In Christ: Know It, Live It - 3 (Authority to Speak, Saints in Standing)

Who would ever expect to hear someone say, "The greeting of your letter changed my life!"? The normal greeting of my letters, cards, or emails goes something like, "Dear Fred..." That's it. Fred remains unchanged by my eloquence. But in the first century, greetings were more meaningful and not only identified WHO the letter was written from and to, but often said something important about the recipient's identity as well as the writer's wishes for them or blessing on them.

Paul's greeting in Ephesians says,

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus; grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesus 1:1-2

Think about this greeting. Note that:

• Paul first identifies himself. He is "an apostle of Christ Jesus." In writing this he is making known his AUTHORITY to be writing this letter. An apostle, in the sense Paul was one, was someone personally commissioned by Christ, who had seen Christ, and was given authority to speak for Christ as His personal representative. As an apostle, Paul's message was CHRIST's message, not his own. But he DID have authority to speak in Jesus' name...and to write. SO DO WE. We are not apostles like Paul, but we ARE officially commissioned spokesman for the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 28:19-20 is Christ's authoritative commission for disciples to make worldwide disciples "to the end of the age." We have not reached that time parameter yet. The commission was therefore not only for the original 12, but for all the disciples who would follow, including you and me. Therefore, we have authority, permission from Christ to speak for Him. We do not need an invitation from the people in our lives to share the saving gospel with them. We have the right to do so because Jesus, who has ALL AUTHORITY in heaven and on earth has commanded us to do so. We must do so with sensitivity and genuine love, but the right to speak has been granted to us from Jesus. So...let's speak. Let's write. Let's email. Let's text message. It is a matter of obedience.
• Note also what Paul says about these believers: they are SAINTS. Where I live it seems every other town begins with "Saint." I live in Saint Cloud. Next to us is Saint Joseph. Down the road is Saint Anna, Saint Rosa, and Saint Wendell. Recently the newspaper announced that a Catholic priest who served lepers in Hawaii many years ago was about to take another step towards becoming a saint in the Catholic Church. Testimonies of miracles in answer to prayers addressed to him were the criterion for his advancement towards sainthood. But when Paul calls the believers in Ephesus "saints," is this what he meant? Surely NOT. SAINT means "holy ones," those SET APART from the world to belong exclusively to God. ALL BELIEVERS are SAINTS. Thus the plural here. Check out many other NT occurrences (e.g. Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2). Calling all believers saints reflects their STANDING before God. That is, through faith in Christ, they have been given a perfect standing of righteousness before God. Saints is not their WALK, but their STANDING. They are saints FIRST, then they become more and more SAINTLY day by day until Christ returns and makes them perfectly holy in standing and walk. Are you aware of your sainthood in Christ? Are you aware of your brothers and sister's sainthood in Christ? We need to be careful both how we VIEW one another and how we TREAT one another. GOD has called us saints.

We'll look more at this inspired greeting in our next blog. For now, perhaps we might work on taking our letters and cards and emails back in time and make our greetings more truth-saturated. Maybe my next email to Fred might just be used of the Spirit to grab his heart and point Him towards the Lord Jesus. "Saint Fred, how in the world are you?" And let's not spend the next 10 years waiting for our friends and family to INVITE us to share the gospel with them. Christ has already COMMANDED it!