongly exhorts, “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.” “The Gentiles” referred to are the Gentiles who do not believe in Christ. That is, you who believe in Christ must not live as those Gentiles who do not believe, just as you yourselves once did. These verses describe the manner of life of Gentiles who do not believe in Christ. While the Japanese Bible we use conveys the general meaning, reading the original Greek text reveals important nuances not fully captured in the Japanese translation.

First, the phrase in verse 17 translated as “orokana kangae” (foolish thinking) in Japanese Bible, is translated literally as “the futility of their minds” (ματαιότητι τοῦ νοὸς αὐτῶν) in English Bible. Therefore, it would be better translated as “futile thinking.” And what is this “futile thinking”? It is the thinking that makes idols into gods. As I mentioned at the beginning of exposition of this letter, worship of the Greek goddess Artemis was particularly fervent in the city of Ephesus. The temple in Ephesus dedicated to the statue of Artemis is said to have been four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. Artemis was believed to possess great power, ruling over heaven, earth, and the realm of the dead. The people of Ephesus believed that by worshipping Artemis, they would be protected from calamities in this world and the next. Yet, this is a “futile thinking.” As stated in Psalm 115:5-7, idols are futile things. “They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, nostrils, but cannot smell; with their hands they cannot feel, with their feet they cannot walk, and no sound comes from their throats” (REB). And believing that such idols possess great power is a “futile thinking.”

In verse 18 Paul says, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” Like this, this passage is translated in English Bibles to convey a passive meaning. This is because the Greek verb in this passage is interpreted as being in the passive voice. However, ancient Greek possessed a “middle voice” that shares the same form as the passive but conveys a different meaning. The middle voice indicates the subject is acting in relation to oneself. In simpler terms, it means “doing something to oneself.” The Greek verb in this passage can also be interpreted as being in the middle voice. Interpreting verse 18 as the middle voice, and to make its meaning clear, we translate it as: “They have darkened their own understanding and have alienated themselves from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” Biblical scholars also agree with interpreting this passage in this sense of the middle voice.

What this means is that those who harbour “futile thinking,” such as making idols their gods, darken their own understanding and alienate themselves from the life of God. In this context, “the life of God” refers to eternal life. In other words, those who harbour such “futile thinking” of making idols their gods are preventing themselves from receiving eternal life. Interpreting verse 18 in this way also makes the meaning of verse 19 clearer. In verse 19 Paul says, “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” That is, those who harbour such “futile thinking” as making idols their gods “give themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” An idol is a form given to one’s own desires and cravings. Therefore, to make an idol a god is to make one’s own desires and cravings a god. Consequently, those who act according to the impulses arising from these desires and cravings, result in “giving themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

However, this does not apply equally to everyone. Even among those living conforming to the worldly custom of idol worship, there are individuals who do not actually harbour a strong inclination to make idols their gods and possess the strength to restrain themselves from surrendering to a life of evil. Those individuals mentioned at the beginning of today’s sermon, who can interact with consideration and empathy for others in general society, are people possessing this strength to restrain themselves from surrendering to a life of evil. Where does such restraining power come from? Perhaps it is a strength acquired through experiencing both suffering and grace in the journey of life. And ultimately, this power to restrain oneself from surrendering to a life of evil surely comes from God, who sustains the human heart and body.

However, the surest safeguard against surrendering oneself to a life of evil is fellowship with Christ. In verses 20-21, Paul says, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.” The phrases “you have heard about him” might sound as if the believers merely acquired information about who Christ is. Certainly, without the knowledge that Christ died on the cross and rose again for our salvation, we cannot receive Christ’s salvation. However, reading the original Greek text reveals that the phrase “you have heard about him” does not contain the word for “about.” It is written as “you have heard him” in the original Greek text. This suggests that the believers encountered Christ himself and heard his salvation directly from him, rather than merely hearing about him from someone else. Moreover, the subsequent phrase “taught in him” also signifies communion with Christ himself. That is, the believers encountered and communed with Christ himself, who lives in heaven, through the work of the Holy Spirit, and learned the truth that if they believe in Jesus Christ, they will be saved.

The Larger Catechism of the Church of Christ in Japan, in its answer to Question 117, teaches how we encounter Christ as follows.

First, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we encounter Jesus Christ, are called, hear the word of the Gospel, and by faith, his grace and truth are revealed within us. (Translated by MIYOSHI Akira)

Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we encounter Jesus Christ and can turn away from our old way of life, which leads us to destruction, towards a new way of life that leads to eternal life. Therefore, day by day, by encountering Christ anew and prioritising fellowship with him, we wish to continually adjust the direction of our lives’ journey towards eternal life, and so we shall walk towards this direction this week, too.