I've been reading Ephesians in my quiet time lately, going veeerrryyyy slowly so as to not gloss over any detail. Hence, just a few verses a day. I've been amazed at what I've seen while going through a book I've read dozens of times. This is what's struck me the most:
The word grace appears many times in Ephesians, and frequently with different meanings and applications. Here are a few examples, and my thoughts/interpretations...
1:2: "Grace and peace to you..."
Paul wishes that his readers would know and experience the grace that comes from the Father. I believe a key to my spiritual life is that I would experience daily this grace.
1:6: "...to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
Grace has been given to us, without cost to us. Jesus paid it all. How often, though, do I try to pay for it?
1:7 "...in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us..."
This grace was lavished on us. What an usual word: "lavish". What else gets lavished? I don't have a good picture of what that looks like. I think it's like being smothered. How wonderful it would be to be smothered by grace! How wonderful, now that I think about it, it was and is, when I really let in sink in.
2:7 "...the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."
Grace is expressed in kindness. Grace seems too big to me to be expressed by something as simple as kindness, but there it is. Of course, the kindness Paul refers to is Christ's sacrificial death on the cross, which kind of ups the ante on our typical definition of "kindness". Do we think of laying down our own lives as a form of kindness? Am I a kind person?
3:2: "...the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation..."
Now, a new understanding of grace. Grace, in this context, is a gift given to Paul for the benefit of others. This challenges me to think about what graces God has administered to me for the sake of the body of Christ. Part of the answer is, ironically, that God has administered to me a gift of administration. May that I use it well for the edification of all those who know Him.
3:7: "...by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power."
God's power is manifested in me through the gifts he has "graced" me with. These gifts are not something I've earned -- they are given to me without merit. And these gifts are not of myself -- they are the power of God in and through me. This calls me to stewardship of these gifts, not selfish exploitation of them, as sin in me is prone to make them.
3:8: "Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given to me: to preach to the Gentiles..."
I love Paul's humility. To us he's PAUL -- the awesome man of the Bible who we all aspire to be like in some way. In his own eyes though, he was less than the least. I believe his modesty is what made him great. And again, here he speaks of preaching as a grace -- an undeserved gift from God. His ministry was in itself an undeserved gift. And moreover, this ministry was to put salvation on its head: the message was for Gentiles too! This was an unpopular message among the Jews, but Paul considered it GRACE to be the one to preach it. That I would welcome and rejoice at ministry that is, at its core, hard.
4:7: "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it."
What grace has been given to me and how am I meant to use it? My spiritual gifts and abilities are grace. My citizenships in heaven, and in the U.S., are grace. My intellect is a grace. My health is a grace. I deserve none of it. God's just chosen to bless me for some reason. And it seems clear to me that the reason is that I might be a blessing to others; that I might reveal something of the love of the Father to those who don't know that they, too, are loved with a zealous and everlasting love.
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