Ephesians | Knowable Word

Blessed be God – In Praise of Grammar Awareness

July 3, 2015 By Peter Krol

The Apostle Paul sometimes gets a bad rap for his grammar skillz, especially when he gets excited about something. Ephesians 1 happens to be one of those places.

Many remark on the fact that Ephesians 1:3-14 is a single run-on sentence in the original Greek. And the finest English translations do little to make the passage any easier for us. Paul piles on clause after clause after clause, traipsing his way through a maze of ideas, tying history and eternity up in knots, modifying, subordinating, and prepositioning his way to glory. “My high school English teacher would never let me get away with a sentence like that,” says one preacher. And eyewitnesses of Paul’s rhetoric have long been known to suggest that his letters have “some things in them that are hard to understand” (2 Pet 3:16).

Molly Steenson (2008), Creative Commons

But please let’s be fair. Sure, Paul is excited. Of course he goes too long between one inhale and the next. But he couldn’t have been any more clear about his sentence’s main idea.

Blessed be (the) God.

If we take a deep breath and condense the run-on sentence down to its essential components—subject and verb—we’ll have no trouble seeing what we should get out of it. Blessed be God.

The main verb of the entire sentence is the verb “be.” The subject of the verb is “God.” And since “be” is a verb of being (not a verb of action), it functions like an equals sign. It does no good without the other side of the equation. God = blessed. God is blessed. Or with more artistry, “Blessed be God.”

Paul’s main idea here is not what God does but who God is. God is a blessed God. Not like Artemis of the Ephesians, whose “greatness” drove her fan boys to bellow insanely for hours on end (Acts 19:34). The truly blessed God is not just any god; he is “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:3). Blessed be this God.

Of course, this God is blessed because of what he does. The loping clauses that follow unravel the deep mysteries of this blessed God who lavishly blesses. Blessed be the God who has blessed us in Christ.

But please don’t lose focus. Paul’s main idea is not how blessed we are for knowing God. His driving point is not that we are so well off (though, of course, we are—if we believe). Paul’s main idea is that this God who blesses is himself blessed. He is worth knowing. He is worthy of adoration. He deserves to be spoken of highly. Blessed be God.

Paul’s syntax may be more convoluted than that found in a Supreme Court ruling, but the Apostle keeps our focus on his main idea with periodic reminders: “to the praise of his glorious grace…to the praise of his glory…to the praise of his glory.” Blessed be God.

If your Bible study starts sinking in a swamp of words, grab this rope and don’t let go: Observe the grammar. Blessed be God.

The Gospel Inspires Us to Reach Others

August 7, 2013 By Peter Krol

Faith ON Campus just published a guest post I wrote entitled “9 Bible Studies to Motivate Your Outreach Team Now and All Year Long.” Faith ON Campus targets folks involved in campus ministry, and this post is part of their 4th annual Back-to-School Blogathon. I’m honored to be a part of it.

Even if you aren’t involved in collegiate ministry, you may find the post helpful as you consider how the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection compels you to reach the unbelievers around you.

Here’s a sneak peek:

1. Ephesians 2:1-10 – Exhibitions of God’s Grace

Observe Paul’s flow of thought: You were dead, but God made us alive and raised us up with Christ. You deserved his wrath, but now you’ve been saved by grace. Amazing. And why did God do it? Verse 7: “So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” That’s right, you’re a trophy on display for your campus.

2. Exodus 3:1-4:17 – Dealing with Fear

God has seen his people’s suffering, and he will rescue them. He allows us to take part in the rescue mission, but we fear so many things. We fear we’re not qualified (3:11-12). We fear we might not be able to answer their questions (3:13-22). We fear they won’t agree with us (4:1-9). We fear we’re not skilled enough (4:10-12). We don’t want to do it (4:13-17). But God pictures his promises in a bush that burns without being consumed. He is a consuming fire, but he preserves those for whom Christ died.

Please head on over to Faith ON Campus to check it out!

Two Directions for Application

January 18, 2013 By Peter Krol

We think rich application is complicated, but Jesus proved it can be quite simple. Consider his summary of how to apply the Bible:

A lawyer asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:35-40, ESV).

“All the Law and the Prophets” is pretty comprehensive. Jesus said that the entirety of what God wants us to do boils down to two things: love God and love your neighbor.

"The Fork in the Road" by i_yudai (2008), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License

i_yudai (2008), Creative Commons

These two commands show two “directions” in which we can apply any passage of the Bible: inward and outward. We can work on becoming more Christ-like people who love God more desperately (inward application), and we can work on becoming more selfless people of influence who love others as Christ has loved us (outward application).

For example, Ephesians 6:4 has obvious and immediate inward application to fathers: Be a more Christ-like, patient, loving father to your children. Instruct and discipline them in the ways of the Lord. We could get much more specific, but I think you get the general idea here.

However, taking your application outward will deepen your insight, whether you are a male with children in the home or not. How can you invest in the fathers around you to help them be better fathers? How can you make the most of your current season of life (singleness, retirement, etc.) to serve others and help them in their parenting of their children? What can you do to serve in your church’s children’s ministry? How can you image God by being a father-figure to the fatherless in your community? How might these issues affect your prayers for your church and community?

Let’s practice further on Luke 2:1-21. We previously identified Luke’s main point as: “God sent Jesus to be born so he might save the lowly and rule them graciously. This brings him highest glory.”

Inward application might yield the following questions:

Do I see myself among the lowly, or among the high and mighty?
Am I open to the Lord’s correction and salvation?
How can I give more glory to God when he rescues me from my sin and foolishness?
Where do I feel the pain of my weakness? Where am I resisting the Lord’s efforts to change me?
Who can help me be more brutally honest about my need for Christ? How can I invite that person’s counsel?

Outward application takes us in a different, yet just as important, direction:

Am I faithfully proclaiming the message of Christ’s rescue to others?
How can I be more effective at connecting every conversation to the saving power of Christ to rescue the lowly?
How can I season my conversation with salt to expose where people trust in themselves and need Christ?
Do I believe that the Lord can rescue anyone?
How can I pray for God to rescue my extended family? My neighbors? My co-workers?
Why do I remain silent, caring more about my glory and comfort than God’s glorious rescue of sinners?

As you study the Bible, remember to consider both how you can change and how you can help others to change. All the Law and the Prophets depend upon it.

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