Ephesians 1:15-23. It’s been quite some time since I wrote the first two posts on Ephesians, sixteen months to the previous one actually. Not a very good record for someone wanting to write a daily blog. And before that it was another six months to the first post on Ephesians. Between those first tow posts there was a major change in my life, a big move, you can read about it in the second post. Between this post and that second one there has been another move, in a way actually two. As I mentioned in that second post we moved to Texas and started a new job, sort of, it wasn’t permanent at that time. That job became permanent (sort of) later that Fall but we still lived above the garage at my daughters house. As I said the job took up a lot of time and that didn’t change. After a year above the garage, in August of 2016, Cookie and I bought our first ever house. That was the first “another move”. The second “move” came the Monday before Thanksgiving (2016). I was called into the office and let go from my job (fired if you like that term better). I was told I was a good project manager but not a good fit for the company. One businessman that I had worked with during that time told me I didn’t fit because I told the truth and that my boss didn’t want to hear the truth. As a Christian I think truth is important. I also think a good employee and good manager is truthful with their boss. I hope my words were always truthful and I always wanted them to be helpful to the company. Psalm 15 tells us that those who want to be a part of God’s family need to have integrity and be truthful. Colossians 3:22-23 tells slaves that they need to work hard for their masters with a good attitude tike they were working for God. I think the same thing goes for an employee. I’m sorry that the boss didn’t see my actions as helpful, I think it left us both in a bad situation. Almost immediately though God opened doors for me to be self employed again bringing work and possible work and good references from those who I had work with, so that is very cool. A third change during the past 16 months is that the church that Cookie and I have been going to since we came to Texas, asked me to start teaching Jr. High. Awesome! At least for me, I hope it is awesome for the students as well. So here we are again at the blog. I hope I can be more consistent at this from here on out.
It is interesting that I was being asked about doing projects for people even before I was fired. I met with one person with the idea of giving some helpful advise, after all I was very busy with my job, and that became my first project after I became self-employed again. I reread the first two posts to get back to speed on Ephesians and what I see in those 14 verses is that God is very active in our lives; He is watching, acting, planning, protecting and providing. We are special to Him and He cares for us. He has the power and is using it for us. He has provided a way for us to be a part of His forever family and given us power to live for Him (the Holy Spirit in us) and He has a plan (remember the economy thing) to fix the world (His household) through Jesus. Most Bible experts believe that the introduction or greeting of letters from that time included a hint at the reason the letter was being written. We are not done with the greeting of the letter yet but in those first 14 verses there is a lot of talk about God’s powerful actions toward those who would believe in what God was doing for them through Jesus (Ephesians 1:13). In these next nine verses Paul continues talking to the believers in Ephesus about the same things.
In verse 15 Paul says he has hear two things about these people (If you read the Intro to Ephesians you might remember that this seems to be a new group of believers in Ephesus that Paul hadn’t met); he had heard about their faith and their love for other believers. By the way, the Greek word translated “faith” is the root of the word “believed” in verse 13 and related to the word “faithful” in verse 1. Remember that theses word relate to being convinced about some truth and them acting upon that truth and trusting in it.
In verse 16 we see that when Paul talks to God (prayer) he thanks God for the faith of the Ephesian believers and that he is making requests from God for them.
In verse 17 we see what Paul asks God for to help the Ephesian believers’. Paul asks God to give them a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.” The word translated wisdom has the idea of understanding how things really are. In James 1:5 we are told to ask God if we lack wisdom. Wise people in the Bible are usually those who are skilled and planning and doing something in an efficient way usually wisdom is not something we figure out but rather something that is passed on to us. “Revelation” is similar, the word means to uncover or reveal. In this case Paul is asking God to give wisdom and to uncover Himself; Paul wants the readers to really ‘see” God better.
In verses 18-19 Paul gets even more specific. He tells the readers that he has asked God to “enlighten the eyes of their hearts”. In this case heart isn’t talking about the persons real heart of even their physical life but their innermost self, like when we say we love someone or something with “all our heart”. Eyes have the same function here as our real eyes do except in this case they are not eyes to see physical things but a way for truth about God to enter our “hearts”. And Paul wants the “lights” turned way up so we can get all the details. What are those details? Verses 18-19 tell us. Paul wants his readers to have hope, see that they are rich, and understand how much effort God is making for them. These are all things he has already mentioned or hinted at.
In verse 18 we see that believers in Jesus should have hope because they have been called by God. The word called can also be translated “invited”. In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus compared the “kingdom of God” (this is similar to the idea of God’s forever family) to a feast that a King for his son’s wedding. There was an original group that was invited but they decided not to come so the king sent his servants out into the streets to invite everyone they could find. During the feast the king noticed many were improperly dressed and he had them thrown out. In Matthew 22:14 Jesus ends the story by telling the listeners that many were called or invited but only a few were picked or chosen to stay. In that story we saw that many were called, the invitation really went out to everyone. The offer to be a part of God’s kingdom; His forever family is based on what Jesus did; he paid the penalty for sin and opened the door to God’s kingdom. According to 1 John 2:2 that offer was for everyone who ever lived. When the king went around the room and rejected some it was the ones who were not properly dressed, you might say they were not dressed “right”. Remember that this is a story to help the people Jesus was taking to understand the Kingdom of God, His forever family. The only way to be dressed “right” is by accepting what Jesus has done for us. Ephesians 1:4 tells us we were ”chosen” in Jesus and verse 13 told us that we received the promise of adoption after we heard the good news (gospel) about Jesus and put our trust in it (believed). The fact that God offers a place in his forever family should give hope especially to these readers who have believed the truth about Jesus because they have been chosen to stay. That’s cool because the ones who were asked to leave were thrown out into a place that was dark and miserable, that is a good description of anywhere that God decides not to be.
