Paul continues commending and commanding the new Spiritual walk believers live in Christ. Instead of entering into our world’s insatiable desire for sexual sin, we should give thanks to God. (Thankfulness is the opposite of covetousness and the antidote for idolatry.) Instead of living in the darkness, we should be light, exposing evil and showing a better way. Instead of living foolishly, we should live wisely. Instead of being drunk, we should be filled with and influenced by the Holy Spirit. This leads us to joyful, heartfelt, thankful worship and Christ-honoring submission to each other.

In Christ, we walk a new Spiritual life. Even as Paul reaches the eminently practical section of this letter, he still connects the Christian’s lifestyle with the Christian’s beliefs about Christ and position in Christ. In fact, both for unbelievers (17b-19) and believers (20-24) the mind guides the feet (“walk”). And for us Christians, our minds are “renewed” by looking to God so that we can become “imitators of God”

In Ephesians 4, the "all" of verse 6 turns into the "each one" of verse 7. We are unified in our one Spirit, one Lord, and one Father. But within that unity - to serve that unity - Christ has given each one different gifts. When we use those gifts to minister to each other, we all grow more into the image of Christ.

John sees a sealed scroll in the hand of God, and though he cannot yet see what it says, he knows the scroll stands for the authority of God to rule and judge the world and set to right the ruin made by human sin. John weeps because he knows we need the scroll opened. He knows we need God to judge the evil of the world and make right what we made wrong. He knows that unless God steps in and stops evil, evil will run rampant, killing everything and everyone in its path. The world is a beautiful but broken place, and we need God to restore peace and justice. So when no one is found worthy to open the scroll, John weeps. But this fact should give us pause. What we so desperately need will actually destroy us. While we are so busy looking out at the evil in the world, we tend to forget to look in at the evil in our own hearts. We are all guilty participants in the rebellion of the world against its Creator. None of us is worthy to open the scroll. In fact, none of us can survive the opening of the scroll. Our only hope is that God can make a way for sin to be destroyed without us sinners being destroyed as well. Can he save us from all sin, including our own? Can he right the wrongs of the world and the wrongs in each of our hearts? This is the need we have, and, seeing this need, John weeps. But while the weeping may last for a night, joy will come. There is good news! God will not let evil triumph; instead, he has given us a ruler who has triumphed over evil. The Lion of Judah is worthy to take the scroll. And so John looks up. Through eyes clouded by tears he sees what he does not expect. Where he expected a Lion, he sees instead a Lamb. And not just any lamb, he sees a Lamb that has been slain as a sacrifice. This is how God destroyed sin without destroying us. The Lion is a Lamb, a lamb slain for the sins of God’s people - from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Referencing the Prophet Isaiah, an angel told Joseph that Mary's child was "from the Holy Spirit" and therefore he should be called "Immanuel," meaning "God with us." Matthew's Gospel unfolds the life of this Immanuel as he lives, teaches, heals, dies, and rises again to reveal God and save his people. Before returning to his Father, Jesus commands his disciples to go into all nations and make more disciples by baptizing and teaching them to obey what Jesus has commanded. Some of his last words to them were, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." He remains Immanuel, even as we fulfill his commission and await his return.

"Then in despair I bowed my head/'There is no peace on earth,' I said/For hate is strong and mocks the song/Of peace on earth, goodwill to men." These words of Longfellow still ring true in our world. Yet the promise persists: Jesus is the Prince of Peace, so "those walking in darkness can see the light ahead and are sustained by hope" (Alec Motyer). As we saw in Ephesians, Jesus has already accomplished for us peace with God and with each other. We still away, however, peace in the world. Dale Ralph Davis reminds us that Jesus is the Prince of Peace in this ultimate sense too: "Peace comes in the wake of victory, when all opposition is taken out of the way. 'Prince of peace' then does not mean that the prince is peaceful but that he has the power to bring and enforce peace, even in a world where many don't care to have it." Even so, come Lord Jesus.

God's plan from the beginning was to send His Son as the Messiah who would bring peace, righteousness, and salvation to all who will believe around the world. This prayer about Solomon asked "was a strong reminder of his high calling; yet it exalted this so far beyond the humanly attainable (e.g. in speaking of his reign as endless) as to suggest for its fulfilment no less a person than the Messiah" (Derek Kidner). In short, this Psalm describes the righteousness, endlessness, boundlessness, mercifulness, and blessedness of the reign of "great David's greater Son."

The oneness of God (one Spirit, one Lord, one God) forms the basis of the oneness of God's people. Humility, gentleness, patience, and love provide the means for this unity. Paradoxically, this unity is both an God-given reality (we are one in Christ) and an elusive goal that must be guarded.

To receive Spiritual strength. To know Christ's love. To be filled with all the fullness of God. These are not only Trinitarian prayer requests, they are bold requests. Furthermore, they are exemplary requests. Our first task in this passage is to be enlightened by the truth upon which Paul bases his prayer. Then we should learn from Paul's example and embrace the ministry of prayer that God has given us. But is this asking too much? Surely the third request is a bit audacious. No, not in the least. Not when the God you are praying to is "the Father" (v. 14) and the one "who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (v. 20). This God is both willing and able to answer our prayers.