noreply@blogger.com (Ramesh) — Sun, 20 May 2012 05:10:00 +0000

Here is a good interpretation on the book of Ephesians. Every verse is explained so I think it is very useful. Hope you will like it.

Chapter one of Ephesians speaks of the good pleasure of the Father. In this chapter we see that everything in life is done according to God’s good pleasure. Everything has been created for pleasure of the Father, and that includes you and me, beloved.

1:1-“ Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” Paul opens his letter to his friends at Ephesus in his normal manner. He says that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ of God. Our ministry is according to the will of God. We cannot choose what we want to be in the Body of Christ; the Lord is the One who chooses. Hebrews 5:4 speaks of the fact that not just anyone who aspires to be in the ministry receives that calling:” And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as a Aaron.”

We think we know what will make us happy, but in reality only God knows what we were created for and what will truly satisfy us. Many people spend their whole life seeking to do something that they were not meant to do or pursuing a career that God has not called them to, and they are never happy.

I know people who have spent their whole lives trying to become concert pianists, but the were never happy or satisfied because God had not called them to that ministry. We must find out what God’s will and calling for our lives is, and seek by His grace to fulfill it. Only then will we find true happiness.

The term saints(meaning holy ones) is used of Christians. They are called saints because they are joined to Christ who is holy. Faithful is used here to denote those Christians who are walking wholeheartedly in the statutes, commandments, and ways of God. Its is the faithful who are entrusted with the truth and teachings of God(2 Tim. 2:2).

Paul speaks in 1 Corinthains 4:1-2 of the high standards required to be a servant and minister of the Lord: “Let a man so account on us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

Christ said in Luke 16:10,”:He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least in unjust also in much.” God, like any good employer, always gives us little responsibilities at first to see if we will be faithful in the little things, God promotes us in His kingdom, for promotion does not come from man, but from the Lord alone(Psa.75:6-7).

A short time after I was first saved, the Lord told me to ask the Sunday school superintendent at the church I was attending if I could be a Sunday school teacher. The superintendent said to me, “We have a class of ten boys all about ten years old, and we think you will be ideal teacher for them.” Other teachers had given up on these naughty little children, but I was determined that I would be faithful to the task the Lord had given me. God was very merciful and faithful to me, and within a short period of time all of thee boys gave their hearts to he Lord in dramatic conversions.

Another very important lesson in life is that we must be faithful in our secular employment. Jesus said in Luke 16:11,”If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” Many people, in their zeal for serving the Lord, quit their secular jobs prematurely, This is especially the casein revival. I have been privileged to have witnessed several revivals in different parts of the world, and have seen many people make tragic mistakes by quitting their jobs in order to serve the Lord.

We have to be faithful to finish the work God has given us to do before He will promote us and move us on. I had to complete the work God had to do with that small Sunday school class before He would move me on to greater avenues of ministry, Therefore, we must not leave our secular occupation until we pass the test there, and then God will move us on to full-time ministry in His perfect time.

1:2-“Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Peace means unity and oneness with God. Grace means unmerited favor. We were chosen not because of any merits of our own, but because God chose to show us favor. Grace also means divine enablement. When the Apostle Paul was suffering with an affliction, the Lord Jesus Christ said to him,” My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”(2Cor.12:9). It was grace that enabled Paul to endure that affliction.

It is the Lord’s grace alone that enables us to accomplish His will and purpose. The last four years of my wife’s life were a living nightmare for her. I had to bathe her, feed her, and take her everywhere she went.

Towards the end of the fourth year of caring for her, I began to get very weak, and could feel that the grace of God to care for her was beginning to leave. I no longer had the physical strength to continue, and I did not know what was happening. And then the Lord took her home to be with Him. I realized that it was only the grace of God that enabled me and strengthened me to care for her all that time. Truly, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!

1:3-“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” The thought of blessing comes from the Greek word eulogetos, which means” to praise, adore or lift up by reciting the goodness or virtues of a person.” In this case, the person is the Father Himself. We are to bless God and speak well of Him because of His goodness towards us.

He had blessed us by giving us all spiritual blessings(spiritual gifts and virtues) that are in heaven. Peter says,” According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue”(2Pet.1:3). God, like any good father, does not give us everything we ask for, because somethings we ask for would be detrimental to us. He gives us the things that we need which will be a blessing to us.

We have been blessed because one aspect of God’s nature is His delight in blessing others. Psalm 145:9 states that the Lord is good to all. In fact, the whole of Psalm 145 speaks of the goodness and compassion of our God towards His creation. The Apostle Paul notes in Romans8:32 that “ He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not wuth him also freely give us all things?”

Our Heavenly Father is a generous Farther who delights in blessing His children. Just as at Christmastime and other occasions when parents give to their children and rejoice when they say ”thank you” – so our Heavenly Father gives us gifts because He loves to see the sparkle in our eyes and the joy in our hearts when He blesses us, and He loves hear our heart our heartfelt thanks.

Therefore, we should have confidence to approach the Lord’s throne, as the Apostle Paul states in Hebrews 4:16:” let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy ,and find grace to help in time of need.”

The Apostle Paul states in Hebrews 7:25 that the Lord Jesus Christ is able to save the uttermost, or as we say in English ,” The Lord is able to save from the ’guttermost’ (the worst condition imaginable) to the uttermost father and had a very close relationship with him.

One of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood is of my father lying in bed with me one night when I had an ear-ache. He cupped his hand over my ear to make it warm and ease the pain. Therefore, as a Christian and a child of God, it has been very easy for me to think of God the Father as being a wonderful Father because of my own earthly father.

Looking through the book of Ephesians