Hellish Footholds and Heavenly Families

It would be the biggest amphibious assault the world had ever seen. The mission was codenamed Operation Neptune. On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops were onboard amphibious transports – en route to the German-occupied shores of Normandy, France.

Their task would not be an easy one. Their enemy was well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened. And he would fight savagely.

During the six months that lead up to D-Day, the German forces dug in deep along Normandy’s beaches. They knew an amphibious invasion was imminent. They knew Normandy’s coast was a likely location for an invasion.

And they knew – if Allied forces took the beach, it would be their foot in the door to France – and the first step towards driving the German armies out.

So, they scattered mines throughout the shallow waters. They put up obstacles to prevent boats from landing. And should any boat successfully land, the Germans had pillboxes and mortar positions strategically overlooking the beach.

The Germans were not about to give the Allies a foothold into France, because a beachhead there could be foundational for the Allies to win back the entire Western Front.

No one wants to give their enemy a foothold – including Christians. After all, our struggle is ultimately not against physical adversaries of flesh and blood; the apostle Paul tells this Ephesian church that our struggle is ultimately against metaphysical adversaries – against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).

You and I might not realize it, but we’re waging war against hell itself.

And where there’s division within this church, there Satan would plan an invasion.

Where there’s bitterness, he hopes to build a beachhead.

Wherever factions are fracturing this family, there Satan fortifies a foothold.

But that’s not all Paul is communicating in these verses. For a congregation failing to speak biblical truth in Christian love to one another, Paul reminds this fracturing family where their unity – true unity – is found. And that unchanging source of that unity changes the way we speak to one another. We speak truth in love for the sake of building one another up and bringing peace.

Diagnosing Disunity and Division Within the Local Church

In verses 17-32, Paul is capitalizing on the points he made in the previous section. He reiterates the beauty of the diversity within the body of Christ – to see ourselves as Christians not just as unique, individual parts, but parts of a grander body – a body grounded and united in Christ.

But Paul doesn’t want us to only see the sum of all the parts, either. We don’t look at the members of the body as means to an end but as ends themselves. After all, building up the body of believers intimately entails building individual members up according to their individual needs – that what we speak is of spiritual benefit to those who listen.

How can I love the body but not love the individual members of the body?

How can I love the body but then steal from its members? Or brawl with them? Or slander them?

How can the body grow and build itself up in love when our language towards each other is characterized by grudges, bitterness, rage and anger?

If we, as baptized children of God, don’t care about breathing biblical truth – let alone speaking that truth in love – then we’ve lost sight of the greater body into which we’ve been graciously grafted: we grieve God the Holy Spirit.

Don’t believe me?

Well, what if I, as a pastor, came into our church on Sunday and announced to you that we’d be permanently removing confession and absolution from every worship service going forward? You know, the part of the service where the gospel is explicitly broadcast to the entire congregation - right out of the gate? How would you react if we stopped doing that? Would you be upset?

I would be. I know, there’s freedom we have as Christians when it comes to how we craft our worship services – but there’s something incredibly sobering and sweet by being reminded – at the very beginning of worship – not only of our desperate need of God’s grace as sinners, but how God’s grace beautifully took action and saved us. Why wouldn’t we want to be assured that it is by God’s undeserved love we’ve been saved through faith? That because of Jesus, his life and death, our sins have been forever forgiven, and we have eternal peace with God? Who wouldn’t want to start worship that way?

So yeah, I’d be upset too if my pastor permanently removed confession and absolution from our liturgy.

But why, then, aren’t we equally upset when we personally remove confession and absolution from the liturgy of our everyday lives?

Why don’t we seek reconciliation with fellow Christians who’ve hurt us?

Why do we relegate the giving and receiving of the forgiveness that Christ has won to only one hour of one day of the week?

Why do we hang on to hatred – year after year – when we, in Christ, have every reason to let it go?

Why do we justify walking on eggshells around each other when Christ has already taken all our trash to Calvary?

