Blessed To Bless

I love the book of Ephesians. Well, I guess you could also say that about Philippians and Colossians because, oftentimes, I read these epistles together in one sitting. As I laid in bed recently, I heard the latter part of Ephesians 1:3 being rehearsed in my mind. Holy Spirit had put the verse on repeat.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

As I read the verse, Blessed, blessed, and blessings leaped off the page like they were jumping up and down and waving their hands to get my attention. Well, it worked.

But, before we looked at them, let’s go back and read verses one and two.

(1) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus;

(2) Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The phrase faithful in Christ Jesus is the thread that runs throughout Ephesians. It means we are convinced, unwavering, and uncompromising in our knowledge and belief that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the only Son the Father Himself raised from the dead, and that Jesus now sits in heaven next to His Father. We believe this and live our lives accordingly because we know that where we will spend our eternity depends on it!

Grace and Peace

Paul opens each of his epistles with grace and peace from the Father and the Son as we see here in Ephesians 2. (He also adds mercy in three of his epistles. Yep, I checked. 😊) We know that it is through God’s grace that we receive the promises that the completed work of Jesus made available to us.

(4) But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us,

(5) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;)

(6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

(7) That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

(8) For by grace ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:4-8)

Turn with me to Second Corinthians 9:8. The verse says “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

We also know that because we have been born again and received a nature that is just like God’s, we are no longer at war with Him and we see this in Romans 5:1.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The word peace is eirene (pronounced "i-ray-nay"). It means “one, harmony, quietness, rest + set at one again. We rest in God because we are now one with Him!

It is our faithfulness to Jesus, and receiving His and the Father’s grace and peace that precede us being blessed with spiritual blessings.

The person who is not faithful to Jesus, who is not willing to lay down his life for Him, the person who is not willing to say “not my will, but your will Jesus”, is leaving spiritual blessings on the shelf unclaimed. Paul says it this way in First Corinthians 4:1-2.

(1) Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

(2) Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

Faithfulness, showing ourselves worthy of Christ’s trust and confidence when handling the Word of God, is the foundation on which we receive the fullness of the Father’s blessedness and the fullness of the spiritual blessings He has given to us.

Blessed, blessed, and blessing

Once again, Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

In the Greek, each word is slightly different. Blessed is eulogetos, blessed is eulogeo, and spiritual blessing is eulogia.

The word Blessed, eulogetos, means “inherently worthy to be praised” and always, without exception, refers to God the Father and to Christ. No one else is eulogetos.

The second blessed, eulogeo, means “to distinguish with favor.” Because it is His nature to bless, when God blesses us, He is acting for our good and does this when He intervenes in our lives. An example of this the promise that God made to Abraham, which we read about in Hebrews 6.

(13) For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself,