Ephesians Outline Chapters 1, 2 and 3

This is an outline of Ephesians so that I can get a better understanding of what the entire book is about. It will be easier to summarize each chapter if I have them written out in bullet format.

Ephesians

• Written by Paul to the church in Ephesus (modern Turkey) while he was in prison*
• first 3 chapters emphasize New Testament doctrine*
• last 3 chapters are practical and focus on Christian behavior*
• letter of encouragement to remind believers their blessings in Christ*

(*taken from John MacArthur study Bible notes)

Chapter 1 {God's Purpose for the Church (1:3-3:13*)}

Greeting/Redemption in Christ {Predestination, Redemption, inheritance and resources in Christ*}

• Blessed be the God and Father who has blessed us with every spiritual gift in the heavenly places (v.3)
• He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world so that:

      -we should be holy

      -we should be without blame before Him in love (v.4)

• predestined us to adoption as sons of Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will (v. 5)
• He made us accepted (v. 6)
• In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to His grace (v. 7)
• in Him, we also have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him (v. 11)
• In Him you also trusted, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (v. 13)
• [the Holy Spirit] is the guarantee of our inheritance (v. 14)

Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom

• Paul is thanking God for believers and praying for their wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that we may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance (vv. 16-18)
• Paul wants us to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe (v. 19)
• God's power was shown in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead (v. 20)
• Christ is the authority over all things (vv. 22-23)

Chapter 2 {New Life in Christ, Unity in Christ*}

By Grace Through Faith

• He (Christ) made us (children of God) alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the power of the prince of the air who now works in the sons of disobedience (vv. 1-2) 
• among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (v. 3)
• But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (vV. 4-5)
• For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of works, lest anyone should boast (vv. 8-9)

Brought Near by His Blood

• Remember, that we were once without hope and without God in the world (vv. 11-12)
• But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (v. 13)

Christ Our Peace

• For He Himself is our peace (v. 14)
• He has abolished the law of commandments (v. 15)

Christ Our Cornerstone

• We are now members of the household of God (v. 19)
• Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of the foundation (v. 20)
• In Christ the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (vv. 21-22)

Chapter 3 {God's Fullness for the Church*}

The Mystery Revealed

• For this reason [truths about the unity of believers*] Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles- if indeed you have heard of the dispensation (stewardship*) of the grade of God which was given to me for you (vv. 1-2)
• God made known the mystery to Paul [there were many truths hidden and later revealed in the NT*] that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel (vv. 3-6)

Purpose of the Mystery

• Paul says, to him, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ (v. 8) [Paul shows he acknowledges his unworthiness of God's grace]
• This was done to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which had been hidden before (vv. 9-10)
• God's eternal purpose was accomplished in Christ, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him (vv. 11-12)

Appreciation of the Mystery

• He wants to strengthen us, we should bow our knees to Him, we should be rooted and grounded in love so we can comprehend what is the width and length and depth and height of God's love (vv. 14-19)

Paul's Testimony in Modern Day America

"Paul's testimony in modern day America" 

By: Ryan Schlipp

Ephesians chapter 1:1-12 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

 In the verses we read God gives us the who, what, when, where, and why of salvation all wrapped up into a few sentences but stressed over and over and over again by Paul, so that there can be no confusion on the matter. What’s the who, what, when, where, and why? Who did it? God. What did He do? He chose to save a group of lost sinners. When did He choose to save these people? Before the world was even created. Where did He save these people? He saved them in their sins. And why did He save these sinners? Because it gives Him pleasure and it gives Him glory, the only reasons He needs.

To look at the passage of scripture a little more in depth, the word predestine can only mean one thing, and that is that God divinely and solely acted. It is a verb, an action. God did it. The notion of foreknew is a completely passive word. I can foreknow the outcome of a movie that I have seen 50 times but I have no influence over the outcome; it is passive. To predestine means to preordain, it is an active decision being made.

