Category: You (All) Are God’s Household

Ephesians 2:21-22 (MSG) – Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

“The closing verses of the chapter take one of the central symbols of Judaism and turn it inside out. The temple in Jerusalem was not only the religious heart of the nation, and the place of pilgrimage of Jews throughout the world. It was also the political, social, musical and cultural heart of Jerusalem – as well as the place of celebration and feasting. The reason for all this was, of course, that Israel’s God had promised to live there. It was, many believed, the place where earth and heaven met. But now Paul is declaring that the living God is constructing a new temple. It consists not of stones, arches, pillars and altars, but of human beings. Some Jews had already explored the idea that a community, rather than a building, might be the place where God would really and truly take up his residence. But until Paul nobody had said anything quite like this.”
[N.T. Wright, Ephesians: 11 Studies for Individual and Groups, chap. 4, Kindle]

What are the implications for being a citizen of God’s kingdom?
How should our interactions with each other be different because we are members of God’s family?
[N.T. Wright, Ephesians: 11 Studies for Individual and Groups, chap. 4, Kindle]

Let’s thank God for the opportunity to be part of his family and ask him to use us to make others feel welcomed into it.

– AW

1 John 4:11 – Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

“We love the people of God: The people of God are those from all ages and all nations whom God in Christ has loved, chosen, called, saved and sanctified as a people for his own possession, to share in the glory of Christ as citizens of the new creation. As those, then, whom God has loved from eternity to eternity and throughout all our turbulent and rebellious history, we are commanded to love one another. For ‘since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another,’ and thereby ‘be imitators of God…and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.’ Love for one another in the family of God is not merely a desirable option but an inescapable command. Such love is the first evidence of obedience to the gospel, the necessary expression of our submission to Christ’s Lordship, and a potent engine of world mission.”
[“9. We love the people of God,” The Cape Town Commitment]

The greatest commandment was for us, his household, to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-39). Jesus, our Chief Cornerstone, first demonstrated this for us.

Lord, teach us to love like you. We commit to love the people of God, our household. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

– AW

Ephesians 2:19-20 – Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

“This is what life often feels like. We’re on the outside, looking in. Maybe we get in, but we don’t belong. Maybe we’re here but strangers…We can think, ‘I wasn’t here when this church got started. I don’t live in this part of town. I wasn’t raised in the church. I come from a broken family. I don’t see things the way everyone else does. I’m not gifted like everyone else. My finances don’t match up. Sure, I can be part of the church, but I don’t belong.’ Paul says, no, you’ve been brought all the way to the center of the family and purpose of God. Welcome to the Church. Welcome home.”
[Brad Watson, Ephesians: How Jesus Creates a New People in a New World, week 4, Kindle]

What does Ephesians 2:19-22 say about the Church?
What are the metaphors Paul uses and what do they mean?
What do these verses tell us about what Jesus has done in shaping the Church?
[Brad Watson, Ephesians: How Jesus Creates a New People in a New World, week 4, Kindle]

Lord, thank you for the church, and that we can belong to your household. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

– AW

1 Peter 2:4-5,10 – As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Why do you think it’s important to remember that we were once far off from God and not a people?
What does it mean that we are now near and part of a holy priesthood?
What does this mean for us in 2020 to be built into a spiritual house?
[Brad Watson, Ephesians: How Jesus Creates a New People in a New World, week 4, Kindle]

Let’s worship to the song, “More to Come” by Passion (Click here) as we believe in the One who brings us near, brings the dead to life!

Lord, thank you for choosing us to belong to your household through Jesus Christ. Amen.

– AW

“A single person is sitting at home in front of the TV; a Christian broadcast is on, a sermon is preached, an invitation is given, and the person responds by ‘accepting Christ.’ But the only ‘church’ the person attends is by way of the TV, with no connection to a local body of believers. The question: Is this person saved?

Though entered individually, salvation is seldom if ever thought of simply as a one-on-one relationship with God. While such a relationship is included, to be sure, ‘to be saved’ means especially to be joined to the people of God…God is saving a people for his name, not a miscellaneous, unconnected set of individuals.” [Gordon Fee, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, pp. 63-64]

God saved us to be a people for his name! Not to do this alone! We are reminded of this in Ephesians 2:21-22 – In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Our being built and joined together is to become a dwelling in which God lives!

Let’s pray that any walls would fall as we are joined in this household of God, and worship to the song, “Never Lost” by Elevation Worship (Click here).

– AW