Malachi 2.10-16

Because we have one Father and Creator, and because of the covenant, it is completely inappropriate to break faith with God’s people and he hates it, so do not do it.

10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob, any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!

13 And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.
14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
16 “For the man who hates and divorces, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers* his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” (ESV)

*For the LORD, the God of Israel says that he hates divorce, and him who covers - my preferred translation of those verses

Look over the passage - what’s the main theme? (Repeated concepts/phrases?)

Verse 10

From v. 10, why is it utterly inappropriate to be faithless? (What are the implications of God’s people having one Father? One creator? What right does the Creator have over his creation?)

What is the covenant in view here?

Read Genesis 17.1-8: What does God promise? What are the obligations on the part of covenant members? How does faithlessness profane the covenant? (What does it say about one’s view of the promises and obligations)

Is this at all relevant to Christian believers now? See Galatians 3.29

In what specific ways have God’s people been faithless?

Verses 11-12

Deuteronomy 7.3-4: Why is marrying foreigners forbidden?

How does God feel about this?

How does it affect the people’s relationship with God?

How do we apply this as Christian people? See 2 Corinthians 6.14-16

Are there any more general applications of this principle?

Verses 13-16

How is divorce breaking faith?

Why does it matter so much? (Is there another party involved? What does God do? See 3.5 for more on ‘witness’. What purpose for marriage do we see God has here, and how does divorce affect that?)

How does God feel about this?

What effect does it have on the people’s relationship with God?

What is the application to the Christian believer? See Mark 10.2-12

Are there any more general applications of this for life in the church?

How can we practically guard ourselves to prevent this happening?

Malachi 1.1-5

In his sovereignty God has freely elected his people and reprobated others, so as God’s people, be assured of his love and acknowledge his greatness.

Where might we look to be assured of God’s love?

The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’” Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!” (Malachi 1.1-5, ESV)

What is the dispute here?

Why is there a dispute? (Where are we in the history of God’s people? What were they experiencing? How did that match up to what they were expecting? E.g. Isaiah 35)

What is God’s response?

Read Genesis 25.19-26: What do we learn about Jacob and Esau here?

Read Romans 10.10-13: What does this tell us about the basis of God’s relationship to Jacob and Esau?

How do vv. 2 and 3 answer Israel’s question?

What does God’s rejection look like? (Past/present? Future?)

Why do you think this description is here?

Why is God’s treatment of Esau/Edom just? See e.g. Obadiah 10-11

What impact is that to have on Israel?

Application:

When might we, or Christians we know, doubt God’s love?

Where does this passage go to assure us, as God’s people, of his love? (New Testament control: Ephesians 1.3-6)

Who is the equivalent of Esau? (What did we see earlier about Jacob and Esau?)

How therefore can we see God’s love for us? (What components of this were there for Israel? Can something similar be said today?)

What effect should election and reprobation have on our view of ourselves? Of God?

Children of Light

Another one-to-one on Ephesians…

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:3-21, ESV)

 

Have nothing to do with sin and instead live a holy life, because sin belongs to your old way of life from which you have been saved in order to be part of God’s holy people

 

• What should our attitude be to sin if we’re Christian believers?

• Why are the things Paul mentions completely inappropriate for the Christian believer?

• What must characterize the saved Christian life instead?

• What implications does this have for

- what we get involved with in College?

- our time with other Christians?

God’s Image Restored

Another one-to-one study on Ephesians…

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. 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, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 4:17-5:1, ESV)

As a Christian, you mustn’t live like you used to, which flowed from a darkened mind, but you must live in the likeness of God, which comes from a renewed mind.

• What is the real state of unbelievers / was our state before we became Christians?

• How is our lifestyle able to be different and what shape should that take?

• How does this relate to God’s original plan for humanity?

• What implications does this have for

- our speech?

- our feelings towards one another?

- how we get what we need?

Truth Creates Unity

Having been rather relaxed shall we say in my preparation for one-to-one Bible studies on Ephesians hitherto, I thought I ought to be a little bit more diligent this term.

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– one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 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, so that we may 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. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4.1-16, ESV)

Maintain Christian unity by being built up through Christ’s word-gifts to the church then through speaking Christian truth in love.

• Recap: What have we seen God’s calling is for Christian believers in Ephesians so far?

• In light of that, what is Paul’s concern for Christians in this section?

• How do we see Christians trying to establish unity?

• On what basis does true Christian unity exist?

• How does the description of Christ’s descent and ascent fit in?

• How is Christian unity fully attained and why?

• What implications does this have for:

- our attitude to other Christians?

- our quiet times?

- how we see church meetings?

- our responsibility towards other Christians?

- how we see those other attempts at Christian unity?