We bring all of our selves to everything we interpret, including assumptions we have based on the influence of the cultures around us. When we come to this week’s text, Ephesians 2.1-10, many of us have been influenced by Modern, Western culture, which has conditioned us to understand the concept of “faith” as opposed to…
Today, many people are experiencing an identity crisis. Many of the labels and categories that have traditionally supported our identities no longer serve us well. People are searching for something solid, something real, something in which to be rooted. Ephesians chapter one is all about identity “in the Messiah.” Paul uses that phrase eleven times…
In Acts 19, we read the account of Paul’s time in Ephesus establishing a church there. In three key passages in that chapter, we see three ways the Way of Jesus disturbs the status quo. In verses 8-10, we see that Paul’s radical Gospel of equality and unity among all ethnic groups led to the…