The big problem early Christians faced

Ephesians 2, Part 2

There was a big problem in the early church. It’s still a problem in the contemporary American church. Paul introduces the problem in Ephesians 1, verse 11:

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)”

Did you hear the problem Paul brings up? No? Let me explain.

In verse 11, Paul addresses Gentiles.  Non-Jews.  The Christian churches in the first century Roman Empire included non-Jews.  In the contemporary American church, most Christians are also non-Jews, Gentiles.

Why is Paul referring to non-Jews?  Because in Paul’s day, he had spread the Good News about Jesus to non-Jews throughout many areas of the Roman Empire, and they became followers of Jesus, and were now part of the churches. 

Paul then introduces a label for the non-Jews.  In verse 11, he says they are called “uncircumcised.”  Paul himself is not labeling non-Jews that way. He is simply saying that others have given the non-Jews the label “uncircumcised.”

For people who are new to reading the New Testament epistles, it can be a bit unsettling to hear Paul talking about circumcision. He refers to it in numerous letters.  In our culture, circumcision is a very private matter, one that usually only enters conversation when a baby boy is born.  We know that Paul is referring to a physical, anatomical, medical procedure, because he notes that it “is done by human hands.”  Scholars have researched this, and have concluded that most non-Jewish males in the first-century Roman Empire were not circumcised.  And when you consider that anesthetics were not invented at that time, you can understand. 

This label “the uncircumcised,” also has religious.  Paul will explain that religious side of circumcision in verse 12.  Let’s stay in verse 11 for a moment longer.

After introducing the non-Jewish, uncircumcised Gentile group in the church, he then refers to the other group by the label “the circumcision.”  The circumcision are people of Jewish heritage who became Christians.  In our day and age, we call them Messianic Jews.

When we consider the fact that Christianity is a global faith numbering in the billions, the percentage of Messianic Jews in the church is tiny. I suspect many Christians do not know any Messianic Jews, and when we hear about how Messianic Jews incorporate Hebrew and the Old Testament rituals into their worship services, it can sound like a very unique, different, and rare way to approach Christianity.  Totally fine if Messianic Jews want to practice worship that way, but very different from non-Jewish practices of worship.  Thus the way non-Jews worship seems to us to be the more common way.

Not so in the early church.  The early church started out 100% Jewish.  Jesus was Jewish, as were all the disciples and first followers, and the location of the church was in Jerusalem for likely the first five or so years. Slowly, the Holy Spirit pushed the church beyond the geographical borders of Israel, primarily through the missionary trips of the Apostle Paul.  In the account of Paul’s mission trips which we can read in Acts, Paul himself continued to emphasize outreach to Jews first, and then secondarily to non-Jews.  In these various cities, towns, and regions where he and his missionary team visited, both Jews and non-Jews became followers of Jesus. 

In the same church there were two different ethnicities.  In the same church there were groups of people with very different worldviews, histories, belief systems.  And that led to problems.

In verse 11, Paul refers to the problem when he writes that the people in the circumcision group, the Jews, labeled the Gentile non-Jews the “uncircumcised.” 

One group of people are saying that they are the “in group,” and they are labeling the others as the “out group.”  “We are included, and you are excluded.”  The Jews are saying, “We are in, and you are out.” The mark of the “in group” was circumcision, going back to the Jews’ ancestor Abraham, and his covenant with God. Jews were uniquely in covenant relationship with God, and male circumcision was the physical sign of that relationship. To our modern sensibilities, that might sound odd. But for the Jews, circumcision was of utmost importance.

Why?  Are the Jews right?

In verse 12 Paul further describes the non-Jew uncircumcision group: “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”

Paul is explaining here the rationale and mindset of the Jewish Christians.  It is true that before the non-Jews became Christians, those non-Jews were outsiders.  Look at the words Paul uses: “separate, excluded, foreigners, without hope,” and why?  They are “without God.”

Paul is saying that the Jewish Christians have a point.  There was a time when the non-Jews were outside of covenant relationship with God. That is very serious.

Yet, what is the tense of verbs Paul has used to describe the position of the non-Jews as “out”?  He has been using the past tense.  The non-Jews were “out,” but only in the past. 

Then something happened.  Something changed.  There is a new reality. We learn about that in the next post.

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True followers of Jesus used to be dead

Ephesians 2, Part 1

True follower of Jesus, did you know you used to be dead? 

