How would you respond if someone asked you this week, “Do you have a blessed life”?
Would you say, “Yeah, I’m blessed. I live in America. I have a job. I have a family. I have running water and a roof over my head”? Or would you say something like this: “I have a job that I hate. I’m married, but my spouse and I argue all the time. We’ve got a place to live, but the running water never stays hot for more than two minutes in the shower.”
People say they’re blessed or not blessed all the time. But what exactly does it mean to be blessed?
We tend to think that if you have money, a great job, and lots of stuff, then you’re blessed. If you have a good marriage and healthy kids, you’re blessed. If you don’t have these kinds of things, then you’re not. Maybe God doesn’t love you as much as he loves your neighbor.
If that’s what you think it means to be blessed, then the opening of this letter may seem ridiculous.
The apostle Paul likely wrote to the Ephesian church from a prison cell in Rome. But he writes about being incredibly blessed.
The Blessed Prisoner
Paul refers to himself as a prisoner twice in this letter (Eph. 3:1; 4:1). He had been with the Ephesians for three years. He planted a church there that included a bunch of ex-magicians who had burned their magic books (Acts 19:19). A few years after he left them, Paul ended up in prison in Rome, awaiting trial.
Now he writes to encourage these Ephesian Christians. He wants to deepen their knowledge of Christ and all his benefits. So he focuses here at the beginning on the blessings that all of God’s people receive. But these blessings aren’t what you might expect. They’re not like the benefits of being a member of Costco or American Express. It’s not about discounts on eye exams or access to an airport lounge. Being a member of Christ’s church brings different kinds of blessings.
God blesses his people, his church, not mainly with the things that money can buy but instead with “every spiritual blessing” (Eph. 1:3). God blesses all Christians in this way, including Paul, “a prisoner for the Lord” (Eph. 4:1).
That’s why he begins writing about these blessings by praising God. In fact, Paul calls God “blessed” (Eph. 1:3). Blessing was a common way to refer to praising God in the Old Testament (Gen. 9:26; 14:20; 1 Kings 8). Describing God’s magnificent blessings can only fittingly begin with praise of the One who gives them.
What Are Spiritual Blessings?
God promises you, as his children, “every spiritual blessing.” Sometimes we get upset with God because he does not give us the things we want. But God has promised far better blessings than the ones we’re often after. He has promised you all the riches that are in Christ Jesus. Paul says that God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:3–4).
These spiritual blessings, then, begin with the fact that God chose us. When did he choose us? “Before the foundation of the world.” In other words, he chose us before he created anything, before he said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3).
Why did he choose us? He chose us “that we should be holy and blameless before him.” This means that God chose us, before the beginning of time, to reflect his “holy and blameless” character. He chose us to be his people.
This idea of being chosen by God to be his holy people isn’t new. That was a special calling of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament (Deut. 7:7–9). But now this calling isn’t for Jews alone. It is the calling of all the “saints” who “are faithful in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:1). Everyone who has faith in Christ, whether Jew or gentile, is a “saint,” one of God’s holy people.
Is Your Life Blessed?
If you’re in Christ Jesus, it’s because God chose you long before you were born. He chose you before he created Adam, or the sea, or the stars. He chose you without any regard to what you would do or not do, how good or bad you would be. He chose to love you in order to make you “holy and blameless before him.” In other words, he chose you not because he saw that you were worthy of love; he chose you and loved you to make you worthy of love.
Later in this letter to the Ephesian church, Paul says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8–10).
Do you have a blessed life? It doesn’t matter whether you have good health, nice clothes, or box seats at the game. Those are blessings, but they’re not the blessings that Paul cares about here. For Paul, you’re blessed if you’ve been chosen by God, by his grace alone, to be made holy and blameless through Jesus Christ.
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This is an excerpt from Sola Media’s Bible Study on Ephesians, by Adriel Sanchez and Josh Maloney. The entire study is available here.
