Sermon Tone Analysis

Introducton

Christian unity is founded on each christians comitment to God

When we enter a socioty we take upon ourselves the obligation to live in a certin way

Tuesday 1-4

Wednesday 5-9

Thursday 10-13

Friday- put together

Eph

Paul exorts the church to live a life worthy of the calling they have received, this calling is salvation, we are one with Christ.

The calling means equel weight it should have ballence, the calling does not only refer to ones salvation, but also to the union within the body of Christ.

This calling is adrresing the personal life of the beliver and toe responsibility to other belivers within the church.

With which you have been called.

The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe.

The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

With which you have been called The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe.

The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

As a prisinor Himself Paul is fully aware of what it is to suffer the consequences of such a life and what it is he is asking his readers to risk.

We have five basic words for the Christian faith

Humility

The Greek is tapeinophrosunē, and this is actually a word which the Christian faith coined.

In Greek, there is no word for humility which does not have some suggestion of meanness attached to it.

Later, in the fourth century, Basil was to describe it as ‘the gem casket of all the virtues’; but, before Christianity, humility was not considered to be a virtue at all.

The ancient world looked on humility as a thing to be despised.

The Greeks had an adjective for humble, which is closely connected with this noun—the adjective tapeinos.

A word is always known by the company it keeps, and this word keeps disreputable company.

It is used alongside the Greek adjectives which mean slavish (andrapodōdēs, doulikos, douloprepēs), ignoble (agennēs), of no repute (adoxos) and cringeing (chamaizēlos, which is the adjective which describes a plant that trails along the ground).

In the days before Jesus, humility was looked on as a cowering, cringeing, servile, ignoble quality; and yet Christianity sets it in the very forefront of the virtues.

Where does this Christian humility come from, and what does it involve?

(a) Christian humility comes from self-knowledge.

The twelfth-century theologian Bernard of Clairvaux said of it: ‘It is the virtue by which a man becomes conscious of his own unworthiness, in consequence of the truest knowledge of himself.’

To face oneself is the most humiliating thing in the world.

Most of us see ourselves as playing great parts in life.

There is a story about a man who, before he went to sleep at night, dreamt his waking dreams.

He would see himself as the hero of some thrilling rescue from the sea or from the flames; he would see himself as an orator holding a vast audience spellbound; he would see himself walking to the wicket in a test match at Lord’s cricket ground and scoring a century; he would see himself in some international football match dazzling the crowd with his skill; always he was the centre of the picture.

Most of us are essentially like that.

And true humility comes when we face ourselves and see our weakness, our selfishness, our failure in work and in personal relationships and in achievement.

(b) Christian humility comes from setting life beside the life of Christ and in the light of the demands of God.

God is perfection, and to satisfy perfection is impossible.

As long as we measure ourselves by what is second best, we may come out of the comparison well.

It is when we compare ourselves with perfection that we see our failure.

A girl may consider herself a very fine pianist until she hears one of the world’s outstanding performers.

A man may think himself a good golfer until he sees one of the world’s great professionals in action.

Some people may consider themselves to be scholars until they pick up one of the books of the great old scholars of encyclopaedic knowledge.

Others may think of themselves as fine preachers until they listen to one of the great inspirational preachers.

Self-satisfaction depends on the standard with which we compare ourselves.

If we compare ourselves with our neighbours, we may well emerge very satisfactorily from the comparison.

But the Christian standard is Jesus Christ and the demands of God’s perfection—and against that standard there is no room for pride.

(c) There is another way of putting this.

The Archbishop of Dublin, R. C. Trench, said that humility comes from the constant sense of our own creatureliness.

We are in absolute dependence on God.

As the hymn has it:

’Tis thou preservest me from death

And dangers every hour;

I cannot draw another breath

Unless thou give me power.

My health, my friends, and parents dear

To me by God are given;

I have not any blessing here

But what is sent from heaven.

We are creatures, and for the creature there can be nothing but humility in the presence of the creator.

Christian humility is based on the sight of self, the vision of Christ, and the realization of God.

(2) The second of the great Christian virtues is what the Authorized Version calls meekness and what we have translated as gentleness.

The Greek noun is praotēs, the adjective praus; and these are beyond translation by any single English word.

Praus has two main lines of meanings.

(a) Aristotle, the great Greek thinker and teacher, has much to say about praotēs.

It was his custom to define every virtue as the mid-point between two extremes.

On one side there was excess of some quality, on the other defect; and in between there was exactly its right proportion.

Aristotle defines praotēs as the mid-point between being too angry and never being angry at all.

The person who is praus is the one who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time.

To put that in another way, the person who is praus is the one who is stirred by indignation at the wrongs and the sufferings of others, but is never moved to anger by any personal wrongs and insults.

So, the person who is (as in the Authorized Version) meek is the one who is always angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time.

(b) There is another fact which will shed light on the meaning of this word.

Praus is the Greek for an animal which has been trained and domesticated until it is completely under control.

Therefore, the person who is praus is someone who has every instinct and every passion under perfect control.

It would not be right to say that such a person is entirely self-controlled, for such self-control is beyond human power; but it would be right to say that such an individual is God-controlled.

Here, then, is the second great characteristic of true members of the Church.

They are men and women who are so God-controlled that they are always angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time.

(3) The third great quality of a Christian is what the Authorized Version calls long-suffering.

The Greek word is makrothumia.

This word has two main directions of meaning.

(3) The third great quality of a Christian is what the Authorized Version calls long-suffering.

The Greek word is makrothumia.

This word has two main directions of meaning.

(3) THE third great quality of a Christian is what the Authorized Version calls long-suffering.

The Greek word is makrothumia.

This word has two main directions of meaning.

(a) It describes the spirit which will never give in and which, because it endures to the end, will reap the reward.

Its meaning can best be seen from the fact that a Jewish writer used it to describe what he called ‘the Roman persistency which would never make peace under defeat’.

In their great days, the Romans were unconquerable; they might lose a battle, they might even lose a campaign, but they could not conceive of losing a war.

In the greatest disaster, it never occurred to them to admit defeat.

Christian patience is the spirit which never admits defeat, which will not be broken by any misfortune or suffering, by any disappointment or discouragement, but which persists to the end.

(b) But makrothumia has an even more characteristic meaning than that.

It is the characteristic Greek word for patience with others.

John Chrysostom defined it as the spirit which has the power to take revenge but never does so.

J. B. Lightfoot, the New Testament scholar, defined it as the spirit which refuses to retaliate.

To take an imperfect analogy—it is often possible to see a puppy and a large dog together.

The puppy yaps at the big dog, worries it, bites it, and all the time the big dog, which could put the puppy in its place with one snap of its teeth, bears the puppy’s impertinence with a forbearing dignity.

Makrothumia is the spirit which bears insult and injury without bitterness and without complaint.

It is the spirit which can suffer unpleasant people with graciousness and fools without irritation.

The thing which best of all illustrates its meaning is that the New Testament repeatedly uses it of God.