Category: Pondering Ephesians

This Week’s Passage: ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

The phrase that captures my attention in this passage is “to the praise of His glorious grace.” As I was pondering this week I was reminded of a song I wrote some years back when I was also thinking about these verses. Here are the words to the song:

Glorious Grace

Praise be to the God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ
He chose us in Him to be holy.
We are His sons.
We are His loved ones.
And it’s all to the praise of His glorious grace.

According to the riches of His grace
We’ve been redeemed.
And His perfect will
Is no more a mystery.
Christ is our head
Through Him we’re fed.
And it’s all to the praise of His glorious grace.

(Refrain)
Glorious grace, God’s glorious grace!
We’re wrapped up in the arms of the Father’s embrace.
Glorious grace, God’s glorious grace!
We sing out our praise to His glorious grace.

We were marked in Jesus
On the day that we believed.
We received His Spirit
Who is now our guarantee.
Now we all are heirs
Of wealth beyond compare.
And it’s all to the praise of His glorious grace.

(Refrain)

And now at the extreme risk of embarrassing myself, here is an a cappella recording fresh out of the Garage Band Studio to give you an idea of how the melody goes in my head.

Glorious Grace

I admit I’m a wannabe. Sometimes putting Scripture to a melody helps it to sink in to my hard head/hard heart. The main thing that this week’s passage reminded me of is that God did everything that He did for me for the “praise of His glorious grace.” It’s not about me. It’s about Him!

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Ephesians 1:9-12

This Weeks Passage:  ² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

So much to ponder, so much to ponder.

Paul begins his epistle (his salutation) in a similar way that he will later end his epistle – offering grace and peace to his readers.  But it is not grace and peace from him, it is grace and peace from “God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He seems to be reminding them right off the bat about what God has done for them.

Grace – This has to be one of the greatest words in the New Testament. God has offered us grace. This flies in the face of every other religion. So far as I know Christianity is the only faith where God takes the initiative and then does EVERYTHING needed to bridge the relational gap between God and man. Christianity is all about relationship not religion. And this is exactly what grace is all about. I have to be reminded of this constantly because I have a tendency to default into trying to earn favor with God by impressing Him with good works that I do. Apart from the amazing and abundant grace of God I would still be dead in my sins and separated from God.

Peace – It is one thing to experience peace in this world and still another thing to be at peace with God. At one time their was a holy hatred that God had towards me – the Bible refers to this as His wrath. I was an object of God’s wrath because of my sin. But God took the initiative to reconcile our broken relationship – His wrath was propitiated (satisfied) by the death of His Son on the cross and peace was restored. And is a wonderful thing to not only experience peace with God but also to experience the peace of God. This has been a crazy 5 weeks for me and my family but because we have peace with God we have also known the peace of God.

As Paul contemplated all that God had done for him by giving him His grace and peace, I have no doubt that he was overwhelmed and could not help but praise God: “Praise be to the God and Father…”. My prayer is that God would overwhelm me in the same way and that my life would more become a testimony of praise to the grace and peace of our great God.

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Ephesians 1:4-8

Some of you might  just now be jumping on the pondering train. If so, there is a post that I wrote last year that may help you as you get started. Check out How To Ponder A Passage

This Week’s Passage: Ephesians 1:1  “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.”

One of the first things I remember learning about understanding Scripture is this: before you can know what a passage means you have to know what it meant. To translate in our context here – in order to understand what Ephesians means to us and apply it effectively to our lives, we have to understand what it meant when Paul wrote it to the Ephesians. In order to do this we have to understand  as much as we can about who the Ephesians were and what their culture and context was. That is why I focused my pondering this week on 2 words: “in Ephesus”. In this post I’m going to try to give us a glimpse into who these people were and what their city was like.

Ephesus was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire – second only to Rome.

It is located in what was called Asia Minor, which is present day Turkey

It had as many as 250,000 people living there which made it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world.

It was a big tourist center, largely  because of its great Temple of Artemis , the Greek goddess of fertility (also known as the temple of Diana). The Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. (It was built around 550 B.C.)

It was also a major trade center. As a port city it was the center of trade between Asia Minor and Italy.

Because of the aristocracy that lived in Ephesus and governed the city there was a lot of wealth . But there was also a lot of slavery.

