Useful Bible Studies > Ephesians Commentary > chapter 1

Three subjects of which Christians should be constantly aware

Ephesians 1:18

Often, our problem as Christians is that we are constantly aware of our present difficulties. We give little attention to the wonderful things that God is doing in our lives. We care too much about the things that we see with our physical eyes. If God gave light to our heart, or our spirit, then our opinion about our lives would be very different (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). In the Bible, light is a frequent word-picture for knowledge. So, when we know the truth about our relationship with God in our spirits, we understand our present situation better.

In Ephesians 1:18-19, Paul mentions three subjects of which Christians should constantly be aware:

(1) Christians should know the hope to which God has called them. God ‘calls’ a person when he invites that person to become a Christian, one of his holy people. Without God, the troubles in our lives would cause us despair - but God gives hope to his people. That hope is the certain knowledge that God will do good things for his people (Romans 8:28; Hebrews 6:19). God has made wonderful promises to them, and those promises cannot fail (1 Corinthians 2:9; 2 Corinthians 1:20).

(2) Christians should know how much God loves them. He even considers his people to be his inheritance (Psalm 94:14) - in other words, his best and most precious possession. Because of Christ’s death, people from every nation can join with Israel’s people to be God’s holy people (2:11-22). Without God, they might consider themselves poor - but God considers them to be precious and valuable to him. The Bible even describes them as the Bride of Christ, whom he loves very much (Ephesians 5:23-32; compare Psalm 45).

(3) Christians should realise the greatness of God’s power that is working in them (Ephesians 1:19; Romans 8:11). We shall discuss this further in our next article.

Next part: The greatness of God's power, that works in the lives of his people (Ephesians 1:19)

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