Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ephesians 4-6.

Paul writes that Christ gave gifts to His people in order to equip them for works of service so that the Body of Christ, the Church, may be built up until we reach unity of faith and knowledge.  The gifts which Paul here lists as being given by Christ, he elsewhere describes as gifts of the Spirit.  This is not a contradiction as Paul makes clear a few sentences later.  Paul writes that Christ joins and holds together the entire Body as it builds itself up in love.  So, Paul tells us that the gifts of the Spirit are given to us in order that we may build up our fellow members of the Body of Christ in love.

Because we are building each other in love, we must no longer live as the worldly live.  We must no longer indulge in sensuality, impurity, and greed.  Such behaviors are neither loving, nor do they assist in building others up.  Rather than doing such things we must be made new in the attitude of our minds.  As the new mind takes root in us we will speak truthfully in love and not allow anger to lead us into sin.  We should avoid unwholesome talk, which breaks down or denigrates others.  Instead let us say only those things which will benefit those who hear us speak.  Let us spend our time doing useful things with our hands so that we have resources which we can use to help those in need.  Let us say and do only those things which are loving and help others become better.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ephesians 1-3.

Paul writes that all of us were by our very nature and actions deserving of wrath.  Note that he does not say deserving of God’s wrath, although we were indeed deserving of God’s wrath.  No, Paul says that we, including himself, were deserving of wrath.  It reminds me of the terrible things done by Hamas, things deserving of wrath from every decent human being.  Paul writes that we are all just as deserving of wrath as those who committed those horrible acts on October 7th, and he is right.  Paul writes that the difference between us and those who committed those horrible acts, if there is indeed a difference, is the grace of God.  We have no basis for boasting about such a difference, because God may yet extend His grace to them as well, transforming them as He did us.  So, we have been saved from the evil of this world through no action of our own, solely by the grace of God.  In no way did our actions separate us from those who have committed atrocities, so we have no basis for condemning them.  Then Paul writes to explain why God gave us this grace by which He saved us.  He did so in order that we might perform the good works which He prepared for us to do.  Our prayers should not be to thank God for making us better than those who commit atrocities, nor should it be that He bring destruction upon them.  Rather we should pray that He pour out His Spirit upon them and transform them in the same way in which He transformed us.  I believe that is part of what Paul is getting at when he writes at the end of chapter 3 that God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ephesians 4-6.

At the end of his letter to the Church in Ephesus Paul writes that we should put on the full armor of God.  He describes that as the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, fitting our feet with the readiness which comes from the gospel of peace, taking up the shield of faith, wearing the helmet of salvation, and wielding the sword of the Spirit.  All of that is a good summation of how we can be prepared for battle against the spiritual rulers, powers, and authorities of this dark world.  However, I think truly understanding that armor requires us to look at Paul’s instructions from earlier in today’s passage.  We learn the readiness of which Paul wrote by being humble, gentle, and patient.  We truly wear the belt of truth when we speak the truth, and not just any truth, but that truth which is helpful in building up others.  We should never use the truth as an excuse to hurt others (NOTE: sometimes truth which others need to hear in order to become better people hurts, but sometimes we tell ourselves we are telling the hurtful truth because we are trying to help, but we really just want to hurt the other person).  We cannot put on the helmet of salvation until we get rid of bitterness, rage, brawling, slander, and every other form of malice.  Finally, we must put aside all sexual immorality, greed, and idolatry in order to put on the breastplate of righteousness.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ephesians 1-3.

Paul writes here that we are saved by grace, through faith.  But, that faith is a gift from God as well, so we cannot even boast to be better than others because of our faith.  Paul emphasizes that we are not saved by works, we are not saved by doing good.  Our salvation is entirely a gift from God, our actions have no impact on that salvation.  However, Paul’s next sentence puts an interesting twist on this.  God has given us these gifts in order that we might do good works, works which God prepared in advance for us to do.  As a result of Paul’s teaching about salvation by grace, many people think that we have no reason to do good.  So, Paul writes that we are not saved because of the good works we do, or anything else we have done or will do, but that our salvation results in us doing good works.

Paul points out that before our salvation, before our adoption as children of God, we were divided up into various groups and tribes in conflict with each other.  However, God reconciled us to Himself, and, through that reconciliation to God, to each other.  No longer are we strangers, foreigners, or enemies of anyone who has also accepted God’s gift to be adopted into His Family.  Rather, we are citizens together with them of the Kingdom of God.  I find an interesting corollary to this.  Since our citizenship in the Kingdom of God did not result from anything we did, or anything we were, we should not view anyone as a foreigner, stranger, or enemy, because how can we know that God will not extend His gift of adoption to them through gifting them with faith in Him at some point in the future, if He has not done so already?  Anyone we meet and/or interact with may be, or may soon become, a piece in the building of God’s Holy Temple, no matter how they act, or what they look like.  Let us be reconciled to all others, even if they refuse to be reconciled to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ephesians 4-6.

Today Paul expands on his teaching about unity among Believers.  We should be humble, gentle, and patient in our dealings with others, always keeping in mind that there is but one name through which we can be saved, one Lord whom we serve.  The unity of the Spirit grows out of us living to be worthy of our calling by Christ.  Paul explains that we live such a life because we have put off the sinful life we lived before God called us and have put in the new life which God has given us.  That old life which we have hopefully taken off like a suit of dirty clothes is one  of sensuality, impurity, and greed.  Living the new life means speaking truthfully, and allowing only those things which are helpful for building up others come out of our mouths.  Paul calls on us to strive to live without even a hint of sexual immorality, impurity, or greed in our lives.  Instead of such things, Paul urges us to find and do that which is pleasing to the Lord.  We find once again one of the key points of serving God: if we keep ourselves busy doing good, we will not have to do that which is not.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ephesians 4-6

Paul continues discussing the unity those who follow Christ should seek and experience.  He goes on to explain how we can truly enter into that unity and avoid the divisiveness which the world is constantly trying to inject into Christ’s Body.  He begins by pointing out that Christ has only one Body, and the Spirit which binds it together is One being.  Christ has given the Church, His Body, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers for the purpose of building us up in unity, knowledge, and faith.  As we are built up in Christ, we will become more mature.  That maturity will lead us to avoid living in lust and deception.