In Ephesians 2, verses 1–3, Paul writes:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”

Okay, let’s pause right there. Are you thinking, “Who is he talking about?” because there’s almost no one like he is describing.  The vast majority of people are simply not that bad.  There are people that bad, no doubt.  But doesn’t it seem like Paul is exaggerating here?   

What Paul is describing is the state of people before they became followers of Jesus.  In a word: dead. 

My guess is that many people do not feel dead before they start following Jesus.  Some might.  Every now and then you hear someone who is really struggling say “I feel dead inside.”  My dog’s breath smells like dying, rotten flesh.  It’s horrific.  It’s not just dog breath.  It’s death breath.  He sure seems to be doing fine, though.  Paul, however, is not talking about literal death. 

Paul describes people who are separated from Jesus.  They are dead, they are under the rule of sin.  They are not under the rule of Jesus. They aren’t truly alive.

You might point out that you know some Christians who seem to act like the are still under the rule of sin.  They are supposed to no longer be dead, no longer under the rule of sin, but still seem to be, because of their behavior.  That is a key point, because it reminds us that, as James will point out, faith without works is dead. (James 2:17)  There is such a thing as dead faith.  Dead faith is when you talk a good Christian game, show up for church gatherings, go through the rituals of worship, but you live a very non-Jesus way of life in other parts of your life. Simply put, Jesus and his ways are not ruling your heart.

This is precisely what Jesus pointed out about the religious leaders in his day.  Their church game was unparalleled.  They had all the religious lingo, ritual practices, laws on top of laws.  But their hearts were corrupt, jealous, greedy, power-hungry, and they couldn’t even see the Messiah when he did miracles right before their eyes. 

These are the people Jesus talks about when he says in Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

These are the goats in Jesus’ Sheep and Goats parable (Matthew 25), who do not actively reach out to the hungry, impoverished, imprisoned, unhoused, marginalized: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

But there is hope for those who are dead.

Back in Ephesians 1, look at verse 4–10,

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Praise God, he has love and mercy and grace for us!  He so loved us that we who used to be dead have the opportunity to be alive.  No longer dead under the rule of sin, but alive under the rule of Jesus.  He did it. 

And he did it so that we can be made alive, to do good works. Our good works don’t save us.  Only Jesus could do that work.  But our grateful, loving response to his saving work is to do good works.

Thus in verses 1 through 10, Paul describes how people can move from death, to life, because of God’s love for us in Jesus. 

And with that deeply meaningful theological principle in hand, now Paul applies the principle to what was likely the most difficult problem in the Christians in his day. We learn about that problem in the next post.

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A good reason I didn’t get hired as a professor

Ephesians 2, Preview

This past Sunday, January 25, I announced that I am moving on as pastor of Faith Church. My new role is Human Resources Manager at Agriteer, a farming equipment sales and service company in the mid-Atlantic region. I’ll have more to say about that and the future of the blog in the coming weeks.

As I’ve shared the news of my transition out of pastoral ministry with people this past week, I’ve said that it has been both a long time coming and lightning fast.

The fast part is that as recent as the first week of January 2026, though I was in the interview process with Agriteer, I thought it was unlikely I would get the job.  I have no Human Resources education, and my only experience is the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants small church HR that we’ve cobbled together over the years here at Faith Church.  And the farm equipment industry?  I know nothing.  I figured just about any other candidate would be more likely to get hired.  When they called and offered me the job, I was shocked, and it meant transition would happen rapidly.

The “long time coming” part goes back a ways.  For many years I have hoped, dreamed, prayed, gone to school, got degrees, and became an adjunct professor, all in the pursuit of becoming a full-time professor, like my grandfather, father, and father-in-law before me.  I applied for a handful of positions at regional Christian universities starting in 2019 when I was in my doctoral program.  

And I got some interviews.  At one institution I got as far as the round of ten remaining candidates for a professor of ministry position.  Then at Lancaster Bible College, I applied for a professor of pastoral ministry job. With my family heritage there, adjuncting there for years, and my experience at Faith Church, I felt I was a strong candidate.  I learned that about one hundred people applied for the job. I had multiple interviews, and made it to the final three.  The thought of training up the next generation of pastors excited me!  As did continuing my family legacy at LBC.

When they called to tell me that I was not being selected, I was heartbroken and asked if they could tell me anything about why.  They said I wasn’t diverse enough.  

I had to admit the truth of that assessment.  Not only am I ethnically white, but with the exception of our missionary year in Jamaica, all my years of ministry have been a white context.  And if LBC, which is also historically majority white wanted to diversify, I applauded them.  Sure, I was disappointed, but I was also encouraged by Christians who were taking strides to pursue diversity.  

