First Love: We Are The Temple (Episode 3)

Devotional Thoughts from Ephesians 2

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10, NIV)

This is Episode 3 of my devotional series on Ephesians from my book “First Love: A Deeper Understanding of Church from the Book of Ephesians.” This episode features devotional thoughts on Ephesians 2.[1]

You can start today’s devotional by reading my Ephesians 2 paraphrase.[2]

Ephesians 2

Remember drifting along with everyone around you?

Where did that lead you? You were dead to God—as far away as you could be.

What you didn’t realize was that Satan, the ruler of this world, led everyone deliberately into disobedience to God’s instructions. This was Satan’s best effort to thwart the plan of God.

You chose to oppose God and became his enemy. Worse yet, by siding with Satan, you were on course to share in his punishment. That didn’t stop God!

God saw what happened and fought back with a violent mercy, his saving grace.

God woke you up, raising you to life when you were dead.

God then granted you an underserving honor—he seated you at his table, next to Jesus in heaven, with the full inheritance of children.

God graced you with salvation through your faith in Jesus.

We can’t claim credit for this; we didn’t get what we deserved. Instead, we have the opportunity now to become the masterpiece that God created us to be. We join God in accomplishing everything he planned for us to do.

Remember where you came from? You were Gentiles—foreigners to the covenants and the promises of God. You changed your allegiance: you who were never considered God’s people have become citizens of heaven.

The Jews received a covenant of circumcision. They rightly recognized that Israel was chosen and that everyone else was uncircumcised, unholy, outside of God’s people.

You were without God, and therefore, without hope. Jesus’ blood changed that. Jesus destroyed the barrier that separated you from God’s people and from God. When you entered Christ, you shared in his peace – a peace that brought you into a relationship with God and his family.

Before, there were “Jews” and “Gentiles.” At the cross, Jesus created one family at peace with God. He replaced the old covenant law with the gospel of peace. Now you have peace because you are no longer strangers to God. Jews and Gentiles alike share the same Spirit who now dwells in them, providing direct access to God.

Picture it this way: God is building a home. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation. God chooses each of you as a brick or stone to construct this holy temple. Christ himself is the cornerstone that aligns every stone. Now the Holy Spirit lives in you, bringing you into God’s family as citizens in God’s kingdom. God feels quite at home in this temple!

1. The Darkness of the World (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Paul painted a picture of a naïve people far from God, ignorant of the enemy who has control of their ship as it drifts into dangerous waters. I don’t like thinking about the adversary, “Satan” as he is named primarily in the New Testament. As a Western thinker, I pride myself in logic, avoiding that resembles superstition. Yet I cannot deny the presence of evil in this world. Despite the fact that most people try really hard to do right, bring peace, treat one another with respect… an obvious gap exists between what we desire and what actually occurs. Racism, prejudice, discrimination, hatred, wars, slander, gossip, violence, rape, suicide, hopelessness, oppression… all to our shame as God’s image bearers.

It is our decision to pursue this darkness that separates us from the partnership God intended for us. Without God’s presence in our lives, we fail to grasp the seriousness of our plight, the consequences of failing to choose to turn to God and admit we need his help. Abandoning partnership with our creator, we have sided with God’s enemy and therefore share in his unenviable fate. Has the darkness been calling you?

This world’s river will destroy your life one day like a helpless raft floating over the precipice of a waterfall, crashing into pieces at the bottom. Your certain end is death – physical and spiritual.
Meanwhile, Satan, like the crazy captain of an out of control ship, joyfully steers our raft into disaster. He’ll do anything to incite rebellion against God. He sees the destination of this vessel; he recognizes the consequences. Do we?
(First Love)

2. God’s Violent Mercy is Good News (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Meanwhile, there is good news! Thanks to the tenacity of God’s mercy, we (the dead) share in the rich abundance of God’s forgiveness (life).

God saw what happened and fought back with a violent mercy, his saving grace.
God woke you up, raising you to life when you were dead.
(First Love)

Sometimes we struggle with understanding God’s anger. In the Bible Project,[3] Tim Mackie explains this concept well. What would we think of a parent who shows no anger when their child is under evil attack? Of course God gets angry, because he cares about the welfare of his children. The Bible actually teaches that God is “slow to anger”—indicating how patient he is. When does the Bible first show God as angry? It wasn’t in the garden, or even before the flood (where he was heartbroken, grieved). It was in Exodus: when Moses refused to stand up for God and confront Pharaoh and then when Israel committed spiritual adultery during their wedding ceremony to God (the idolatry of the golden calf). God’s anger is often misunderstood!

3. Seated at God’s Table with His Family (Ephesians 2:6-10)

“He seated Christ at his right hand in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:20). Even though Jesus died as a human on the cross, God’s power raised Christ from the dead and seat him in the heavenly realms.

