Ephesians 3:10

Paul says that God intends “through the church” to make His manifold wisdom known “to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.” These “powers” belong to the unseen spiritual realm that figures prominently in Paul’s understanding of the world. They are not rivals equal to God. They are created beings and authorities whose rebellion stands under the judgment and lordship of the Messiah. Earlier Paul declared that the risen Christ has been exalted “far above all principality and power and might and dominion” (Ephesians 1:20–21). Later he will remind believers that our struggle is not merely “against flesh and blood,” but against rulers, authorities, and “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (6:12). Elsewhere Paul says that through the cross Christ “disarmed principalities and powers” and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). The biblical picture, then, is of spiritual powers that oppose God’s rule, enslave and deceive, foster rebellion, and stand defeated beneath the authority of the risen Christ.

That makes Ephesians 3:10 remarkable. God does not merely tell the powers that Christ is Lord. He displays His wisdom to them through the Church. God takes people who were separated, hostile, and alienated, reconciles them through the cross, makes them one body in Christ, and then points to this new humanity as evidence that the powers do not have the final word. Their kingdom produces alienation, hostility, domination, and division. Christ creates reconciliation, peace, unity, and a new people. The Church therefore becomes part of God’s cosmic declaration: Jesus is Lord. You are not. Look at what He has done.

And then we split a church over the color of the carpet. We stop speaking to someone because they sat in our seat. We get angry because somebody changed the order of the service. We threaten to leave because we do not like the music. We hold a grudge because our idea was not chosen. We decide we cannot worship with people Jesus died for because somebody moved the piano. Think about how utterly nonsensical that is.

Christ has broken down the wall between Jew and Gentile, but we build another one over a business meeting. Christ has reconciled enemies through His blood, but we cannot reconcile over a difference of opinion. Christ has created one new humanity, but we divide over preferences that will not matter ten years from now—much less ten thousand years from now.

This does not mean our failures somehow make the powers victorious again. Christ has already been exalted above them. His lordship does not depend upon our ability to get along. The question is whether the Church is faithfully displaying the victory and wisdom of the Christ to whom it belongs. God intends the Church to demonstrate that the old forces of hostility and division have met something greater than themselves in Jesus Christ.

So when we choose humility over pride, forgiveness over resentment, reconciliation over retaliation, and Christ over preference, the Church declares again to the powers: “Jesus is Lord—and you are not.” But when we allow petty issues to tear apart people whom Christ died to make one, we begin acting according to the very patterns of hostility and division that Christ has overcome.

Some things are worth standing for. The Gospel is worth standing for. Truth is worth standing for. Holiness is worth standing for. But the carpet isn’t. Before we divide the body of Christ over something, perhaps we should ask: Is this issue important enough to obscure what God intends to say through His Church?

Christ is too great, the cross too costly, the Gospel too glorious, and God’s eternal purpose too important for His people to be divided by nonsense. ©