In our continuing study of Ephesians, this coming week we will study Ephesians 2, and Paul’s theme is diversity in the church.  There was a problem with racial segregation in the early church.  Sound familiar?  It should, given the story of American Christianity. 

Read Ephesians 2 today, and then join me back here on the blog tomorrow as we begin to study this important chapter.  

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The shocking power God wants to give us

Ephesians 1:14-23, Part 5

In the summer of 2010, I was sitting in a bank in Chicago, squirming in my seat, very uncomfortable.  A group of us from Faith Church were there on a mission trip, working with our sister church Kimball Avenue. We were listening to a presentation about the use of power to overturn injustice. 

I was squirming because power is so corrupt, especially in human hands.  So I mentioned that to the presenter during the Q & A.  I wasn’t ready for the presenter’s response.

Before I tell you what she said, this week we have been studying Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:14-23. In the previous post, Paul talked about the inheritance that God wants to share with us. Rather than an inheritance that we experience after a death, Paul’s point is that we can participate in God’s inheritance to us now.

How can we enjoy God’s inheritance to us now? In Ephesians 1, Paul goes on to explain what he means in verses 19–20,

“…and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,”

Did Paul just say what I think he said?  That the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us?  Resurrection power is available to us?  Can it be possible? 

Let’s clarify. Paul is not suggesting that God wants us to go around trying to raise dead people back to life.  He is simply saying that the same power is available to us in the here and now, because we are in relationship with the same God.  The same God that Paul prayed a few verses earlier, that we might know him better.

In our culture and society, we regularly learn about many warped views of power and demonstrations of power.  The use of power is often extremely evil and selfish.  This is at the root of the famous saying, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  We can have so many brushes with abuse of power that we don’t want to be anywhere near it.  

It is not easy to wield power in a godly way.  That’s why I was so uncomfortable in that meeting in the bank in Chicago.

The presenter in Chicago, put me in my place very quickly and graciously, asking me, “Well don’t you have power as a pastor?”  Uh…It doesn’t seem like much power, but I had to admit, “Yes.”  They she drove her point home, “Don’t you want to use your power for good?”  Of course.  Yes!  The conclusion, there is a way to view and employ power for all sorts of good.

That’s what Paul is getting at here. We have access to the power of God, because God wants to work in us and through us so that we will have the abundant flourishing life Jesus said he came to bring us in John 10:10.  That abundant life is not an erasure of pain and difficulty, but as we saw earlier in the passage, the abundant life is based in God’s deep sacrificial love and sacrificially sharing that love with others.  Loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus wants to empower us to live that sacrificial love, just like he did.

I think of Jesus’ Vine & Branches analogy. It is all about power.  In John 15, Jesus teaches, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

The Fruit of the Spirit is all about power. In Galatians 5:22-26, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

We need God’s power to be the people he wants us to be, to pursue the mission of his Kingdom.  There is a great humility in this prayer.  It is a reminder to us that we don’t have the power in and of ourselves.  But he does!  And he wants to make it available to us, for good, for the good of his kingdom, for the good of others, for the good of human flourishing. 

Then Paul concludes his prayer with a short benediction about Jesus.  

“Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

I encourage you to pray the whole prayer of Ephesians 1:14-23 every day this week.  Maybe choose a few of the people in your life and pray this prayer for them.  Place their name in the prayer.  Ask God what you need to change in your day to day life for the people around you to know that you are praying this prayer for them, and that you are loving them.

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We don’t have to wait until we die to experience God’s inheritance

Ephesians 1:14-23, Part 4

Having a rich relative or friend who bestows a lavish inheritance on us is a dream for many people.  It is a common scene in literature, film, and television.  A wealthy person dies, the family attorney calls the family together for the reading of the will, and it is revealed who gets what. 

Often though, the revealing of a will turns a dream into a nightmare. The will might have some surprises that lead to utter disappointment, anger, and family drama. 

So what does Paul mean in Ephesians 1, verse 18, when he prays that Christians would know, “The hope to which he has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people”?

When you hear those words, “hope” and “his glorious inheritance,” it would easy to assume that Paul is talking about heaven only.  Yes, Paul is talking about the hope we have for life after death.  But Paul is not saying, “Christians, my prayer is that you die as soon as possible, so you go to heaven and experience the hope and inheritance of God.”  As if hope and inheritance only kick in after we die. 

