The Intricacies of God’s Word
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Ephesians 1:17
https://anchor.fm/mike-sprott/episodes/The-Intricacies-of-Gods-Word-eamrsk
Every time I read through Ephesians I am struck with awe at the complexity of the letter. There are themes interwoven throughout the entire letter. Paul, under the divine influence of the Spirit of God, wrote this masterpiece.
The Bible student has many goals when exegeting:
- Trying to uncover the main idea of each paragraph.
- Seeing how each of these paragraphs link to the bigger context.
- Figuring out the big picture of the entire book.
It is like putting together a puzzle. You start by looking for the edge pieces and then the whole starts to come together. In Bible study, you look for repeated words and themes. You look for links from one section to the next and then you stand back and meditate on what you have seen.
As I read, I see words and concepts repeated through the whole book of Ephesians. Some of the repeated truths include in Christ, love, power, His will, wisdom, walk, and several more. Just when I think I have all the repeated themes I find another repeated theme the next day. It’s like a puzzle with a prism of colors. I was provoked to look at the Greek text to see what I was missing.
I started working my way through the Greek text this morning, and I found even more repeated themes. The English translations don’t always reveal themes fully. Words like light, revelation, and authority were repeated in the Greek but translated differently in the English. The puzzle appeared to get even more complex.
The great news is that even though I don’t fully understand this book, I am getting glimpses of God’s glory in the process of studying it.
One of the prayers Paul prays is that believers would know God more. And then it hit me. He prayed for them to know God and in an ironic twist the letter itself was an answer to his prayer! God was answering Paul’s prayer as Paul wrote under the Spirit’s influence.
This book is a masterpiece of light, wisdom, and revelation of God’s glory. The more we read it the more we understand and know the glory of God. This shouldn’t surprise us but should cause us to fall to our knees, desiring more of it.
When will we exhaust the treasure hunt in this book? NEVER. This is God’s answer to the prayer for knowing the height, depth, breadth, and width of the love of God in Christ toward us (3:17-19). We will never reach the bottom of God’s well of glory! The greatest thing is that God did something no person could do. He wrote a never-ending love letter to His own! While this love letter is truly a puzzle, it also reveals glimpses of God’s glory as we piece the puzzle together.
Glory to God! Praise Him! What an amazing and humbling truth…
Father, Your Word is like an infinite well of glory. For this I am eternally thankful. Please help me to understand Your Word more. Help me to see Your glory and know the love of Christ. Please help me to share this good news with everyone. May Your glory be my continuous meditation all day long. May I abide in Your Son as I serve you in a fallen world. You are the Creator and Sustainer of Life. May Your name be exalted in me as I seek Your glory and proclaim Your truth!
In Christ Jesus, Amen.
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