All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
Notice that God has blessed us. This has already been done for those who are in Christ Jesus. We need not seek the blessings of God because He has already blessed us with all possible blessings.
Because we are united with Christ.
Eph 1:2 NLT
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
Paul’s prayer for all believers. It is from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ that we get the Grace and peace to do this life.
So many people live a life of great anxiety every day. The worries of this life seem to overwhelm most everyone with whom I have contact with on a daily basis. This anxiety overtakes a person when there is no hope, when a person can see no way to overcome the odds they have been dealt by life. The ultimate giver of grace and peace is the Creator God of all there is! It is God and Christ who can give the grace to do this life in total peace.
Eph 1:1 NLT
This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
Paul Introduces himself as the writer of the letter to the church of the Ephesians. Then he introduces who the letter is written to.
This letter was written to God’s holy people. (Those set apart for God)
It is written to those who are faithful followers of Christ. Not just to anyone who calls themselves “christians”. This letter is for those who are full of faith in their everyday lives, in every aspect of those everyday lives. We are not to be christian on Sunday only when we are in church.
Heb11:6a NLT
And it is impossible to please God without faith.
This carries into the entirety of our lives. Work, Recreation, Relationships, Hobbies, Church.
Paul begins this letter by reminding the readers who he is and why he has the authority to speak to them.
“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.” — NLT
Paul emphasizes that he is not an apostle by his own decision, but by the will of God. He is a messenger, someone sent with a divine commission to proclaim the Gospel and build the Church.
Paul’s apostleship began with a dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ in Acts 9:3–16, while he was on a mission to persecute the Church. Jesus Himself appeared to Paul and called him to a new mission: to carry the name of Christ to the Gentiles, kings, and the people of Israel.
So when Paul writes this letter, he does so as someone commissioned directly by Christ—with divine authority and purpose.
“I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.” — NLT
Paul addresses:
These aren’t just casual believers. Paul is writing to those who are faithfully walking with Christ—those who have experienced a transforming relationship with Him. In the verses that follow, Paul unpacks what it means to be God’s holy people and how this identity was made possible.
We are not called to a casual belief in Jesus. We are called to faithfulness—a life fully surrendered to Him. This faith is not static; it transforms. It gives us a new identity and purpose. The message of Ephesians leads us to understand:
The faithful follower of Christ will be transformed. There is no other outcome.
From the beginning of the letter, Paul’s prayer is that believers would experience the grace and peace that come from being in Christ.
This is not a one-time event—it’s a lifelong journey. A supernatural walk with Christ that began the moment we believed, and continues into eternity.
The story doesn’t end with belief.
The story continues.
The book of Ephesians is a vital letter for every believer. It helps us understand who we are in Christ and how that identity should shape the way we live each day.
Paul shows us what it means to be made new — from being spiritually dead to being alive in Christ. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are now clean before God and called to walk in the new life He’s given us.
Ephesians doesn’t just give head knowledge — it encourages us to know and experience God personally. And from that relationship, we’re called to live lives that reflect His calling and purpose for us.
During that time:
When Paul later met with the Ephesian elders in Miletus:
The Church at Ephesus is one of the seven churches Jesus addresses in the book of Revelation. That alone tells us how important it is. Paul also prayed in Ephesians 3:19 that we would “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”
Without this love — both for God and for one another — our faith can become dry, lifeless, and purely intellectual. And that leads to dead works instead of living faith.
Let’s take a look at this great book together!
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
This is the key to walking out this faith in Christ. It is reliant on our believing we are God’s, standing firm in it even in those times we don’t feel like it.
Grace and peace
I notice today, more than ever we are buying into the idea that all of my troubles in this world are the fault of someone beside me. If I get pulled over for speeding, I was late for work, or my alarm didn’t work. The fact of the matter is I was speeding, it was my foot on the peddle. Or, I got into trouble for talking in class today because Sean would not shut up, he just kept talking to me. What we are saying in these two examples is that, yes I did this thing, and got caught, but it wasn’t my fault. The blame for that thing falls on someone else… I am innocent!
I knew this guy at one time. He had spent a good portion of his life in prison for running drugs into the United States. He told me the story one day of how he got caught with his load. He was smuggling the stuff in a very cleverly built boat. The boat had a removable deck, that was not noticeable. The deck was lifted away, the cargo was placed inside hidden compartments below the deck, then the deck was lifted back into place.
On this particular day my friend left Nassau with his boat loaded with “cargo”. He would make his way to the island of Bimini, refuel and the next day cross to Florida where his cargo would be delivered.