The whole point of Paul’s prayer is that he wants the people to know that hope now, while they’re still alive.  He is not saying that we can experience the fullness of eternity now.  He is saying, however, that we can know it now.  There is a way that we can dwell now in the hope God has blessed us with.  That hope, though we will not experience it fully until one day in the future, still matters now. 

It matters now that we are people who have hope.  It matters now that we are people who have an inheritance. 

Notice how Paul describes the inheritance: the riches of his glorious inheritance. 

When it comes to the inheritance we receive from God, it is rich, and it is for all, and it is more than enough. 

But what does that mean for the here and now? If all Paul were talking about was an inheritance in heaven, I get that.  In eternity, while we cannot imagine how great it will be, we just trust and believe that it will be better by far than anything we could possibly imagine.  That is the ultimate inheritance.

But here and now?  How do we partake of our inheritance now? We find out in the next post.

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The importance of the eyes of your heart

Ephesians 1:15-23, Part 3

Did you know that your heart has eyes? And no, I’m not referring to anatomy. Stay with me here.

After praying that the people would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God better, Paul has another powerful prayer request for them.  Here’s what he writes in Ephesians 1, verse 18,

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.”

This request has some similarities to the request for wisdom and revelation in verse 17.  The eyes of your heart enlightened.  What does he mean?

Paul likely borrowing a metaphor from Israel’s great poet king, David, who wrote many psalms, including Psalm 19.  There David talks about how the heavens declare the glory of God, how the sun shines forth with light and heat.  Then David says God’s word is like that.  In verse Psalm 19, verse 8 David writes, “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”

Both David and Paul are talking about our inner being.  Our personality, our desire, our will, our understanding, our mind, that inward part of us.  In the ancient world, the word “heart” referred symbolically to all of that.  It still does today, such as when we say to someone “I love you with all my heart.” 

Therefore in Ephesians 1:18, Paul’s prayer is that deep within us, our mind, our understanding, would be enlightened.  Paul wants something to be revealed to us.  He wants something to be uncovered, brought to light, so that we can really truly know it.

What does he want us to really truly know, deep within, to really get it? We find out in the next post!

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What to do to know God better

Ephesians 1:15-23, Part 2

Do you want to know God better?

That’s one of those questions Christians kind of have to answer yes to, right?  If I were in a group of Christians and I said, “Raise your hands if you want to know God better,” I would wager I’d get a pretty decent response.

What Christian would publicly say, and mean it, “Nope, I don’t want to know God better”?  Not many. Because if we say, “I don’t want to know God better,” we are essentially saying, “I’ve got God all figured out.  Nothing more to learn here.”  But God is by definition incomprehensible.  God’s ways are higher than our ways. When I say that God is incomprehensible, I do not mean that we cannot know anything about God. 

He has revealed himself significantly, through nature, through Jesus, through his Spirit, in his Word, through his church, so that we can know him and have a wonderfully close relationship with him.  But we cannot know him totally, perfectly, completely.  There is always more, a lot more, to learn about God.  This is why people keep studying the Bible, keep studying theology, of which a simple definition of theology is “the study of God,” to know him more. 

I think most Christians not only say they want to know God better, but they mean it. We really do want to know God better. But often we don’t know how to know him better. He might seem distant. The Bible might seem intimidating and confusing. What can we do to know God better?

We can ask God for help.

After encouraging the people about their love, in Ephesians 1, verse 17 Paul begins his prayer for them.  The first request he prays for is this,

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?

A prayer for wisdom?  Yes.  Asking for wisdom is a common prayer request.

But a prayer request for a spirit of wisdom and revelation?

Paul’s first prayer request right there in Ephesians 1:17. A spirit of wisdom and revelation.  He wanted that for the ancient Christians. So whatever a spirit of wisdom and revelation is, it is a very good thing.  Not to mention that Paul says the people will know God better because of the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Thus Paul’s prayer request here is amazing.  That God would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him more.  There are some really confusing things about the Bible and about God, that even the most learned scholars admit are hard to grasp.  We need his help to know him more. 

A spirit of wisdom and revelation says, “Lord, give me wisdom to know you more.  Reveal yourself to me more.  I don’t have you figured out.  I want more of you.”  What a wonderful prayer request for ourselves and others.

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How to know if you faith is true faith

Ephesians 1:15-23, Part 1

How do you know if your faith in God is true faith?

