The Law of Opposites

Ephesians 4:17-32

 

 

            Preparing for this so many different things went through my mind as to how it should be presented. These verses have so much to unpack, so much to chew on, you want to sit down and think about it for a long time – longer than I have, and I promise I will try not to have the fire alarm go off this time. As we look at this passage I want you to think of a tree. The trunk is the Word of God – which since Christ calls himself the True Vine is very fitting and true, for Christ is the Word of God. From that trunk springs five branches – Fact, Principle, and Implication are the first three branches, we’ll talk about the other two a little later. First, however, are the facts.

 

            What are the facts? The facts here are the words that Paul has written to the Ephesians, and indirectly, to us now. Paul has had, up until this point, spoken mainly about the desire he had for the Ephesians to be unified. In the beginning of this chapter Paul speaks of the unity of the Spirit, then uses the word one 7 times, and then follows it up with describing God as the Father of all, which implies a thought of unity through who is over everything. Now that he has spoken so long about the fact that he desires the Christians to be unified, he now proceeds to tell them the facts of how to achieve this. To do this he reminds them of where they were. “You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” Think about the advice that Screwtape gave to his nephew about how to prevent his patient from growing deeper with the “enemy.” The letter that I read earlier said “I gather the middle aged married couple that called at his office are just the sort of people we want him to know – rich, smart, superficially intelligent and brightly skeptical about everything in the world. . . a dash of purely fashionable . . .” I’m sure you can think of people like that – people you know who don’t believe, maybe even some that do profess to be Christians. This is the sort of ignorance and hardening of the heart that Paul talks about. This hardening does not come all at once, usually. It comes from a continuance in a lifestyle saying they’ve lost all sensitivity, and so because of this they must go further and further in to get their “fix.” This all is the description of where the Ephesians came from. I know too that it is good description of life as I’ve seen it, and I’m sure it rings true for many of you as well.

            But the facts continue. Paul then says after this “You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.” He reminds of them of the difference that happens when we confront Christ. Paul should very much know about this difference because he was confronted personally by Christ. Paul now begins to explain the facts of what they should now do. Look through these next several verses, and if you care too, underline with me the facts Paul gives for their actions to come. “Put off the old self;” “Be made new in the attitude of your minds . . . put on the new self;” “Put off falsehood . . . speak truthfully” “Do not let the sun go down . . . do not give the devil a foothold;” “Must steal no longer, but must work . . .” “Do not let unwholesome talk . . . only what is helpful.” Do not grieve the Holy Spirit;” “Get rid of . . . Be kind and compassionate . . .” All these actions are facts of life and they mean something.

 

            What do they mean though? In the scientific method we are taught to create a hypothesis which consists of an “If . . . then” statement. You then test that statement to come up with a conclusion. After one or two tests a hypothesis that is confirmed by a conclusion is often called a theory, which can become a scientific law if it is proved duplicated several times in unrelated tests. Look at Paul’s construction in his words here – we have an “if…then” statement, but Paul by his confrontation with Christ can then skip the testing of the hypothetical and goes straight to the conclusion and he then makes all those statements that form a principle – a standard, in effect a law. My uncle Bill calls it the “Law of Opposites.” Now, he might have heard it somewhere else, but that’s where I heard it from, so I give him the credit for it.

My uncle illustrated the law by telling a story of a little boy who he was taking home one day after activities. The young boy was sitting in the van and said, “Major, I have a problem.” My uncle listened as the boy told his story. “I think I like to steal. I haven’t come a couple of weeks because I got caught stealing a little while ago from a store. A while ago it just started small, a candy bar here or there – nothing big. Then they caught me taking that and told my mom. Then, I found it was easier to take money out of her purse, so I started doing that and not getting caught. I know I’m not supposed to do it, but I don’t know how to stop. What can I do?” My uncle thought a minute and then said, “Well, how about this – every time you think you want to steal, do something to help someone else. Stealing is a very selfish thing, so replace it with something unselfish. If you feel you want to steal from your mother’s purse, go help her with the dishes, or do another chore for her.” The boy agreed that seemed like a good idea. The idea, the principle was to replace something with its opposite – hence the name “Law of Opposites.”

This is exactly what Paul says in his facts to the Ephesians, and to us. Again, look at what he has written by inspiration of the Spirit. For everything he says is bad, he has replaced it with the opposite – look at verse 28. It’s exactly the advice my uncle gave the little boy. When you replace something it must be replaced with something new, or something reconditioned. Paul tells us to put off the old self and replace it with the new. But the new is simply the old made new by a reconditioning of the old attitude.

Looking at principles leads usually leads to recognition of something. When we look further into the scientific laws we see that they have an impact on what happens in our world today – we see that every time we take a step, throw a ball or drive a car. This law of opposites is just as impactful. We now climb further into the tree – we’ve seen the facts, hopefully we memorize them. We see there is a principle – an unchanging truth that sheds light on life. Now what? When insects see light they know something is coming, they either run from it, or run to it. They know that something will happen because of the light – there is an implication, usually it means the bug is going to get squashed or zapped. For us, when we see and understand the principles found in a scripture, we too must see there are implications for us. Paul tells us the implication is that if we do not try to live by this there is the chance we will not have the unity he knows that God has called us to, and as such will not set an example the will draw those who do not believe to the Father.

When we began, I spoke of the five branches of the tree. We’ve looked at the first three:

·        The facts, which are the verses in the scripture, and I can give you a whole host of reasons to believe why scripture is fact, and why this portion of scripture is so important.

·       
The principle, which is the Law of Opposites. I can tell you that the law does work – a couple weeks after that my uncle talked to the boy, he came back and told my uncle that he hadn’t stolen anything for a while, and that every time he had felt the urge to steal he had helped his mom. His mom was very happy with him, and he said that he had felt the urges to steal become less.

·       
The implication is that if we do not live by this principle we risk missing out on the unity that is modeled to us by God, and that is desired by Him for us. Also the when those who do not believe do not see us living by this, they will wonder why they should, since we are no different than they.

 

Here are the last two branches of that tree – obedience and change. What will you with the principle and the implication – does it mean anything to you? The young boy showed us what it meant to realize the impact of the principle and what it could do for his life. He chose to obey and began to change. He actively worked to put off the old self and put on the new by replacing the old habits with new ones. He regained the sensitivity he had lost by indulging in impurity, by indulging in service. By obeying in his actions, he changed his attitude and his impulses. What now will you do?

Blessings,