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

Hearing “Nein!” at an exclusive dance club versus hearing God say “Yes!”

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 4

Have you heard of Berghain, the exclusive dance club in Berlin? I learned about it on this podcast. It is nearly impossible to get in, and the club doesn’t explain why.  People line up waiting for hours, hoping to be admitted.  Finally, they make it to the door, and the head bouncer says “Nein” and waves them off without any reasoning. So many people are disappointed.  There are loads of articles online with how-to guides claiming to have the right advice that will grant you entrance to Berghain. Some estimates suggest that 50% of hopefuls are turned away every day.

While that might sound strange, even counter-productive from a business perspective, Berghain is doing fine, thriving even. Come to think of it, there are loads of places, opportunities, organizations, clubs, and teams that do not have an open door policy. You can’t buy your way in. You can’t educate your way in. You can’t talk your way in. As much as we like to say, “You can do anything you put your mind to,” the reality in life is less hopeful.

That’s why what Paul writes in Ephesians 1, verses 5 and 6, is so astounding,

“[God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

The word Paul uses for adoption was a legal word.  One scholar defines it this way, “to formally and legally declare that someone who is not one’s own child is henceforth to be treated and cared for as one’s own child, including complete rights of inheritance.” (Louw & Nida)

God adopts, not begrudgingly, but according his pleasure and will.  He desires us to be adopted into his family.  In verse 6 Paul mentions grace, repeating the important concept of his introduction in verse 2.  We talked about adoption a bit last week here, now Paul himself features it, as the outflow of God’s grace. 

God graciously adopts us in the One he loves, Jesus, who he freely gives us.  Our adoption into the family of God is made possible because God wanted to make it happen, and in fact he went to extreme lengths to make it happen.  Just think of all Jesus did. 

Paul actually describes it.  Look at verses 7–9,

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,”

But Paul says that when it comes to adoption in his family, we have redemption, forgiveness of sins, and he revealed the mystery of his will.  Paul is saying, “Christians, you are part of the in group.  You know the secret handshake, the passphrase.  All the parts of your lives that might have kept you out, your sin, is forgiven, you are redeemed, and it is all because of God’s lavish grace in Christ.

I’ve been to four adoption proceedings in courtrooms. They are some of the most beautiful, emotional, meaningful events I’ve experienced. The joy ripples through the lives of everyone involved. Judges say adoptions are by far the best part of their jobs. Children welcomed into families.

That’s what God did for us, because of his gracious love for us.  We have so much to praise God for.  Think about the joy, the hope, the stability it brings us to know that in God’s eyes, we are in.  We are adopted sons and daughters in his family. We hear God say, “Yes!” to us.

Photo by Danny Howe on Unsplash

Who and how God chooses

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 3

Whether you are the kid at recess who gets chosen last for the kickball team, or whether you are the adult who doesn’t get chosen for a promotion, a job, a contest, it can be very difficult emotionally when we are not chosen. 

When I submitted book proposals, I experienced the empty feeling of not being chosen. Years ago I applied for teaching positions at local colleges, and I wasn’t chosen. It feels awful.

As we continue studying Ephesians 1:3–14, Paul is eulogizing, praising God for the spiritual blessings he has lavished on us, and in verse 4, Paul writes,

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love…”

He chose us.  God chose us.  It can be quite difficult whether no matter what age you are, when you are not chosen. 

But know this, God chooses us.  God looks at you and says “I choose you. I have always chosen you because I love you.”  See those two important words at the end of verse 4.  “In love.”  God chooses you and me because he loves us.  Praise God! 

You might feel passed over, unseen, unheard, neglected, as many of us do feel by the humans in our lives.  But not by God.  God chooses you, and he always has, because he loves you. 

Notice two other words in that sentence, “in him.”  He chose us in him.  Paul is saying that God chose us in Christ. In verse 3, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing…in Christ.  In fact, Paul repeats that one phrase over and over throughout this section, “in Christ” (or its variations: “in him,” “through Jesus Christ,” “in the One”), a phrase that indicates how and by whom and through whom God has chosen us.

Our chosenness has to do with Jesus.  The birth, life, ministry, teaching, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, have everything to do with how God has chosen us.  This is vital.  Because it goes to show us that God is not like the kids at recess choosing who gets to be on the kickball team.  God is not like the organization choosing who gets hired, and who doesn’t.  God is not like the culture critic who says “I like their art, their book, their food, but not yours.”  Some Christians think of God like that, though.  As if he is a divine kickball team captain in the sky, picking some people for his team, and essentially condemning the others to separation from God. 