My friend arrived as planned to the fuel dock in Bimini. The fuel attendant came out to meet him, and assist him with refueling his boat. My friend was not interested in waiting around for the boat to be refueled, so he gave the fuel attendant more than sufficient money to fuel the boat, and told the guy to keep whatever was left for himself. The fuel attendant did not fill my friends boat, instead he kept all of the money and put no fuel in my friends boat.
My friend was interested only in going to the local bar and partying all night, and that is what he did. In a drunken drug fueled stupor he stumbled aboard his boat in the wee hours of the morning and set off for Florida.
He didn’t get too far out to sea when his engines died, and his boat was dead in the water. He had no water, no food, and no way to make land one way or the other. He was stuck.
After a couple of days my friend passed out on the deck of his boat from severe dehydration. As he lay on his deck a fishing boat came lumbering along, not paying attention to what was in front of them. They did not see my friends boat and their port stabilizer dragged across my friends boat tearing the center console out of its place, revealing his cargo below the deck.
The Captain of the fishing boat quickly realized that this was a drug boat and called the Coast Guard. My friend was caught, and the rest did not go well for him.
In his mind the reason he was caught is because the fuel attendant ripped him off. It was not his fault that he didn’t check his fuel levels.
Gen 3:12-13
The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
When Adam sinned and did that which God had said not to do. He blamed both the woman and God, then the woman blamed the serpent. I think it is important to note that God had nothing to ask the serpent. But what we have here is Adam especially not taking responsibility for his sin.
How did God react?
The serpent was punished. Vs 14 and 15 Then the LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Then the woman was punished. Vs. 16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
The man was held responsible Vs 17-19 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
Since you “listened to your wife”. Adam had chosen to listen to his wife rather than God. God held Adam responsible for the sin, not his wife, even though Adam had tried to pass the buck on to her and ultimately to God.
We are guilty of the same behavior: The devil made me do it, my wife made me do it, my friend got me in trouble, the fuel guy didn’t fill my boat.
God does not accept the blame shifting, he will hold us all personally responsible. There are no excuses that will be considered valid.
The only way to please God is to do life God’s way, and only His way.
What is it?
Oxford:
The legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners in a personal relationship (historically and in some jurisdictions specifically a union between a man and a woman). A combination or mixture of two or more elements.
Most of our focus now-a-days is on the big event. I was stunned to find that the average wedding in the United States costs $30,000.00. Everything must be just right and all things must be perfect. In 2022 the marriage industry brought in $70.5 billion. I was shocked to see this number!
In the United States if you decide after getting “married,” you’ve made a mistake and need to get out of it… Don’t worry, we have that covered too. The average divorce costs for a couple without children is $14,000.00, $21,000.00 if children are involved.
After getting divorced you can then try the whole process again. Both those doing the marrying, and those doing the divorcing welcome your attempts at this institution.
How Does God Define Marriage?
Gen 2:22–25 NLT
Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
Mat 10:6–9 NLT
But ‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”
So now we can say that according to the book of Genesis, and to the words of Jesus, that a marriage is between a man and a woman, and that it is permanent because God has put it together.
How does God put the marriage together?
The pastor, the priest, the JP?
In our western culture we mostly look to the church for guidance in theses affairs. There are however many “professionals” piling in. Like I mentioned before this is a $big industry.
For the west, most if not all of the traditions we associate with a christian wedding are in fact not christian at all. It is all Celtic tradition, the idea of an authority giving a blessing to marry, the white dress, the rings. All of it is Celtic! You can find no part of it in the scriptures.
Since we go to an authority for a blessing to be married. Whether the pastor, or a councilor, or a priest, they now become the authority for the idea of marriage. We make our vows before witnesses, human witnesses, all the while forgetting that God misses nothing. We are pushing Him out of the way, and out of consideration.
God puts it together!
The question then is how.
Gen 24:67 NLT
And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent, and she became his wife. He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.
Where was the ceremony? Where was the priest?
Ex 2:21 NLT
Moses accepted the invitation, and he settled there with him. In time, Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife.
No ceremony? No priest?
1 Cor 6:15–16 NLT
Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”
The cheapening of sex
The cheapening of sex is a plan of Satan, who is seeking the destruction of us all. He has done an excellent job of making sex a trite affair. A little escapade.
1 Cor 6:18–20
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Since God sees marriage as sex, there is no such thing as pre-marital sex. There is no such thing as sowing your wild oats! There is no such thing as trying it out to see if you like it.
Yes there is forgiveness, we must repent of our casual indifferent attitude toward sex. We must be pure.
Eph 5:15–20 NLT
So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The times are short. We must return to the simple truths of scripture. We must put aside traditions that cheapen and even ignored God’s will for our lives.
Grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ.