1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own[d] by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

(Ephesians 1:1-14, NLT)

I recently wrote an article for Evangelical Village on 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 about Finding Permanence in the Light and Momentary.  Here’s the introduction:

Every time I read about the suffering that the Apostle Paul had to endure during his life, I am continually humbled to the point of shame.  For I feel like I have suffered so much in the last year, having my faith put to the test by intense personal affliction and heartache.  I often think that the difficulties I have had to go through could not be any worse, that there could not be a darker abyss of despair than the valley I found myself in.   But the Scriptures tell us that the Apostle suffered even worse, and yet he did not despair.

Paul was a man who had truly experienced hardship in ministry: beaten and whipped; stoned and shipwrecked; lost and adrift at sea; attacked by Christians and unbelievers alike; and facing death threats from Gentiles and even his own Jewish people (cf. 2 Cor 11:16ff).  In all these respects, he was no ordinary disciple of Jesus Christ.  And yet, he was just a regular minister of the gospel in many respects.  The only thing different between Paul and me was that he understood the necessity of suffering in gospel service and in his personal spiritual pilgrimage.

Read the entire article.

In 2 Peter, what are the differences between false teachers (2:1-3; 10-22) and scoffers (3:1-4), both in content and function?

False Teachers

Alongside authentic prophets and after a passage that has asserted the reliability of prophecies regarding Christ, (1:20-21), Peter now describes that there have always been false prophets who receive God’s judgment. His use of the future tense in 2:1-3 (i.e. “there will be”) does not imply that false prophets had not yet come, but it alludes to Jesus’ prediction that false teachers would arise (cf. Matt 24:11, 24; Acts 20:29-31).  The false teachers who had arisen fulfilled that very prediction.

Content and Function

The false teachers parade themselves as Christian pastors, teachers, and evangelists (cf. Jude 4) who secretly bring in destructive heresies. Such self-designed religious lies lead to division and faction (cf. 1 Cor 11:19; Gal 5:20) in churches that make a virtue out of tolerating unscriptural teachings and ideas in the name of love and unity. 

Continuing my series on 1 Peter, let us examine The Unique Role of Elders from 1 Peter 4:12-5:14.

Identifying with Elders

Peter ends his second epistle with final exhortations to elders (5:1-4), to younger men (5:5), and to the church as a whole (5:5-11).  He explains that elders (5:1) have a unique role in the function of the church. Writing in the plural (elders), Peter indicated that it was usual to have a plurality of godly leaders who oversaw and fed the flock.  Elders were the spiritual leaders of the early churches (cf. Acts 14:23; 20:17; 1 Tim 5:17-19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14).  By calling himself a fellow elder, Peter identifies with them in their responsibilities and with the charge that he gives them, for he is able to give relevant exhortation to the spiritual leaders as ‘one of them.’

Furthermore, by noting that he had been an eyewitness of Christ’s suffering, Peter was affirming his apostleship and authority in giving this motivational exhortation (cf. Luke 24:48; Acts 1:21-22).  The fact that Christian leaders will one day receive from the hand of Christ a reward for their service should be stimulant to faithful duty.  The basis of this anticipation was Peter’s experience in observing the Transfiguration of Christ (cf. Matt 17:1-8; 2 Pet 1:16).  For at that momentous event, he did partake of the Lord’s glory.

Continuing my series on 1 Peter, let us examine The New Life and Our Duty in a Hostile World from 1 Peter 1:13-25 and 1 Peter 2:13-3:12.

Holiness: The New Way of Life

In 1 Peter 1:13-21, Peter commends to his readers that their future inheritance should be an incentive to holiness.  He exhorts his readers to godly living (1:13-2:3), commending them towards moral and spiritual actions that constitute a life of loyalty to Christ. The inheritance promised to followers of Christ (1:13-16) should motivate them to set their hope entirely on their future reward.  More than that, Christians are called to live in fear of the God who redeemed them at the cost of his own son (1:17-21).

Respect: The Christian’s Duty in a Hostile World

Henceforth, those who hope in the grace of Christ’s revelation and fear God’s discipline and fatherly displeasure will consequently glorify God by behaving respectfully in the world they live. Through the familiar paraenesis of New Testament epistles, Peter now turns to a list of dutiful commands for Christians (2:11-3:12).  His instructions primarily address how we must relate to others – how we as believers should live as exiles in the midst of a world that rejects our message.  We are to bear witness to the gospel when we live in a way that pleases God, testifying to the Gospel in the way we order ourselves in society.

Peter exhorts Christians to goodness as citizens (2:13-17), slaves (2:18-25), wives (3:1-6), and husbands (3:7). The section is summed up in 1 Peter 3:8-12: those who imitate Christ and pursue goodness will receive an eternal reward.