Our Newest Online Bible Study – With Me In The Winepress – The Book Of Ephesians
PruittWrites is excited to ask that you join with us on our journey through the book of Ephesians. As with our previous online Bible studies The Native and Moses Through The Eyes Of Jacob and Moses, we will be posting weekly parts of our new study on the book of Ephesians. We hope you experience this great epistle with us.
Ephesians 1:1 (ESV)
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Small or little, it’s the definition of the name Paul in the Greek. It’s also the way I felt when beginning this book. For some time I’ve had a desire to write about the book of Ephesians. While everything that God has blessed me to do has been Him and not me, I found myself intimidated at the thoughts of writing about this book of the Bible.
Beyond my own feelings of inadequacies it’s interesting that Paul begins all except the book of Hebrews, which I believe he wrote, this way. Ancient letters began with an introduction, which included the name of the sender, and the person or group they were writing too. In Ephesians chapter one and verse one, Paul does both this, lists his credentials, those of the ones he’s writing too, and addressed their state.
He tells them who he is, Who’s he is, who they are, and Who’s they are. Paul knew that in himself he was small, but that God does above all we are able to ask or to think. He mentions the office God had called him too, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. He let them know he wrote to them not on his own, but as an Ambassador of Christ Jesus.
He explains that his Apostleship wasn’t an office he sought, but that he was appointed to it by the will of God. He was saying God chose me, and because He chose me, I will complete my calling. Paul didn’t just stop at the fact that Christ called him, he pointed to the Ephesians that the same One called them.
Please don’t forget, in the midst of your battle, Who it is that called you. We live in a day of fierce battles, mental, physical, financial, cultural, and relational. It can get overwhelming, even attempt to cause you to question what you are doing, or why, but we are not the one Who called us.
He called us, not ourselves. He died for us, He rose again, and He chose us. He chose us before our current situation and world went crazy. He called us before they started trying to rewrite the entire world. He called us, knowing all of this would happen, and if He called us, He finishes what He starts.
It’s easy to feel trapped by our circumstances and the events of today, it would have been easy for Paul to have felt this way. He wrote the book of Ephesians as a prisoner, knowing that God had called him, but not knowing what would happen next. It can be easy to forget that, while we know the end of the events in the lives of those in the Bible, they didn’t.
They knew some things, but there was a lot they did not know. Paul’s confidence lay not in what he knew, but Who he knew. He wrote to the Ephesians that they were not only in battles and situations, they were in two other places as well.
In the ESV, verse one says that the Saints were both in Ephesus, and in Christ Jesus. Ephesus means permitted in Greek, I believe this was more than the name of the city they lived in. Everything in our lives, from our condition to our location has been determined by The One Who called us.
Since He called us to where we are, He will keep us on our journey, and through whatever we are facing. This doesn’t just mean that He will keep us through whatever we’re facing, but that we are facing it because He allowed us too. We are here by permission, our trials are not a punishment, they are designed as a vehicle to prosper us.
I almost used the word blessing, but I didn’t, not because I don’t believe it, but because I wanted to explain what was meant. A country singer once told me about the first award show he was invited too, where he was nominated as a song writer.
The vehicle they had wasn’t much, far from the limousines the others arrived in. He explained that he even had to pawn his guitar to pay for a dress for his wife. She later surprised him by getting the guitar back, but he was still nominated for an award. How he got there wasn’t the good, or even the important part, what mattered was he had been invited.
We are invited to be a part, through His mercy and permission, to a Kingdom far greater than we could deserve or imagine. During our journey, things will happen, not all of them will be good. Many will not be, but they will be a vehicle to get us to a place of wonder.
Like us, the Ephesian Christians were there by God’s permission, and they were also something else, faithful in Christ Jesus. The word faithful has a number of meanings, but my favorite two are believing and faithful. We believe in Him Who is faithful, and because He is faithful, we can be. Because He believes in us, we can be faithful.
Our faithfulness doesn’t come on our own power, strength, dependability, or might. It’s based on Him, and Him alone. We are in Christ Jesus, Paul uses this term twice in this verse. He said he was an apostle of Christ Jesus, and that the Saints are in Christ Jesus.
In English of is a preposition which which expresses relationship. The English preposition in is defined as being enclosed or surrounded by something. We are children Of God, In a relationship with Him. Each of Christ’s children are also safely hidden inside His love and strength. What we face, we face safely in His arms, no matter how loud the world roars, God will bring us through.