Another word is adopt. When we look at adoption we see a picture of a loving couple choosing to save a young child from a poor existence. We do not see a family walk into an adoption home and open their arms and say, "all who accept me I will take home." It is a choice on the part of the adopter, not the adopted. In fact, if many people today treated adoption like they do the doctrine of Calvinism, adoption would be seen as one of the most evil practices on the face of the Earth. Let me give you a picture of what I mean. Suppose there was a couple named Alisha and Ryan, and God laid it on their heart to adopt a child. They decided to go to the worst part of the world and rescue a poor child on the verge of death. Out of pure love and because it gave them great joy, they chose to save a life. Days later a woman named Sue was telling a man named Joe about what Alisha and Ryan did. At the end of the story Joe said, "That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard and I can’t believe that Ryan and Alisha would ever do something so sinister and horrible." Sue being a little confused asked Joe to explain what he means by that and Joe replied, "So you mean to tell me that Ryan and Alisha left that horrible nation without allowing all the poor to come back with them. They are just going to leave them there. That is murder, and it's disgusting." Do you see how backwards that is? But that is exactly how people view what Paul is clearly teaching here. He chose a small group out of many to save from death because it gives Him joy and PRAISE GOD for it, because He has no obligation to any one of us.

Another word we need to look at is the word inheritance. What do we think of when we hear the word inheritance? We think of a rich uncle that passed away and left his money to his first son. Would you like to know who most American conservative evangelical Christians are in this story? They are the spoiled brat nephew that says "How dare he not give me some of that money?! How dare he not give some to aunt Lucy, she's a nice lady, she deserves it." No, how dare YOU! How dare you claim any of the inheritance, it was GOD that paid the price, it was GOD that earned the glory and if He chose to close the gates of heaven behind Him and leave us here to rot, He would be entirely justified. But He put in the work, He paid the price, and the glory is His to give to whom it gives Him pleasure. If He has given you the gift of faith because of His sovereign grace it was given to you by no merit of your own. You did nothing to earn it, you did nothing to attain it and you have no RIGHT to tell God how to distribute it.

Some however still want to challenge Paul's intent on these issues; in fact, I often did the same thing. I felt, for only a brief moment, that there was no way to really know what Paul meant. That is until I had a "duh" moment and decided to look at Paul's testimony. We do hear his testimony in the Bible you know. However, before we turn there I would like to point out that, although his story is unique in many ways, it is not unique in God's design for salvation.  He didn't go outside the original plan for salvation just for Him, but saves us using different circumstances; Paul was saved by grace through faith. That being said, turn with me to Acts chapter nine verses 3-9. 

“And as he journeyed, it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven: and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: but rise, and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but beholding no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing; and they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink.” 

At this time I would like to contrast this story. I would like to slightly change the testimony to fit a little more into 21st century American evangelicalism. I imagine it sounding something a little more like this.

Hi, my name is Paul. Some of you may know me as Saul. I was raised in a very religious home but never really had a relationship with Christ. As I got older I began to resent God. Over time I started running with the wrong crowd. We got so fired up about our beliefs, I don’t know what came over us, it was like we were possessed. One day I was on my way to a town called Damascus to kill Christians.  As I was riding in, however, I began to feel remorseful for all that pain I had caused.  Eventually I just couldn't take it anymore; God was really speaking to my heart at that moment. I told everyone to stop and I knelt by the side of my horse. I called out to God asking him to forgive me for what I had done. I made the decision from that day forward to be a follower of Christ.

That is the testimony we hear again and again from Christians in America. What is the difference between the 21st century testimony and Paul's actual conversion story? What inconsistencies do we see with 21st century Paul and what he wrote in Ephesians? What we see is 21st century Paul changing the truth of his conversion to make himself look like the one that chose God. In Acts we see Paul thrown from his horse and commanded to walk. We see God's intervention which provides Paul with saving faith. In Ephesians we see Paul BEGGING us to see that it was not him. A truly humble man that really does give all the glory to God, begging us to see no good in him and also pleading that we understand that faith is given to us. We inherit it, we are adopted, we were predestined by God, it is a gift, "...lest any man should boast." Over and over again he is pleading with us to deny any involvement in what is entirely God's. Do not take from God, but declare your sinful nature as being absolute along with your inability to ever love God in your fallen state. Praise Him, not in part for letting us choose him in our not so horrible state, but praise Him entirely for choosing a rebellious God hater as His adopted child. 

Satan's Deceptions

Satan lies to us and deceives us, he was a liar from the beginning and no good or truth was in him according to Genesis.

