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Ephesians: more, more, more!
My Chemistry teacher in year 12 was pretty great. I never enjoyed studying science much until I had this teacher in year 12. She was so excited about the subject. She explained things as though she had just personally discovered them herself. She would start talking faster and faster as she explained how molecules bind together and I couldn’t help but be excited as well. She was talking as an expert to someone like me who was only a beginner. But she made me want to know more.
As we read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, this is the voice I hear. In comparison to his letter to the Galatians, Paul is gushing with excitement as he writes to the Ephesians. He is so excited by their faith but he is also super excited for them to know more!
First, he recognises that they have joined “team Jesus”:
Ephesians 1:13
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
And then he gushes about how thankful he is for this amazing work that God has done in their lives:
Ephesians 1:15-16
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
Paul is excited. But like a great teacher, he wants them to know all the great things he does about our great God! If you read this section really fast, you may catch the excitement of Paul as he writes it to them:
Ephesians 1:17-19
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Paul wants them to know more. He is so thankful for their faith and he wants them to know more, and more, and more about the greatness of God and the work he has done through Jesus, and the incomparable work God is doing through his Holy Spirit.
If you’re a scientist, I hope you are thankful for the wonder of science and I hope that it still grabs you and excites you.
If you’re a follower of Jesus, I hope and pray that you are thankful for what God has done, and that it still excites you every day, and that you yearn to know more and more and more about him.
I pray that this thankfulness and excitement gushes out of you like an excited child on Christmas morning. I’d encourage you to read Ephesians 1 quickly and with excitement! It’s full of awe and wonder, thankfulness and excitement, about a God who has done the most incredible thing that could possibly be done – he has called you to the hope of a glorious inheritance, he has made known to you the mystery of his will, he has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. And he wants you to know him more, and more, and more.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for making us your children. Thank you for redeeming us from death and forgiving us from our sins. Thank you for revealing your truth to us. Please help us to never stop being amazed and excited and thankful for what you have done for us. And please help us to know you more and more each day as we read your word, as we come to you in prayer, and as your Holy Spirit continues to work in our lives. Amen.