NCC Daily

Because of Christ, hurts or habits we have seen or learned by example no longer have power over us. Jesus gives us the opportunity to step into new ways of thinking. This will require a hard change, but Paul exhorts us not to give a single day surrendered to an old habit that isn’t of God.

Paul is talking to the church of Ephesus and emphasizing the importance of truly learning not just from Christ but in Christ. This is a different kind of learning than just retaining a fact and information.

Paul urges readers not to live as Gentiles do, when in fact he is speaking to Gentiles — and not just Gentiles, but Gentiles who were already adopted into the family of Christ. So it seems that instead of referring to an ethnic group here, Paul is exhorting us to look at the Gentile in all of us.

The Christian life cannot be lived alone. We cannot live like Jesus and do His work with a completely individualistic lifestyle. We need each other. As a body, we each contribute so that as a whole we may do the work of God in the world.

In verses 11-14, Paul praises God for five specific gifts and helps the Ephesians, as well as us, understand the purpose or the reason behind why they were given: unity, knowledge, and maturity.

In verses 9 and 10 Paul wants to point out a key difference between two stories. In Psalm 68, God marches out to war. In Jesus’ life, God has waged war in a new way — by laying down His life, even into the depths of the earth. Jesus’ resurrection is a victory of God that goes far deeper than any human battlefield and far higher than any human throne.

Paul is expanding on the idea found in Psalms 68. We respond to the majesty and glory of God with this gift of submission, becoming living sacrifices, prisoners of Christ by first acknowledging Him as the true King of Kings.

Two thousand years ago, a revolutionary movement began in the city of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. It was the birth of this thing that we call the Church. What made it revolutionary, among other things, is that it was multicultural in makeup.

How are we to eagerly maintain unity that God has already designed us for? It starts with us admitting that we need His strength to produce this humility, gentleness, patience and love.

The first half of Ephesians is all about our identity, destiny, and authority in the heavenly realm. The second half is all about that heavenly realm invading our earthly reality! Paul flips the script, and he focuses on our unity, maturity, and security in Christ.