Thank you for joining me in this blog. Here’s the plan. This year I plan to recap my previous week’s sermon. In addition, I hope to be able to give you a little extra. I trust that this format will benefit your walk if you have heard the sermon or if you have not. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
The good news is that Christ has not left us by ourselves to accomplish the mission of walking worthy of Christ. To summarize Paul’s words of wisdom, we should make sure that we have a strong defense and a strong offense. The defense is found in the defensive pieces of the armor of God. Along with these defensive weapons to ward off the enemy attacks, we must employ a good offense. The Bible and prayer are two precious weapons that form a powerful one-two punch. My prayer is that each one of you and those you teach realize that there is absolutely no substitute to daily time with God in His word and in prayer.
To help us understand Paul’s instruction just a little more fully notice the other descriptions that Paul gives to living this “exchanged” life. In Ephesians 5:1, Paul says, “Be imitators of God.” In 5:18, he commands us to be “filled with the Spirit.” All of these phrases essentially describe the same experience. Simply put, as a Christian, our lives should be decidedly different from our lives before Christ.
Ephesians has the classic division of theology (1-3) and practice (4-6). Like Romans 12:1, Ephesians 4:1, begins “Therefore.” This transitional word precisely divides the book into the equal parts of theology and practice.
If the first three chapters indicate who we are in Christ, the last three chapters tell us how we should act as a Christian. Ephesians 4:1 turns the tide of the letter from theology to practice. We are called to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called.” What follows in the last three chapters is a description of what that worthy manner looks like from the outside. The last three chapters are a ripe field for a study on the character that every believer should have. Though impossible to explore each element of Paul’s description of the “exchanged” life, we do see a pattern in Paul’s instruction to the Ephesians. Consider the following as a summary of the areas of Paul’s instruction.
1. Unity in your relationships with fellow Christians (4:2-16)
So, whether you find yourself at church, the office, Wal-Mart, or the house, you should walk (act) in a manner that is worthy of the calling you have in Christ.
The theological section of Ephesians ends with Paul indicating that his blessing as a saved person is to share this salvation with the Gentiles. Paul encourages the Ephesians to not grieve for his tribulation, for he is doing what he has been called to do. We should learn, as did Paul, that the blessing of every Christian is to share the blessing of salvation with those yet to be saved.
Ephesians 2 can be labeled simply “the basics of salvation.” In the simplest of terms Paul laid out to the Ephesians a summary of the Gospel. The heart of what salvation means is described in three verses, 2:8-10. In this passage we find a summary of who we are without Christ, a statement on how Christ obtained our salvation, and a summary of the essentials of salvation.
Who we are without Christ
1. Dead in trespasses and sin (2:1)
How did Christ obtain our salvation?
“The blood of Christ” (2:13)
What are the essentials of salvation?
1. There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ.
Ephesians, along with Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon are usually grouped together as a unit that we call Paul’s Prison Letters. As the description suggests, the general feeling is that Paul wrote these four letters while in prison. Paul’s references to being a prisoner in Ephesians 3:1 and 4:1 are probably more than just figurative language of Paul’s life as a Christian. The same holds true for his reference to his chains in 6:20. These descriptions almost certainly are in reference to his current status of imprisonment. In addition to this similarity of the place of writing, you will also notice a strong (at times identical) correlation between Ephesians and Colossians.
Chapter 1 is filled with language that is confusing to many. Words like predestine and the phrase, “chose before the foundation of the world,” are alarming to many. A theology of predestination is employed by some with this chapter, along with Romans 9-11, as their main passages of support. However, the particular use of these phrases is really not troubling at all when one considers the whole counsel of God and the specifics of the context of Ephesians 1. As we have indicated many times before, in the Bible, the sovereignty of God and the free will of humanity is a both/and deal, not an either/or. That is, we cannot dismiss the fact that God has blessed us with a free will to choose Him even though He has chosen us.
In the particular context of Ephesians 1, we should pay careful attention to the recurring prepositional phrase that dominates this passage. We cannot deny that the idea of predestination occurs in this passage. However, we have to understand predestination as related by Paul in this passage. The recurring prepositional phrase “in Christ” or “in Him” helps us to understand correctly the idea of predestination. The predestination of people or the choosing of people before the foundations of the world is rooted in Christ. Before the foundations of the world, God had a plan in Christ. God knew that humanity would fall to sin. God had a plan to solve this problem. So, the idea of predestination is not that “Jim, John, Mary, and Sue would be saved and others would not be saved.” The idea of predestination is that all “in Christ” would be saved. We all have the opportunity to be saved.
In a little more than one month, you will have completed reading the Bible. For some, this may be your very first time to read completely through the Bible. I am so honored that you have looked at this “blog” as you have read. I hope that in some small way, the insights posted here have been helpful. I hope that you will be a lifetime reader and student of the Bible. As I have said numerous times along the way, I pray most of all that we will read the Bible not just for information, but for transformation.
Ephesians has the classic division of theology (1-3) and practice (4-6). Like Romans 12:1, Ephesians 4:1, begins “Therefore.” That is, on the basis of the theology given in the first half of the book, this is how we should live. Chapters 1-3 help us to understand why we are to walk worthy. We have been chosen (1:4), redeemed (1:7), sealed (1:13), etc. In addition, we were dead in our sin (2:1), walking according to the course of this world (2:2), walking according to Satan (2:2), indulging the desires of our flesh (2:3), and objects of God’s wrath (2:5). In this horrible state that we were in, Christ gave us the gift of grace (2:8). For all of these reasons we should walk worthy of the calling we have in Christ. Paul then described what walking worthy of the Lord means. We are to lay aside the old self and put on the new self (4:22-24). We are among other things to be imitators of God (5:1), be filled with the Spirit (5:18), and live in right relationship to our spouses and children (5:22-6:9). Finally, Paul gives us the key or the how to live worthy of the calling we have in Christ. We must put on the “full armor of God” (6:10-19) if we are going to accomplish this great calling in Christ.