Exploring Ephesians a Devotional Commentary

By Ashley Day

In the year AD 62, the Apostle Paul was a prisoner in Rome. He had been arrested in Jerusalem on a false charge of taking Greeks into the temple. Knowing he would not receive a fair trial in Jerusalem, he had exercised his right as a Roman citizen and appealed to Caesar. Eventually, after many adventures, he arrived in Rome and awaited his hearing before Nero. During this waiting period he wrote four marvelous letters, letters which have enriched the lives of countless people down through the centuries. All four letters were recognized by the Fathers as inspired by God and were incorporated in the Scriptures. This book concentrates on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. The original recipients have long since left this world, but Gods Word is still alive and we shall examine the letter verse-by-verse, with a view to understanding what God is saying to us today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468545951

Ashley Day

Ashley Day began his career as the Administrator of a College of Languages in London's West End. Called into the ministry during one of Billy Graham's early London crusades, he and his wife, Edna, left the city and took up an itinerant ministry in the South West of England. Immigrating to the USA in October 1959, the Days ministered in California, Oregon, and Missouri before being called back to England to pastor a church in Devon. In 1980, Pastor Day was called to the Coeur d'Alene Bible Church as Senior Pastor and continued there until retirement in 2003. The Days have been happily married for 61 years and have five children. Pastor Day's radio broadcasts are currently reaching tens of thousands of listeners in the United States, the UK, Africa and the Middle East.

Book preview

EXPLORING EPHESIANS

A Devotional Commentary

by Ashley Day

US%26UK%20Logo%20B%26W_new.ai

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2012 Ashley Day. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 2/2/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4597-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4596-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4595-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012901187

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

OTHER BOOKS BY ASHLEY DAY

Exploring The Lives of the Patriarchs

Exploring Daniel

Exploring Isaiah

Exploring John’s Gospel

Exploring Romans

Exploring 1 Corinthians

Exploring Galatians

Exploring Colossians

Exploring Revelation

What We Believe and Why

Saved to Serve

SeedTime_logo.jpg

The sower sows the Word (Mark 4:14)

Seed-Time Ministries, Inc.,

5080 N. 4th Street,

Coeur d’Alene ID 83815

Tel. [phone]

http://www.seedtime.net

[e-mail]

INTRODUCTION 

In the year AD 62, the Apostle Paul was a prisoner in Rome. He had been arrested in Jerusalem on a false charge of taking Greeks into the temple. Knowing he would not receive a fair trial in Jerusalem, he had exercised his right as a Roman citizen and appealed to Caesar. Eventually, after many adventures, he arrived in Rome and awaited his hearing before Nero. During this waiting period he wrote four marvelous letters, letters which have enriched the lives of countless people down through the centuries. All four letters were recognized by the Fathers as inspired by God and were incorporated in the Scriptures.

One of these four letters (called collectively, "the Prison Epistles") was addressed to an individual named Philemon.

The other three were sent to the Christians in Philippi, Colossae, and Ephesus. This book will concentrate on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The original recipients have long since left this world, but God’s Word is still alive and we shall examine the letter verse-by-verse, with a view to understanding what God is saying to us today.

There are many translations of the Scriptures, all of which tend to favor the theological position of their translators. Throughout this book, the New King James Version is used, since it is based on the Majority Text and generally resists the temptation to paraphrase, which seems to characterize some of the newer translations.

CHAPTER 1 

Greeting

The opening verses of this chapter simply pinpoint who is writing and to whom he is addressing the letter.

Verses 1-3:

"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

There is some mystery concerning the recipients of this letter. Some manuscripts do not include the words "who are in Ephesus, and no specific commands are given to the Ephesian church in the body of the letter. This has led some to conjecture that Paul was writing a general epistle to area churches, rather than to one specific congregation. Colossians 4:16 refers to a letter to Laodicea, which has never been found. Some scholars surmise that Ephesians" might have been the missing epistle and was intended to be read in both communities. However, in the absence of specific evidence, it is safer to take the traditional view and assume that the epistle was addressed specifically to the Ephesians.

Paul was an apostle, which means "One sent". He had been sent to preach the message of salvation to the Gentiles. This brought him much opposition from his Jewish countrymen because they considered Gentiles to be outside the blessing of God. In addition, the message Paul preached was contrary to their beliefs. They had been taught from infancy that God was approached by keeping the Law of Moses, whereas Paul preached that the Law had been fulfilled and that salvation was a free gift of grace, through a personal faith in Jesus Christ.

However, Paul was not an apostle as the result of personal ambition. He was "an apostle … by the will of God. The story of his conversion from a lethal persecutor of Christians to a staunch believer in Jesus Christ is recorded for us in Acts 9:1-18. It was as if he were dragged into the faith by the scruff of his neck and summarily appointed by God to carry the message of salvation by grace far and wide. Freewill" was nowhere to be found in Paul’s story.

