Welcome to the Family
Ephesians 1:3-14
The Letter to the Ephesians seeks to help Christians in that community understand who they are, and across time help us understand who we are. For both then and now and in between, this letter wants the followers of Jesus to understand who they are in the big picture of the universe.
We don’t really know much about the community at Ephesus - there just isn’t much in the letter to help us understand the community. We know a little bit about Ephesus from John of Patmos and his Apocalypse that we call Revelation. Ephesus is one of the seven churches addressed in the second chapter’s opening verses. John praises the Ephesians for their patience and their testing of false teachers. John’s issue with them is that they have abandoned love.
We know a little more about Ephesus, the city, from historical documents of the era. As a sea port in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, Ephesus was a trade center and that made it a cultural center where all kinds of people would have crossed paths with one another. It was a diverse place, and quite prosperous as the capital of the region. It would be a major city like one of our own major cities…New York, San Francisco, Los Angelas, Houston, or Atlanta.
Still, the fact that the letter is lacking any particular information about the community or the city, it makes you wonder if it isn’t just a generic letter that someone penned and that could have been sent to any church in any community. The letter lacks the intimacy that the Corinthian correspondence or the Letter to the Philippians has. Paul, or maybe someone else who wrote this letter, opens with “To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Whoever wrote this letter could have just as well opened it saying, “To the saints in Palmyra, or Carthage, or he could have written to the saints who are in Topeka and are faithful in Christ Jesus”…Here is right where the power of this letter rests, the power of this letter dwells in its ability to speak it’s message to people across geography and across time. The message it speaks, God destines us to be loved.
The English translation of this passage commonly divides into three sentences what is a single sentence in the Greek text. The entire passage, other than the opening prayer of blessing on God, focuses upon what God does in our lives. God blesses (v. 3), chooses (v. 4), destines (v. 5), bestows (v. 6), lavishes (v. 8), makes known (v. 9), destines (v. 11), accomplishes (v. 11), and marks human beings to be loved as our inheritance. This complex sentence makes one point clear - God destines each of us to be loved. This destiny rests in the ultimate meaning of the universe. It is not the suggestion that God is micro-managing our lives or causing pain and suffering. Our destiny is to dwell in God’s love. Such a destiny does not bind us in restraints that suffocates; it frees us in our daily living to love abundantly, tenderly, and generously.
Reflection Questions:
How do you know that you are chosen?
How does knowing you are adopted change your view of yourself, others, and God?
How can we claim our “destiny” (as this text understands it) and share it with others?
How do you feel about the quality of love of the One who has chosen you? How does this affect your love for others?