Ephesians 1:1-10

I must admit I was wrong when I said that I was doing three verses at a time on Ephesians. I check back now and the first section allotted is 10 verses long, and the rest of them are like that, having anywhere between 3 and 12 verses assigned to journal on. I’m going to just assume that these are grouped logically, based on more factors than simply how many verses there are in the section compared to the others. That behind us, I’m going to say something about the format that Mr. Starke requested we use for this project. It has three parts. The first part is labeled INTO. In this section we just explain who is writing what and to whom. The second part is labeled THROUGH. In this section we simply summarize what Paul has said in our own words. I’m not sure whether he wants this from Paul’s perspective or from ours, so I’m going to write it from mine, because it’s supposed to be a personal journal. The last part is called BEYOND. This is the fun part where I get to apply it to my life and give specific examples of how the passage affects me personally. So in we go!

INTO
The book of Ephesians was most definitely written by the apostle Paul. The intended recipient is in question, though, as some scholars believe it might have just been written to the entire church is Asia Minor, being sent to the capital first, which just so happened to be Ephesus. This, of course, is of no consequence. Paul addresses theological doctrine and the Christian life in this epistle.

THROUGH
Paul begins his letters the same way he normally does: by introducing himself (v.1) and his audience (v.1) and giving them a greeting (v.2). The first thing he does after introducing his letter is praise God for blessing us (v.3). He then goes on to cite predestination as a specific example of how he has blessed us (v.4), explaining what this blessing entails (vv.4-5), and telling us why God chose to bless us. (vv.5-6). He switches gears a little bit coming into the next paragraph, speaking about our present salvation rather than salvation as foreordained. Throughout the next 3 verses he emphasizes the role of God in saving people: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ” (vv.7-9). The last verse explains what God’s ultimate goal is, saying that at the end of times God wants to unite everything in heaven or on earth that is in Christ.

BEYOND
It seems like many people have a problem with the idea of predestination. However, I’m not sure how any Bible-believing Christian can read that passage and think otherwise! It seems pretty clear that God predestined us to be holy; we didn’t choose that path on our own. This is a great comfort to me, actually. It may have been painful to make the big leap from a path toward indulgence in sin when I was seven to a true desire to seek Christ and serve Him after a missions trip I went on after 9th grade, but since that was his decision to form the relationship, it cannot be my decision to sever it however much I decide I hate it (God forbid) at whatever low point in my life. I do not have to be afraid of seeking the truth wherever it leads me, because on top of the fact that the truth has nothing to hide, nothing new I discover can destroy my relationship with Christ (Rom. 8:38-39). He will always be my Father; there’s no way out of it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.