His letter was addressed to "The saints who are in Ephesus. A saint is not someone who has been canonized by men. A true saint is one who has been sanctified, or made holy by God. The New Testament makes it clear that no man or woman could ever attain holiness in their own strength, but are made holy by their position in Christ. Christ is holy, and because believers are placed in Him at the moment of salvation, they are considered to be holy also. Thus, they are saints". Paul was writing to Christians and they understood his greeting. At the outset he wished them the grace and peace which flow only from a direct relationship with the Godhead.

Verses 3 through 6 introduce us to the main part of the letter and deal with a subject which, although well-known on the surface, often causes Christians difficulty.

Blessed In Christ

Verse 3:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."

A blessing (in this sense of the word) is the benefit, favor or gift bestowed by God upon His children. What we think of as blessings today are the evidence, rather than the substance, of God’s grace toward us. By that I mean that God’s blessing is the divine motive which results in the benefit we receive. Here we see that there are blessings in Heaven as well as on earth, and that these blessings are not future but current. They are an established fact - right now. They already exist, have already been given, and they are personal in character. In the words of this verse, "He has blessed us. . "Provided you have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, these blessings in Heaven are already yours. They have already been assigned to you, paid into your account, and are waiting for you to claim them.

This verse also tells us the scope of this blessing:

"He has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places".

"Every" is a superlative. It leaves nothing out. Heaven is a place of indescribable joy and peace, yet every blessing that ever emerged from the mind of God has already been given to us. They are ours, right now, and nothing could take them away.

The final truth this verse gives us is where these blessings reside.

"He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places IN CHRIST."

In other words, if a man or woman has Christ, he or she has everything Christ can give and everything for which He stands. We may not feel very happy about our walk. Maybe we are not as diligent as we know we should be, but if we have Christ, we have all that He is. He doesn’t hand Himself out in stages, so that one person may have more of Him than another. It is all or nothing, and although we may well cheat ourselves out of blessing in the here and now, in Christ, we are eternally complete.

We are told in Colossians 2:3 that "in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We are told in 1 Corinthians 1:30 that But of Him you are in Christ Jesus (the NASB has, But BECAUSE of Him you are in Christ Jesus) who by God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Then we are told in Colossians 2:9-10 that In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." All these things were done, not as the result of any goodness in us, but by the decisive action of Almighty God. He gave His Only Begotten Son, He drew us to Himself and He placed us in Christ that we might be complete, not in our own estimation but in His.

That brings us to a subject which many would rather avoid. However, avoiding things never makes them go away. For instance, you could avoid a pothole in the road, but your avoidance would not fill it up. It would remain there for the next car to hit. And all truth is like that. God has recorded it in His Word and we are intended to read it, accept it and grasp it as far as our finite minds are able to comprehend.

God said in Isaiah 55:

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

The heavens are a lot higher than the earth, and God’s thoughts are just as high above ours. High, of course, is a relative term. If I were to ask you to point up (where high is) you would point directly above your head. But if I were to ask someone in Australia to do the same he would point in the opposite direction. In other words, God’s thoughts are wider and deeper than all of space surrounding this entire planet but that is no excuse for avoiding them or reinterpreting them. To settle for what we think instead of what the Bible says would be fatal to good Bible study.

Peter agreed that some of Paul’s writings are difficult to understand and that consequently some have been guilty of twisting them to make them agree with their own ideas. In doing so, they reap hurt to themselves (2 Peter 3:16).

So then, what is the subject that these next verses introduce? It is the subject of God’s sovereign selection in the matter of salvation, which conflicts sharply with man’s natural desire to control his own affairs. It raises questions about justice, fairness and freewill, all of which are generated by man’s human intellect, which is severely limited. We are told in 1 Corinthians that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men." There are many things which man is incapable of understanding and God’s sovereign selection in salvation is one of these.

In verse 3 we read that God has blessed those who have trusted Christ as their Savior with every spiritual blessing. That unimaginable grace is vested in Christ. The question arises, Why should God give such blessing to the likes of you and me? The answer comes in verse 4 which begins with the words, "according as. . . (The NASB substitutes, just as. . and the NIV has, For. . ") They all translate the one word in the Greek that connects the two verses together. In other words, verse 4 (and those which follow) describes the motive for verse 3.

Chosen in Christ

God has blessed those who have trusted Christ with every spiritual blessing BECAUSE (verse 4):

"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world."

As to why He chose us, there can be no reason other than sheer grace. Certainly God saw nothing in us to merit such a privilege. He did not search out the good people He knew would be born in the future and choose them. There would be no people good enough to qualify. Every one of us would be hopelessly lost in sin and heading for judgment. As Paul wrote in Romans 3:23: "For all have