More Please – Ephesians 1
More Please – Ephesians 1
From Paul to Christians in Ephesus…
He wishes them grace (God’s free gift which leads to) and peace from God who blessed (past) with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
He chose us before creation to be blameless and predestined us for adoption through the blood of Christ with all wisdom and understanding according to His good pleasure for the unity of all things under Christ. He planned everything to work so that Jews first and Gentiles too would have the message of truth for salvation for the praise of His glory. And He gave the Holy Spirit as a pledge and seal of His promise.
Paul prays in thanks to God and for Him to give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him better: the hope they have, the riches of His inheritance and His great power for us. The power that raised Christ from death, put all things under His dominion and made Him head over the church.
Outline:
1. Greeting: Grace and Peace
2. Chosen: Predestined and Pledge
3. Prayer: Know Him Better
Overall Thoughts:
Wow, there’s a lot in this chapter. Paul clearly cares a great deal for the Ephesians. His points make me feel quite small in a good way: it’s not up to me. I can’t earn my way to God’s favor (grace) and come to terms with Him (peace). He does it all. I didn’t even have the brains to choose Him (predestined), but for the praise of His glory, He chose me.
Knowing Him, dwelling on Him, abiding in Him is what gives me the most depth in life. And I love that Paul’s prayer sounds like: more is better! It’s a little scary: am I going to have to go live in a hut on an island off the coast of Africa? It’s funny how our greatest fear would be to have a simple life with less responsibility in community with others. Satan is a tricky dude.
And with almost all scary things that we want, afterward we’re like "What was I scared of?" It reminds me of a couple movies and video games my son played when he was little. He was a little scared of the images or trailers. I had "already been there" and could explain "Yeah, it looks like it’s going to be scary. You’ll keep waiting for it to get scary but it doesn’t."
Or like a rollercoaster, it’s scary beforehand. The anticipation is nerve racking. But then in the experience it’s thrilling! And afterward you want to run back and do it again and again.
Ok, so what’s the take-away? What is the output? How do we apply what we’ve read in this chapter?
I think a few things are in line with what other places in the Bible tell us. Universal things that we can apply from many other passages: We praise God for who He is and what He’s done in the world and in each of us personally. We remind ourselves that all the work done past, present and future in bringing us closer to Him is initiated and driven by Him. Our efforts to force getting closer to Him are a bit of playing with fire. If they work, who gets the credit?
We pray for more of Him in us. That more and more of the Spirit occupies our heart such that it crowds out all else. That we dwell on Him and His ways, His love, His son, His Spirit so much that all else is seen as counterfeit. I don’t believe this can be done by force or one great grand effort – it’s a matter of the heart over time.
Imagine the world’s greatest chef had you over for dinner. The most amazing meal possible was served. You don’t offer to pay them (insulting) or start mowing their yard (inappropriate) or offer to cook for them (embarrassing)… you marvel at them, you thank them and you say "More please."