Believers are given the unity of the Spirit (4:3) and are expected to make every effort to keep it as there is a strong basis for unity (4:4-6). But unity is not to be maintained just for the purpose of our own enjoyment. Rather, it is so that, with the grace of God, every believers can take his or her part and serve God so that the body of Christ may be built up (4:12).
That is why Paul does not stop with unity but continues his teaching with serving. Continue reading
Dear Readers,
Greetings in the Lord! I am currently updating and re-organizing my materials for the class in April. Despite being busy, I can see in my mind a group of people, who love the Lord and who have given their lives to serve Him, coming to a class to study the Word so very seriously and deeply. It will be another humbling experience for me to be able to serve the Lord through serving them. Continue reading
Immediately after explaining the spiritual blessings from God (chapters 1 to 3), Paul urges believers to live a life worthy of God’s calling. He starts with a call to keep unity and to live a harmonious life among believers. In doing so, he gives the spiritual basis of the unity already given by God. The basis mentioned is very important and so eloquently written: Continue reading
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-3
As mentioned in the first article, believers are urged to keep the unity of the Spirit, for in the environment of unity, believers will continue to grow toward maturity. The unity has been established by Christ, but we are to make every effort to keep it. Continue reading
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-16
As the Church grows and expands, people with vastly different backgrounds become part of the same Church. On one hand this is a wonderful testimony that believers are one in Christ. On the other hand, conflicts and tensions do arise out of differences. So we see conflicts in the Church in Jerusalem as well as Church outside Jerusalem where the congregation are predominantly gentiles. Continue reading
Scripture: Ephesians 1 to 3
In Ephesians chapters 1 to 3, Paul explains that God is to be praised for all spiritual blessings he has given to believers through Jesus Christ.
Although we might think of praising God as saying prayers, singing hymns or praise songs, and those are indeed forms of praising, Paul explains in chapters 4 to 6 that an important way of praising God is to live our lives as a direct response to his grace. Continue reading
Scripture: Ephesians chapters 1 to 3
“Praise be to God for his great blessings to us” is the theme in Ephesians chapters 1 to 3. We have looked at some details of this passage in the past. As a reminder that the book of Ephesians is a letter and that every part is not detached from its surrounding passage, we are going to look at the overall structure now. Continue reading
Scripture: Ephesians 3:20-21
Christians who are familiar with traditional hymns know very well a poem written by Fanny Crosby. The poem starts with a beautiful line: “To God be the glory, great things He has done! So loved He the world that He gave us His Son….” We do not know whether Ms. Crosby uses Ephesians in this particular poem, but Paul certainly started the book by describing great blessings that God has blessed us with through Christ. Continue reading
“Perhaps because of the positive overtones… we somehow missed the signals that Paul was under a stressful situation. He was in a prison. Life as a prisoner was, not surprisingly, bad. It was harsh enough that he thought he might die (but he wanted to die exalting Christ)….”
This is my fourth and last guest block article on “Paul and Stress:”
Sometimes the way people look at us, how they expect us to think or act, or how they judge us by their standards, gives us tremendous pressure. We know it does not have to, but we still feel the stress. At times the pressure can be so great….
This is my third guest block article on “Paul and Stress:”
Scripture: Ephesians 4: