Day 270: Ephesians 5:1-20

“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving...giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Ephesians‬ ‭5:4, 20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

We love being around thankful people, and it is no secret that they are rare in our world today. What is more likely is for us to meet someone who is trying to convince us they've accomplished so much via their solo act. It is then no shock to us that, from Paul’s perspective, the best way to combat the darkness in our lives and our churches is thankfulness from our mouths.

In between the verses above, we also see the exciting quotation in verse 14: “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

F.F. Bruce has an interesting note on this verse:

“The wording may well be that of a primitive Christian baptismal hymn (cf. the early description of baptism as φωτισμός, enlightenment); the very rhythm of the three stichoi is of a type associated in the Greek memory with religious initiation.”

Again, we see that thankfulness, praise, and hymns are foundational to consistently step into the light emanating from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Day 269: Ephesians 4:17-32

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” - Ephesians 4:30 ESV

The Greek word used for grieve here is lypeo, and it means to cause someone to be sad, sorrowful, or distressed. This is the only place in the New Testament this word is used in reference to the Holy Spirit.  (We do see Matthew (26:37) use it to describe Jesus’ state in the Garden of Gethsemane.)

Why would God use such a human word to describe how he feels when we make poor decisions, especially with the way we speak?

As we’ve seen before, God is giving us something with which we can relate.

All of us have experienced grief in some form, and many times it shows itself after we've felt the sting of disappointment or pain. The same word is used in 1 Thessalonians 4:13: "...that you may not grieve as others who have no hope."

So how can we keep from making the Holy Spirit distressed?

Paul lays it out when he says in verses 22, 24: "put off your old self...and put on the new self." Don't climb back into the corpse of anger and hateful speech. Step into a better life with Jesus.

E.K. Simpson and F.F. Bruce’s words are so helpful in their commentary on this verse: “It is not an influence that these sacrileges stifle, but a sacred Person they repel, one who deigns in loving-kindness to dwell in our sin-deflowered souls, to become our Teacher, our Consoler, our Warden, the earnest and ensurer of our final purification. A careless walk implies irrecognition of all we owe to His untiring patience and quickening energy.”

Day 268: Ephesians 4:1-16

“From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” - Ephesians 4:16 NIV

No matter what organization or movement we are a part of, we all love them to grow and succeed. “Scaling” growth is something businesses long to see.

How will we see this “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” within the Church? Do we need to alter our marketing plans or sink more money into advertising? Or what about making our buildings more kept up and shiny?

The message Paul lays down here is that cooperative unity allows us (as Jesus’ Church) to take in and employ the fullness of God’s plan for His redeemed family. Being one and having each individual engaged in their own role is our organic marketing plan.

God has given us all we need: Spiritual gifts, a Christian family, strong leadership, the truth, and Christ Himself.

If growth isn’t happening, it isn’t from a lack of Jesus equipping the Church. It is likely due to our resistance to unity or a refusal to believe we have an essential role to play.

May we become engaged in what God is doing in our midst today. From reading these sixteen verses today, it is vital to the mission!

“Christ is the glue that holds the body together…Jesus is also the source of the body’s growth. As love and gifts are applied with truth, the body grows.” - Bock, D. L. (2019). Ephesians (E. J. Schnabel, Ed.; Vol. 10, p. 131)

Day 267: Ephesians 3:1-21

“...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV

Agape is the Greek word Paul uses here for love. More than any other gift that comes from the hand of God, this is the one that makes us either rise or fall. This is because we are constantly in need of its refilling. When we run dry on love, we start treating others as objects to be used. When we lack love, we start looking to God as a cosmic vending machine. If people, or God, don't give us what we want, we land in disappointment and bitterness.

Yet when we are rooted and grounded in love, we see people as image-bearers of God. We also start to see God as a loving Father, One who wants what's best for us.

Everything God does is purposeful and is ultimately for our good. We may not understand it or even be able to explain it, but we know that God's love is time-tested and will take us to places unattainable by our own effort.

Paul is right. Jesus' love surpasses knowledge!

"That is what Paul’s goal is in this prayer and, in many ways, in this letter: That God’s love and wisdom and strength might so permeate them that they become mature as a people." - Darrell Bock

Day 266: Ephesians 2:1-22

“Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” - Ephesians 2:5-6 ESV

How much grace does God have available to pour out on us? Is there a threshold that He won't cross? Will He ever withhold it because of scarcity or His impatience with us?

In this letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul continues to use some variations of the Greek word plousios to describe God's great grace. We see it in our translations as rich. Another translation of this word can be in abundance.

God's grace is opulent, and His storehouse that contains it is always full.

God's grace is the secure foundation that allows us to respond in faith. When we respond with that trust in Jesus, God does His best work, His resurrecting work.

There are so many people walking around today that are animated, but they are dead in their sin. God is waiting with His grace to set them free.

“He is not only merciful, showing his pity to those who are totally unworthy and undeserving; he is rich in mercy (see on 1:7). That mercy proceeds from love, the great love with which he loved us. There is longing in the heart of God for humanity.” - Francis Foulkes

Day 265: Ephesians 1:1-23

“Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” - Ephesians 1:5 ESV

How long has God had you on His mind? When did He know that you would come to faith in His Son, Jesus? According to this verse, before God said, "Let there be light," He knew you would be saved toward a new life. That should make you feel loved today.