Why do we continue to exact payment from those who’ve sinned against us when Jesus has already paid the debt of our sins in full?

How can we claim to be all about the gospel and then deny the gospel an opportunity to unfold between you and those who’ve wronged you?

If it’s the Holy Spirit’s work to build up the body, then who do you think is at work when the body is being torn down? If this is what we see, it’s likely we’ve given the devil a foothold. Literally, we’ve given the devil a place – a place to set up shop – a place for him to get comfortable – a place of opportunity for him to derail the church, divide its members, and drag us into unity with him instead.

Can you see now why Paul is concerned? Footholds falling into enemy hands isn’t good.

Germany fought tooth and nail to keep that foothold in France from falling into Allied hands, but after 11 long hours of fighting, the allies captured the beach – though not without serious casualties. Those German pillboxes on Normandy beach were equipped with MG42s – heavy machine guns that could fire 20 bullets a second; that means as soon as those amphibious transports dropped their ramps, they could wipe out all 35 occupants in less than 5 seconds.

But what if the Germans didn’t have a united front?

What if civil war suddenly broke out in their ranks and they turned those MG42s on each other instead? The Allies wouldn’t need to ‘storm’ the beaches of Normandy. The Germans would be so busy fighting each other, the real enemy could waltz right in.

Is it any different when we, with our words, turn our ‘guns’ on each other? Wherever God builds a church, there Satan would build a chapel. The forces of Satan and our sinful nature are vying for a beachhead within our homes and within this house – and when we wage war against fellow Christians with words of bitterness, slander, rage, and hatred, we give our enemy a foothold and roll out the red carpet for hellish invasion.

Where the Local Church’s True Unity Is Found

But if that’s all you hear in Paul’s words, then we’ve lost sight of something greater than the greater body into which we’ve been graciously grafted. Paul doesn’t settle for simply reminding this diverse family of believers of the dangers of disunity. Paul’s ultimate goal is to remind this divided family of where their unity is found – the one who grafted us into the body of believers in the first place. That this diverse group of Christians all share a common faith and common baptismal identity is because we share a common Savior into whom we are baptized.

Where we would only give ourselves up for sin, Jesus would give himself up for us.

Where our misused words would have estranged us from God forever, Jesus would clothe himself with our sin, guilt, and shame, and be rejected by his Heavenly Father so we wouldn’t be.

Where our war-waging words only warranted death, Jesus would die so we wouldn’t.

You, in Christ, are forgiven!

The blood that Jesus shed on the cross is God’s red carpet rolled out for you. The Savior into whom you’ve been baptized is the one who cleansed you by the washing with water through the Word.

But your God hasn’t just cleansed you of sin at your baptism; he’s claimed you to be his own. Your baptism wasn’t the day you pledged undying fidelity to God; no, your baptism was the day God pledged undying fidelity to you. You, who have been baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. When the gospel was preached to you, or at the waters of baptism, God the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart and made you a new creation. That was the day you “took off the old self and put on the new…” Your identity as a blood-bought, redeemed child of God has been sealed.

Satan is constantly looking for footholds, but the same Jesus who holds his Church in his hands holds you in his nail-pierced hands, too. Nothing can separate you from his love. You don’t have just a foothold in God’s heart; you, dear baptized child of God, occupy prime real-estate. But that isn’t terrain that you won. It’s entirely by God’s undeserved love for us that we’ve been saved, through faith in Jesus. He is the one who would wear our moth-eaten rags of sin and, in exchange, give us hisrobe ofrighteousness and perfection. He is the one who has conquered sin, death, and the devil – and rose again in victory for you.He is the source of our unity – not only with God, but also with each other as Christians.

So, let’s make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Every hatchet has already been buried with Jesus. Just as Christ is our peace between us and God, ask yourselves, how can that same gospel reconciliation unfold between you and others?

By God’s grace, may our words be used by us to build each other up and bring peace.