But that is not what is going on in this passage. That would be a very individualistic view of God’s work of choosing: “I choose him, her, but not that guy though.” Or “I choose 75% of people living in that country, but less than 1% in another.  And those tribal people living in the Amazon for centuries, never having contact with the outside world…forget them.” 

That’s not God. 

Instead, Paul clearly says that God chooses…in Christ. What does that mean though?  I disagree with the Christians who believe it an individualistic choosing.  My opinion, and feel free to disagree with me, is that Paul is describing a corporate choosing.  Let me illustrate.

In the Old Testament, God chose the people of Israel to be his people right?  He chose a group, a family. It was a corporate choosing.  He established a covenant with them.  He also embedded in that covenant a plan for non-Israelites could be join in. He also showed the people of Israel how their covenant was grounded in the original covenant with Abraham, whose family, God said, would be a blessing to the whole world. 

Israel understood their relationship with God through the lens of this covenant.  It was a group agreement.  But let me ask you this about their group agreement: Did that covenant mean that every single biological Israelite was guaranteed to partake of the covenant relationship with God, just because of their biology?  Had God established an agreement that was simply ethnic? 

Or did faith and life choices have something to do with it?  Yes, faith and life choices had everything to do with this arrangement.  God chose Israel as a collective, but each individual Israelite still had to choose him.  Many did not. 

Likewise, God chooses us in Christ.  There is a new covenant in Christ.  The point is that God is not choosing individuals, saying randomly, “You’re in, but you over there, you’re out.”  Instead, he chooses all in Christ.  “For God so loved the world”.  Or as Paul will write in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

God chooses all in Christ.

We know where the heavenly realms are

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 2

After a greeting, Paul begins his letter titled “Ephesians” with a grand eulogy of God. As I noted in the previous post, while we give eulogies praising people who have passed away, Paul’s eulogy praises God who is very much alive. After saying, “Praise God,” Paul lists numerous reasons why he is praising God, the first in the middle of verse 3,

“who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” 

Notice the spiritual language. Paul is not talking about earthly realms, and he is not talking about physical blessing.  Paul mentions heavenly realms and spiritual blessings. 

When he refers to “heavenly realms,” I suspect many assume Paul means “heaven,” singular, the abode of God. But Paul doesn’t describe it that way.  He says heavenly realms, plural. I double-checked the original Greek, and this word is plural.

What are the heavenly realms?  The sky?  The atmosphere?  Outer space?  Interestingly, in the original language, the word “realms” doesn’t appear.  Instead Paul is using an adjective, “heavenly,” as a plural noun, the “heavenlies”.  Because the word “heavenlies” is uncommon in English, many translations just add a word like “realm” or “places.”  This difference is important.  Why? We know is that Paul is not using the noun form of the word “heaven.” 

If this sounds a bit technical, stay with me.

Paul uses the same word, “the heavenlies,” a few times in Ephesians, and one of the most interesting instances can help us understand what Paul is referring to.  Look at Ephesians 6, verse 12.  There, to introduce the Armor of God, Paul writes a famous verse about spiritual warfare, about battle with evil spiritual beings,

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in…_________”. Where? Hell?”

No.  The battle against spiritual forces of evil does not take place in hell.  The spiritual forces of evil are from hell, and they come do battle on earth.  Right?  Spiritual warfare takes place here on earth, right?

Does Paul write that “Our struggle is against…the spiritual forces of evil here on earth?”

No!  Shockingly, he says that our struggle is “against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

That’s the same word we just read in chapter 1 verse 3.  Are you wondering, “Wait a minute, what are demons doing fighting battle against us in the heavenly realms? We are not in the heavenly realms.  We’re here on earth.  And how can demons be in heaven?  Only God, Jesus, angels, and the people in the book of life are supposed to be there!” 

What I’m getting at is that when Paul uses the word, “the heavenlies,” he isn’t referring to the celestial city of God.  The heavenlies are anywhere God is. The heavenlies are the many dwelling places of God, including earth. 

