The chapter begins with Paul reminding the Ephesians (and us) that God made us alive, who were once dead and separated from him because of our transgressions and sins. When we were separated from God we were living according to our flesh and conducted ourselves according to the lusts of our flesh.
Living by feeding your fleshly desires is dangerous, even if one is born again. The more we feed our flesh the stronger it gets and that isn’t good for our Spirit man. To keep our Spirit man stronger than our flesh we need to resist from fulfilling the desires of our flesh. This is one important reason that we are too fast regularly. It isn’t a commandment, directly, too fast; although Jesus did say in Mathew 6:16, “when you fast,” Indicating that you will indeed fast, thus making it an indirect commandment. There are many reasons why we should fast but we will stick with one reason pertaining to this bible study; to stop fulfilling your fleshly desires. When one craves lets say a piece of candy and then goes to buy a piece of candy, you are then feeding your fleshly desires. I’m not saying don’t ever eat what you want, Im simply pointing out the fact that we, as believers, feed our fleshly desires more than we realize in everyday life. This can be dangerous because if we feed our fleshly desires too much it can separate us from God. How so? Well if one continues to feed themselves according to what they desire rather than whats best for their vessel, (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 tells us to honor and take care of our vessel) then this continuous act can lead to gluttony. After your flesh received what it desires through food, the desires become stronger and can brach out and could lead to other fleshy desires like sexual immortally. Gluttony and sexual immorality are sins and if we live in sin we can eventually cut our selves off from God. It is a slippery slope. We don’t need to live in fear and sin conscious, we just simply need to be open to God showing us what we need to change and prune in our lives so we don’t fall away from the amazing gift HE has given us, Himself. He doesn’t want you to fall from Him again, if you allow Him too, He will gladly weed out your weeds and make you into the beautiful garden He created you to be. In doing this we surrender to Him and our sinful, children of wrath tendencies. We allow Him to renew our minds and grow closer to Him. (In feeding your fleshly desires Im NOT stating your salvation is at stake, Im talking about your relationship with God. Please don’t confuse the two.)
By God and through His grace and mercy we are loved regardless of our trespasses or sinful ways. Even when we were dead in our ways He still loves us. By His grace and mercy we are saved and brought up to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
In the ages to come He may show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. We are saved by God, not by our works. There are things we can do to seek God more like fasting, but it’s not by the works that gets us born again; it’s by the love and grace of God alone.
We are His workmanship created in Jesus to do good works for Him; He prepared us beforehand that we should walk in them. We are Gods masterpiece and He instills His creative works within us to know and serve Him. We are each uniquely and wonderfully made for a predestined moment in time for a reason. We all have a calling; to know Him and be in relationship with Him and to use the gift He gave us. This can be in the five fold ministry or it can be something else. We are all called to know Him, share the gospel with others and disciple, but there might be a specific area to which you will be called to do this in. For example, maybe God gave you the talent for baking and will use you to further His kingdom in that skill trait. Nothing is impossible with God, nothing. He is so creative and just needs to be let out of the secular box the world tries to put Him in.
Paul tells us to remember that we were once lost and dead without any hope before we became in Christ. We need to be humbled and not take this for granted but rather praise God continuously because of it. Jesus is our peace and broke down that veil that was keeping us from encountering God. The vail that we couldn’t cross because of our sin, through Jesus we can encounter God and have His peace and know Him. Through His flesh He abolished the law of commandments (Jewish laws) that favored the Jews and exiled the gentiles and made a relationship with God available to all. In doing this He reconciled the two (Jews and gentiles) into one; believers. Therefore putting the enmity to death and creating peace. Jesus came and preached peace to us who were afar , through Him we have access the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we are not strangers, rather saints and members of the household of God. The head of household provides for those who live in the house and they take care of the house. How much more so will God provide and take care of us? So much more! We have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone. In Jesus the whole structure is joined together and increases to grow into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
