RADIANT LIGHT: Thursday Encouragement #15 Ephesians

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Thursday Encouragement #15 Ephesians

Welcome to another edition of Thursday Encouragement. If you aren't familiar with our blogger group, a few of us bloggers got together and created this Thursday blog post to bring you some encouragement before we head into the weekend.

I'm going to be using my pastor's sermon from Sunday as a springboard for my post. We've been in study of Ephesians and on Sunday the scripture was Ephesians 2:8-18.

Ephesians 2:8 - 18

God saved: you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

The interesting thing about these eleven verses is that they are about racism.

Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus about the Jews who have converted to Christianity were treating the converted Gentiles and Pagans as less than because

they were circumcised and the others weren't, something they were

very proud of, a little weird to me to be proud of that. Which is why Paul is

addressing it in this letter. God makes it very clear in this

section of scripture that no one is better than anyone else.

"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,

so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

God calls us His masterpiece so, if we're all a masterpiece created by

God's own hands how can we treat anyone else less than the masterpiece God

created them to be just because we're different.

Now, it's your turn . . . what have you been reading in the Bible lately that has encouraged you? And what do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Then visit my friends and read their encouraging posts.