August 13 2025

Wednesday August 13

Your Faith, Your Love and Hope

Ephesians 1:1-3

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Today we're studying the book of Ephesians. Yesterday we talked about “that you may know” in verses 15-20 of this first chapter. That is what Paul pray for the church at Ephesus. During their time of tremendous persecution they would know how blessed they were in Christ. Today we want to give a little background historically of this church and the reason Paul wrote this letter.

Now as you read these first verses of this chapter, you find verse number one, Paul is the writer of this epistle. And we need to remember that the Apostle Paul wrote at least 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament. And he wrote them as letters, as epistles to churches or to individuals that he knew. Nine of these letters were written to churches. Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Four of these letters were written to individuals. First and Second Timothy and Titus and Philemon.

We know that Paul wrote most of his writings over a period of about 15 years. Four of Paul's letters are what are called the Prison Epistles. They were written between AD 60 and AD 62 when he was in prison in Rome under house arrest (Acts 28:30-31). He sent these letters from prison by four different men to these churches and one individual. Tychicus took the letter to Ephesus (Ephesians 6:21). Epaphroditus from Philippi took the letter to the Philippians (Philippians 4:18). Epaphras was from Colossae and he took the epistle to the Colossians. And then Onesimus who was a slave that Paul led to the Lord while he was in prison, was the one who took the letter back to Colossae where Philemon lived and delivered his letter to him.

Now as you read these letters and you read what Paul was going through during this time, Paul was in prison. He was suffering. He was maybe facing immediate death. But we know that basically Paul was released for a period of time and later was sent went back to Rome under Nero's rule and there he was executed around AD 67.

The book of Acts records at least three missionary journeys that Paul took throughout the Roman Empire. It was on the second missionary journey that he was on that he went through Ephesus (Acts 18:19). He stayed only a short time but two years later while he was on his third missionary journey he stayed in Ephesus for at least two years and during that period of time it tells us that all of Asia heard the gospel (Acts19:1-20) Later when Paul was on his way to Jerusalem in Acts 20, he met with the elders of the church there at Ephesus and encouraged them to stand strong in the midst of persecution.

Later, when Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and then sent to Rome a prisoner is when he wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus. They were going through a difficult time of persecution that was happening throughout the Roman empire and Paul was writing a letter to help them. There's three words that stand out in this first chapter I think are so important. Faith, Hope and Love. 

In verse one Paul talked about they were faithful in Christ Jesus. In verse 15, Paul said, “he heard of their faith”, and “their love for all the saints”. Obviously despite the hard time they were still exercising their faith and their love but then Paul said that he was praying “that they would know the hope of their calling (v. 18). Faith, hope and love, three great words. Paul later to the Corinthians would say, "Now abide these three, faith, hope, love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). You can gage the strength of your Christian life on the amount that you have of these three spiritual connections to the Lord. When everything falls apart around you these three things will keep you going!

My friend, that's what you need when you're going through difficult, terrible times. You need to know your position in Christ, the riches of His glory that you have in Him despite the circumstances around you. Keep your eyes on Jesus. He is the only hope that you can have that will bring you real security.

Today, how strong are your faith, hope and love?

God bless!