That was an uncomfortable topic to think about when I first became a believer, I did not want to even think about the devil or satan or anything like that (I never capitalize satan because I don't think he deserves it, but anyways...). I didn't honestly think he existed and I didn't want him to exist because to me, that image was dirty, disgusting and horrifying. Somehow in my mind, if I didn't believe he was real, then he wasn't real and I didn't have to worry about him. And that was exactly where satan wanted to keep me, believing that everything in this world is fine and good and no big deal, and that satan doesn't exist. Those are lies straight from him to keep people in their, I don't know what you'd call it, states of false bliss perhaps? Ryan had asked me what I was going to write about and at first I said, ummmmmmm I have no idea, because he wanted to do a study that kind of went with what I am writing about (Ryan also does some work on this blog too).

So... how I came to the conclusion of digging into satan's deceptions and his lies further for this post, is because I just got done leading a class for teens/ young adults called Princess Within, mostly referred to the princess class. I wanted to sort of do posts about the different topics that I discussed in that class. It was a class that was honestly what I am passionate about, and that is, Jesus Christ, and purity. I felt kinda sheepish, I guess is the best way to describe it, and slightly terrified that God could possibly be asking me, just plain ole' me, to teach other girls about Him, and purity in mind, body, soul, actions and thoughts. But, I wanted His will, whatever that would be, so I said if  He facilitated this Princess Class, that I would show up and teach His truth. And, He facilitated it indeed! There were 7 girls who came faithfully, pretty much every week for a month and a half to this class and it was probably more for me than for the girls, I am just amazed at how much God has grown my faith in Him through the class and seeing Him work in my life so that I could share that with the girls in class. So.... to my point finally!!! The book we used to kind of go off of during the class was And The Bride Wore White by Dannah Gresh, and the first few chapters of her book were about lies satan uses to deceive us and trick us, mostly having to do with physical sins, but anything really.

So, I am definitely not an expert on satan's deceptions, in fact, I am sure that I still believe some lies that he has had me live by for so long. Satan does not want us to do anything in line with Scripture, "The devil... was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in  him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44. Satan makes lies for each specific person and what they would believe the best according to their own weaknesses. I do know that his lies always look amazing, always look good and always seem like no big deal. After all, he is the father of all lies, I know he is extremely good at it; who is going to 'fall' for a lie that is completely obvious and looks like a terrible thing to do? Not a lot of people... satan needs to be clever, sneaky, cunning, tricky, and to get people to honestly believe these lies are the bottom line truth. One of the probably biggest lies I have believed from him in the more recent past, and throughout my awkward pre-teen and teenage years was... that I am unworthy of being loved. It's actually hard to type that without getting a few tears in my eyes because of the fact that so much of my insecurities over the years have revolved around that. It is amazing to me (in the worst way possible) how much of a person's life can truly be affected by just one seemingly 'tiny' lie that satan continues to feed that person over the course of years through every avenue possible. Especially when a person starts really believing a lie like that, when anything happens in their lives, they attribute it to their set of lies about themselves etc. Which really leads me to the next point... our thought life.

The majority of these lies people go on believing, following and living by are all in an effort to distract people from Jesus Christ, the One true living God. Satan will stop at nothing to destroy people from the inside out and to keep them from Christ, to keep them from being saved, to keep them from glorifying Christ and to keep them from living for Him. Now, please keep in mind, that I am not saying every single evil thing you think is from the devil, not at all, you and I all have enough of that huge nasty thing God calls sin. We really don't need a lot of help from satan as far as having evil thoughts, being distracted with our own selfish desires to not seek God, but whatever satan can do, he will do it. I am in no way one of those crazy people who claims to hear satan talking to me or anything like that, so please do not get the wrong idea. The point is, that people can and will be deceived by evil and that is just the facts here. I am not making it up, it is from the Bible... which reminds me, I should probably start quoting some verses pretty soon here... I just wanted to explain where all of this was coming from, which, now that I think about it was probably completely unnecessary but I hope you've enjoyed my little rant!

A side note... I just love reading about other Christians stories and what God is doing in their lives and I just read this quote by a Christian artist... "There's just nothing we can do without grace; we're all dirty, messed up people, but Christ still loves us," said Rhett Walker. "So there are two things we must do. One: rejoice, because now we have a purpose on this earth-to share that grace with others. Two: take up the calling. You can't just take that love and not tell the story that goes with it." Just a nice reminder of the grace and mercy God shows us even though we are messed up people!

