Ephesians Devotionals
Bob Morris
Identity and Introduction, Ephesians 1: 1-2
I, Paul, am under God’s plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful Christians in Ephesus. I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.
One of the most crucial factors in mission is our introduction to our intended hearers. Who are we? What right do we have to speak into the lives of people different from us?
Paul could have said a lot of things to introduce himself – educated by Gamaliel, leading Pharisee, defender of the faith (Jewish faith, that is), speaks multiple languages, world traveler, Jew extraordinaire, and so on. But what mattered most to him and to his readers was “apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God”. How we are seen by others is equally important with how we see ourselves. When we present ourselves to others, especially to those who rightly question our right to speak, the most important things are identity and authority – who sent us, and why should they listen?
A Caucasian missionary friend of mine who was working amongst the Baluch in Karachi rightly sought to identify as much as possible with the people he lived among. Wearing shalwar chemise (national dress), he struggled to speak the language. When asked who he was he answered vaguely that he was with a private NGO and was there to serve the people of Baluchistan. It wasn’t long before he was accused of working for the CIA. The problem was that the Baluch could not identify him with any category familiar to them. Nor had he been introduced to them by anyone they knew and trusted. As a result they thought the worst.
Paul is careful to identify himself as an apostle sent by the Triune God. Not all the world says, “Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine”. In many cultures, people are looking for one’s authority to speak, whether it is institutionally or charismatically derived. As powerful as personal stories are, unless we can speak beyond them, people have no reason to give our story any more validity than their own. One “license” to speak is our distinctiveness as God’s people. Unless we are distinguishable from the majority, why should they listen to us?
Paul had a sense of “sentness” as Jesus had before him (John 17: 3) and it gave him a reason to speak, and his readers reason to listen. Paul appealed frequently to his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and claimed that experience as the origin of his apostolic authority. “Apostle” in a non-technical sense meant messenger (or representatives as the NIV has it in 2 Cor. 8: 23). But in Paul’s day, and particularly in Paul’s usage, “apostle” implied spiritual authority in the Gentile churches that was conferred by Christ himself.
There is some debate about who the recipients of the letter were. Some earlier manuscripts omit the words “in Ephesus”, implying that this was a letter sent to a variety of churches. If so, this is one of the earliest examples of “merge mail”. Whether this is true or not, it is remarkable that what Paul writes is applicable to any number of churches, including our own 2000 years later. The truths Paul addresses are truths that are relevant for all times and places, all ethnicities and cultures. We can learn them and proclaim them with the confidence because they are from God in Christ himself.
Grace and peace were standard greetings in the church, but not to be taken for granted, for all that. Just a “goodbye” is neutral in meaning, its original “God be with you” has great significance. Paul will refer to their literal spiritual meaning over and over again in Ephesians.
God grant us his grace and peace as we enter a world that doesn’t know him.
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