Ephesians - By Kate Henry Bavington

In Ephesians, the apostle Paul is writing a letter to the church in Ephesus, to a predominantly gentile audience. He is exploring the impact of the Gospel, what God’s family should look like, and what this means for how they should live.

I’ll be honest, growing up I found Ephesians difficult to process. I grappled with the verses on instructions for Christian households, finding the language around ‘submission’ tricky - particularly around references to wives and slaves. I focused on a couple of verses and found myself discouraged and my fixation became a bit of a barrier to my faith. I am not going to reflect on them here but I want to reassure you that no matter your opinions, in Ephesians, if we take a step back, we see an inspiring picture of God’s vision for our lives and the church. And this message has meaning and relevance for our lives today.

Rereading these verses as part of the Dwell reading plan at St Saviours, I am re-energised by God’s message of unity through Christ and the instructions for living as Christians. Ephesians is well worth reading in full but I want to focus this reflection on two bits that particularly struck me:

By Grace, through faith
In chapter 2 vs 8-9 we see a picture of God’s love for us expressed in the kindness of Jesus Christ. ‘For it is by Grace you have been saved, through faith… not by works’. Grace is a gift from God. We are loved and saved because God has chosen us. Not by our actions - if we’ve said the right thing, been nice to everyone, or volunteered in our spare time. 

This is a radical message as it puts us all on a truly equal footing. We aren’t saved by what we do but we are saved because of God's love for us. Jesus’ sacrifice - the ‘Grace’ by which we are saved was absolute. We need now only accept Christ as our saviour, in other words ‘through faith’. There is nothing we can do, other than have faith, that will save us. Of course, the bible doesn't just leave it there - once we know we are accepted and chosen, we are called to do something, to make a difference and to serve. As Jesus said, 'the son of man did not come to be served but to serve...' but this comes out of a place of true acceptance and unconditional love from our creator.

A message of unity
In Ephesians chapter 2 vs 19-22, we can be reassured that by the blood of Christ we are ‘no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household’. We are reconciled through Christ. We are one body and we all share in one bread.

This message of unity wasn’t commonplace at the turn of the millennium and it’s hardly commonplace now either. We find ourselves in an increasingly divided world. We still form tribes and we often disagree. But the picture from God of unity in Christ is a powerful and simple message for humanity. The Gospel makes way for a new ethnically diverse family of God, where people are called in, transforming how we live as a new humanity unified in love, devotion to Jesus and to one another. It’s a message of welcome - one which we are all striving to embody at St Saviours and I pray that God continues to help us to serve our community and do life together as a church family.