Ephesians 1 could be re-read 100x in one sitting and still have more to give us as food for the depths of our souls.

The exciting thing to think about, coming out of this passage, is that there are still more who God knows who will turn to Him in faith for salvation from their sin. The troubling thing is that we don't know who will say "yes" to Jesus. God does. We don't. We don't have foreknowledge as God does (He exists outside of time). This should give some serious urgency to our call as followers of Jesus to "go and make disciples of all nations." (see Matthew 28:18-20)

The pre-Christians are out there. Let's go find them and then tell them they are invited to experience eternal life as well.

Markus Barth (AB) puts it, “The happiness that accompanies a radiant good will is implied. Those singing God’s praise … respond to God’s pleasure in doing good.” - Foulkes, F. (1989). Ephesians  (Vol. 10, p. 57)

Day 264: Galatians 6:1-18

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” - Galatians 6:2 ESV

“For each will have to bear his own load.” - Galatians 6:5 ESV

These two verses have been pointed to as an apparent contradiction by many skeptics, but we know better than for Paul (by way of the Holy Spirit) to make such a mistake just three verses apart.

The question he is working to answer in regards to someone being caught in a sin is this: "Should we allow others to help us along the way, or should we go solo and hope for the best?"

The word for burdens in Greek is baros and describes the excess burden or burdens that are so heavy they weigh us down. These burdens are like boulders. The word for load is pholtion and describes the heavy cargo of a ship or the burden of daily toil. These loads are like knapsacks. (For more on this, check out the “What Do Boundaries Look Like?" section of the book Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend)

Every day we should look for opportunities to help someone along the way with their boulders (see verse 10), but we should note that we all have a personal responsibility as well to carry our own knapsacks. We will not be able to carry someone else into heaven, especially if they've chosen a lifestyle of sin over walking by the Spirit (see yesterday's post).

Each of us has our own daily heavy cargo, and we cannot look to others to do the work for us (i.e. you have to take your own Organic Chemistry test). In this instance, we have to look to Jesus, the only one who can make us safe (justification) and sound (sanctification).

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”  - Hebrews 3:12-14 NIV

Day 263: Galatians 5:13-26

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” - Galatians 5:25 ESV

Many of us have asked the question, "Who is it that is going to make it to heaven?" or "How can we know that we ourselves are headed there?"

In our passage today, Paul writes that there are some major indicators in our lives that will help us answer these two questions. In reality, we have two options as we live this life:

• Walk by the flesh (sinful nature--there's that Greek word sarx again)

• Walk by the Spirit

I counted 17 different descriptions that Paul gives of those who are walking according to the flesh in verses 19-21. The list of 17 is interesting, because all of them aren't illegal in the United States today. No one will go to prison for envy or drunkenness or idolatry. Yet the list is profound due to the evil that springs out of these evils. Darkness always seems to compound into sin that gets way beyond our control.

Today's goal? Allow the Holy Spirit to produce fruit with the nine eternal, life-giving facets:

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-control

This fruit isn't the kind we can manufacture, and we can only fake them for so long. Only God Himself produces this kind of authentic Jesus-living. Walk, keep in step with the Spirit of the God who loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you.

Day 262: Galatians 5:1-12

“For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” - Galatians‬ ‭5:5-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

False teachers are notorious for making Christianity about rule-keeping as a means for salvation. I mean, it is easy to see why they use such tactics. It takes all the mystery out of following Jesus and makes it about what we can do. We love when the focus is on us and our accomplishments.

Yet, in its purest form, Christianity is about trusting Jesus to such an extent that love is the outcome. The Greek word Paul uses for expressing is energeō and can also be translated as work or to be in action.  This means that faith is to come first, then love is to follow. This way, we keep everything in its proper perspective.

Obeying the Law of Moses wasn’t going to justify these first-century Christians, and neither will our own efforts set us free.

Jesus is the only one who offers true freedom, and from there, He creates in us a new heart that will accomplish more than we could have ever done by our own initiative.

“For it is the love of Christ which moves our hearts to respond to him; so in that sense it is true to say that our faith is ‘inspired by love.’” - Cole, R. A. (1989). Galatians (Vol. 9, p. 195)

Day 261: Galatians 3:23-29; 4:1-31

“for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” - Galatians 3:26-28 ESV

There is probably not another verse in the Bible that speaks to the revolutionary nature of the New Testament as in verse 28 of this passage. For the first time in human history, everyone was given an equal voice and standing in a movement of people (ultimately of God). This was the setup for every civil rights movement that would follow. Yet it was more than that.

The main message of Jesus was to say that everyone had value, regardless of their gender, status, or race. It is heartbreaking to see many today who still refuse to submit to this truth.

When we are baptized as a response to our faith in Jesus, we are declaring that we are one more sinner in need of grace. Putting on Jesus also means doing away with rank.

This doesn't mean that our race, gender, or status no longer matter. We celebrate the diversity of those that are a part of Jesus' Church. Yet, in our diversity, there should always be equality.

The following quote from Kenneth Boles' Galatians commentary is a great way to end our time for today:

"The Galatian believers, although Gentile in their ancestry, are united with Jewish believers in Christ. In the world, mankind will always be divided into warring camps over issues of race, nationality, creed, sex, and social status, but in the body of Christ all are equal. All have put on Christ; all look like Christ; all belong to Christ."