January 23, 2024

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” eph 4:4-6 nkjv    It causes me to pause and ask if this description is really what the modern “church,” around us, represents… then my mind comes to the word “remnant.”  Revelation 12:17 defines these faithful [who would indeed represent this description of Yahweh’s church body]… “...who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” [because the days are evil].

The NKJV Bible Study Bible (Thomas Nelson Publishers) says this in its commentary: “Ephesians is like a grand landscape whose subject is the whole world. Paul paints a richly textured picture of God’s plan to bless the world through Christ. God is bringing light to darkness, healing to brokenness, and reconciliation to the separated. Central to this teaching is the role of the church in the world and the gifts God has given it. God will bring about these things through the church. Once we understand and believe all that God has done and is doing, it is our responsibility to obey and live in light of His actions.”

Paul tells the Ephesians this [eph 2:1-3 nkjv]   “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

“17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

"20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” eph 4:17-24 nkjv

I think it’s noteworthy that two thousand years ago, in Paul’s time, that such profound instructions were given to a people who lived in the midst of a pagan capital city, and yet in the midst of it, Yahweh was working with His people… I think it is a picture of our world and times today; there is so very much vital instruction to us in the Book of Ephesians, and it surely obligates us as it did them. I will close by repeating the opening verse: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Shalom, John