Biblical Breadcrumbs

What's in Genesis 4-8? Find out in this brief summary!

What's in Genesis 1-3? Find out in this brief summary!

It's December 31, and new things are in the works! This year, the church I'm working with is planning to read through the Old Testament, so I'm going to be posting short, daily summaries of the chapters and sections we've read over. Or at least that's the goal: we'll see if it can work for the whole year!

We're to walk (or live) worthy of God's calling. Great! What does that mean? It means to live, not like the world lives, but rather as God would have you to be. As you'll see, that's an intense call, but it's one well worth the effort.

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As Paul continues his appeal for unity among Christians, he broadens the scope of his writing just a little. It's not about every Christian doing the same thing; it's more about every Christian working for God as he or she is called to, which means we'll work in differing ways. God isn't asking for everyone to copy each other, but for you to take your talents and serve Him fully!

Paul's writing takes a turn: rather than continuing to belabor the point about how merciful God has been with us, he flips the page and starts to detail how we ought to respond to the mercy. God has been good to us; we ought to become like Him in return. That's what the life of a Christian is! If you want to understand some of the basic values of Christianity, this is a pretty good place to start.

At the end of the first half of Ephesians, we have a powerful prayer said by Paul on behalf of the Ephesian church. In the midst of pointing out the excellence of God's plan, he switches over to ask God to bless the people that follow Him! Glory is due to God, not man, and Paul is makes that clear in this address.

Here, Paul rotates what he's talking about. He's been discussing bringing Gentiles into the Church in the last chapter, but now he broadens out the application. God gave Paul a particular role: spread the Gospel out to those Gentiles, and on a wider scale, declare it to the universe. Paul's got an important role, which he's trying to declare to us!

Paul begins to compare pictures, again: you before God versus you after God. Who were you? What were your circumstances? Was life pre-God better than your life as a Christian, now? His argument is that God improves a variety of aspects of your life, and as evidence he points to the Ephesians themselves. They're the living proof that God still works in the world today!

As Paul opens his letter in praise to God, he has to circle back around to reality: the condemnation of man and the mess humanity has made of all the good God did for them. Thankfully, that's all fixed as God puts in even more work! So Ephesians 2 deviates into describing a terrible situation for a while, yet turns around at the end to become yet another glorification of the work of God.