“God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). In the same way, God’s power raises us up and seats us at the same table along with his son. Don’t forget that the “us” includes God’s entire family. Family can be challenging to live with or even to spend a few hours with at the holidays… It is okay to admit that being family (church) isn’t easy. Let’s picture ourselves at the table with our Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit (inside all of us), and God’s children. That’s God’s picture of family and the reason we need to spend some time understanding how to re-envision the church!

What does it mean to be at God’s table?
New clothes: clothed in Christ, blameless
New status: bathed with the forgiveness of sins
New position: seated at the table as one of the family
New power & intimacy: indwelled with his Holy Spirit
New future: shared inheritance with Jesus himself
(First Love)

4. The Unity that Comes from the Cross (Ephesians 2:11-18)

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)

Jesus defeated Satan by obediently surrendering his life as a sacrifice (Isaiah 53:12). He established a way to redeem us by dying as a sacrifice for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). He destroyed the barrier that separated us from God, symbolized by tearing the temple curtain (Matthew 27:51). He brought us peace, reconciling us to God, defeating sin and death, granting us eternal life (Ephesians 2:13,17-18). Read this paragraph again and note the use of the word “us” throughout. This is not about me or you (singular) but about us (the church!).

Evangelical Christianity teaches us to apply the scriptures to us as individuals. The gospel has become the story of my personal salvation. Yet this is not “the gospel of the kingdom of God”[4] that Jesus preached in the books that are actually called the “gospels.” If we are not careful, we will saturate our teaching with Western individualism that elevates our personal experience over that of the family of God. Jewish Christians were communalists. Paul had to instruct the Jews to fully accept the Gentiles as community while teaching the Gentiles to live out God’s community-based vision of partnership—what the Bible calls throughout history “the kingdom of God.”

Our role is not defined by our individual experience…
No one is impressed with a single brick, but when that brick is part of a Cathedral, people marvel at what has been built.
Even more impressive is a structure that is living, moving, and filled with God,
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom to the world!
(First Love)

5. There’s a New Temple in Town! (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Very few experiences are as exciting as moving into a new home! Every wall freshly painted, clean floors, appliances shiny and new, no visible (or known) issues… a new start, a fresh start…

In the OT God “moved in” to his new house, the Temple.

Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.
When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,
“He is good; his love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 7:1-3)

The Jews recognized the symbolism of the Temple: the place where God dwells in the presence of humans.[5] Imagine Paul’s awe at God’s willingness to dwell in this new Temple, the church! Although it is true to say that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, note that this refers again to “us” collectively! The foundation was laid (apostles and prophets), aligned to the chief cornerstone (Jesus), with each of us being a building block. However, the temple isn’t about us. God’s presence is what makes our bodies (collectively) his temple. Connecting as a body (church) invites God’s presence into our lives. God “moves in” when we are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. But God also “moves in” and continues to dwell in his new Temple, the church!

Closing thoughts: Ephesians 2 explains the significance of God’s plan to build a united kingdom of Jews and Gentiles as single community. When we enter into that body, we accept God’s terms and receive God’s mercy and inheritance as his children. We also join a community that proclaims the glory of God’s reign to this confused world…

For further (word) study

Each week I’ll provide some words that represent deeper themes in Ephesians along with links to the Strong’s Concordance (provides the Greek original word).

Grace (Strong’s 5485: χάρις or charis) – "favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit." Grace appears 11 times in Ephesians, including in the greeting and the closing verse! Grace is best described as the Lord’s favor (1:2,6:24), valued beyond other treasures (1:6-7), given to us not because we deserve it (2:5-8), but as a gift (2:8,4:7) to be shared. We administer God’s grace (3:2) by preaching Christ (3:7-8).

Build, Building (Strong’s 3619: οἰκοδομή or oikodomé) – “constructive criticism and instruction that equips a person up to be the suitable dwelling place of God, i.e. where the Lord is at home." Many forms of this word are found in Ephesians (build, builds, built, and building). God joins us together to make us a Temple that he would live in by his Spirit (2:21-22). We become God’s home and our work is to continue to equip/build up the body to be a place where God can live through us (4:12,16,29).

[1] To get the most out of this series, I encourage you to get a copy of the book on Amazon (only $6) and take a month to dig into a chapter each day! I’ll publish a new devotional each week to help us reflect on what we are learning.

[2] Note: This is my own paraphrase of the book of Ephesians that appears in my book First Love. I developed it to help me better digest the depth of teaching found in the scripture. In no way am I claiming that this is more accurate than a translation, but for those of us who have read the same translation more than a dozen times, it can be helpful to revisit the text from a different angle. I pray this version will help you find new insights into the scriptures.

[3] The Bible Project Podcast, Episodes 217-221.

[4] Take 5 minutes and watch the Bible Project Video: https://bibleproject.com/explore/gospel-kingdom/

[5] The Bible Project has a great 5-minute video on the theme of the Temple from Eden to the Church to the Revelation.

Brett KreiderApril 7, 2021Ephesians, First Love, Brett Kreider

First Love: We Are The Temple (Episode 3)

Devotional Thoughts from Ephesians 2

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