The Church That Can't Stop Talking About God
What if the most important thing about the church could be summed up in a single sentence? Not a short, punchy sentence, but a breathless, 200-word, zero-punctuation run-on sentence that would make your high school English teacher reach for a red pen? That's exactly what the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter one, and what he couldn't stop saying just might change the way you see the church and yourself.
Paul's Glorious Run-On Sentence
If you were to take Ephesians chapter one and submit it as an essay to your high school grammar teacher, it would come back covered in red ink. That's because verses three through fourteen in the original Greek are all one sentence, Paul's longest single run-on sentence in the New Testament, over 200 Greek words without punctuation. He is so overwhelmed by the magnitude of God's grace that he doesn't even stop for a comma, a period, or even to catch his breath. Here in chapter one, Paul wants to tell you everything he knows about the greatness of God and he just can't stop.
We Are Called to Be a People of Praise
This whole eleven-verse run-on sentence is Paul's declaration of praise for the greatness and goodness of God. It begins in Ephesians 1:3: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
When ancient Israelites praised God, they often did so by retelling stories of their history, how God created them, protected them, and rescued them. The recitation of that history itself functioned as an act of praise. That's Paul's purpose here. We might typically read this section as a dry list of theological propositions, but for Paul, this is a grand overview of what God has done for us through Christ, and it is meant to call us to praise.
We Have Been Rescued by Grace to Be Agents of Grace
Paul continues in Ephesians 1:4-6: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will ā to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
God wasn't browsing through a catalog of super-Christians deciding on who would make the cut. God saw each of our messy, complicated lives, our quirks, our stubbornness, even our rebellious nature and God said, "Yup, that's the one. That's who I want to adopt into my family."
Paul's audience would have recognized something about Christ's sacrifice that we as modern Christians can easily overlook. Jesus chose Passover, the ancient Jewish celebration of God rescuing his people from 400 years of slavery in Egypt, as the time when he would take his final steps to the cross. When Jesus explained his death to his followers at the Passover meal, he was invoking that same imagery of rescue and redemption. We are also rescued through the blood of our sacrificial lamb, Jesus. At the Last Supper, recorded in Matthew 26:27-28, Jesus said: "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
Paul makes clear in Ephesians 1:7-10 that this amazing grace God has lavished on us is not simply to be kept to ourselves. God has revealed the mystery of his will and his purpose in Christ, "to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." God has rescued us through grace to become agents of grace ourselves, actively participating in Christ's unifying work in the world.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Wouldn't it be nice if once you became a Christian, God just beamed you up out of this world straight into heaven, avoiding all the pain and struggles of this life? But God's rescue plan isn't a quick escape route. It's a renovation project, and God calls us to stay here and build the Kingdom in the here and now.
Paul explains this in Ephesians 1:11-14, describing how believers are "marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession."
If you've ever bought a house, you're familiar with earnest money; you put down a deposit to prove to the seller you're serious. "I'm not playing around here; I'm coming back for the rest of the house." When you became a follower of Christ, God gave you the Holy Spirit as earnest money. God has put a deposit on your life and says, "I'm serious about you, and Jesus is coming back to finish the deal."
The Purpose of the Church Is to Reveal God's Glory
We may want to focus on the "not yet" part of the Kingdom, the sweet by-and-by in the sky, but God calls us to remember that we are "already" in his Kingdom in the here and now. We're not supposed to become Christians and simply sit around and wait for our heavenly escape hatch.
In the second and third centuries, Christianity grew at an incredible rate. What brought many people to faith in Christ? It was not eloquent preaching. It was not political power or cultural influence. It was the testimony of the lives of individual Christians, Christians who worked to care for the poor and the sick, who after the plagues stayed behind to nurse the sick and collect abandoned infants from city streets. Christians whose lives were so radically different and loving that their faith could not be ignored.
Think about a new neighborhood being built. Once the roads have been laid, the first construction completed before any others is the model home: pristine, staged, lights on, designed to give you a working preview of what the whole neighborhood will look like when the project is complete. In this letter, Paul is encouraging those small, fledgling churches that although they may feel insignificant now, they are a blueprint for the future of God's Kingdom. The church is God's model home, called to be a working example of the Kingdom, where God's grace, love, justice, and redemption are modeled for the watching world.
We like to refer to the church as the local branch office of God's Kingdom, and that really encapsulates our purpose: The purpose of the church is to reveal God's glory.
Putting It Into Practice
So what does this mean for us? Here are a few ways to live out what Paul couldn't stop talking about:
Embrace your adoption. You are not an afterthought in God's family. God saw your messy, complicated life and chose you. Let that truth sink in and shape how you see yourself.
Remember you've been rescued for a reason. You've been redeemed to be an agent of grace, someone who actively participates in God's unifying work in the world.
Live as a "model home." Your life is meant to be a working preview of God's Kingdom. Ask yourself: does the way I love my neighbors, care for the vulnerable, and treat others point people toward God's glory?
Don't wait for the escape hatch. God's Kingdom is already here, and you're already in it. The Holy Spirit is God's deposit on your life, a guarantee that this renovation project isn't finished yet. Stay engaged. Keep building.
As Paul prays at the close of Ephesians chapter one, may the eyes of our hearts be enlightened so that we might truly know the hope to which we've been called, and live as his body, "the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:23).
Reflection
Take a few quiet moments with these questions.
Paul couldn't stop talking about what God had done. When was the last time you were genuinely overwhelmed by God's grace, so moved that you couldn't help but tell someone? What has God done in your life that deserves that kind of breathless praise?
God saw your messy, complicated life, your quirks, your stubbornness, even your rebellious nature, and said, "That's the one." How does it change the way you see yourself to know that God chose you not in spite of who you are, but with full knowledge of who you are?
Paul reminds us that God's rescue plan isn't a quick escape route, it's a renovation project. In what ways might you be tempted to treat your faith as "fire insurance" rather than as a calling to actively participate in God's work in the world right now?
The church is called to be God's model home, a working example of the Kingdom where grace, love, justice, and redemption are on display for the watching world. What would it look like for your life, your relationships, and your daily rhythms to more clearly reflect that kind of Kingdom living?
Application
Paul tells us that the purpose of God's will is "that we might be for the praise of his glory" (v. 12). The church is not a waiting room for heaven. It is the local branch office of God's Kingdom, and you are on the clock.
This week, choose one concrete action that puts your faith on display:
Reach out to someone who is isolated, sick, or struggling and do it without being asked.
Share with a friend or family member a specific story of how God has provided for you or intervened in your life. Tell it not just as information, but as praise.
Identify one place in your community, a school, a neighborhood, a workplace, where you can be a visible, consistent presence of grace and love.
Remember: in the second and third centuries, Christianity didn't spread through political power or cultural influence. It spread because Christians lived so radically differently, caring for the sick, loving the forgotten, staying when everyone else fled, that their faith simply could not be ignored. The world is still watching. What will they see in you?
Prayer
Glorious Father, God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that I may know you better. Enlighten the eyes of my heart, so that I may truly understand the hope to which you have called me, the riches of the inheritance you have prepared, and the incomparably great power that is already at work in me, the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Forgive me for the times I have treated my salvation as a personal benefit rather than a Kingdom calling. Remind me today that I have been chosen, adopted, redeemed, and sealed by your Spirit, not to sit and wait, but to go and show. Let my life be so visibly full of your grace and love that others cannot help but see you in me. In the name of Jesus, the One you love, Amen
