Photo Hands holding cross by shaggy359 on Flickr href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/12495774@N02/6246690984/”
Take the verses below phrase by phrase. Contemplate on each one, connecting it to those before it. Ephesians is something of a love letter from Paul to the Gentiles. Paul’s love for the Gentile believers is apparent, and his chief concern was to keep them from falling prey to false teachings that would steal away their freedom in Christ and replace it with obedience to the law of Moses. Great and beautiful is the truth revealed here, so much richer than mankind could dream without Christ.
But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off
have been brought near
by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace,
who has made us both one
and has broken down in his flesh
the dividing wall of hostility
by abolishing the law of commandments
expressed as ordinances,
that
he might create in himself one new man
in place of the two,
so making peace,
and
might reconcile us both to God
in one body
through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility.
And he came and preached peace
to you who were far off
and peace
to those who were near.
For through him
we both have access in one Spirit
to the Father.
So then
you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are fellow citizens
with the saints
and members of the household of God,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
in whom
the whole structure, being joined together,
grows into a holy temple
in the Lord.
In him
you also are being built together
into a dwelling place for God
by the Spirit.
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Beautiful, and meaningful even for all Gentiles today. We all were also afar off. Thanks be to our Heavenly Father, who from before the foundations of the world had a plan for all mankind
I am so grateful for Paul’s writings because of the love he clearly demonstrates for the non-Jewish believers. Thanks for your comments.
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