Paul’s point is not to transport us away from earth and suggest that we only experience blessing in some otherworldly abode of God. Instead Paul’s point is to say that we can experience every spiritual blessing in Christ wherever God is, and that includes now.  We do not have to die to experience the rich blessings of God.  We surely will experience them when we die, but Paul is saying that we also experience them now. 

But what spiritual blessings do we experience now?  We’ll learn about those spiritual blessings in the next post.

Photo by Mert Atakan on Unsplash

A surprising eulogy for God

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 1

Here’s some insider pastoral info for you: when we counsel the family of the deceased, and when we officiate their funerals, we pastors sometimes straight up lie, talking about how great they were and how for sure they are in heaven.  In reality pastors do not know that for a fact, and might be just trying to comfort the family in their time of grief, an act of comfort that is not necessarily a bad thing. But it still might be a lie.

Have you ever attended a funeral, listened to the eulogy of the deceased, and thought to yourself, “There’s a whole other dark side to them that didn’t make it into the eulogy.” 

This week we study, Ephesians 1:3–14, a passage which Bible teacher N. T. Wright titles, “A Shout of Praise.” Here’s verse 3,

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

So right away, Paul starts this letter on a very upbeat note.  “Praise” is the word we get our English word “eulogy” from.  Because we only hear eulogies at funerals, that might sound very odd.  But think about it.  A eulogy is a short talk in praise of the deceased. And like I said, many eulogies don’t tell the whole truth, and some baldly lie.

In Paul’s case, he is eulogizing God, who is very much alive, and about whom Paul does not have to lie at all.  In fact, this eulogy is Paul gushing about the amazingness of God.

In the original it is one loooooong sentence.  He is so full of praise, he just goes on and on and on without stopping.  You know anyone like that?  People who have the gift of gab. When they get excited, they really go off.  You can hardly keep up with them, and want to interrupt them and say “Breathe!  Slow down.”

My daughter sometimes gets in that mode.  I teach a class at her university on Tuesday evenings, and we meet up for dinner in the dining hall before class. I’m often me sitting there eating, nodding, uh-huh-ing, while she talks and talks and talks.  I love it. 

Paul’s eulogy is a bit like that.  He is excited. And he just gushes on and on about the amazing blessings God has given us.

What we are about to hear then is a very interesting eulogy, a eulogy that I believe could result in us jumping for joy in praising God, to the point where we want to tell other people about this eulogy. 

Join me back here tomorrow as we begin to hear Paul’s eulogy of God.

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

It was 57 degrees in our house, and I was…

Ephesians 1:3–14, Preview

As I type this, I’m sitting on the sofa in my living room.  It’s 11:30am Friday morning.  Why am I not sitting in my office?  Normally I would be.  I’m at home because this morning we woke up to the feeling of cold air inside our house.  

Nothing was wrong. Last night when we went to bed around 11pm, we suspected the house would be cold in the morning.  The reason is that the inside temp was already down to 65 degrees when we turned in for the night.  Not that we wanted it to be 65.

Again, nothing was wrong.  We let the temps drop simply because we didn’t tend to the wood stove.  Wood is our main heat source, which means that during the cold winter months, we must think about and plan to keep the home fires burning, literally.  Last evening, we just got a bit lax.

Then the cold winds kicked up.  Because we live next to open fields, the west-facing side of our home often gets pounded with strong winds, and we really have to pay attention to the wood stove.  

When we went to bed, even though the wood stove was stuffed full and burning hot, we were starting at 65, and knew that by morning the house would be cold again.  It was 57 degrees inside when we awoke. 

That meant I was going to be working from home this morning, keeping the fire raging to get our house temp up to something comfortable.  That reality has me feeling grateful for many reasons: 1. I can work from home, mostly because I’m working on my sermon today; 2. We have a wood stove; 3. We have firewood. Finally, 4. In just a few hours time, the house temp is now at 70 degrees and rising.  As I sit here on my sofa next to the wood stove, I feel the heat radiating my way, and I am thankful to God.

I mention this story because in Ephesians 1:3–14, Paul starts by saying, “Praise be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us…”  I feel blessed when I feel the heat from my wood stove.  How do you feel blessed today?  How did the Apostle Paul feel blessed?  In our second week in the series through his letter “Ephesians” Paul has a long list of blessings, a list that has him saying, “Praise be!”  

I look forward to this coming week, as we’ll study this passage together. It will be a joyful expression of God’s blessings that he has shared with us.  

