Ephesians 2:1-10

What was the main point of this passage? The main point of this passage is the point of everything! Paul really lays it out there for us. We were dead in our sins...followers of evil...children of wrath...living in disobedience...thinking only of ourselves and satisfying the desires of our sinful nature. But God stepped into the equation...even when we were still His enemies...when we were living in open rebellion to the way that He created us to live...He sacrificed Himself four our sins. His amazing grace has given us new freedom and life, and gives us a future, not of annihilation, but a future of immeasurable joy in His presence. Such an amazing passage!!! If you ever want to walk somebody through the Gospel...this would be a great place to turn.

What part o the passages spoke most powerfully to you? There are so many Christians (myself included sometimes, unfortunately) who love to cast judgment on "sinners" outside of the church...who don't make any efforts to reach out to people they consider "screwed up." Th words from Ephesians 2:5 just jumped off the page and burned themselves into my soul..."even when we were dead in our trespasses, made alive together with Christ." I was shown absolutely undeserved mercy by God...I was living in opposition to His way...I was warring against everything I was created to be...and God still chose to act on my behalf. He still chose to die for me. He chose to pay the penalty for my sins. Do you ever really think about that? Would you die for your enemies? So that they might experience freedom? That's what God did. How can we, who have been forgiven of countless sins, treat others unmercifully?

What questions does this passage bring to mind for you? I am always drawn to the interesting reference Paul makes to the "prince of the power of the air." What does that mean? Who is he talking about? I think we know who this is talking about, don't we? The Bible boldly explains to us that we are caught in the middle of a war between good and evil. There are evil forces that exist in the unseen spiritual world that are impacting the events that take place in the physical world. I think we do ourselves a disservice when we picture the devil as a slender guy in a red tuxedo, with horns, a tail, a pencil thin mustache, a pointy goatee and pitch fork. When we picture the personification of evil like this, it tends to make the devil into something almost funny or more a con artist than the embodiment of wrongness. The word translated as air here in this passage, is "pneuma" which is also know as "spirit." The devil is not dancing in your shoulder, whispering funny comments in your ear...the devil is best understood as an evil spiritual presence that is a driving force behind the wickedness that takes place every day in this world. Evil exists...we all know it does...we have seen it...maybe we have taken part in it. There is a spiritual war that is waging all around us all the time...and when we choose to listen to the lies of the spirit of evil...when we choose to give in to the twisted and selfish longings of our sinful nature - we become the children of disobedience. We trade in the family of God for a heritage of evil and destruction. This is no laughing matter and something we must be keenly aware of.

What does this passage challenge you to do? This was a great passage for me to read this morning, because I have already been struggling with my own human selfishness today. Things have been going very well spiritually for me lately...but I woke up this morning with a bent towards only thinking of myself. I could feel my thoughts start to turn towards complaining...I could feel a little selfish bitterness creep into my heart...the demons that I think we all struggle with sometimes that say, "What do you want? What do you deserve? What about you?" they began to sink their claws into me, and I could feel my attitude darken. Then came Ephesians 2:1-10, and it painted a picture for me of what was happening. I was listening to the lies of this world...the lies that the prince of evil has sown into every human culture...the lies that tell us that we should worship the "self." This passage reminded me about what truly matters...it reminded me about the freedom and love that are available to me as a gift from our Father God...it reminded me about how much I have to be thankful for. I was challenged to reset my mind on the things above and work today to ignore the lies that are swirling all around me.