Page 18 - Ephesians

and immorality! How does this background from Acts 19, help
get the message of Ephesians into your soul?

God never lowers His standards because of the environment,
culture, or the impossible situation in which you live. We
sometime hear, “Now we can’t expect too much from so and so.
He came from a broken home,” or, “Don’t expect too much from
her, her father molested her when she was a child,” or, “God
doesn’t expect much from them, because they live in the slums.”
Oh yes, He does expect more from us. That’s the point of the dark
background of Ephesus.

In Ephesians, God gave the highest for the lowest. The high
revelation of Christ, for those living in the worse possible situation.
Well, look at the people of Ephesus. They had an awful
background. But they were multi- billionaires in Christ. God
expected them to live up to the full responsibilities of such wealth.
There are no excuses! We can’t blame our environment if, we
are not entering into our union with Christ.

There is another piece of background that helps get Ephesians
into our hearts. In 3:1 He calls himself, “The Prisoner of Christ
Jesus”. In 4:1 he calls himself, “An ambassador in chains”.
This was one of Paul’s prison epistles. He wrote four letters from
jail; Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. It doesn’t
matter if it was from Caesarea or Rome. The point is, that the
message WORKED in Paul’s life. He not only wrote about the
wonderful things we have in Christ, but he was enjoying them
himself.

When you read Ephesians, you would never believe that this man
is in prison. He’s so full of Christ, so self-forgetful. His heart is
poured out for others. If you are in jail, or having severe troubles,
you think folks should be waiting on you. Paul was living as a
multi-billionaire in Christ. He had entered into the truth of the
unfathomable riches of Christ. I love Eph. 1:20-22,