Month: April 2019
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The meaning of ministry (Ephesians 3:7–8)
Christian ministry is hard. So why be involved at all? Pragmatics and techniques alone can’t answer that question. We need to know the meaning of ministry.
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The open secret (Ephesians 3:4–6)
How can we know God’s will? Some try to see God’s will in the progress of history. But this is disastrous. God’s will is something we can’t work out by ourselves.
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The prisoner lifts his eyes (Ephesians 3:1–3)
It’s so easy for Christians to play the victim, and to define ourselves as victims. But Paul, even in prison under Roman rule, lifts his eyes to God’s grace in Christ.
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Built together (Ephesians 2:20–22)
Is every church on its own? How are Christian believers connected with other believers with whom we don’t meet regularly: in our region, nation, and world?
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“Do not weep for me, weep for yourselves…” (Luke 23:28)
Why do Christians lament? Sometimes we lament out of sympathy, but sometimes we weep for ourselves. This is the kind of lament that Jesus calls for here.
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No second-class Christians (Ephesians 2:19)
Even if we don’t say it out loud, we can often act as if there are different classes of Christians. But the gospel teaches us there are no second-class Christians.
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Christ the missionary (Ephesians 2:17–18)
Christ is a missionary. Christ does stranger evangelism. Christ preaches to the choir. Christ crosses cultures. Christ brings peace. So says the Apostle Paul. What does he mean?
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Christ the wall breaker (Ephesians 2:14–16)
In this broken and rebellious world, our healthy boundaries often become hostile walls. But the cross of Christ breaks down walls and brings reconciliation.
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The blood that brings us close (Ephesians 2:11–13)
Despite our best desires and efforts, we humans are not very good at living up close with others. This has become devastatingly obvious in the recent Christchurch shootings. Yet in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about a conflict that really was healed. This passage is about a real closeness that all believers in…
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Good works and salvation: What’s the connection? (Ephesians 2:8–10)
A joke letter from an Australian church offering its financial donors priority access to heaven raises questions for all of us. Do our good deeds give us access to heaven? Or are our good deeds irrelevant? Where do our good deeds fit when it comes to salvation?