This file can be printed for personal use and study. © Reachout Trust - www.reachouttrust.org
For this Reason… (Ephesians 1-3)
My wife bought me a fisherman's waistcoat for
Christmas. I don't go fishing she was simply tired of watching me wander
from room to room looking for whatever it was I had mislaid, usually
my glasses. This is especially frustrating when we are about to leave
the house and she finds me loitering in the hall patting my pockets
then turning back into the house to look for whatever I have lost. She
thought that a waistcoat full of pockets would be a solution to an otherwise
intractable problem. I am also in the habit of entering a room and forgetting
why I went there in the first place. I am sometimes even found muttering
to myself at the back of the local convenience store, "Now why did I
come in here?" The waistcoat has proved a success with its seemingly
endless supply of pockets in which to keep things although, having largely
solved the problem of place - where did I put that? - it hasn't solved
the problem of purpose - what am I doing here?
Losing important things and getting lost or waylaid in our purposes
can be a very serious business. I find Paul's letter to the Ephesians
especially helpful in this respect. Rather like my waistcoat it's all
here in this letter but unlike the waistcoat here you can also find
your purpose.
Paul writes about God's eternal purposes for the church. He writes about
believers "dead in sins" being made "alive in Christ". His enthusiasm
jumps from the page as he reminds the Ephesians that they are blessed…with
every spiritual blessing in Christ", in whom we have "redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins".
He reminds us that we are:
No longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens
with God people and members of God's household (2:19)
He also wonderfully explains that this is all to a purpose:
He made known to us the mystery of his
will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to
be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment
- to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head,
even Christ (1:9-10)
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in
which God lives by his Spirit (2:22)
"For this reason" Paul begins chapter three, then goes off on an account
of his own experience of these things for 11 verses before coming back
in verse 14:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family
in heaven and on earth derives its name
Here is a magnificent truth and a reminder of purpose. The word family
here is like the word for 'father'. In other words, in God's purpose
the family of God derives its name and being from God the Father. "For
this reason" Paul writes, i.e. because God has saved us, blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in Christ, brought us into his eternal
purposes, made us family and given us the family name…he then, kneeling
before the Father, prays:
That out of his glorious riches he may
strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
That you, being rooted, and established in love, may have power, together
with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the
love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that
you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of Christ.
This is a horizon-expanding letter and Paul challenges us to appreciate
the dimensions of God's eternal purposes and the wonder of our inclusion
by the grace of God in God's high goals for us, his church. We all lose
things from time to time and can find ourselves wondering why we are
here. Here in God's word we rediscover our place and our purpose and,
like finding our spiritual glasses, can focus again on the big picture.
May we go into this week echoing Paul's prayer that we may have the
power to see these things.