{Ephesians 2:19-22; ESV}
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God byd the Spirit.
Of course, the Christian ideal is that we should get to the point, as with a language, where we don’t need to think about it at all. If you are a native speaker of, say, Swahili, and want to learn Chinese, your aim is to be able to listen and speak in Chinese without ever thinking of grammar. To the extent that you are still racking your brains about which words to use and how to form sentences, you are not yet fluent. But, as you practise, the rules will steadily become, as we say, “second nature.” That is the aim with learning the new language of Christian behavior.
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, p. 131
Questions to consider:
- How difficult is it to learn a new language?
- How do we learn the “language” of Heaven?
- What must we do to make this language “second nature” in our lives?