Hey Gang! 🙂 I just want to continue to encourage you to read through Ephesians with us–seeking a deeper understanding of what it means to live in REAL community. To understand the “how”, first we must understand the “what”. Chapter two does a GREAT job at starting this out for us!
Paul starts by describing our old selves as: dead, sons of disobedience, living in the pasions of our flesh, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. After this descripion, verse four comes as a great source of comfort: BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us…(6) raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!!! We no longer fit Paul’s description of the old self! Christ has become our new self–and the same power that rose Christ from the dead is now alive and at work IN EACH OF US!!!
*How do you guys think that being aware of this power at work in us will help us live in true community?
I think the bigger picture of Ephesians looks something like this:
MAN is dead in sin (vs 1-3)
GOD loves us, gives us life, saves us from death (vs 4-9)
the RESULT is that we get to walk in God’s good work because we are HIS workmanship! (vs 10)
And the amazing thing about this message is that it CAN apply to everyone! We have the privilege of traveling around the world, sharing this with people who are still struggling to shed their old selves. We’ve been there! Daily we shed our old, dead-in-sin self, and daily, by God’s grace and mercy, put on Christ–our new self!
*Why is this view of the message we carry important for living in community?
These were just some things I thought of as I read the chapter. I thought they might be a good way to start this conversation. Feel free to add to it! 🙂
