Ephesians 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1-3

And while you all are dead by the trespasses and by your sins – in which you all formerly walked according to the age of this world, according to the rulers of the authority of the air, of the spirit while now being at work in the sons of disobedience – in which we all we also were formerly behaving in the desires of our flesh while doing the will of the flesh and the mind.  And we were children of wrath by nature just as the remaining ones are.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Paul spends these three verses talking about our human nature.  The first thing that he does is to remind the Ephesians of their nature.  By their own very nature they were dead.  Because their nature is sinful by default, they were dead.  The Ephesians were living lives according to what the world said was good, according to what the rulers said was good, and what the spirit of disobedience said was good.  They had their eyes on the people around them and were living in comparison to them.  What Paul is talking about here is very much a “keeping up with the Jones” mentality where we do things and acquire things not because we need them or because they are good for us but because everyone else is doing it and we have to keep up with society and culture.  That’s how the Ephesians were once living.  Paul calls that lifestyle “dead.”

Do you ever live like this?  How does this point to where you get your identity?  Why is it important to understand from where you are getting your identity?

Second Thought:

However, note that Paul doesn’t leave the Ephesians out there by themselves.  Paul himself comes along and says that “we all” behaved that way.  It isn’t that the Ephesians are alone in this self-centered living.  Every single person who now follows Christ has lived that way.  Every single one of us who now is obedient and submitted to God once lived in submission and obedience to the ways of the world.  The Ephesians are not alone; nor are they any worse sinners than the rest of us.  They are normal human beings that have blessedly left the world behind them!

How does it feel to realize that you are not alone in that struggle?  How does it feel to know that even the Biblical greats like Paul and his disciples would classify themselves as following the ways of the world at one point in their life?  What does that mean to you?

Third Thought:

As Paul ends these verses we hear him say that at one point we all were children of wrath by our nature as the rest of the world still is.  This is a terrible sentence.  Think about the ramifications of this sentence.  By nature we are people doomed to destruction.  The only way out is Christ.  All those people in the world who do not find the way out of their nature through Christ will find God’s wrath in the end.  What a terrible thing in this life: to find what our very nature leads us to find.

What emotions does this thought evoke in you?  What are you called to do regarding the reality that we are all destined for wrath unless we find salvation through Christ?

Passage for Tomorrow: Ephesians 2:4-10