Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ephesians 1-3.

Paul writes that all of us were by our very nature and actions deserving of wrath.  Note that he does not say deserving of God’s wrath, although we were indeed deserving of God’s wrath.  No, Paul says that we, including himself, were deserving of wrath.  It reminds me of the terrible things done by Hamas, things deserving of wrath from every decent human being.  Paul writes that we are all just as deserving of wrath as those who committed those horrible acts on October 7th, and he is right.  Paul writes that the difference between us and those who committed those horrible acts, if there is indeed a difference, is the grace of God.  We have no basis for boasting about such a difference, because God may yet extend His grace to them as well, transforming them as He did us.  So, we have been saved from the evil of this world through no action of our own, solely by the grace of God.  In no way did our actions separate us from those who have committed atrocities, so we have no basis for condemning them.  Then Paul writes to explain why God gave us this grace by which He saved us.  He did so in order that we might perform the good works which He prepared for us to do.  Our prayers should not be to thank God for making us better than those who commit atrocities, nor should it be that He bring destruction upon them.  Rather we should pray that He pour out His Spirit upon them and transform them in the same way in which He transformed us.  I believe that is part of what Paul is getting at when he writes at the end of chapter 3 that God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.