In Ephesians 1:15-23, before Paul prays for the Christians, he describes true faith. When he describes true faith, I find it fascinating what Paul doesn’t say. He could have said,

“I see your faith because you gather for worship services.”

“I see your faith because you listen to the teaching the Bible.”

“I see your faith, because you are telling people about Jesus.”

“I see your faith because you pray.”

Paul doesn’t say any of that.  What does he say?

Notice the first three words Paul writes in verse 15, “For this reason…”

For what reason?  The reason is what Paul just wrote in the previous verses we talked about last week.  Here’s a one-sentence summary: In verses 3 through 14, Paul is praising God for God’s rich blessings that he has lavished on us.  For that reason.  For what God did, and for what God is still doing, which is choosing us in Christ.  For that reason, Paul describes true faith:

“For that reason,” Paul writes, “ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

Paul is saying, “I see you Christians!  I hear about you. I know what you are up to! And you have true faith!  I know you have true faith because of your love for all God’s people.”

That’s an important description.  Faith and love.  Faith without love is no faith. You cannot be said to have faith if you do not also love.  You can have beliefs, ideas in your mind.  But faith shows itself to be true by its actions.  If you have genuine faith, you will love. 

I’m not saying that your love has to be perfect.  God doesn’t expect perfection.  But when you have real faith, God’s love will flow out of your life.  It might be a love that needs work.  It might need to grow.

In fact all of us need to work on our love, right?  We humans have such a tendency to self-focus, selfishness, self-protection, self-everything.  We naturally focus on our selves. To overcome that selfishness, love takes works, practice.  To love is to be other-focused, which is often a lot like paddling upstream, as loving others well goes against our natural human selfishness.

But when we have faith in God, we have a whole new resource on which to grow love.  More on that in a moment. 

So if faith without love is no faith at all, what about love without faith?  Is that possible?

Love is amazing in and of itself.  Anyone, no matter their faith, can love.  People who claim to have no faith at all can still love, and they regularly do, sometimes even better than those who say they have faith.  Love is just so good it doesn’t need faith. 

But when love is based on faith in God the father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, that love is based on the source of love.  God himself is love.  When we faith in God, we learn how to love from God. 

Therefore, while I think love anywhere it found is good, love can be amplified and perfected when it is based on God, following God’s love.  When love is based on God, it has a regular source of renewal and energy.  We can continue to give love freely when we are refilling our hearts with the love of God.

That love is exactly what Paul sees in these Christians he is writing.  He sees them placing their faith on God, and then allowing God’s love to flow through them to others.

It is quite important, then, for us to evaluate our faith, not by its intellectual content, not by its ritual practices (like attendance at worship services or prayer meetings), but by how we love one another. Jesus taught his disciples “By this all will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” (John 13:33-34)

Loving one another doesn’t mean that you need to be best friends with everyone, even everyone in your church family, even if that church family is small in number.  It is quite normal for there to be a variety of levels in relationships.  Usually, we humans are very close to only a few people, and then we typically have lots of acquaintances of varying closeness.  Relationship levels often change over time, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad reasons.  People move away.  Get new jobs.  A brokenness happens.  You drift apart.  Of course, as people who love one another, we work to repair brokenness, but even after forgiveness has been given, sometimes boundaries in relationships are needed and good. 

Paul’s point is clear: We are primarily to be people who are known for our love.  What does that kind of love look like?  It more than being polite.  It is more than being friendly.  Love will be patient, kind, sacrificial, caring.  Love is forgiving.  Looks out for the other’s best. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) Love’s perspective is for the other and what they might need. When you are loving toward someone they will feel loved.

After encouraging the people about their love, in verse 17 Paul begins his prayer for them. We’ll learn about that in the next post.

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How to improve at prayer

Ephesians 1:15–23, Preview

Have you ever thought to yourself that some people seem to be really good at praying?  When we think that other people are good at praying, perhaps we feel that way because we don’t believe we are good at praying.  Especially praying out loud in front of other people. 

Praying out loud in front of others can be a public speaking double whammy.  Not only are you putting yourself out there for others to hear, which alone is risky and intimidating, but when you pray out loud you are also talking with God, which is often intensely personal.  The whole endeavor can feel like something we want to avoid like Covid.

It seems to me, however, that, as with so much in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to praying out loud. If we can just overcome our anxiety about it, and get the first few times over with, we will feel a growing confidence.  Then just keep at it.

