Congruence...living Christ in life, inside and out

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Those who believe that Paul is the author of the Letter to the Ephesians also hold that the Apostle was probably writing the letter at the end of his life, while imprisoned in Rome. He had been persecuted (run out of various places, stoned at least twice, beaten many times) during his life of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ’s love. But in spite of all that he had seen, heard, and experienced, Paul trusted that Christ was calling the Christian community to live in a profoundly different way, what the Rev. Dr. Eugene Peterson calls a ministry “of congruence.” Congruence, in the Christian life, means that one is attempting live in one’s spiritual and actual life what Jesus Christ proclaims. If Jesus is “the bread of life,” as He says in John 6, then we are called to eat of this manna, the bread of Jesus’ teaching and sacrifice, and not the bread that the world offers us. Paul would say, does say, that eating of the bread of Jesus’ body, His teaching, His reality, calls us to a new way…the way of Jesus.