How Proper Grammar Can Keep You Sane

What we learn about living the Christian life from the structure of Ephesians

The basic structure of the letter to the Ephesians is an indicative/imperative structure; I do not get tired of mentioning that. This sounds very grammatical, uninteresting, and boring: indicative/imperative. One interesting question is, “Why does Paul always begin with the indicative?” I always want to start with the imperative. Somehow we are conditioned in our natural, unregenerate disposition to say, “Tell me what to do and I will be okay. Tell me how to behave.” But you see, we are created for relationship. We are created for fellowship with God and our behavior is to emanate from that. The purpose, the design,for man is not to have a code of behavior and to follow that. The purpose and the design for man is to be

related to God. Therefore, Paul does not tire of saying, “Think of who you are in Christ. Know what Christ has done for you. Know that you are acceptable to Him on the basis of His work and then let your action come out of that.” He says this even in the face of stoic pressures and other pressures in the first century A.D. To us that may sound like a deviation; “Do not waste all that time talking about all these wonderful truths about the Christian faith. I need to know how to live, how to act, and how I should conduct myself. Do not waste this time.” Paul says we are not wasting time at all because, if you go for the imperative first, you will not reach the goal that God has for you, which is to live a godly life.

Ephesians 4:1 to 6:22 deals with the imperative. Do you realize how much we have studied and how much we have reflected on the indicative, the truths and realities of God's work? You see, we need to have God's perspective; we need to understand God's work on behalf of His people so that we do not get discouraged. Understanding these indicatives, these truths about ourselves and God, keeps us from becoming so absorbed with ourselves that we are just overwhelmed in our commission to live out the

Christian life. We see ourselves kept by the powerful hand of God and we can trust that, especially when things seem to be completely chaotic. When we can see and know that God is still the sovereign God who holds us when our lives seem to be dissipating, we do not know what is going to happen, and we see there will be a major collapse. When we experience these things and know the indicative of God's enduring hand, we are not immediately saved from depression. We are not necessarily saved from

throwing up our arms and saying, “Where is our God?” But there is a foundation established of knowing that God has carried this world through these great histories and He has been faithful—He will see you through.

There is enormous amount of truth established in the indicative before we come to the imperative.

--Hans Bayer