Still, what can help people feel confident about praying is more than just getting past our misgivings about public speaking. Most of us will not need to pray publicly all that often anyway.  We will, however, pray privately, and even private prayer can feel intimidating, given that we are talking with God.  What should we say? The words to say in prayer sometimes seem hard to come by.

This is why many people appreciate written prayers they can read.  The Lord’s Prayer is the epitome of using a written prayer, because it is the very prayer that Jesus himself taught us to pray.  Use the Lord’s Prayer as often as you like.  

The Lord’s Prayer is also a model for prayer, giving us categories and illustrations that we can use to develop our own prayer: Address, Confess, Request, Assess.  Check out the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, and see if you can match those categories to the sections of the prayer. 

(I would be remiss if I did not mention that prayer is a conversation, not just talking to God, but also listening for him. Listening through his Word, listening for his voice, listening by observing his creation, listening through words of his people.  We do well to spend at least as much time listening to God as we do talking to him.)  

Thankfully, if you are looking for words to pray, the Lord’s Prayer is not the only written prayer in Scripture.  There are so many others, and this coming week in our continuing study of Ephesians, Paul prays a powerful prayer that we can borrow in our own prayers.  Check it our ahead of time in Ephesians 1:15–23.  If you ever wonder what you should prayer for yourself, for your family and friends, this is a great prayer.  We begin studying it on Monday.

Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash

How ethnic segregation in the church is out of line with the Gospel

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 5

In Paul’s day, there was a major division in the church: Jew and Gentile.  It was an ethnic problem, based primarily in the Jews’ exclusive view of their covenant with God.  They thought they were special in God’s eyes, and the other peoples of the world were pagan, unclean, and thus there should be a segregation between them. What does God have to say about the segregation of the church?

As Paul continues, he writes in Ephesians 1, verse 10, that God’s purpose in Christ will “…be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”

God desires unity.  That is the first time Paul introduces that theme, unity, which will become a major focus in the rest of the letter.  It is so important to Paul, especially because he has just introduced the family metaphor. We are adopted into God’s family. 

But in Christ, Paul says, God is welcoming all into his family.  Thus there needs to be unity.  There shouldn’t be the Jewish Christian group, and then a separate Gentile Christian group.  There should just be the Christian group, where all are included, because God has gone to such great lengths to include all

Notice in verses 11-14, how Paul continues talking about God’s desire to include all,

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

God chose a multi-ethnic approach to his family.  All are included.  When Paul writes in verse 12, “we who were the first,” he is referring to the first people who were Christians, all Jews.  The 12 disciples, all Jews. The rest of the Christians in those early chapters of Acts, all Jews.  But eventually, a couple years, we don’t know precisely how long, those Jewish Christians, especially through the ministry of Paul, start to take the message of Jesus’ love for all, to all.  And many non-Jews start to become followers of Jesus. 

This is wonderful!  God’s heart is for all. But there is a problem. There are numerous Jewish Christians who believe, based on their thousands of years of Jewish heritage and theology and covenant, that it only makes sense that when non-Jews become Christians, those non-Jews also need to become Jews. Because the Jews are God’s chosen people, who have the covenant, right? 

There was a major push in the early church for Gentiles to start practicing Judaism, including having their adult males get circumcised.  To those Jewish Christians, that was the only way, in their minds, there could be unity in the church.  They could not conceive of Gentiles following Jesus, but not also following the Mosaic Law.  They could not wrap their minds around that. They wanted unity too, but in their view, it required adherence to the Mosaic Law.

Paul will write about this over and over in his letters.  We get a small glimpse into Paul’s take on this issue right here in verses 11–14.  What does Paul say?   In verse 12 he says, “Sure, we Jews were the first to put hour hope in Christ,” yet look at verse 13, “But you are included too!”  How are the non-Jews included?  By circumcision? By following the Mosaic Law?  By becoming Jewish? 

Nope. By hearing the message of truth, the gospel; by believing, at which point they are marked.  Not by circumcision, but by the Holy Spirit!  Paul uses the word “seal.”  He uses the words “deposit guaranteeing”.  The Spirit of God is what matters.  We have the Spirit of God, which is better by far, than following a ritual code, Paul says.  Thus the Spirit of God in our lives is essential.  It is through the Spirit of God that we have unity with one another. 

And that causes Paul to wrap up this section with another utterance of praise. 

What a deep section.  You are in.  God loves you and lavishes his grace on you in Christ.  By his Spirit we have unity with all in God’s family.  No matter your ethnicity, nationality, race.  We are brothers and sisters in the family.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash