Main Theme: Paul’s message is not just for the Ephesians but for believers all over the world.
Read in Class:Ephesians 1:4. Define the main idea of this passage. Study: If God chose us before the foundation of the world, what does that tell you about His foreknowledge? Apply: How do you react to the thought that God not only knew you before you were born, but that He had chosen you to be saved and to live with Him throughout eternity? Share: Your friend asks if Ephesians 1:4 teaches we are all predestined to be lost or saved with no choice of our own? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Ephesians 3. Define the main idea of this passage. Study: Is it both exciting and important to be a part of God’s church? Why or why not? Apply: What kinds of barriers between believers exist in our church that should not be there? Share: Your friend asks how God has exceeded your expectations? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Ephesians 4. Define the main idea of this passage. Study: What things does Paul tell believers to stop doing, and what things does he tell believers to do? Apply: What are ways that we can contribute to the unity of our church, both at the local and worldwide levels? Why is it important to do what we can? Share: Your friend asks how she can know what her spiritual gifts are? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Ephesians 5. Define the main idea of this passage. Study: How does Paul ask us to live out the gospel in our relationship with others? Apply: How can we walk in love as imitators of God in our lives? What hindrances do we face in that kind of walk? Share: What is your main take away from the book of Ephesians?
Have you ever felt like you were a victim of circumstances? Due to lack of education or money you have missed opportunities? Maybe if you had not married right out of high school you could have explored the world instead of getting tied down. Now you are sacrificing your own dreams in order to create a better life for your family. Meanwhile others wish they had married so they could be experiencing a family. Now those are examples of being a victim of our own choices and not necessarily circumstances beyond our own control. Others feel like they were born victims.
Some blame the location of where they were born on how their lives turned out. Several years ago a friend came to visit me from South America. We were stopped at an intersection where a man was begging. My friend was amazed that there were poor people in the United States. She thought all Americans were wealthy because America is known as the land of opportunity. It seems that, no matter where people come from or what their lot is in life, they can see them selves as victims of circumstances.
While I enjoy my freedom of being single, there are times I miss having a family. I was talking to a friend the other day about one of the things I miss about not having my own family. I miss having someone with whom to share my stories. I don’t have a wife with whom I can share my school yearbook and tell her my high school and college stories. I don’t have any children to whom I can tell my “when I was a kid” stories. Then again, I know married people who don’t have anyone in their family who wants to hear their story either. 1
My friend then made an amazing comparison. She told me while I have no family with whom to share my stories, I share them with my church family and extended family through blogging. She told me Paul was the same way. Maybe that is why he wrote so much and loved his church so much. Having no immediate family, the church was his love and passion, and he shared his story and testimony with them through his letters. Maybe that is why he wrote so much!
Now I have no doubt Paul wrote because God told him to, and it got me to thinking about Paul’s circumstances and one thing I have always noticed: While being persecuted and in prison Paul never thought of himself as a victim of circumstances. He never even though of himself as a victim of the Jews or Romans while in prison. Paul writes,
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.. Ephesians 3:1
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you… Ephesians 4:1
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner:2 Timothy 1:8
Paul never refers to being a prisoner of the Romans or Jews. Even while in prison Paul saw himself as a prisoner of the Lord! He knew he was exactly where God wanted him to be. Paul did most of his writing from prison. If he had been free to travel and talk to people in person, he would not have written so much, and we would not have had all of his writings preserved in the New Testament that we have today.
Paul was well aware of how an angel freed Peter from prison. Paul was well aware of how Philip just disappeared from one place and appeared in another. Paul knew that the iron bars and soldiers were not really holding him there. He knew he was right where God needed him to be, so he calls himself a prisoner of the Lord instead of a prisoner of man or circumstances.
I have a friend who recently took a job for which she was over-qualified. Based on her education and degree, she should be somewhere else making much more money. She may have even faced ridicule from her friends and family for “lowering” herself to take this job, but where she is living, and based on other “circumstances” this is the best she can do for now. She never complains. Instead she tells me of the people she meets there who need Jesus, people she never would have been able to reach out to if she was not working with them. They never would have come to her church. She never would have met them working any place else. She is glad she is where she is because she is being used by God to reach people who need Him! And really isn’t that where we all should be?
No matter where we are born and raised and work, our real home is in heaven and we are just missionaries to this world, sent from God to share the good news with others. Some of us may be missionaries in places of poverty. Some of us may be missionaries in our families, or if we have no immediate family then in our church family and communities. Some of us may be missionaries in difficult work places, and some of us may be missionaries in literal prisons. Either way we are not prisoners of circumstances. If we love God and have chosen to serve Him, we are only prisoners of the Lord.
By the way, just because I am happy being single does not mean I have chosen to remain single. I am just happy being single until God brings me the right woman. I am not desperate. I am happily content. ↩
You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.
Main Theme: In composing Ephesians 6:10-20, Paul prays for an enhanced vision for believers so that they will be able to see the full reality of the great controversy and to draw hope from what it reveals to them.
Read in Class:Ephesians 6:10-20. Define the key thought in this passage.
Study: What does Paul’s battle cry mean to us today, as combatants in the great controversy?
Apply: What should Paul’s warning that we fight not against flesh and blood but against supernatural enemies teach us about where our only hope of victory is?
Share: Your friend asks, how can we be praying always? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Romans 13:11-14. Define the main idea of this passage.
Apply: What are some of the ways that you personally have experienced the reality not only of this cosmic conflict, but of the victory we can claim for ourselves in Jesus? Why is understanding His victory for us so foundational to our hope and experience?
Share: Your friend tells you he is trying to stop smoking, but keeps a cigarette in the cabinet “just in case.” How might Romans 13:14 help you answer your friend?
Study: Out of all the armor mentioned in Ephesians 6:10-20, why do you think Paul chooses to repeat breastplate and helmet here? Are they more important than the other pieces of armor?
Apply: How do you apply verse 6 not to sleep as others do? Don’t we all need sleep?
Share: Your friend asks, ” how does putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation keep us sober?” What do you tell your friend?
Study: What does it mean that we walk in the flesh but do not war according to the flesh? How might Ephesians 6:12 help us answer this question?
Apply: What are some of the arguments in the great controversy, and how do you cast them down and make them obedient to Christ?
Share: Can you think of a friend who would be encouraged by something in this week’s lesson? What you can you do to plan to share it with them this week?
Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Ephesians 4:29 NLT
Forgive me (And I know you will because Ephesians 4:32 tells us to) for tarrying in last week’s Sabbath School lesson a little longer, but I believe Ephesians 4:29 is worth another glance. We live in a world of negativity and discouragement. Insults are considered comedy and are mainstream in the entertainment world. If you are single, how many times have you woken up, knowing you had a challenging, seemingly impossible day ahead of you, and wished there was someone to share an encouraging word with you as you headed to work? If you are married, how many times have you woken up to a challenging seemingly impossible day, and instead of your family encouraging you, only spoke words of discouragement, making you sink even further into hopeless despair? How many times have you heard a friend or coworker say, “This is not what I needed today!” when they were already carrying an unbearable burden, as someone added the straw that broke the camel’s back with a discouraging word?
Many, many, have fainted and become discouraged in the great struggle of life, when one word of kindly cheer would have strengthened them to overcome. Never should we pass by one suffering soul without seeking to impart to him of the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God.-Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Pages 504-505.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver. Proverbs 25:11 NKJV
With some rare blessed exceptions, I believer we all at one time or another have longed for an encouraging word in a sea of hopeless despair, only to receive none. Still God’s grace carried us through.. Hopefully this has taught us how much others need a word of encouragement. At the same time, while the world is full of negativity and discouragement, God has His wonderful encouragers all over the place.
Years ago a pastor friend told me about a visit he had with Jamie. Jamie had been ten years nicotine free, and was the lead teacher of her church’s primary Sabbath school class. Things were going well for her and she was so happy that God had turned her life around from an atheist chain smoker to a productive disciple for Jesus. Then one day things became very stressful at work. Her boss’s temper became uncontrollable and he was threatening to fire people right and left. Jamie was surprised and depressed to find herself smoking cigarettes again-something she thought she would never do again. Saddened by her falling back into an old addiction, she went to my pastor friend and confessed that she was smoking and needed to stop teaching Sabbath School. Instead of accepting her resignation and condemning her, the pastor told her she should definitely not stop teaching Sabbath school. Instead she should and could stop smoking. He reminded her that Psalm 51:17 tells us God will never despise a broken and contrite heart, no matter how many times the same sin has already broken that heart. Jamie went ahead and kept teaching even though she had not totally broken away from the cigarettes. The pastor kept her secret, and prayed with her and encouraged her. Jamie ended up losing her job along with several or her coworkers. Jamie found a new job and soon after shared with the pastor that she had totally stopped smoking again. Jamie was in a small church with a small primary class, and it turned out a couple of the parents had begun to smell the smoke on her even though she never confessed to them. However instead of gossiping and condemning, these parents knew Jamie’s character and understood what was going on in her life, so they prayed for her. This story had a beautiful ending because the pastor and parents were encouraging instead of condemning. They followed the example of Jesus.
Others He [Jesus]met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win; for angels of God were on their side, and would give them the victory. Those whom He thus helped were convinced that here was One in whom they could trust with perfect confidence. He would not betray the secrets they poured into His sympathizing ear.-Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 92.
Who can you speak an encouraging word to today?
PS If you are reading this and struggling with discouragement, and no one in your circle seems to understand how much you need an encouraging word, please know you are not alone. Jesus knows how you feel. All his friends left him in His darkest hour, yet He said “I am not alone for the Father is with me.” God is with you. He loves you. He sees you and cares for you. God loves you! Don’t give up my friend. I may not even know you, but God knows you, and impressed me to write this paragraph just for you. God loves you and He will see you through to victory!
Main Theme: What the world considers wise God considers foolish, and what the world considers foolish God considers wise.
Read in Class:Ephesians 5:1-10. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: In what sense does Paul intend believers to be “imitators of God”?
Apply: In what ways are Paul’s words about sexual behavior applicable to your culture, wherever you live?
Share: Your friend says that the Bible teachings about premarital sex only applies to teenagers. He is a grown up so sex outside of marriage is okay. Plus his sex life is not the church’s business. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Ephesians 5:11-14. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What powerful warning is Paul giving here, and how does this apply to our present situation?
Apply: How do you live the kind of lifestyle that can expose works of darkness for what they are?
Share: Your friend asks, “What does it mean to rise from the dead? How can dead people raise themselves back up?” What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Ephesians 5:15-17. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: Consider Paul’s exhortations to live in a way that reflects prayerful, discerning wisdom. What is the difference between walking not as fools but “wise”?
Apply: How are we as a church and individuals “redeeming the time?” What does “redeeming the time” even mean to us?
Share: Your friend asks you how she is supposed to understand what God’s will is. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Ephesians 5:18-20. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: In Ephesians 5:18-20, Paul imagines Christians gathered to worship. What does he depict them as doing in that worship?
Apply: How can you use music to enhance your own worship experience?
Share: Share with the class some things that you are thankful for right now.
This question reminded me of a conversation I overheard at an Oklahoma camp meeting way back in 1991.After recently getting baptized and becoming the first person in his family to become a Christian, an older gentleman brought his 13 year old son to camp meeting. Jesus, Christianity, church and camp meeting were all brand new to this teenage boy. While most everyone else was staying in tents or nearby hotel, I was driving back and forth an hour and half everyday between Wewoka Woods and my home in Tulsa. So one afternoon, when I was a little tired, my friend let me have her tent to myself so I could take a little rest. Right outside of the tent, her 13 year old daughter was talking with the young boy who had come to camp meeting with his grandfather. While I could hear them, I had pretty much tuned them out so I could rest, but then the boy asked the girl the question, “What is this Jesus stuff about anyways?” Immediately my ears perked up. I was very interested to know what this young teenage girl was going to say. Would she begin with Daniel 9 and the 70 weeks? Would she begin with John 1 and how the Word as in the beginning can became flesh?
As I was now intently listening to an overheard conversation I had previously tuned out, I can remember the girl’s answer like it was yesterday. She said, “Before my mother and I met Jesus, all we did was argue and yell at each other and I couldn’t stand being home. But now that my mother and I know Jesus, we don’t argue and yell at each other. We love each other and now I love being in my home.”
“Wow!” I thought. My friend’s daughter didn’t just know about Jesus. She knew Jesus. She didn’t have to go to Daniel or John to tell her friend about Jesus, because she had experienced Jesus for herself. Jesus had radically changed her life and as she out off the old life and received the new life like putting on hew clothes.
My friend’s daughter did not just know about the story of Jesus, she lived with and for Jesus. 32 years later she still does. To this day she lives with and for Jesus, and is always sharing Christ with all those she comes in contact with in her community. She does not just know about Christ, she has put on Christ like putting on new clothes. So, if someone asked you, “What is all this Jesus stuff about anyways?” What would you say?
You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.
Main Theme: While are all different members, together we all contribute different talents and gifts in forming one church.
Read Together: Ephesians 4:1-16. Discuss the main idea of this passage.
Study: How does Paul encourage believers to nurture the unity of the church?
Apply:Humility, gentleness, patience. Think about how these attributes would help unify us as a people. How do we learn to cultivate these virtues?
Share: Your friend asks you, if there is only one church does that mean the Adventist church is the only church there is, or does it mean that all the different denominations all make up one Christian church? What do you tell your friend?
Study: Drawing on Psalm 68:18, Paul has just described the risen, exalted, conquering Jesus as giving gifts to His people from on high. What “gifts” does the exalted Jesus give, and for what purpose?
Apply: What gifts do you recognize that God has given you for building up His church? What gifts do you recognize in others, and how do you appreciate their contributions to the church?
Share: Your friend says he does not believe in the gift of prophecy because all we need is in the Bible. We don’t need modern day prophets or even Ellen White. How might Ephesians 4:11-13 help you answer your friend? See also The Gift of Prophecy in Light of the Cross.
Read in Class: Ephesians 4:14. Define the main theme of this passage.
Study: What danger threatens the Christlike maturity of the church?
Apply: In what ways might you feel like you are still a child? In what ways do you feel like you have matured as a Christian?
Share: Your friend says that Jesus tells us we must enter the kingdom of heaven as a child. So why is Paul telling us not to be children anymore? What do you tell your friend? See also Grace Helps us Grow up.
Read in Class: Ephesians 4:15-16. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: In what ways does a healthy church function like a healthy body?
Apply: How can we get every member to use their gifts and talents to increase the body and make it healthier?
Share: Can you think of someone who has been working hard helping out at the church lately? Can you speak a word of appreciation and encouragement to them or even send them a nice card this week?
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 4:31-5:2 NKJV
God’s grace allows us to be filled with all the fulness of God (Ephesians 3:19) and helps us to imitate God. What better way to imitate God than to be merciful and forgiving towards others! While Paul wrote to the Ephesians about both Jews and Gentiles now making up one church, Paul also shares some words of wisdom with the Colossians about coming together to form one church. I think this advice would also be good for the Ephesians as well as for us.
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Colossians 3:12-15 NLT
Imagine that! While Paul told the Romans in Romans 13:14 not to give in to the temptations of the flesh, he tells the Colossians to make allowances for each other’s faults. It reminds me of the words of a pastor friend with whom I worked years ago. His motto was, conservative towards ourselves and liberal towards others. I believe this is also the attitude of Paul. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard, while being forgiving of others. Of course that in no way is saying we are higher than others just because we hold ourselves to a higher standard. Paul always considered himself the chief of sinners, and we must always realize how sinful we are and feel our need of Christ. That is what should help us be so forgiving of others. Also, while we hold ourselves to a higher standard, we also need to forgive ourselves instead of beating ourselves up. No one ever became more holy by tormenting themselves and beating themselves up. In Matthew 10:8 Jesus tells us to freely give as we freely receive. I believe that goes for forgiveness as well. In fact, not accepting God’s forgiveness actually is demonstrating a lack of faith.
Jesus gave us an example of being conservative towards himself when he fasted 40 days in the wilderness, and then He also gave us an example of being liberal towards others when He fed the multitude. He refused to work a miracle to feed himself in Matthew 4, but in Matthew 14, He works a miracle to feed others. That is being conservative towards yourself and liberal towards others.
As we continue to walk in this grace and forgiveness we depart form sin.
But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints ;neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Ephesians 5:3-5 NKJV
While Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:1-11 that God’s grace gives us an inheritance to God’s kingdom, Paul also tells us that those who inherit the kingdom by grace are given victory over their past life of sin.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord…..See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5:8-10, 15-18 NKJV
While the book of Ephesians tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 that we are saved by grace and not by works, the same book of Ephesians tells us what being saved by grace looks like, as we become forgiving of others (and ourselves) and walk in the light of God’s love as we leave the deeds of darkness.
Martin Luther, who was the champion of salvation by grace and not by works also knew that grace and faith helps us depart from sin. He was grieved when he visited Rome and saw religious leaders living in open sin.
Everywhere he looked upon scenes that filled him with astonishment and horror. He saw that iniquity existed among all classes of the clergy. He heard indecent jokes from prelates, and was filled with horror at their awful profanity, even during mass. As he mingled with the monks and citizens he met dissipation, debauchery. Turn where he would, in the place of sanctity he found profanation. “No one can imagine,” he wrote, “what sins and infamous actions are committed in Rome; they must be seen and heard to be believed. Thus they are in the habit of saying, ‘If there is a hell, Rome is built over it: it is an abyss whence issues every kind of sin.’”-Ellen White, Great Controversy, Page 125.
Martin Luther was grieved the leaders were not experiencing God’s grace that gives us obedience (Romans 1:5), and good works (Ephesians 2:8-10) and allows us to live godly, righteous lives right here in this sinful world (Titus 2:11-12). Martin Luther realized Jesus did not die so we can continue in open sin. He realized Jesus died so we can leave our life of sin and darkness and walk in the light of God’s love and righteousness.
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Peter 2:24 NKJV
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14 NKJV
Ephesians teaches us that while being forgiving of ourselves and others we can be more and more like Jesus every day,
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; Ephesians 4:13 NKJV
You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.
Main Theme: As we study the Bible more deeply, we receive even greater revelations of God’s love.
Read in Class: Ephesians 3:1-6. Discuss the main idea of this passage.
Study: What is the mystery that has been entrusted to Paul?
Apply: How can we learn to trust God and His ways amid what can be trying circumstances?
Share: Your friend tells you ever since her divorce, everyone at church tells her they still love her and are friendly to her at church, but her church friends no longer include her in activities and socials. Her church claims to be inclusive but is obviously leaving her out now. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Ephesians 3:7-13. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What does Paul say about God and the actions of God in Ephesians 3:7-13?
Apply: If your own congregation took seriously Paul’s “job description” of the church in Ephesians 3:10, how might it change the way you and your fellow church members relate to each other?
Share: Your friend asks why Paul says he is the worst sinner? Are we all supposed to feel that way? What do you tell your friend?
Study: Compare Paul’s earlier prayer request, Ephesians 1:16-19, with his plea for believers in Ephesians 3:14-19. In what ways are the two requests similar?
Apply: What person or event has helped you the most to understand the depths of God’s love?
Share: Your friend says he has trouble trying to trust church members like they are family. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Ephesians 3:20-21. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What does Paul praise God for in this passage?
Apply: What blessings from God are especially valuable to you?
Share: Your friend says its beautiful reading about how God reconciles us to Himself, but she has fallen too far away from God to have her relationship with God reconciled and restored. What do you tell your friend? See also, Ephesians 3: A Shattered Relationship Perfectly Restored.
Main Theme: The cross tears down the walls the separate humanity.
Read in Class: Ephesians 2:11-12. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What does Paul accent in his fresh description of the past?
Apply: From what condition has Jesus redeemed you? Why might it be important for you to recall, with some regularity, where you were when He found you and where you might now be had He not found you?
Share: Your friend complains that she is constantly seeing ads on TV and hearing even seemingly innocent songs on the radio that are always reminding her of her past life of sin. God has turned her life around but she just wishes she could get rid of the constant reminders of her past life. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Ephesians 2:14-16. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: How does the cross transform our relationships?
Apply: Is there someone you need to be reconciled with? How might you go about that? See also The 7 A’s of Reconciliation.
Share: Your friend complains that there is racism and sexism in the church just as much as in the world. How do you respond to your friend?
Read in Class: Ephesians 2:17-18. Discuss the main idea of this passage.
Study: How does Paul summarize the ministry of Christ in Ephesians 2:17, 18?
Apply: How can we learn to be preachers of peace as opposed to conduits of conflict? To what situations, right now, can you help bring healing?
Share: Your friend asks how the church can help blend in with the culture around it without compromising Bible teachings? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Ephesians 2:11-22. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What culminating set of images does Paul use in Ephesians 2:11-22 to signal unity between Jews and Gentiles in the church?
Apply: What “walls” or divisions in the church do you see now, that you would like to see broken down?
Share: Can you think so someone who may feel alienated from the church? How can reach out to them this week and make them feel included?
In Light of The Cross 
