Today's reading is a little challenging due to its poetic and theological intensity. The overall message is that God chose us in Christ and has given us all we need for salvation. We don't need to earn God's love because God gives it freely. At the same time, as part of our redemption, we are destined for good works and to make progress as we grow in faith.
Blessings on your journey today,
Sam
Ephesians 1:1-14
Paul, an
apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus
and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.
5He destined
us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good
pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he
freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches
of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he
has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time,
to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11In Christ we
have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the
purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so
that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the
praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked
with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of
our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his
glory.
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