Week 9, Day 1: Walk in Love

Today’s Reading:  Philippians 1:1-2:30

Some thoughts from Friday’s reading…

In Ephesians 5:2, the apostle Paul tells us that we are to “walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us…”  When we consider how we might “walk in love” we should consider the example of Christ.  He was willing to sacrifice all for the purpose of serving the Father and providing a way of salvation for us.  Are we willing to do the same?

The context continues to show us the need to give up sin in our lives.  If we are “walking in love”, we should be willing to give up anything and everything that will keep us from the kingdom of Heaven.  Paul lists for us several sins that are tempting for many people.  The list, found in verses 3-4, includes fornication, all uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, and coarse jesting.  Paul says that these things should not even be named among you!  Paul’s strong warning should tell us how serious the threat of these temptations are.  But, we must stand on guard against them, not allowing them in our lives at all.

Paul shows us through the following verses that it is our goal to “walk as children of light.”  Walking in the light is a description of what our general manner of life is.  Certain characteristics will develop if we are truly walking the way that we should walk.  Some that Paul discusses in this context are goodness, righteousness, and truth (Ephesians 5:9).  Paul drives home the point by telling us that we are not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.  How often do we stumble into sin because we have chosen to associate with the wrong people, and allow them to have unnecessary influence on our lives?  When we have fellowship with the “unfruitful works of darkness” we start down a path of walking in darkness, rather in the light.  That is where we were once, but the path that we were supposed to have left (Ephesians 5:8).

In Ephesians 5:15-16, Paul tells us to “walk circumspectly”, which means carefully.  We can never be warned enough to be careful as we go into the world around us.  The temptations are everywhere around us, and we must make the choice to walk in the light, to walk in love.  May we keep the warnings of Paul in the front of our minds, so that we can make the right choices every day.  Only by doing this every day will we develop a manner of life, the way that we “walk.”

Week 8, Day 5: Understanding the Mystery of God

Today’s Reading:  Ephesians 5:1-6:24

Some thoughts from yesterday’s reading…

Many people today seem to think that the word of God is not really understandable.  They seem to think that it is impossible to interpret His word in the way that He expects.  This attitude is revealed by acting as if any personal interpretation is fine, and acceptable to God.  But, there are not multiple interpretations to what God has said.  When He spoke His mind, He did so for the purpose of conveying what He expected of His creation (that’s us!).  In our reading, Paul outlines for us the method by which God revealed His mind for us.  We can see the progression of that revelation from the mind of God to our receiving it today!

First, Paul said that that the revelations were made known to him (Ephesians 3:3, 5).  God revealed His mind to the apostles so that it could be conveyed to others.  If God did not speak, how could we possibly know what His desires for us are?  Paul also speaks of this process in 1 Corinthians 2:10-12.  These passages show us that the revelation process began with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  God revealed His mind, through the Holy Spirit, to the apostles and prophets.

Secondly, Paul wrote the message down (Ephesians 3:3).  Paul spent his life preaching the gospel message.  But, if the revealed word was not written down, it would never have been able to last through the ages!  The message would have been forgotten, or corrupted if handed down solely by word of mouth.  So, the inspired men of the first century wrote down the message just as the Holy Spirit directed.

Because it was written down, those who read it can understand Paul’s insight into the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:4).  We can know what Paul wrote, which means we can know what God expected the Christians of the first century to know.  The message has not changed, so we can learn by reading the inspired words of the apostle Paul (as well as the other inspired writers) what is required of us today.

People ask if we can understand the word of God alike today.  The answer is a clear and decisive “YES!”  But, that will only be the case if believe in the authority of the message that was revealed.  God revealed His mind.  That should make us think that the message is pretty important.  In fact, it is vitally important.  God was not making suggestions.  He was not trying to give us some good ideas.  He was revealing what He requires of us.  We cannot discount that, and make it as if it is unimportant.  God has not taken the revelation of His will lightly, and we should not take the receiving of His will lightly!  If we believe that the message of the Bible is the revelation of the mind of God, then we should be dedicated to obedience.  That should keep us from trying to figure out why we don’t have to follow the instructions that we find in the New Testament, like so many of the religious world (and increasingly in the Lord’s church) seem to be doing!

Week 8, Day 4: In Christ We Are…

Today’s Reading:  Ephesians 3:1-4:32

Some thoughts from yesterday’s reading…

In Ephesians 1:3, Paul tells us that God has blessed us “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”  As we look through the rest of this chapter, and really much of the rest of the book, we see Paul lay out many of those blessings that we have “in Christ.”  Just looking at the first chapter, we can find several of these blessings.  We could, of course, write a whole article about each of these blessings, but that is not the purpose of our studies here.  I simply want for you to consider the list of blessings that Paul enumerates throughout this chapter.

In Christ we:

• Are chosen (Ephesians 1:4)
• Are predestined to adoption (Ephesians 1:5)
• Receive grace (Ephesians 1:6-8)
• Are redeemed through his blood (Ephesians 1:7)
• Are forgiven of sins (Ephesians 1:7)
• Receive the revelation of the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 1:9)
• Have obtained an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11)
• Have hope (Ephesians 1:12)
• Are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13)
• Can have the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of God (Ephesians 1:17)
• May be enlightened (Ephesians 1:18)
• Are a part of the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23)

As I mentioned before, we are not going to try and go into detail on each of these blessings.  Perhaps you can find some further blessings that I overlooked in this chapter.  Most certainly, we could add to the list by going on through chapter 2 and into the rest of the book.  Many of these blessings are the subject of discussions, disagreements and debates.  However, if we simply consider that God has given us so many wonderful spiritual blessings “in Christ”, we should be overwhelmed with gratitude.  Perhaps we don’t even fully understand the greatness of the blessings that God has given to us!  Some may even want to discount the blessings that we have been given.  But, we should embrace the blessings that come to us because we are the children of God, and the joint heirs with Christ.

Sometimes we sing a song entitled “Count Your Blessings.”  The idea of the song is that we can count the blessings that God has given to us, even when things seem to be dreary.  It is beneficial to think of our physical blessings when times like that arise.  However, it is much more beneficial to think of our spiritual blessings.  We have been given so much, how could we turn our back on God?