As we finish up Ephesians, we see Paul’s heart. In Ephesians 6:18-24, Paul makes his statements even more personal. He is praying for them and he wants to make sure his readers know the extent of his love and compassion for them. He shares his needs and he shares how he is responding to their needs. He prays that they will experience peace and love. When we are with others, are we real with them? Do we share our hopes and desires for them along with the struggles and difficulies that we are facing? Paul knew the importance of being genuine. What are we praying for others today?

Are we prepared for evil days? Are we ready when we get attacked? As we look at Ephesians chapter 6, when we start in verse 10 and go through verse 17, we see the description of the armor of God. Paul understands that there will be attack as we walk through this Christian Life. Paul also wants us to understand where that attack comes from and how to defend ourselves. We must be ready. We cannot wait to prepare for an attack, but we must anticipate the attack that will come from Evil around us. Our enemy is not of flesh and blood but is the Devil himself seeking to…

Now that Paul has established the importance of the marriage relationship in yesterday’s verses, he move on to other relationships. Ephesians 6:1-9 gives information on how to have Godly relationships in several other areas. The bottom line boils down to treating people the way God would treat them. Do we respect others and honor them for the position they have in our lives? God commands nothing less.

Family is an important topic in the Bible. What a family should look like and how a family should act and behave with one another is spoken of multiple times throughout scripture. Here in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 through the end of the chapter, we see yet another description of how husbands and wives are to interact with one another. Wives are to respect their husbands. They are to give them the place of leadership within the family. However, that leadership is to be a servant leader. Husbands are to love their wives. That is the essence of servant leadership. One cannot truly lead another, without having a level…

While reading Ephesians 5:17-21, one phrase in verse 19 really stuck out to me. Do I “make melody with my heart to the Lord?” We can sing beautiful songs and we can say wonderful things about Christ, but what is the song of our heart? Do we long for Him and desire Him above everything?  Does our heart make a beautiful melody to the Lord? As we go through today, let’s focus our hearts on praising Jesus Christ. If our hearts are praising Him, then our mouths and our lives will praise Him as well.

Paul continues discussing the light and the dark. In Ephesians 5:11-16 we see additional differences between living a life in the light and living a life in the dark. Many times people trying to hide what they do. They’re either ashamed of what they’ve done, or they know that what they’re doing is wrong and they don’t want anyone to know about it. They do their actions in the dark. Paul warns that eventually, the light of Jesus Christ will see everything that we do. Are we living our life wisely? Are we living our life in a way that we would embrace the light or are we fearful of…

Are we of the light? In Ephesians 5:6-10, Paul encourages us to not be deceived but to walk as children of the light. He then defines the light as being the things of goodness and righteousness. The light is Jesus Christ. As we walk with the characteristics of Jesus Christ, we will see all that he has for us and others will see him through us. We will also not be deceived. So many things in this world seek to turn us to their own for their own purposes. They try to deceive us to gain our allegiance, power, influence, attention, and so many other things. We must never be…

What comes out of our mouth is a reflection of what is in our heart. In Ephesians chapter 5 verses 3 through 5, Paul explains this in detail. He talks through the fact that silliness, coarse jesting, filthiness, and immorality are never things that characterize the speech or conduct of someone who claims Jesus Christ is Lord. Everything we say and do, if we truly have Jesus at the center of our life, should be reflection of the characteristics of Jesus Christ. How would our words define us? Would we be embarrassed or offended for our preacher, our mother, or anyone else to overhear what we say on a regular…

Are we an imitator of God? In Ephesians 5:1-2 we are given a command and also the means by which to fulfill that command. First, Paul tells us that we are to be imitators of God. We are his beloved children and just as our small children try to imitate what we do, we are to imitate what God does. How do we do this? That is answered in verse 2. We are to walk in love. The love that is mentioned here is a sacrificial love. We see that Christ has sacrificed himself for us because of his love of the father, and because of our love for God…

Ephesians 4:17-32 has so much contained within it. We see in these verses our choice. Each and every moment of the day we have a choice. We decide whether we are going to choose to think and do the wrongs that are accepted by the world. Or, we are going to choose to do what is pleasing to God. Make no mistake, this choice sounds much easier to make now than in actuality when we are presented with it in the moment. No matter what we have been through and what is presented to us, we are responsible for putting on the new mind we have received in Christ and…