It had a huge open air theater, which was capable of holding 25,000 spectators which was used initially for drama, but during later Roman times hosted gladiatorial combats  on its stage.

Paul wasn’t able to travel to Ephesus until the end of his 2nd missionary journey (around A.D. 52). See Acts 18:19-20

Paul returned after his 3rd missionary  journey (A.D. 53) and stayed 3 years – the longest time Paul ever spent in a city. See Acts 19

Ephesians is one of Paul’s prison epistles – written around A.D. 62 while he was under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:16).

Ephesus was a city with a culture and spiritual climate that was not unlike our own today. Prosperous, cultured, and full of idol worship. This is why I think there is so much that we can learn from these 6 chapters.

Verse 1 is a verse that often gets overlooked. There was so much that could have been pondered and that I hope many of you did. (If  so I hope you will take the time to share some of your thoughts.) For example, here are some of the other ponderable questions: 1) Who is Paul and what was going on in his life as he wrote? 2) What is an apostle? 3) How did Paul know that it was God’s will for him to be an apostle? 4) What is a saint? 5) Why did Paul consider the Ephesian saints to be faithful?

As you read through the book this past week you probably noticed that the first 3 chapters are largely doctrinal in nature and the last 3 chapters are primarily application oriented. As we work our way through the book this year don’t be fooled into thinking that this book is so familiar that nothing will be gained. My guess is that many of us have read it but never really pondered it. As I read through it I began to get excited about pondering a bunch of the passages – some of which are months away from getting to. My hope is that this book will not just become more familiar to us this year but that as God’s Word it will begin to dwell in us, take root in us, and transform us.

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage to Ponder: Ephesians 1:2-3

This Week’s Passage and Memory Verse (in red):  ¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. ¹⁹ Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Great passage. Lots to ponder. Here’s what jumped out at me. First a few words…

v.15  “very” – It’s as if Paul knows something that we haven’t quite grasped yet. If he had said “be careful” it would be like me telling my son not to get too close to the fire – something that should be obvious. “Be very careful” is more like stay  far far away from the fire because of the the poisonous gases that are being emitted – something not obvious to the naked eye. It sounds like a plea to the Ephesian believers because Paul has watched so many fall by the spiritual wayside because they were not careful enough.

v.15 “then” – This is one of those words that is looking backwards. Backwards to what? Back to verses 13-14. Paul is reminding us that all our dark and dirty secrets are one day going to be exposed by the Light. If that were to happen TODAY what would be exposed in your life? Would there be shame? Would there be regret? Or do you have nothing to hide. Paul wants us to live with nothing to hide because one day nothing will be hidden. So “be very careful how you live.”

v.16 “every” – I get the feeling here that Paul has witnessed countless wasted opportunities. He wants the church, God’s people, to recognize that God is placing people right in front of their eyes every day – people who are needy, and discouraged, and harassed, and confused. People who need people who have the Lord. That’s you and me. We don’t need to go looking for opportunities; rather we need to take advantage of the opportunities that we already have.

And now one phrase that caught my attention…

v.17 “understand what the Lord’s will is” – Paul doesn’t leave us hanging here. We tend to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what God’s will is when He has spelled much of it out to us very clearly. The subsequent verses (all the way to the end of the book) are a case in point.

These verses explain that God’s will for believers include: being filled with His Spirit, being thankful, submitting to one another, being loving husbands, being obedient children, being fathers who train up their children, being obedient slaves, being non-threatening masters, being prepared for spiritual battle, and praying for the advance of the gospel. The point is that God’s will is not hard to discern if we are willing to read and obey God’s Word.

Funny story: A middle-aged farmer who had been desiring for years to be an evangelist was out working in the field one day when he decided to rest under a tree. As he looked into the sky he saw that the clouds seemed to form into the letters P and C. Immediately he hopped up, sold his farm, and went out to P-reach C-hrist, which he felt was God’s leading. Unfortunately, he was a horrible preacher. After one of his sermons a neighbor came forward and whispered in his ear, “Are you sure God wasn’t just trying to tell you to P-lant C-orn.”

God’s will is written in the Word – not in the sky or in the stars. (And yes, that is a hint about what I think about astrology).

So read the Word. Ponder the Word. Obey the Word. And you will be right dab in the middle of God’s will.

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Philippians 4:4-8
Next Week’s Memory Verse: Philippians 4:6