That transition happens when we allow God’s Spirit to transform our thoughts and attitudes.  I find it interesting that even though Paul wrote of the destructiveness of lust and immorality, he starts the list of behaviors which we must allow to be transformed by telling us that we must stop lying to our neighbors.  He follows that immediately by telling us not to allow anger to control us.  If we allow anger to control us, we will sin.  It is only after reviewing several other behaviors that Paul comes back to reminding us that sexual immorality, impurity, and greed will create division in the Church. We must carefully examine our lives and do what please God, rather than allowing those things to fester within us.  Our human tendency is to attempt to rule over each other.  We must resist that tendency and allow God’s Spirit to transform us into those who submit to one another out of service to Christ.  Above all, we must recognize that our enemies are not human foes.  In fact, humans are never the enemies of those who serve the Lord.  Rather, the enemies of those who are members of Christ’s Body are the unseen rulers and spirits of this world.  They cannot be defeated using human weapons and methods.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ephesians 1-3

Paul makes several wonderful points in today’s passage.  Paul writes that God has revealed His plan to us, a plan which had been kept secret until Jesus came.  That plan is to bring all things together under the authority of Christ.  God began that plan by uniting all of those who put their faith in Christ into one body, despite the many divisions between them which the world has imposed upon them.  The world continually attempts to divide us into different groups, Jew and Gentile, Black and White, etc.  We must reject such divisions and accept God’s unity.  Despite the attempts by the world to thwart God’s plan, He makes everything work together to forward that plan.  God will use the attempts by the world to divide us to unite us in Him.

I was going to go on to something else, but I had to step away for a moment and I lost my train of thought.  I re-read the passage hoping the thought would come back to me, but I just saw more emphasis from Paul on the unity of the Body of Believers.  That is not entirely true, he also wrote again about the fact that we do not and cannot earn our salvation, that we can only be saved by putting our faith in God’s grace.  Then, as I reviewed the passage to wrap up today’s blog, I came upon Paul’s reminder of God’s power.  As I came to the end, I was reminded of the power of prayer, which always challenges me because I do not pray as much as I should.  The reason that prayer is so important is because God’s power is at work within us and prayer allows us to connect with that power.  The power of God within us is able to do more than we can ask, or even imagine.  Let us strive to become conduits of that power so that we might see God’s plan implemented around us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ephesians 4-6

Paul writes that we should strive to live in unity with other believers.  However, that unity will result as we become mature in Christ so that we are no longer tossed about by every new teaching.  We should not live as the unbelievers around us live.  He warns us that society around us is hopelessly confused.  Our unity as believers should come from our insistence on sticking with the teachings which Jesus and Scripture present.  Every generation will face those who present lies cleverly contrived to appear as truth.  We can avoid falling for such lies by imitating God, which means living a life filled with love.  Love does not mean telling people they will be OK no matter what they do.  Love means warning people that they will hurt themselves if they partake in self-destructive behavior. 

I find it enlightening that when Paul sums up the things we must avoid his list always contains sexual immorality, impurity, and greed.  He often adds other things to his list, but these three are always there.  In fact, the other things which he adds are really just subcategories of one of these.  In this very passage he talks about not being a thief, which would come from being greedy.  He talks about not using foul and abusive language, which would be a subset of impurity.  We could follow how the actions which Paul warns against are expressions of greed, impurity, or sexual immorality, but I think you get the point.  However, Paul does not just warn us against certain types of behavior, he encourages us in appropriate behavior.  As opposed to foul and abusive language, everything we say should be good and helpful.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ephesians 1-3

I realized as I read today that when Paul wrote that he prayed for those to whom he wrote this letter he actually prayed for all who would read it.  He prayed that Christ would make His home in our hearts.  Which reminds me of a lesson I heard several people teach from this passage.  If Christ makes His home in our heart we should think about the other things we allow into our hearts.  Sort of like the sorts of things we would allow in our homes if we knew we had special guests coming who would move around our home as if they lived there.  Most of us have things in our homes that we would get rid of if we knew someone we truly cared about and wanted to impress was moving into our homes with us.  In a similar way, we should not allow into our hearts things which we would be embarrassed to have seen by someone we want to think highly of us. 

This seems like an impossible task.  There are so many sins which I struggle to resist and parts of my life which I am too lazy to clean up.  Yet, Paul tells us that God’s power is at work with in us and that He is able to more than we can ask, or even imagine.  Not only is God capable of doing more than we can imagine, He is capable of doing infinitely more than we can imagine.  The thing about what I wrote about cleaning out our hearts because Christ is making His home there is that we have rooms there where we want to close the door and tell Him, “Don’t go in there. It’s a mess. Wait until I can get in there and clean it out.”  And Christ’s responds by saying, “Don’t be silly.  Get on with your life, I will clean it out for you.”  If we listen to Him and get on with our life of doing God’s will, He really will clean out those dirty, messy rooms in our heart so that we next go in there all that nasty, ugly stuff we were embarrassed for anyone to see will be gone.  We can never clean those “rooms” out on our own.  When we go in there we get distracted by something and make the mess worse.  When I started this paragraph, I intended to write about prayer, and, in a way, I did.  One of those things we should be busy doing instead of trying to clean our hearts is praying for others.