Life is Hard

Paul will give commands to the church at Ephesus beginning with 4:1 that are impossible to follow. That which he required of them is no more nor less than Christ’s will for His people; the Lord laid duties on them which make life very difficult. However, it was not His intent to make their lives difficult; it is His intent that they are increasingly freed from the domination of sin, that they shine as lights in the darkness by believing, thinking, speaking, and behaving as His commands. The apostle labored in the section we have already largely examined to explain just what God’s grace had provided, what they had become in coming to Christ. Sunday’s sermon will explore this difficulty of the Christian life in relationship to the great blessing that is upon every believer; properly understood, the exceeding blessedness described in chapters 1-3 moves the believer – in 1st Century Asia Minor or 21st Century America – to live the life Paul commanded in chapter 4-6.