The next thing Paul want them to see they are rich or rather valuable. In verse 11 we saw that we have an inheritance, we will live eternally with God but here we see that we are God’s inheritance. The use of the word “glory” here is to show us that we are valuable, we are like a beautiful diamond that God is going to get to keep with himself forever.
Finally in verse 19 Paul was praying that the readers would see and understand how much effort God has put into making a way for believers to have a relationship with Him again. God has used His power and strength fir us, and remember this is the God who spoke and all the whole universe came into being. Evidently the believers in Ephesus were struggling. Something was testing their trust in God. Everything in Paul’s greeting is there to show them how secure they are for eternity. The creator God had made them an offer that they had accepted and now they were His prized people. There home with Him in eternity was secure.
But wait there’s more. In Genesis 2:17 God told Adam, the first man, that he wasn’t to eat the fruit from one certain tree in the Garden of Eden. If Adam disobeyed and shoed disregard for God the penalty would be death; separation, both physical and spiritual. Adam, his world and his relationship with God would all be broken. Here in Ephesians 1:20 we see a very specific use of God’s power, the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ return to life after dying for us shows us that the penalty of death had been overcome. The resurrection was a little preview that the brokenness that sin (disobedience and disrespect toward God) brought into the world was overcome and one day all the brokenness would be repaired. The more though is that Jesus wasn’t just raised back to life but that he was given a seat of great power. Jesus was put on a throne to the right of God the Father’s throne (See “Three or One?”). In verses 21-22 we see that this position of power is greater that all others for all time into the eternal future.
In verse 22 to want to be very careful in how we read what Paul wrote. First notice that Jesus is head over all things. Next we want to notice that Jesus was given to the church. That word “church” means “called out ones”. It’s kind of like the ideas he has already used “called” and “chosen”; the church is the group of people who have put their eternal hope and trust in Jesus. But the part we want to be careful to see is that Jesus was given to the church as supreme king and ruler of everything in the universe. Verse 23 tells us that the church is Jesus’ body. In these verses we aren’t seen as part of what Jesus rules but as part of Him and that all of His power exists to help us.
Two words stand out in my mind as we get to the end of Paul’s greeting for this letter: Power and position. Paul has talked a lot about God and His actions and His power. God has ultimate power and he has used it to help mankind. Not all of mankind benefits from the help though, only those who reach out and take it; those who believe in Jesus, not just as a person but as the eternal God-man who died to pay for their disobedience and disrespect toward God (sin). The believers there in Ephesus and through out all time right down to us here and now have a position; we are children of God, God’s own inheritance, secure in that position now and forever. We have been called, we have been chosen, we have been permanently marked (predestined, v. 5) for adoption into God’s forever family. That position can never change for any who have heard about Jesus and believed (convinced of the truth and committed to it) in who he is and what he has done for us.
The Ephesian believers loved God and cared for each other but they lived in uncertain times. They were part of a movement that came out of Judaism but was being rejected by most Jews. Those among them who were of Jewish descent were being rejected by their families. They were also part of a monotheistic (one god) movement, they believed in one God existing in three persons (God the father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, see “Three or One?”) an idea that offended almost everyone in their polytheistic (many gods) culture. Their first allegiance was to Jesus, they were part of an eternal kingdom and would not treat any human king as more than a power under Jesus and restricted by Him. This enraged many of the Roman rulers. At the time the letter was written Caesar Nero was in the middle of his reign and he was known for his hatred of Christians. Paul wanted these believers to know that God’s power that gave them a position or place in God’s family was forever and no earthly powers could change that, their position was permanent. His Greeting ends on a very good note as the “body of Christ” we are the “fullness of Him who fills everything”. We not only have a permanent place in God’s forever family but we have a part to play here and now.
It is amazing that the Creator of the universe used his power to create us knowing that we would turn against Him. It’s even more amazing that He would have a plan to save us in spite of our rebellion. It’s more amazing yet that the plan involved Him limiting himself to a human existence and then suffering within that existence. After all of that he doesn’t force Himself on us but presents Himself to us and invites us to believe and be a part of His forever family. And then we don’t sit as trophies in his museum but have the opportunity to be helpers in His kingdom inviting others to join in. I also appreciate it that God watches and understands what we are going thorough and speaks to us where we are.
God thank you for your love. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for the hope you offer; you call and will follow through with you power for all who respond. Thank you for treasuring me, for treasuring us, so much. Thank you. Help me see and understand and trust and share the good news with all I meet.