Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
… to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
Summary: The secular version of having a “positive attitude” is usually motivated by secular benefits. It is a way of controlling what happens in the world around us. Christianity uses a similar technique for very different reasons and with different results.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:23a – Attitude”… which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
Summary: The “old self” is tricky. It wants to be liked so it plays tricks on us to make us think it is doing good.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:22b – Weed Killer for the Soul”You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self …
Summary: The language Paul uses to describe how belief in Jesus changes a person is remarkably similar to a modern psychoanalytic theory known as transactional analysis.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:22a – Ego States”That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
Summary: With this passage, Paul shifts gears and leads us to his next main point.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:20-21 – The Bridge”… in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
Summary: What we think has a big impact on what we do and who we are. Thinking there is no God is a faulty assumption that leads to faulty — and dangerous — conclusions.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:17b-19 – Garbage In, Garbage Out”So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do …
Summary: Paul’s problem is that people who believe in God act differently than people who don’t. Being the “Apostle to the Gentiles” carried with it the added burden of educating Gentile believers about this difference.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:17a – A Kind of Test”So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Summary: What we believe has a big impact on how we understand our country’s founding documents.
Continue reading “Genesis 1:27 – Happy 4th of July!”From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Summary: Paul continues with his description of the body of Christ, and with it, we continue our exploration of what that means.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:16 – What if God Sneezed?”… we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Summary: Today’s passage brings us to a place where we consider the body of Christ in a new light. If we are, in fact, the body of Jesus, what should we be doing?
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:15b – What Will Jesus Do?”Instead, speaking the truth in love …
Summary: Some phrases in the Bible set off alarms with this writer. Today’s passage is one of them. We need to carefully consider the nature of truth and the meaning of love to avoid misapplying Paul’s instruction.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:15a – AH-OO-GA!”