Meditations on the Book of Ephesians
May 28, 2020
You Have Been Called By God
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding
yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as
you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
Ephesians 4:3-4
Read: Ephesians 4:1-10
How good is your memory? Paul
begins and ends Chapter 4 by urging us to remember who we are. When Paul
reminds us that we have been called by God, he is not just referring to those
called for the particular roles within the church. Paul is referring to how
each of us have been called to believe in Jesus as the risen Lord, and to give
Jesus our complete allegiance for the rest of our lives.
Because our Lord won a victory
over sin and death, all people who are in Christ, who give Christ their
faithful allegiance, will also win this victory over sin and death. This is our
Christian hope. This is the calling Paul urges us to live up to. In every
moment, of every day, our loyalty to Jesus, our allegiance to his Kingdom,
takes priority over everything else. We are empowered to live up to our calling
by remembering God, through Christ, has forgiven our sins, and by remembering
Jesus has now identified us as his own.
Paul also emphasizes the
importance of always striving to maintain unity within the church. Regardless
of where we are, or what role we may have in the church, we are all bound
together because “There is one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and
living through all” (Ephesians 4:5-6).
My Takeaway: The next time you are in small group meeting or Bible
Study, or just in the company of other believers, (whether in person or a ZOOM
meeting) take a few moments to contemplate what you have in common with the
others: one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.
Sē’lah
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(Selah is a word that appears in the
Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my
correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about
these things.)
These
meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his
way of life. The meditations are
published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/
and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may
subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by
subscription.
Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight
Publications by Alex M. Knight:
- Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
- The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House
Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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