Ephesians 2:17-18
“Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals.”
“He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.”
We are defined by God’s actions toward us, not self-defined nor defined by our peers. Jesus’ death on the cross was equally for all of us. We all share the same eternal stature as children of God. Do not be led astray by the world’s bigotry to paper over this reality. We are all brothers and sisters before the Lord.
Lord, keep my eyes clear. Continually wipe away the world’s grime. Let me see my brother and my sister with your eyes, alert to their unique value. May I be your hands and feet in removing the bondages that fetter them. Please remove my own too.
Ephesians 2:15
“Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.”
“He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.”
Sometimes a fresh start is just what is needed. My loyalty tends to extremes. I can see times in the past when it would have been better to close shop and start afresh. Perhaps what I thought of as loyalty had an element of fear, the known being preferrable to the unknown. The next time Jesus leads me to jump paths I’ll remember the unknown with him is not fearsome but full of promise and take the leap.
Lord, may my hand always be in yours, excited and not fearful of the future you have lovingly planned just for me.
Ephesians 2:11-13
“But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.”
“Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.”
Many people throughout the ages lived in spiritual darkness but longed for all that God is, to be in on everything. I am blessed to actually know him, living in the time of his favor to all gentiles. It is contentment to know I am loved and have a living place in God’s house. Much is given to me. Much is required. I pray I am up to the task.
Lord, thank you for knowing me, finding me and making a home for me. I am blessed beyond measure. Help me to pass those blessings on to those I meet each day. Give me your eyes to see and your heart to respond to their needs.
Ephesians 2:8-9
“Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving.”
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”
The making and saving work of God is a response to our trust, not our faith. Trust is a commitment of our will. All of us choose who to trust, and it becomes the bedrock of our faith. Faith is a spiritual concept. It is God’s good gift, in response to our trust, that opens the door onto our walk with him. I believe only this god, Jesus Christ, the Ancient of Days, is worthy of my trust. He will give me faith to meet my needs.
Lord, I’m so glad I have you to trust. I know I cannot trust myself and none other satisfies. Grace me with faith to meet this day. May the flag of my faith fly high whether my path brings laughter or heartache, for your glory.
Ephesians 2:7
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.”
“So God can point to us in all of future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as show in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.”
He had us before the fall too, all to himself in the garden. His love was so wide he chose his own pain, knowing we would choose to go astray, and letting us do it. He’s gone to a lot of trouble putting things right again, a measure of his immeasurable love. Now we are showered with all his good things. Blessings all mine, with ten thousand besides.
Lord, I have no words to express the delight and depth of my gratitude. You found me, fix me, and fill me. I worship you.
Ephesians 2:4-5
“It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!”
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
God hates sin, yet he embraced us when we were dirty and smudged with it from head to toe. Always he reaches out through the miasma of sin’s reek to find his own wherever they be throughout the earth. We who long for truth, beauty and redemption find he cleans us up and sets us on a new course towards living truly.
Lord, I am amazed at you. Only you fill and satisfy me with good things for both my mind and heart. I love you so! Shape me to spread the good news of you, my wonderful Lord, with all I encounter. Thank you for cleaning me up, giving me clean clothes to wear and tenderly leading me through life. There is no other god like you!
Ephesians 2:1-3
“It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat.”
“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”
This is Universalism with a twist. Universalists believe all will be saved for eternal life. But Paul tells it differently. Our universalist bent is towards sin, not perfection. Peterson’s translation in The Message is stark. We are filled with, “polluted unbelief,” and “exhale disobedience.” That’s us for sure, all in the same boat.
Lord, the better I know you, the more I know my sin. I’m crushed with the weight of my fellow man’s pollution and disobedience. How I long for you to put it all right. Thank you Jesus, for beginning with the cross. Now may your return come quickly. Vanquish and destroy sin’s ugly blot on all your creation, especially including us.
Ephesians 1:23
“The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”
“And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”
God has chosen to use me to speak to the world just as he chose 12 uneducated laboring Judeans to spread the revelation that God is love to those in the first century. I am amazed and convicted too. It is an awesome responsibility.
Lord help me in this! I want to shout about you to people I meet, but you have not made me a shouting kind of person. Show me how to live so I can shout in the way you made me. Give me words to speak about you. I need courage too. Grace me to give your love to everyone I meet, in ways just right for every heart.
Ephesians 1:22
“The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church.”
“God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.”
The Message calls us to consider our point of view. It is everything in communication. What is yours? What is that of our enemy? We assume others think like we do. Ask and listen, really listen, to those who make the effort to think and share. This is love and it changes the world.
Lord, how often I am already formulating a response rather than really listening. Forgive me for sacrificing these opportunities to love on the altar of my ego. Remind me to listen with your heart, value the person before me, and build relationships for the sake of tomorrow’s need and your glory.
Ephesians 1:16-19
“ But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!”
“I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him.”
I love the Message’s interpretation of flooding light as clear and focused eyes. Light can be blinding but here the emphasis is on the clarity it brings to our vision. I am not left floundering in generalities about his purpose for me, but am guided by extravagant detail according to my uniqueness. He is so big and yet attentive to me, so small.
Lord, thank you for the energy and strength you give. Your directions are perfect for me. They are fine-tuned so I can sing loud and clear. I am amazed that you, Almighty God, know even me. How can it be?
Ephesians 1:15
“That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks.”
“Ever since I heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you.”
I should be more thankful for my fellow believers, the body of Christ. They shore me up by prayer and encouragement and have been a pillar of my faith. Paul’s outburst of delight in the Ephesians puts me to shame. God has blessed me with tried and true friends in the faith who have walked with me through many a trial. I will praise and thank God for them more often and more fervently.
Lord, your faithfulness has come to me through my friends and other fellow believers. Thank you for this. Remind me often through my day to give thanks for them, pray for them.
Ephesians 1:13-14
“It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.”
“And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.”
Jesus left but sent a tiny part of himself to indwell each person who believes, the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament faithful didn’t have this privilege and I am amazed at the diligence of their faith without it. Learning to hear and obey the Spirit has been the work of my lifetime. It is a tug of war between he and I with self gradually giving way. It is how I’m learning to truly live. The Spirit has another even more exciting purpose. It is a mark I belong to Jesus for eternity. I carry a part of him in me and he cannot leave himself behind. So death is no ogre to me but only a door to a brilliant future.
Holy Spirit your work in my heart is priceless. Only you can help me live fully engaged, without despair, with faith, hope and love briming over. Continue your work in me. May I ever decrease, giving way to your purpose. May I honor you by my walk and encourage others to come along.