My rant really wanted to go towards our thought life... what a scary place! I know that I think all kinds of garbage and I have been really convicted lately to memorize Scripture to take my thoughts captive and abolish them with the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Even though we can't see our thoughts and other people can't see them, they are still sins just the same and I really need to start taking them more seriously as in, they still lead to death and sin destroys. Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." One of my favorite things that happens when I write this blog is when I start writing something and I know that there is a verse on it in the Word of God but I just remember a little part of it, so I goodsearch it (charity version of Google) and yep, there it is. So then, I incorporate that verse in what I'm writing. I love it because it means that the Word of God is getting stuck in my head, but I feel that I need infinitely more and I really would love to just think in Bible verses all day long for every situation! What a blessing that would be! We will focus on what we are thinking about, and we will think about what we spend time doing, learning or putting into ourselves. We should be thinking about things that are... "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- is anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." Philippians 4:8 because we are called to "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23. Every verse of Scripture in this paragraph were ones that I remembered and looked up so I could quote them and put in my blog... when that happens it honestly makes me want to know more and more Scripture, to think about those things that Philippians 4:8 calls us to think about; because we waste so much of our life and our days and our hours putting nothing but garbage into our minds from tv, magazines, the internet or wherever else we get more things to think about from the sinful world. There are obviously aspects of each of those things that can be good, but not the majority of what is on each of them.  

Another lie that satan is really good at feeding people, believers in Christ and those who stand at a distance trying to figure God out, he makes them think God's 'rules' or commandments are set up to keep something good from them. Here is a lie from way back in Genesis, the serpent telling Eve that eating the forbidden fruit will make her like God, "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:6. It seems like perhaps Eve thought, hmm, maybe God is keeping something from me and having her eyes opened and being like God sounded maybe like something she wanted, for the sheer fact that she didn't have those things. I will not get too many of my opinions in on this, because I wasn't there that day, and I can only conclude exactly what is written in Scripture, but to me, it seems like Eve thought for a second that God was withholding something good from her. So... she decided to disobey, to sin against God, and look at all the millions of consequences from that day forward her and Adam's sin caused!! I just think about my short life, only 25 years so far, and all of the consequences, pain, and heartache for myself and a lot of other people too that all of my sins have caused. It's almost too much to bear knowing how much destruction one person can cause. Many people are led to believe they should use their own brain, or their own intellectual abilities to decide for themselves what is right and wrong for them and to reject God's laws of moral standards. If you really sit down and think about it, this has become an extremely dangerous way of thinking about human thinking. Look at all of the ways in which our world is messed up and what people decided to do in their own minds, because it was 'right' for them. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9. God knows everything and anything possible there is to know, and I know what I know, which compared to God, is hardly anything. That is why I want to be diligent in studying God's Word to find out more about His ways and His thoughts because they are so much further above mine and His ways are perfect. God is not trying to withhold something from us, our own sins withhold plenty of blessings from our lives in themselves. God sets up boundaries, morals, right and wrong that withstand the test of time and know no bounds of culture, century, gender or situation. His ways are for every person anywhere in the world at any point in time. That to me, is incredibly amazing. To brush up on your 10 commandments, see my previous post  ‘Eternity… What Matters.’ I like to think of God's commands as a big strong fence to protect a tiny helpless puppy. If the puppy wanders outside of the big strong fence, there's no telling what will happen to him, but he has freedom withing the protection of the big strong fence. That is a really simple picture of God's standards as being protection for us, for those who obey Christ. First and foremost of course being, salvation, the saving of us from our eternal punishment we deserve because of our sins.

I know better than God and I know what is right for me is another big one that people use to justify their sin, how they choose to live their lives or anything else they feel they should or can be doing. And they are right, they can do anything they want, because God gave us all a free will to pick our own way; but that doesn't mean that there will never be consequences. Sin has BIG consequences, and the main one that affects our eternity is being separated from God forever and going to hell. "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched." Mark 9:43-45. I don't think Jesus was literally saying to us to cut off our body parts, but to take very seriously sin and to do whatever it takes to get rid of it so we are not thrown into hell. The only way we can get rid of it is through faith in Jesus Christ and confessing our sins to Him. 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit."    

The last lie I would like to talk about briefly is if you are saved, if you are a child of God, and you have messed up things in a big way, a deception you might believe is that God cannot use you. God can use anyone willing to obey Him and follow Him, no matter how many times we mess things up. God already knows how many times we will deny Him, how many times we will choose our own way over His way, but He is willing to keep His promises no matter how many times we break ours. Praise God for that!!