We turn now to the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, one of the greatest letters of the New Testament. Of all Paul's letters, this letter to the Ephesians and the letter to the Romans have affected me most profoundly. Both set forth a systematic and rather exhaustive explanation of the whole Christian view of life and the world. Paul's other letters deal with specific problems, and they are helpful when we are faced with those same problems. But these two deal with the whole sweep of truth, the great canvas of God's painting of reality. Ephesians has changed my life again and again. It was from this book that I learned how the body of Christ functions. When I was a young man fresh from seminary, these truths of the fourth chapter were strongly in my heart: the conviction that the ministry belongs to the saints; the pastor's task is to help people find their ministries and prepare them to function in them; the Christian's discovery of the excitement of living where they are. It was from this letter that I learned, as a young man, how to handle the sex drive that God had given me, as He has given it to all of us, and how to live properly in a sex-saturated society. Ephesians taught me profound truths about marriage and family life. This letter taught me how to understand the strange turbulence I often found in my own heart, the spiritual attacks to which I was subject, and how to deal with my fears, anxieties, and depressions—where these were coming from and what to do about them. So this is a great and practical letter, and I urge you to become familiar with it and to make it second nature to know the truth of Ephesians. The letter to the Ephesians was written about AD 61 from Rome during Paul's first imprisonment there to the Christians in the Roman province of Asia, who were ordinary people—tradespeople, craftspeople, a few doctors and lawyers, and some politicians. Many of them were slaves. The letter is commonly called the Epistle to the Ephesians, but this title is not found in many of the ancient manuscripts. Most leave the address of these saints blank. Many scholars believe that this is a circular letter that was written to many churches, probably those in the region of Ephesus. Some think it may have been addressed to the very churches to which Jesus had John address the letters in the book of Revelation, beginning with Ephesus and ending with Laodicea. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul refers to a letter from Laodicea, and many believe that Ephesians is that letter. It was brought from Rome by the hand of Tychicus, to whom the apostle dictated this great treatise. Circulated from church to church and read in each one, it finally ended up in Ephesus, where it was labeled The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians. As we gather from Paul's footnote at the end, it is really a letter addressed to all Christians everywhere. You can read it, therefore, as the letter of Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:1-2). This salutation is the briefest in any of Paul's letters, yet it includes three simple things to which I will call your attention. First, Paul's credentials: Notice how he describes himself, Paul was always amazed by the fact that it was Then notice how these Christians are described: Then comes the invariable greeting of Paul to these believers: Father, help me to comprehend these great themes that have changed the history of the world. Help me by Your grace to rejoice, to lay hold of Your provision, and to be a responsive instrument in Your hand. Life Application: There is a great, life-changing heritage available to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are our lives characterized by God's gifts of grace and peace?
Ephesians: Riches in Christ
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in [wherever you are], the faithful in Christ Jesus
(Ephesians 1:1).Salutations
an apostle... by the will of God.
An apostle was one sent with a message. Paul gloried in the fact that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. And, as he tells us in his letter to the Galatians, the Lord Jesus appeared to him directly. Paul did not learn what he knew about the gospel by discussing it with the other apostles. The truth that he imparts to us here he learned directly from Jesus Christ, and that is his authority. Therefore, when you read Paul you are reading an authorized spokesman for the Lord Jesus. What he says is what he has heard. So if you don't agree with Paul, you don't agree with the Lord either!by the will of God
that he was an apostle. He had no other glory in his life than that God, in the amazing wonder of His grace, had called this man, who was such a bitter, intense, nationalistic persecutor of the church; had arrested him and changed him; and had sent him out to be an apostle to the Gentiles. Notice that he gives no other credentials. He doesn't refer to his training at the feet of Gamaliel or his Hebrew background and pedigree or the brilliance of his intellect or anything else. He simply says, I'm an apostle by the will of God. That is the ground upon which I write.
saints... the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Saint is a word at which we all shudder a little. We don't like to be called saints because we have such a plaster idea of what a saint is. We think of them as being unreal so holier-than-we, so unlike ordinary human beings. But the saints of the New Testament are people like us, people who are beset with struggles and difficulties, who have disturbances at home and problems at work and troubles everywhere else. But one thing is remarkable about them: they are different. That is really the basic meaning of this word saint. In the Greek it is derived from the word for holy. And holy means distinct, different, whole, belonging to God and, therefore, living differently. Holiness is the mark of saints. It isn't that they don't have problems, but that they handle them in a different way. They have a different lifestyle.Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The two great heritages of the Christian are grace and peace. You can always have grace and peace, no matter what your circumstances. These are the two characteristics that ought to mark Christians all the time.Devotions for the Month of March
A devotion for March 1st
Read the Scripture: Ephesians 1:1-2
