Ephesians 1.1- 6 – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
INTRODUCTION – Taking a break from Matthew for a moment, I have been following Bishop Wright’s advice to memorize Ephesians. When one does this you are captured by the words as they become internalized, and I am continually reading, memorizing, and absorbing these words. What happened now that I reflect on this and I cannot help but draw a few observations.
In attempting to think this through I discovered that this will be far longer than a typical blog post and so it is easier to break it into parts. The first part will be weighted on the Christ, while part two will focus on the Community. The two are inextricably linked and so it is imperative to talk about both here in the first few verses of Ephesians.
Part one will be posted soon.
