Daily Devotion – July 7, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison

Ephesians 1:3-14
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
1:4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.
1:5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,
1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
1:8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight
1:9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,
1:10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
1:11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,
1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
1:13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;
1:14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Scholars of the New Testament and of the Greek language have become convinced that Ephesians is one of those books not written by Paul but instead by one of his disciples. When you have spent time in the letters of Paul, you come to recognize some of them as deeply steeped in “upside down” paradox language about Jesus and the salvation he has freely given us – Lord of all and slave of all, showing his kingship by laying down his life. These “bottom-up,” reverse of what one might expect of a god, low-is-high visual pictures were the way the actual Paul spoke about God in Jesus Christ for his readers/ hearers. They are present in Philippians and in Romans and several other letters. While this language is missing in Ephesians, Paul’s good influence and several great concepts are present, having rubbed off on whatever disciple wrote this letter. It is all about adoption and inheritance, concepts which worked very well to teach non-Jews that they could take part in the salvation of humanity by a Jewish Messiah. “We are not Jews, so why would the God of the Jews bother to save us?” the Gentile congregation asks. And the writer answers “Before the foundation of the world God destined us all to be adopted and destined us to gain his inheritance.”
Why does this matter to us today? Because we are that Gentile congregation. We are not Jews, to whom Jesus originally came. But even we ourselves were destined since forever to be children of God and receive his inheritance, Jewish or not Jewish. There is abundance and security in these words, things that should make us generous with the bounty the Lord has given to us. How might we reflect God’s great bounty and generosity to us in this present-day world? Wake up each morning with that question on your mind, pray to see an answer, and then watch your day unfold and watch the surprises that God reveals to you during that day. You will discover God’s bounty to you, and you will have a chance to share it with someone else. That is the Kingdom of God, every day in every place.

Gracious God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for being so generous with us. Help us to trust you to show us where to be generous every day and to notice your Kingdom coming near. Amen.