A profoundly important description of church

Ephesians intro, part 5

A close friend from church and I work out on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with another guy.  Recently that other guy, who is not part of our church, told us that he was reading the Bible over the weekend and thought the passage he was reading sounded like our church. I perked up. This could be good or bad.

What Bible passage reminded him of my church?

When you think of your church, what passage Bible comes to mind? This week we have been studying the introduction and conclusion of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We’ve come to the last two verses of the conclusion. They should sound familiar to the introduction, and they are verses that should describe any church.

In Ephesians chapter 6, verses 23 and 24, Paul writes:

“Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”

Grace and peace, just like the intro in chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. But the conclusion adds love.  In verse 23, love from God to the people.  In verse 24, love from the people to God.

God is love. Love is not one of his characteristics.  He simply is love.  We can rightly say that everything else about God modifies his love. 

God is gracious love.

God is peaceful love.

God is merciful love.

God is holy love.

Love is his all in all.  And God wants us to experience his love.  God wants us to know that he loves us.  This is why John 3:16 is such a wonderful verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Or consider how Paul writes about God’s love in Romans 8:37-39, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But this is a blog series about Ephesians, so let’s conclude with a statement of God’s love from Ephesians.  In Ephesians 3, Paul writes a profound prayer.  Look at Ephesians 3:17–19, right in the middle of the prayer, where Paul says, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

God very much wants us to know and experience his love in our day to day lives. 

Groups of Christians form church families, and together we receive the grace, peace, and love of God. Then we share God’s grace, peace, and love with each other and the communities around them.  When we share grace, peace, and love in the places we live and work and play, we Christians are small working models of the new creation that God desires for all people.  We are not the full-blown new creation that Jesus will bring when he returns.  We are just a model of it.  But we are a working model. The real thing in small scale. 

There you have it.  Churches are to be grace, peace, and love amongst ourselves and with the other humans around us.

Back to the friend who was reading the Bible and said he thought of my church. He wasn’t reading Ephesians. He was reading Jesus’ parable of the Sheep and the Goats found in Matthew 25.  That’s the one where Jesus says that his true followers will reach out to those in need of food and clothing.  Jesus’ followers visit incarcerated persons in prison, care for the sick, and welcome strangers.  He said that he read that and it hit him in a new way, “That sounds like Faith Church.”  It was very encouraging, and it has much affinity with the grace, peace, and love that Paul writes about in Ephesians.

How can you keep that grace, peace, and love going in your church?  Who do you need to give grace and peace to?  In what new ways do you need to learn to live in and walk in the grace, peace, and love that God has for you? 

Photo by Sam Balye on Unsplash

When mail arrived, they threw a party

Ephesians intro, part 4

We are so used to snail mail being a mundane affair. Mostly we get junk mail anymore. If it even hints of being junk, I usually just toss it straight into the garbage. Our meaningful communication in 2026 is now pretty much all online, accessible through our devices.

The reality of junk mail got me thinking. Look at all those mail trucks in the picture. Guess how many vehicles the United States Postal Service operates? It’s mind-boggling. The answer is at the conclusion of this post. I wonder how postal workers feel about the reality that a massive amount of their work is transporting what amounts to garbage. They are like reverse sanitation workers. Postal workers deliver trash to you. Sanitation workers take it away.

In the ancient world (and much more recently in the contemporary world too), snail mail served an important purpose. That reality of ancient snail mail relates to the conclusion of the book of the Bible we began studying this week, Ephesians. In the previous posts, I talked about the introduction, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Now skip ahead to Paul’s conclusion, and I’ll think you’ll see why I am covering both the introduction and the conclusion this week. 

In Ephesians chapter 6, verses 21–22, Paul gives us a bit of insider information about how life and ministry worked in the early church:

“Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.”

Tychicus was one member of Paul’s missionary team.  Tychicus has a very important role in regard to this letter because Paul is in prison when he writes Ephesians. Some believe Paul is on house arrest in Rome.  Others believe he is in prison in Ephesus.  Either way, Paul is writing a letter because he himself cannot travel around. 

Furthermore, the ancient world had no postal system like we are used to.  Sending letters was a really big deal in Paul’s day.  Tychicus has to physically travel with the letter, and likely Tychicus is the one reading the letter to each group of Christians.  As verses 21 and 22 indicate, Tychicus can hold Q & A sessions with everyone who hears the letter. Thus Tychicus would travel from city to city, and from house church to house church in each city (because there were no church buildings at this time) reading the letter.

Therefore in Paul’s day, the first century Roman Empire, when Tychichus showed up with a letter from Paul, it was an event. I wonder if the Christians in a given house church threw a party. Perhaps they sent people around town to let everyone know, “Come quick, Tychicus is here with a letter from Paul! We’ll have dinner together. Hurry!”

For further insider info about the early church and letters, consider what Paul writes at the conclusion of his letter to the Colossians. He refers to a circular letter when he tells the Colossian Christians, “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.” 

What letter from Laodicea? There is no Pauline letter to Laodicea in the Bible. Some scholars wonder if Paul is referring to the letter we call “Ephesians.” Other suggest he might be referring to a letter he wrote to the Laodicean church, a letter which is now lost to antiquity. And that begs the question, might there be even more? We don’t know. 

My point is that Paul’s letters get passed around, and it is fascinating to consider that they are still being passed around today, as Christians all over the world for centuries have read and studied his letters.  Consider the massive impact of these 13 letters!

In the next post, we look at what Paul writes in verses 23 and 24, and I think you’ll find they sound familiar to the introduction.

Photo by Sam LaRussa on Unsplash

The USPS operates 257,894 vehicles. See data here. Imagine how much junk mail those vehicles transport every day.

The healing energy of grace

Ephesians intro, Part 3

Paul’s greeting in his letter titled “Ephesians” uses two words that he starts 13 of 13 letters with. These are two exceedingly important concepts for Christians. 

We read the two words of this greeting in Ephesians 1, verse 2.  “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Grace, one scholar writes is “a favorable attitude of good will”. (Louw & Nida)

Peace, the same scholar suggests, is “a set of favorable circumstances involving peace and tranquility.”

Favorable attitude and favorable circumstances.  It is especially important that both the favorable attitude of good will and the favorable circumstances of tranquility are Paul’s request of God to the people.  They are not from Paul.  They are from God. Paul wants the people to experience God’s grace, and God’s peace. 

Over the years I’ve increasingly come to believe that these two concepts, grace and peace, are vital for humans.  I would still say love is the most important of all, and we’ll get to that in the next post.  But grace and peace are so important.

Why grace and peace?

Grace is important because we need God’s favor in our lives. And he is quite willing to share his grace with us.  Primarily, he gives us his grace in the person, life, teachings, and work of Jesus, culminating in Jesus’ death and resurrection by which we can have new life.  Then God fills us with his Spirit, an unfathomable gift of grace.

In fact in the language Paul wrote in, ancient Greek, “grace” is charis, and “gift” is charisma. Notice the link, the wordplay.  Charis and Charisma.  In Romans 12:6 Paul himself connects the two when he writes “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”

Of the many wonderful aspects of grace, I love its energy.  Maybe that’s how the English word charisma became a word about energy.  I don’t know.  But grace, rooted in a favorable attitude, has a healing energy.  By God’s grace, we are healed from what Paul describes in other places as “enslavement to sin.”  By God’s grace, we are set free.  It is as though Jesus goes before us and sets us free.  That’s grace.  It’s especially gracious, because it is not due to anything we do.  He goes first.  He does it. 

We then live in his grace and we likewise give grace.  We are receivers of grace and givers of grace.  Grace is the healing energy in broken relationships. 

In addition to grace, Paul asks God to convey his peace to the people.  Peace is rooted in the Hebrew concept of shalom, which is that expansive rightness and wholeness God desires for all things.  God wants peace between himself and his people.  Between people and other people.  Between people and creation.  As with grace, God is the initiator of peace.  We have peace with God through Jesus. 

It is astounding to think that God looks at each one of us with grace and peace.  Personalize that.  When God looks at you and thinks about you, his posture toward you is grace and peace.  God has a favorable attitude toward you.  God wants favorable circumstances for you.  He does not choose or desire harm for you.

Clearly, our life circumstances are not always favorable the way God wants them.  Sometimes that is the result of our poor choices, sometimes the result of others’ poor choices that affect us. Sometimes the result of the broken and fallen world we live in.

What is amazing is that we can experience God’s grace and peace in the middle of our circumstances.  Which is precisely what Paul was communicating to the people when he said “Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

That’s how Paul introduces the letter. In the next post, we skip ahead to his conclusion.

Photo by adrianna geo on Unsplash